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UM-Flint Department Sliders & U

Last time we outlined the form and function of the homepage slider feature, shared some examples of the type of stories we aim to tell, and suggested some ways in which individuals and departments can assist in identifying and creatively gathering content for such stories. This time we will discuss the game plan for additional […]

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ROI in Acronym City

If you are not measuring ROI, you may want to consider a marketing lifestyle makeover.

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The UM-Flint Homepage Slider and U

The most powerful communication, marketing, and customer service tool within all of higher education is the university website. Before they set foot on campus, receive recruitment material in the mail, or talk to an admissions counselor, perspective students first visit the websites of the schools they are considering. Online, the university website is the university.

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Frogs for Breakfast with a Side of Defense

There’s a line from Basement Song by the Adam Ezra Group that’s echoing in my head: The conflict that will arise do I choose to concentrate on all the things I love or try to fix the things I hate? I love that lyric for the simple reason that  it’s a shared experience we all […]

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Bread Machines and the Perils of Instant Gratification

As a new homemaker in the early 1990s, I just had to have one of the hot appliances of the times:  the automatic breadmaker.  Panasonic produced the most popular version of this insta-bread making wonder.  All you

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UM-Flint Brand Update | May 2010 | Branding Department Websites

This month, UR spent a good deal of time and made a great deal of headway on our largest and most important ongoing project: the redesign of the UM-Flint website. For those faculty and staff members charged with maintaining their department’s website, the most eagerly anticipated aspect of the redesign process may well be the […]

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Thinking Conceptually: UM-Flint’s “Fastest Growing” Video

One of the most important – and most difficult – tasks of any advertising, marketing, branding, or messaging effort is identifying and executing ways to communicate complex ideas as simply and immediately as possible. The tools and vehicles through which this is accomplished depend on the audience, and the best medium to reach that audience. […]

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Choosing & Pairing Fonts

Normally I talk about things like user experience, web design, and best practices for the web. In this  post I hope to shed some light on font issues and to offer some tips in choosing fonts for things like emails, “quick” signage, and reports. FIRST, MY RANT Everyone in our office knows that there are some […]

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Writing for the Web is different than writing for publications or TV

During the many years I spent as a TV reporter, I wrote and edited about 15,000 stories. While considering many things when writing the stories, I never considered keywords.  Now, with most of my writing ending up on the Web, I’m finding out that one of the things I need to do is pay attention to […]

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Experience Follows Brand

A logo designer can choose the perfect typeface and construct the perfect logo.  A marketer can evangelize and promote a product or service.  Yet all of these things are irrelevant until the consumer or end-user experiences the product or service.  It is the job of a marketing professional to sell, it’s a user experience professional’s job to make sure that the […]

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