Author Archives: Alvin

San Franciscan Beginnings

I’m living in San Francisco. How this came about still seems unreal to me, but I’ve officially departed New York City–the East Coast, for that matter. That is not to say I won’t be back at some point, but not anytime in the foreseeable future. Continue reading

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Google+: An Inside Look

I was fortunate enough to receive an invite to Google+ today. There’s a lot of hype, so seek out other articles for well-documented accounts of Google+ if you want more background. Instead, I’ll be sharing images along with some of my initial impressions on how Google approaches usability and design. Continue reading

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Domino Project: Do the Work Review

In April, as part of the BzzAgent campaign The Domino Project, I read the Do the Work by Steven Pressfield. It’s a motivational work that moves you from rumination into action, explaining how to act and how to conquer resistance. I also read this on the Kindle app for the iPhone. I’ll therefore look at both components: 1) the book and 2) reading a book on the Kindle app (iPhone). Continue reading

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A Mobius World – Ad Age Global Cover Contest Submission

I submitted a piece for the Ad Age Global Cover Contest called “A Mobius World”. Creating a work that speaks to the theme of a connected world, I drew upon my professional experience to show how the digital space is uniting a world, and how advertising both fuels it and shapes it at the same time. Continue reading

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Paranoid Perspectives: Chromebook and User Data

When I started college, I had all-you-can-print printing services. 25-page essay? No problem. 500-page e-book? Why not? Three quarters of the way through the year, however, that changed. The dean sent out an email stating how the school would be moving towards a greener lifestyle. Specifically, starting from 2000 printable sheets the next year, we’d decrease that total each year by 500 to a target 500 a year. The real goal, however, was to reduce the number of e-books that were being printed as students were circumventing hardcover prices by purchasing and printing the more cheaply priced e-books. Continue reading

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Advertising Age Global Cover Contest

Ad Age is hosting their annual cover contest for their global issue. The theme is: a connected world. Nothing too mind-blowing there, right? Easy enough to understand conceptually, but another thing to display it through a digital canvas. Continue reading

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Walkin’ the SEO Walk

I’ve been talking a lot of SEO recently at work. I’ve been dishing out to-do’s passively through deliverables and actively through presentations. I think it’s time to walk the (SEO) walk. Continue reading

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Study Shows Decrease in Clickthrough Rates of Paid Search

User Centric conducted an eye tracking study that noted an increase in the clickthrough rates of organic search. The first study, conducted back in 2009 after Bing launched, was originally launched to study the amount and distribution of attention on Google’s and Bing’s SERPs. The results show little change in how users utilize both search engines, but that’s not to say there haven’t been any changes. Continue reading

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Another Word to Describe Gen-Y

A few months ago, I was working on a group project for a New Products Development course in which we had to launch –you guessed it–a new product. The brand my group chose was MTV. The product, a(nother) cruiseline. The target, Spring Breakers and Yuppies. Continue reading

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Animal Pictures – Keroppi-Wannabe

I conducted an “animal pictures” image search for work today, with the intent of borrowing an animal picture for a mock-up. Borrowing. Somehow, this keroppi-wannabe showed up instead. Continue reading

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