A Fish of a Different Color
In an ocean of electronic downloads, online radio stations, and shady sharing software, Grooveshark rises to the top through intuitive player controls, an expansive library, and a structure that keeps all parties involved, happy … a rockin’ logo doesn’t hurt either.
Grooveshark is an online music site that enables users to setup playlists from a library of tracks uploaded by other users. A rival of other popular sites like Pandora, Last fm, and rdio, Grooveshark enables total and complete personalization of what does, and does not, get played. A free service initially, upgrades are available to remove ads and other fund generating pieces from display on the site. With greater levels of activation, greater flexibility and customization of the application are available.
This site is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Often times, for whatever reason, there’s a song stuck in my head that I just have to hear. Whether you heard 3 seconds of it on your commute to the office, or just woke up humming it, if you don’t own the song on your iPod, or your work machine, you’re kind of out of luck. The beauty of Grooveshark, is that you can find that pesky song, and others like it, for free. You can’t download it, but you can feed-the-need. Online music sharing is a very gray area and just the words ‘FREE Music’ start to throw up red flags in our subconscious. GS works to provide licensers and other industry financiers with money from advertising and subscriptions. As a user, you can also be compensated for uploads. It keeps users, advertisers and music execs coming back time and time again.
The overall strength of the site is the intuitive nature of its playlist setup. Search for a song and then drag it to the player. The song starts to play as you continue to build. For someone who listens to a lot of music for an extended period of time, this is fast becoming my go to player. Unlike the other online apps, where you choose the first song and it builds a database of music per your preferences, you can pick as many, or as few songs, as you like, and let it expand from there. Users can setup favorites, and save certain tracks you love, making it even easier to get pumped up for your next presentation, or start to wind down on a Friday afternoon. Either way Grooveshark can make it happen … for free.
(above) Mobile upgrades for the Grooveshark app. My one complaint, more-so with Apple than Grooveshark, is that the iPhone has been rejected from the App Store.
Customized listing for user account. Add songs to the list, or mark them as a favorite for easy access.
Helping Support Those in Need, Part II
As you may notice from the absence of posts lately, we’ve been burning the midnight oil designing, developing and executing projects across our client base. Recently … as in the past week or so … we’ve launched a multitude of site designs for one of our largest clients, Diakon Lutheran Social Ministries, on top of managing their extensive portfolio of web sites and communications pieces.
The largest undertaking was for the Diakon Office of Development site. Development, as with most organizations, is the central hub for donations, but due to Diakon’s size and range of services, the site needed to have roots in a multitude of supplementary giving-site locations. This was a serious challenge for the design, development and management teams at both Triple Strength and Diakon, who worked hand-in-hand for some time, to assure a smooth transition for visitors arriving from various pages and subsequently, different design layouts. It was crucial that potential donors be confident in their decision to assist in Diakon’s mission, and not be deterred by misdirection. By using structured development templates, which are stylistically customized for different service areas, TS was able to convey the sense of a fresh, new site, while staying consistent to the Diakon brand, assuring guests a positive user experience and taking the pressure out of the donation process. Rather than overwhelming visitors with ‘GIVE-GIVE-GIVE’, we showcased how their contribution goes to aiding those in need, through Diakon’s senior, community and family services.
Second in size for the sites launched for Diakon in the most recent flurry of activity, the redesign of Diakon Kathryn’s Kloset (DKK) launched just this morning. DKK partners with corporations and non-profits to gather donations in the form of products and materials, and provide them free-of-charge to those in need. A symbiotic relationship, Diakon Kathryn’s Kloset takes excess and overstock items, which corporations otherwise need to pay to dispose of, and passes them along to non-profit organizations, who give them out to those in the community that need them the most.
Other sites recently launched are Diakon Lose the Training Wheels (LTTW), which, in conjunction with the Eastern PA Down Syndrome Center, supports the local chapter of Lose the Training Wheels to teach children with disabilities to ride a bicycle and be independent riders; Diakon Adult Day Services, Diakon’s assistance program for older persons and those with disabilities to live at home and still get the daytime help they need; and the redesign of the Diakon Senior Lifestyles and Health Services landing site, which is the ‘Penn Station’ of Diakon’s broad senior services market. It provides effortless navigation to a user-base that is not necessarily that tech-savvy and intuitively guides them to areas of interest.
With this recent burst of sites, it also allowed TS to begin implementation of new technologies in the Diakon family of sites. Throughout the senior services pages, the transition from image navigation pieces to state of the art live webkit fonts is underway. Previously relegated to the necessity of images and buttons, webkit fonts allow us to use Diakon branded fonts, in this case Trajan Pro, as live text, greatly optimizing for search engine visibility, and overall load time for the sites.
Even though these sites are live and it may seem like things should now be ramping down, Diakon always keeps us on our toes with new projects and challenges that further their mission and help those in need. We always look forward to the latest requests and updates…
Quick trip in the Wayback Machine
I was perusing my local grocery store yesterday, on my tri-weekly food adventure, when I found some very interesting packaging, screaming at me from the overstocked shelves. What I saw, scattered around the aisles was the recent trend with consumer products of using ‘retro’ or ‘Throwback’ boxes and containers. Calling back from one of their first, or an original package designs, you won’t find any photoshopped perspiration, or seemingly computer generated character illustrations. Advertised as ‘Refreshingly Retro,’ this is the first time I can recall that I agree with some Pepsi marketing. The clean simple look is an oasis on the eyes, in the wasteland of overly generic, consumer-tested, mish-mash that is the supermarket landscape.
Companies using these throwbacks are primarily the big dogs of consumerism, and usually sell sugary products to kids. Canola Oil with a really illustrated nameplate and cool character mascot may entice me to buy it, but no 6 year old is going to leave the store crying because mommy didn’t get her favorite brand. Pepsi Co, the Hershey Company and General Mills have all embraced their past. These companies have stood the test of time, and kudos to them for having a past worth recalling. I’m sure there’d be more vintage boxes on the shelves if more companies had the same lasting power and brand recognition. Though I don’t consume a lot of the products I saw, I’ll buy a 12 pack of Mountain Dew and have it sit in my apartment gathering dust, just so I have a copy of Willy the ‘Mountain Man’ sipping from a moonshine-esque jug, yelling Ya-hoo, Mountain Dew.
Obviously the line-drawing mascot characters and hand-done typography are my favorite part of these vintage layouts. It’s just another example of how impressed I am with the by-gone era, when designers consistently used hand-done elements. Gradients… HA: blend layers… please; dimensionality… get serious; all these packages need are a concept, and a creative hand.
Here’s to you ’60s Cap N’ Crunch!