Smart shoppers in any economy are looking for high value at low cost. Many people get a feeling of accomplishment and even victory when they find an item they need at a price far below the norm. If you are one of these people (like I am), then girl are you in for a treat if you've never been to a Sears Outlet store.

Sears approached us with a special project last Spring. They took us on our first visit to a Sears Outlet store - the big one in San Leandro - and we got a grand tour of the operation. Most of the merchandise is either overstock or has some visual defect that forces them to sell it as a damaged item. If a customer returns an item for any reason it must be sold as a refurbished item. You can save 10%, 20%, 60% and more on these items: appliances, electronics, outdoor furniture, etc.

The challenge with the design was that each item on the site will be a unique item with a unique "defect", price and location. We needed to communicate this one-of-a-kind status of the merchandise and drive the customer to the physical store where they can view and purchase the item. But the site must also be as easy to navigate as any other retailer website. The current site is only a subset of our solution, more powerful features will come later. But for now, you can shop dozens of physical outlets without leaving your chair. Have you been thinking about replacing that old washing machine? Go get your victory on.

posted by Frank

Imagine this scenario: You're at Bevmo standing in front of a wall of red wine. There are thousands of bottles from hundreds of producers you've never heard of from dozens of countries you've never visited. You'd like to get something good for tonight's dinner party, but you're just not a wine expert. Wouldn't it be nice to know what your guests would like? Maybe you have a colleague who's practically a sommalier, but you wouldn't bother her with a phone call at this time of day.

Enter Goodrec. When the founders explained the concept for Goodrec, I knew I wanted to work on it (we helped them with the UI and brand ID). The concept is simple: Create a super efficient UI that lets people quickly enter recommendations for restaurants, books, etc. So, it's fast to enter the recs and it's even faster to find them.

You can see the product at www.goodrec.com. It will be invite-only for a while, buy you can probably find an invitation if you look hard enough.

posted by Frank

Our latest interaction design hatchling is now running loose; Roost is the newest entrant in the real estate search space. When they hired us to do the interaction design, they were looking for a way to bring the Kayak and FareChase flavor (ie: powerful filters & interface) to the home buying process.

One of our biggest innovations was also the biggest challenge. Roost decided to skip the usual "build-your-own" database strategy and partner directly with the MLS data providers. This gives Roost property data that's light years ahead of their competitors. But it was accompanied by some major interface challenges due to some fairly detailed constraints on the presentation of said data.

Anyway, the end result turned out nicely in my opinion (and this guy's too). Roost's initial markets include: Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, Boston, and several others. Check it out.

posted by Frank

MediaMaster has just passed a big milestone - 10 million  21 million uploaded songs!

Actually, 10,057,527  21,000,000... and climbing quickly (according to neil). I think this product is on to something and I'm looking forward to the next major version, which is in the works.

posted by Frank

I'm excited to announce the launch of Fanlib.com. I worked very closely with this team to identify, scope, and design a rich set of features for an alpha release that is now in its public beta.

Fanlib is designed to be the best way to discover, share, and manage fan fiction online. Certainly, this site is already leaps beyond it's competition with features such as: tagging, faceted search, quicklists, custom themes, subscriptions, comments, forums, and more.

One of my favorite features is this widget that you can embed in your blog to promote your (or someone else's) fanfics. This is a quick story that I wrote about Han Solo and Chewbacca.

Not into Star Wars? Here are some other popular "fandoms":
* Harry Potter
* Lord of the Rings
* Lost
* Spiderman

posted by Frank

TechCrunch is kinda like Oprah for web geeks. Today, MediaMaster was featured on TechCrunch and the feedback, traffic, buzz, etc. has been very exciting.

So, what did people say about MediaMaster's UI (designed by yours truly) in the comments area? Well, since you asked...

"I just signed up and loving its UI!..." -Avinash
"I just signed up too. I have to say that this is one of the cleanest UIs I've discovered in a web 2.0 app." -John

Ka-chow! But seriously, I dont' know these people. Though, I have the urge to buy them a drink...

posted by Frank

At this year's IA Summit (March 22-26, Las Vegas), I'm going to participate in an interesting panel discussion with several other IAs-turned-entrepreneurs. Christina Wodtke, Lou Rosenfeld, Lane Becker, Gene Smith, and I will each present a short case study about our experience starting our own companies. The panel will be led by the fabulous Victor Lombardi of MIG fame.

My presentation will cover some of my experience starting My Picturebook. The good, the bad, and the fugly...

posted by Frank

I've been working with a startup called "MediaMaster" for the last couple of years. We've designed and built a platform for storing and playing your "music in the cloud". A simple way to think of it (if you're a geek) is that we're building the "hotmail" of music with, of course, some web 2.0 flavor added to the mix. This is just the beginning of some cool things to come from MediaMaster.

The widget embedded above is pulling from my actual music collection and giving you a glimpse into the types of tunes I groove to while I work. Hmmm. Maybe this isn't such a good idea... heehee

We also created a slick little Flash-based player to manage and play your music (screenshot below). Go to www.mediamaster.com to sign up for an account.

posted by Frank

Practice. Expanding.

"We're Hiring: Experienced Interaction Designer" »

posted by Frank

If you're a visual UI designer who can think on many levels - from strategy to pixels - drop us a line...

"We're Hiring: Experienced Visual Designer" »

posted by Frank

I'm happy to announce the launch of our newest business SafetyDriversEd.com. Safety Driver's Ed is a new venture collaboration between Bay Area Driving School and Ramirez Design.

We believe that we have created the most engaging and informative program available (seriously!). Our course was developed from scratch, based on many years of in-classroom and behind-the-wheel training. It contains original illustrations, quizzes, videos, and animations that will keep teenagers engaged while they learn (which was the most important factor to us).

"Announcing Safety Driver's Ed" »

posted by Frank

Here are the slides from my talk at this year's IA Summit workshop. It attempts to cover what designers need to know about the "openness" of web2.0, APIs (as a customer and a provider), mashups, and the rapidly evolving WebOS.
download ppt (5mb)

posted by Frank

I will be participating in the Interaction Design (IxD) Symposium at this year's IA Summit in Vancouver. The Symposium is a 1-day, pre-conference workshop. Other speakers include Dave Heller, Luke Wroblewski, and Kim Goodwin. Topics include:

• Where IxD and IA meet
• Moving from personas to a design
• The visual side of behavior
• Interacting with information in non-web contexts
• Interacting with socially mediated and participatory information systems

My talk will focus on the last bullet with an emphasis on the "openness" of web 2.0. The workshop does cost extra, however. Interested? Register here.

Additionally, the network diagram poster that I designed for Yahoo! with Andrew Lynch, Sarah Rice, and these guys, will be on display during the reception on Saturday. More on that later. Unfortunately, I can't make it to the reception. But let me know what you think of it!

posted by Frank

Ramirez Design, LLC was officially formed in February 2004 without something that seemed required for a web company: a website.

From week 1, we (fortunately) have been focused on client work (Yahoo!, eBay, Network Appliance, and a few interesting start-ups). We even started a product of our own (more about that soon...), opened a physical office, welcomed a new baby, and helped start a new Interaction Design Association. Just about anything we could do to avoid our own site it seemed :-) Excuses, excuses!

At last, we have a website to display our work, process, and ideas. We'll add case studies, articles, and presentations as they're developed. Everything will be announced on the home page (powered by Movable Type). Please Let us know what you think!

posted by Frank