BINGenuity.com : a look at what's on our minds at Bing Design

Web technology has come a long way in a few short years. I’ve been surfing the wave of these new developments as they have come along.

To see just how far we’ve come online, check-out the Internet Archive for a history lesson.

In the 90s, not much was possible unless you used a lot of imagery to make a page look ‘designed’. Today with the use of CSS, pages have finally begun to shape-up and mirror their paper-clad cousins in print media. You can add fonts, colors, graphics, positioning to page elements, and if done well, they will look pretty much the same on any browser (yes even IE).

Over the past few years, I’ve preferred to build my pages using ‘pixels‘ versus ‘points‘ or ‘%’. Why? For me, it was due to consistency. I could define an <h1> tag for a page headline as “16pt” and it might look fine for me, but on a Windows computer, the page might get horsey (and huge!).

On the other hand, if I said that an <h1> tag should be “16px“, I could almost always guarantee that regardless of computer or platform, the font and page would be pretty consistent.

Over the past few years using “em” has been the size designation of choice.

Web developers know that an “em” is a percentage of the body font size. So if you have a headline (<h1>) defined as “2.5em” that means the headline will be 250% larger than your body copy. Or if you have a caption and you want it to be tiny, you might define it as “.3em” (or 30% of the body size). So if you had body copy defined as “12px” as a rule, your caption would be just “4px” tall, and your headlines would be “30px” tall. Make sense?

But like all good things, there are potential problems. I recently noted that if I define my browser font settings so that all my fonts use a specific font and size in Firefox (which I tend to do), pages that show content based on a combination of “em” and “%” without a fixed “px” size, can really get small.

The CSS for BINGenuity.com uses “76%” as the designated size for body copy. For most folks this works fine. But for me, since I have designated specific fonts sizes for my page, this CSS style takes my 12pt font size, and then takes it down to 76% through the page’s cascading style sheet (CSS). So I get a rather small standard body copy size of about 8px.

Thankfully my eyes are pretty good (for now) and I can read things much smaller, but it is tough.

The point being made is that we need to consider users, like me, who like to define their own fonts and sizes. If we are using CSS that is based on “em” and “%” for fonts without a defacto size in pixels, we might end up with some strained user eyes.

But we can’t always be safe defining a page based on pixels either. If a user has a screen resolution set very high, a base font of “12px” might still be tiny.

So test and compare before deciding on what works best for you.

Hey! I’m over heeeeeeere!

When new media catches on, it spreads everywhere. And fast. Conversations about YouTube! were rare at first, but once we saw how quickly these videos loaded and how well they played, we wanted to tell all our friends about them!

We’ve experienced the same phenomenon with Flash, AJAX, Google, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and nearly every type of social media you can think of. We say “ooooooh! that is COOL!” then we dive into it.

Trouble is, that while we are swimming deep in the new technology we find nifty, most of our friends are doing the same (and we all keep sharing it). The result is a saturation of media.

Ad columnist for Entrepreneur.com, Roy Williams, wrote about “Advertising Trends: Publishing Past Media Overload“. In the article, he shines a spotlight on problems we face today in advertising that have only grown worse.

The more we have to look at and react to, the harder it is to see things individually. Say we go to a sports arena and have 30-70,000 people around us … ever noticed how really tough it can be to find a buddy (or wife) in the crowd?

Flip that around: in that same arena when you leave your friends (or your husband) to go grab a bite/drink/restroom break, it’s equally hard for them to see you. Getting noticed takes a LOT of effort. (And “hey I forgot my wallet” can be a painful trek back across the crowd!)

With all the new technology we have, often being force-fed to us (see how much you get hit with on your local news station’s web site!), it is no wonder those wanting your attention (and your money), have such a difficult time reaching you.

In Roy’s article, he suggests we all spend a bit more time writing headlines to get attention, then proceed to take that reader’s attention to inform them what you can do for them.

Be fun, smart, and innovative, but make sure you can back-up your headline with reality! Find what you want to get your readers to react to, and grab their attention. They are likely reading e-mail, checking in on Facebook, sending out a Tweet, checking the team scores on ESPN and doing some online shopping. Will you be seen?

Remember, there is a lot more to advertising than a pretty picture, cool graphics, or some well-written copy. It takes a balance of it all to get noticed!

Colleges and universities are embracing social media and realizing its potential power and implications as a component of their overall marketing mix. The Internet is no longer a one-way street. Many higher education institutions are taking advantage of the new opportunities to interact with students, faculty, staff, alumni and fans.

Social media gives universities the opportunity to humanize stories of students and alumni, which can create loyalty and engage future applicants. See an example of humanizing stories here in Yellow Springs through Antioch University McGregor’s campaign called “What will your story be?”

I came across a guide called Social Media in Higher Education that reviews existing literature available in this subject area. The guide also helps readers identify implications for and against using social media and discusses best practices, recommendations, and considerations for higher education marketers.

Social networking is one aspect of social media where individuals are in communities that share ideas, interests, or are looking to meet people with similar ideas and interests.

Looking for specific examples? Here is a collection of social networks that your official college or university might use to connect with your school’s prospects, students, alumni, friends, parents or community.

Recently we’ve discovered a few more Bings out there - besides Microsoft’s. There are several similar, small design agencies across the country that share our name. And, upon the release of Microsoft’s search engine, some of them are changing their names.

We’re not.

Because, our “Bing” means more than just “eureka!” It’s part of our history.

Here’s some Bing trivia for your Thursday:

Our agency was established in 1979 by Bob Bingenheimer. At that time, the agency was known as Bingenheimer Design. Bob “retired” in 2000 and sold the agency to an employee, Nick Gaskins. As the new owner, Nick shortened the name to Bing.

For more information about Bing, visit our site.

One of our printing partners alerted us to a handy new photography device – the Eye-Fi Card.

It’s a wireless memory card for your digital camera that stores photos and videos, like standard SD memory cards. But, it also makes your camera wireless.

With built-in Wi-Fi, you can transfer photos and video directly from your camera to iPhoto, Flickr or a holder on your computer – without cables or hassle.

Michael Dinsio at Hopkins Printing says it’s easily the coolest memory card they’ve used.

Check it out here.