Straylight Studios etc
Tonight I went to a presentation by Straylight Studios on Web Design and Branding. The presentation was part of a series hosted by the School of Business to complement the NBR Audacious Business Competitions. It was held in the Centre for Innovation which probably sounds more exciting than it actually is. Initially we were denied entry, apparently our swipe cards don’t have the security clearance required to access such a prestigious building. Luckily our frantic window banging attracted help.
When making a nametag I was faced with a difficult decision; businessman or web designer. In the heat of the moment I chose Web Designer, In hindsight is was the best choice. The great thing was there were very few ‘Web designers’ and a lot of ‘Businessmen’. It meant I wore a green sticker (businessmen wore orange) and so was approached by wannabe entrepreneurs who wanted me to make them a shiny website. After assuring them that hyperlinks are quite easy to make I was usually forced to admit my lack of web design knowledge but it was still good for my ego.
The presentation itself was very superficial, but interesting all the same. Everyone needs a recap occasionally. Don’t name your business KidsExchange. Interesting advice was to buy the local domain name for each overseas market you expand into. Makes sense I guess, domains are so cheap you can’t go wrong. Also interesting was the flow through a website using tools like heatmaps which were briefly skimmed over. This is something I’d like to learn more about.
Straylight Studios is a Dunedin based web design studio doing anything that pays well but specialising in educational games (they call it meaningful play). It was started by 5 guys halfway through the degrees and the presenters struggled to answer the question ‘did they finish their degrees?’ Who needs a degree anyway, especially when you can charge $4,000 for a basic website.
An elderly fellow then asked what comes first, the website or the product? This confused everyone. It depends if your website is the product. Then he asked what’s the point of copy on a website if you have a logo. Maybe because some people like to read about what they’re buying. Just a thought. By this point I had lost interest and was pondering how competitive e-commerce has become.
After missing out on several spot prizes Daniel and I snuck away early eschewing the free Speights and expensive cheese (interesting combination btw).
