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Today, Steve Jobs of Apple had some poetic words for Google as he took questions from his staff dressed in the usual tech-goth, black turtle-neck. Jobs decided to go out of his way to call out Google on it's now-famous motto. "This 'Don't be Evil' mantra. It's Bullsh*t." While not exactly Haiku material, Jobs frustration was clear. He's beginning to lose his poker-face about the largest search giant cutting in on Jobs exclusive do-se-do with the smart-phone market.

While most of us iPhone users and lovers can't imagine Google doing the up-staging any time soon, Jobs remarks point to his frustration that a search engine would dip into the phone market. Perhaps he's arguing principle, but a hardware company that's also a software company that sells computers and smart-phones that only work with one carrier? Sounds like he's not just cornering the markets, he's putting a gun to it's head and making it say "YOU DA BOSS." (Weird, I know.)

Jobs' attitude largely boils down to this: his "magical" new product the iPad was met with disappointment and some confusion. What Jobs claimed was the "most important" thing he's done is just an iPod Touch, magnified. No camera, no USB port, no application multi-tasking and no Adobe flash support, which would otherwise allow such popular video sties as Hulu. Which reminds me, Adobe is another company Jobs pointed his Grim-Reaper finger at for not being a sweet enough company, bad-ass enough to be in the iClub. Seriously, that's actually true. Jobs doesn't allow Adobe flash support because they don't meet criteria. Criteria that other sites supported by Apple like Youtube, don't meet and get a hall pass for.

All the rambling to say that Jobs needs to give that gangly finger a one-eighty or cut some slack to other "too big to fail" companies that want equal opportunity to expand their own swelling, money-snorting empire. And Steve, just because your new invention that sounds like a women's hygiene product is no good, doesn't mean other companies can't have a go.

Harsh words, but you know I love you, Mr. Jobs. If it makes you feel any better, I'll spend my entire cell-phone bill making this up to you.

I can't believe it's been almost two years since I started working at JLB. Time has flown by! I also can't believe that I'm five days (at most) away having a baby boy! I've finished my final task list before my leave and we had a fun "maternity" lunch at Chuy's--very tasty, by the way. Thank you JLB for a wonderful send off! I'll miss you guys!

Now, what to do while I wait for this baby? Sledding, of course!

See you in a couple of months!

This is the last and final part of my Q & A with Joshua Lomelino discussing the Web design process. I wanted to post in two parts, but it's so long that I decided to make it three. I hope you enjoy it.

What strategies do you employ when navigating towards a final visual website interface design for a client? How do you help them towards making a final decision when there are many variables in play?
Coding the basic site structure and putting it on our test server is a great final review. It makes the design seem more real and the actual site interaction is there. We usually don't build out all of the pages, but just having a basic site up that the client can click through is really helpful for them to experience.

Would you show us a few projects and explain your creative process from sketch to rough designs, to finished design (if available)? Would you explain how you establish the purpose and nature of a website and the resulting interface design to visually describe the company and their website?
FranklinIs.com is a local website that is a resource for all things Franklin and acts as a community for its users. With close to a thousand pages of content, and a demographic that runs the gamut of humankind, designing a user friendly interface for FranklinIs.com required lots of planning and about a million design iterations. FranklinIs has been around for about 5 years now and they were in desperate need of a redesign. Using Google Analytics, the site had collected a wealth of information over the course of its existence. We used that information to learn which pages received the most traffic, the amount of time a user spent on each page and from where in the country users came from. That information told us exactly what kind of content should be on the home page and which sections should receive the most focus. Instead of designing an individual page for each of the 10 sections, we decided we'd create 4 standard "landing page" interfaces that each section could fit into. So, we wireframed about 10 home pages iterations 8 different landing pages and 2 or 3 tertiary / standard content pages. We narrowed down the home page to 3 different wireframes and built them into designs. We then narrowed down the graphic designs into one final home page. The site is currently being built out and after almost a year of design and development, we're about ready to launch.

What advice do you have for students preparing for a career in interactive design? What types of skills do you look in students when evaluating internship and employment positions?
It's very important to follow the process. Designers begin with wireframes and sketches for a reason. There are certain instances when a designer can get away with not doing that kind of preliminary conceptualizing, but those should be rare occurrences.What I usually look for in an intern / designer is someone who listens and takes notes when receiving design critiques. I also appreciate students who are good at organizing their files and their layers in PSD's.

Here are some sites that I've used as resources and as inspiration: Really good interface designer: http://www.vlourenco.com/

Amazing blog pointing out all aspects of interface design: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/11/17/showcase-of-minimalist-and-clean-designs/

Another good resource: http://webdesignledger.com/tips/10-signs-of-a-user-focused-design

One last thought: Sometimes it just doesn't matter if you "follow all the rules" and create an end user focused interface design, because if something's going to be successful, it's just going to be successful no matter how well it's designed. Case in point: https://www.buysnuggie.tv/flare/next

Interview by Joshua Lomelino, Director of Interactive Media, O'More College of Design
Joshua teaches courses in Interactive Media with a focus on information architecture, usability, and visual interface design.

What were you doing on Dec. 4, 2009 at 3 in the afternoon? Maybe getting some Christmas shopping done? Maybe tidying up a work project, getting ready to go home? Or maybe, because Dec. 4 at 3 p.m. was a Friday afternoon, you had already started your weekend.

While we were all busy with life and getting ready for the end of 2009, Google posted an innocuous-looking, 267-word memo in its official blog. And while this short message went relatively unnoticed on the Web, the content of Google's post is extremely significant. The gist? Personalized Search.

Essentially, Google announced that all users of its search engine are, by default, going to be served personal results, based on "180 days of search activity." It's tracked by "an anonymous cookie" in each user's web browser and is completely separate from an individual's Google account. In other words, you don't have to be signed in to Google to receive these custom (tailor-made-for-you) results. You just have to Google.

By default, the new Personalized Search monitoring is turned on. Yes, it can be turned off -- but the off-button, as it were, is fairly well hidden. You can learn how to turn it off, by going here. And you can get more details about Personalized Search, here.

The main reason (Google stated in its announcement) that the search engine is serving up Personalized Search results is to receive "the most relevant results possible." If, for example, a user tends to search for a particular term over and over, Google will "remember" if a particular link is clicked more often than another. In future searches, Google will place that link higher than the others to that individual user.

What does this mean for companies interested in Search Engine Optimization? It's a mixed bag. Initially doing well on SERPs matters more now than ever before. If you do well in the organic results, your site is more likely to be clicked on by a user, and thus more likely to show up higher for his/her Personalized Searches.

It also means that paid-for search ads (Google Adwords, aka "Sponsored Links") will also play a more prominent role. Sponsored Links will appear on search results, regardless of Personalized Search, which means you can keep your site in front of viewers if you're willing to run an AdWords campaign. It also means that paid-for search ads will become a more competitive (and subsequently, expensive) endeavor. More sites will advertise because they want to be sure a viewer sees their site's link, regardless of Personalized Search.

This latest move by Google is extremely strategic with far-reaching implications. Team JLB will be monitoring and reporting more on this issue as it develops.

It's been a long-time coming, but as of early December, Team JLB has launched a brand-new, highly dynamic website for Franklin First United Methodist Church. We're pleased and excited to have developed a deep site, chocked full of an array of solid Content Management tools.

When FFUMC approached JLB this year, the staff wanted us to create a place online that would tell the church's story, provide interactivity with its congregation, give its pastors another outlet to connect with members, and be encased in an easy-to-update (yet robust) Content Management System (CMS). After months of honing the Graphic Design, Team JLB set about to engineer the site in HTML/CSS and PHP-based scripting on a MySQL database. Now the site is all ship-shape with more than 70 pages of content, a dynamic image presentation, interactive forms, a blog, and streaming news feeds.

Going forward, FUMC now has a solid tool for communication in 2010. Take a look here...