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A lot goes into making a good website. Whether you use a website for your small business or for your personal portfolio, usability and user-experience matters. You want to make sure that whoever visits your site has a good experience. But how do you know if the website you’ve created

There are fifteen punctuation marks in the English language, each of which serves a variety of purposes. A couple months ago, I charted each of the fifteen punctuation marks in order of how much each punctuation mark does. As insightful as that may (or may not) have been, that chart

Do you ever look at something someone has created–a new book, or a work of art, or even a new process at work–and say to yourself, “I wish I could come up with creative ideas like that”? We’ve all been there. But the reality is, creative people have something in

If you’re in a profession where you see presentations on a regular basis, you’ve probably heard all the hate-talk directed at Microsoft PowerPoint. The hatred runs deep. On a list of hated design-ish things, it fights for first place with the typeface Comic Sans. In fact, it has become so

With the college football season right around the corner, I couldn’t help but play around with some of college football’s most iconic logos. A couple visual communication theorists (see below) suggest that by adding simple shapes to designs, we humans inadvertently anthropmorphise (give human-like characteristics to non-human objects or shapes) designs

While there are countless ways to ruin good writing, there is probably no quicker way to lose writing credibility than by exhibiting punctuation errors. Punctuation is the visual cue in our language that we use to increase comprehension, to change speed and tone, and to improve the overall reading experience.

To grammar enthusiasts, Weird Al’s new parody, “Word Crimes” (which plays on Robin Thike’s “Blurred Lines”) nails just about every writing pet peeve on the head. Those who don’t like grammar, however, may feel insulted. Or, just thoroughly confused. After all, if you’re not sure what an Oxford comma is

Infographics, it seems, have taken the media by storm. Because they are visually attractive, eye-catching, accessible, fun, and–if done well–quickly and effectively informative, people are drawn to them. And businesses have caught wind of this. We see infographics in magazines, on blogs, and even on corporate “About Us” pages in

At the college where I teach, professors have the unique opportunity every May to develop a course outside of their typical curriculum. Teachers get to explore their interests in new courses as diverse as “The Chemistry of Cooking” and “Writing a Film Short.” Students are offered a wide variety of