My presentation slides from Flashforward in Boston last week are now available over on Miskeeto’s presentation archives page. It’s available in Powerpoint and Keynote versions.
The session was about how to use instructive design elements to communicate the purpose, benefit, and usage of unfamiliar, Web 2.0 style design patterns and concepts like drag-and-drop, tag clouds, and RSS. (Be sure to open up the presenter notes in the Powerpoint or Keynote document.)
Thanks to all who came to the session. I hope to see you all again at MAX.

It seems that after the launch of Miskeeto last week, Adobe Contribute, which I’m using for content updates, had messed with Stephanie’s wonderful CSS in ways we didn’t know about until yesterday, and that IE7 users were seeing some pretty funky display issues.

I regret that this happened, because it probably made for a terrible first impression for quite a few people, but it looks like everything is fixed now. Please take another look at Miskeeto and consider forgiving this little snafu.

We will work hard to ensure this never happens again.

Thanks very much for your understanding.

“If you ever think you’re too small to have a big impact on the world, try sleeping in a room with a mosquito.” (Author unknown.)

A few months ago, I heard that quote and it inspired me. I’ve lead a very privileged life, and I want to use my skills to help those who aren’t so lucky. Now I have my chance. And so do you.

Today, I’m happy to announce Miskeeto, a product development and design firm aimed at improving the world, one project at a time.

And we have one hell of a team in place. Miskeeto is headed up by:

• Daniel Schutzsmith (GraphicDefine.org), General Manager
• Stephanie Sullivan (Author of Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver CS3, CommunityMX partner), Lead Web Designer
• Kris Hadlock (Author of Ajax for Web Application Developers), Lead Web Developer
• … and, of course, me (author of Designing the Obvious).

Together, we help companies develop socially-conscious sites, products, and services that improve the world, in big ways and in small.

In the past, our consultants have worked with Adobe, Dave Matthews Band, Sony Picture Classics, Automattic, Ford Motor Company, United Airlines, GoDaddy.com, Peachpit, New Riders, Lynda.com, Thomson, New York University, Carson Workshops, AIGA, MTV, XM Radio, and countless others.

Now, we aim to leverage our expertise to help companies and organizations determine what they can do improve the world, develop new products and services (online and off), and create the web properties they need to make it a reality.

We believe that companies can be profitable and still do the right thing. We’re in the business of helping them figure out how to accomplish this goal. If you work for an organization or company interested in improving the world, we’d love to hear about it.

You could be the Human Resources rep for a children’s hospital, the director of an NGO (non-governmental organization), the founder of a scholarship fund, or any number of other things. You could also be a Fortune 500 company that wants to give something back to the community or invent a product that makes peoples’ lives better. You could even be an individual who simply wants to raise money for medical research, the homeless, or something else. As long as you want to change the world, we want to be involved.

I’m also very proud to say that Miskeeto is a 100% carbon-neutral company. We are not only committing to carbon-neutrality because it’s the right thing to do, but because we want you to do the same, so we’re leading by example.

And with that, come say hello to Miskeeto! Thanks for listening. Cheers!

I’m very happy to finally announce The Art & Science of Web Forms!

Author/Ajax guru Kris Hadlock and myself are presenting a 5-hour session on best practices for the design and development of web forms.

Date: November 6, 2007
Location: Phoenix Art Museum, in Whiteman Hall (Phoenix, AZ)
Time: 12pm - 5pm
Cost: $149 per person ($119 with a student ID)
Website: UpDownRepeat

I’m speaking for two hours on the design of all sorts of different forms, and Kris is going over the code to create them.

And at the end of the session, you get to download all the code! (The code alone is worth the price of admission.)

Whiteman Hall is an excellent place for the seminar as well - it’s quite comfy, seats 294 people, and features tiered, theater-style seating.

For the last hour, show us what you’re working on and we’ll critique it, right then and there.

For more information, go to www.UpDownRepeat.com.

See you there!

Flashforward 2007 kicks off in Boston next week.

From 12pm to 1pm on Thursday, September 20th, I’ll be at the Peachpit booth in the Exhibit Hall doing an “ask the expert” session. Stop by, name a site or application you’re working on, and I’ll pull it up on the screen and spend a few minutes critiquing it, right then and there. If you don’t want me to critique your site, hang out and watch my critiques of everyone else’s sites!

During that time, I’ll also be available to sign copies of the book, so be sure to pick up a copy at the Peachpit booth.

Later that day, from 4:30pm to 5:45pm, learn how to communicate Web 2.0 to your users through good design at my session, What’s This Button Do?.

Also, I’ll be around all three days of the event, so feel free to stop me in the hall and introduce yourself.

See you there!