Info Retail conducted a survey during the August 2010 Las Vegas market in order to keep our finger on the “pulse,” so to speak, of market attendees. We interviewed roughly 200 manufacturers and retailers. In this article, we review how attendees responded to one of our survey questions, as well as offer our perspective on what the survey results may mean for your business. Do consumers want more or less products at retail?

Medically speaking, the term "anosognosia" refers to the impairment that occurs wherein a person seems unaware of or denies a disability or a weakness. For brands, a difficult but necessary component to growth is the admission of a weakness.

Early in 2008, weak consumer spending provoked brands to re-emphasize customer service in hopes of capturing the consumers’ dollar during the recession. And since then, with every quarter that reported a drop in sales, this trend has evolved into brands attempting to differentiate themselves through outperforming one another in the area of customer service. This trend has snowballed to the point that the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) has launched an accreditation strategy to audit and measure the effectiveness of these new service tactics. But where is the line between an ingenious plan that targets the consumers’ needs and wants, and a scheme that creates unnecessary gimmicks?

The following article, published on SmashingMagazine.com, depicts the user experience of shopping for bed sheets. Specifically, the authors searched for a set of 300-thread-count, white cotton sheets for a queen-sized bed from Macy's, Target and Amazon.com. Essentially, the authors walk the reader through their heuristic evaluation (a valuable tool for UX/IA [User Experience/Information Architecture] design projects).

Strunk and White's Elements of Style is perhaps the most widely known prescriptive treatment of English grammar and usage. Often these standards for good writing synchronize seamlessly with the major principles of Search Engine Optimization (or SEO). Though sometimes, the principles of SEO and english usage come into conflict with each other.

SoCon, the southeast's premier social media and networking convention, will take place at Kenessaw State University on Jan 29 and 30th, 2010. This year, Info Retail will be reporting the highlights of the conference through Twitter. Check out the Twitter feeds for Brooks Ballard (Director of Marketing, Info Retail) and myself, Alisan Atvur (Interaction Architect) for up-to-the-second updates on the events, quotes from the lectures, and insights from your favorite design group.

On September 22nd, Yahoo! launched a $100 million ad campaign to promote its new homepage and their "It's Y!ou" slogan.

These new ads seem to couple the exciting and eclectic culture  of Yahoo! with the suggestion that the brand is empowering the user (i.e. A campaign that declares "The internet is under new management: yours").