Not sure what the world will be doing in 2010, but Vancouver (our home-town) is ready for 2010. And zooming in even closer, DesignStamp is set to forge ahead into the new year as well. Here are the top 5 things that have us excited right now in broad sketchy details, just so that we can remain open to the possibilities that present themselves to us after the Holidays.

We, at DesignStamp are particularly excited about 2010 because:

1. Coming Soon. Yup, without displaying the ever-popular construction man animated icon, we will soon launch a new site for ourselves that will better reflect what we do and who we are. (You say: Soon is not a date. I say: I know, but as we tell our clients, don’t make promises of dates and things, unless you can be sure to stick to them. So we’re taking our time, between client projects to get this done. We want to do this right).
2. Team. What bites about the current site is that it gives you no sense of who we are. That will be more transparent in 2010.
3. Partnerships. As we grow as a team, we have also been working closely with some great companies. We will release collaborative work in 2010 that will help us build on shared strengths and leverage each others specialties.
4. Clients. We have been very proud to work with premier non-profit organizations that are affecting real change across the globe. We are also equally proud to help large brands communicate effectively. We will launch 3 new projects in the first quarter of 2010.
5. Blogging. For reals. This has been inactive, sorry excuse for an Opinion for way too long. We are going to use our site, and our social networks more regularly and be better contributors to conversations in 2010. For now, follow us on Twitter. While we work with clients to help them get social, we have not done the same for ourselves consciously. “If you don’t have the bandwidth, and not sure of how you are going to participate: Don’t!”. That said, our presentation on getting social on SlideShare has been the most tweeted presentation, twice in 2009!

We wish you and yours a peaceful holiday season. Look forward to working, tweeting, sharing with you in the days ahead!

It was a typical interaction design project, testing initial assumptions, validating business logic with a user-centric philosophy and asking simple questions like “why” and “how”.

However, looking back at the project and the path it has taken over the last few months, it has been anything but typical.

It is my pleasure to introduce you to Rouxbe.

Rouxbe helps people to cook simple recipes using video. Gone are the days of printing off complicated recipes and guessing what those fancy French words mean, and not being sure just how to get to that all important end-result. You can now have a chef walk you through the process without the camera attempting to make the chef the celebrity. Right now, you have subscriptions to magazines that show beautiful food. Now see how that food is made, and you control your viewing experience. No ads to skip through. Just lots of videos recipes. Amazingly shot and served. You don’t need to follow along. Just watch, learn and then go make.

Rouxbe was different for DesignStamp for a lot of reasons. Our commitment to Rouxbe is ongoing and our involvement is much more collaborative and immersive than the consultative role that we usually play. We have been involved in the building of Rouxbe, it’s online presence and technical development from ground up. From building the proprietary Flash player, to creating a complete website including e-commerce components, we are working with Rouxbe to take the user through a smooth, hassle-free experience. Nothing should come between the new user and the food recipes that they can sample.

One of the other key things that makes Rouxbe different is it’s commitment to a cause much higher than profit. To feed starving kids around the world. Having worked in the field for years, one can get a bit jaded and just about everyone you talk to has the next big Web 2.0 idea that they want to bring to market and get bought by Google. One of my first meetings with Joe Girard, the CEO of Rouxbe was not about the financial promise that Rouxbe held, but about Rouxbe for Life. A good cause that is whole heartedly supported and believed in by all of us that are working to build the Rouxbe brand. In fact, we all contribute money towards the cause each time we eat a meal together (working at Rouxbe means that there are a LOT of delicious meals before, after and during every meeting!)

In the next few months, I hope to be able to share details about our design process and the development of Rouxbe as a trusted brand. Till then, I invite you to try Rouxbe and give us your feedback. After all, the proof is in the pudding. Or more precisely, in the Crème Brulée!

So here’s to looking forward to an exciting year ahead with many new things in store. We wish you and yours a fulfilling 2006.

Effective Brainstorming

P.S: In case you missed it, you may also want to read Brainstorming Magic