Whether you’re designing a website, writing a press release, or coming up with text to appear on a digital signage screen, common sense dictates that you should use the same words that your audience does. Yet I continue to see digital signage that’s full of obscure terms. Have you ever asked your spouse to “turn […]

Over the weekend, I used Google to find some info for an upcoming trip. On the first page of results, I saw a forum site that I had visited before, and the description looked relevant to my search. I clicked on the result, and it took me to a totally different site that tried to […]

If you look around your home or office, you’ll probably notice that the power and data jacks are clustered together. In other words, for every Ethernet, phone, or cable TV outlet on the wall, there’s a power outlet no more than a few feet away. This approach makes sense, since virtually everything that uses a […]

It’s human nature to shoot the messenger — we tend to place the full brunt of our anger and blame on the person who delivers a piece of bad news. However, I think people act the same way when it comes to delivering praise. In other words, when someone helps you resolve a problem or […]

Say you’re writing an article or a blog post about something you heard about elsewhere. Maybe the source was a press release, or an interview, or a book. Years of schooling and common courtesy suggest that you should provide a credit to the original source, which usually means a link. Yet many reputable sites and […]

A few days ago, I read a story about a new healthcare program that Walgreens introduced for corporate customers. From the story and the original press release, interested companies could apparently sign up for the program and get access to in-store clinics and special prescription pricing to complement traditional health insurance. So I went to […]

I’ve been trying to use a gift card from one of my favorite restaurants for several weeks now. The problem isn’t finding the time to go there. Rather, it’s been so cold here in Chicago lately that you’d be a little nuts to venture out during dinner hours. With the sun already setting by that […]

Common sense tells us that a higher quality product will make customers happier, generate more positive buzz, and sell more briskly than a lower quality one. But higher quality products typically cost more than the competition, which limits their reach in the marketplace. So where do you draw the line between quality and selling price? […]