Dale Herigstad & Schematic

I chose the Lynda documentary on Dale Herigstad and the interactive design agency, Schematic. I was interested in seeing what a true “interactive agency” did, as compared to a traditional ad agency.

An ad agency promotes a current brand and betters the brands selling power. This agency wanted to create a new line of business for current companies and change the brand perception. Dale and his staff took innovative to a new level. For example, in EA Sports video games for X-Box Live, they integrated real-time ESPN newsfeed and highlights into the game. While games load, sports highlights are played via ESPN. This is great advertising for ESPN and reduces user frustration while waiting for the game to launch. My husband and his friends think it is a great way to play sports video games!

Dale Herigstad noted that he trains designers to think differently. He noted that a computer is the only device with a mouse. While I know this subconsciously, I have never thought about that. That is a very important thing to remember when designing across platforms. I do realize that it is hard to do rollover when designing for touch screen devices, but since you design with a mouse, it is easy to get lost in adding functions. From now on, when designing, I will think about how the design would work across platforms, specifically for touch.

This documentary was very eye-opening. Working at an interactive agency is something I could pursue in the future. When I goggled the agency, I found out that they had been bought out by Possible Worldwide. Dale Herigstad is still working there, making his amazing ideas come to life.