Home

Hello, Garmin. (part III)

It’s Saturday. And I am unemployed. And that’s kind of awesome. Okay, I’m employed. Technically.

I build stuff. I create stuff. And life’s too short to not be building and creating every day.

Soon I will step into a new position as Interface Designer at Garmin (GRMN), a position with their online user experience team. Since my early days in college, I’ve always been provoked to design for users, not clients. Working on the Garmin team should allow me to balance the challenge, tact and necessity for addressing the needs of both parties. Strategy, thought, design, user-testing and front-end development are all things I want to do daily. All are essential to the job description.

garmin-logo

Budgets restrict good thinking.

To re-think how customers interact with your brand only when marketing dollars are allocated to such a project is the wrong way address business needs. Unfortunately, this is a side effect of the client-plus-ad-agency model. Inside of recession, less marketing dollars equates to less agency-driven thought and strategy in driving sales. Time and money should always be allocated to the effort.

Time well spent increases sales.

With this in mind, the best fit for me is a team where questions are continually asked of design and user experience. The primary budget is one of time. The primary question is, “Does this initiative merit our time?” Making sales is important to any company. When you’re ringing the cashbox for a company like Garmin, the products sell themselves.

The Forerunner 305 by Garmin

Garmin's Forerunner 305, a watch for runners.

Grady tells me that Olathe means “beautiful.” It’s fitting. Well, not the suburbia part. Suburbia is beautiful to some, but I’m more of a midtown Kansas City guy. The opportunity to design for potential and existing Garmin consumers is direct and immediate. And that’s beautiful to me.

creative arts, web development

Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 12:32 pmSubscribe by reader Subscribe by email

» Subscribe to responses & comments for this article.

Sean Berger is a designer & developer living in Kansas City.

3

  1. “To re-think how customers interact with your brand only when marketing dollars are allocated to such a project is the wrong way address business needs.”

    This line is *exactly* how I feel about the non-profit sector. If we hope to create social change, we *must* always be thinking about our audience, and how that audience can best be motivated to interact and engage (with our organization(s) AND our beneficiaries), beyond simply what our budget will allow. Not all business models fit the non-profit world, but I think this “in the box” thinking when it comes to funding and assets is one that needs to be blown apart in the social sector. The “we can only do so much because we only have so much” mentality is old and non-functional.

    Thanks for the post!

    from Brandi Stanley on the 30th day of January 2010 at 12:54 pm

  2. Congratulations on the new gig man. Can’t wait to see what you get away with! Don’t be a stranger if you’re ever in Lawrence :)

    from Nathan Borror on the 3rd day of February 2010 at 2:00 am

  3. Thanks, Nathan. I should be hitting up a few concerts this spring. I can’t think that I wouldn’t see you at one or two of them.

    from Sean Berger on the 6th day of February 2010 at 6:14 pm

recent history


Google & Blogspot users

This is a secure feature built by Google.