Ray van Hilst

Long Days: A Bit of Perspective

I don’t know about you, but yesterday was a long day for me. 5:30 AM – Alarm 5:45 AM – Let dog out, feed pets. 6:20 AM – Make wife’s latte, get her out the door.  Work until I wake up the kids. 7:30 AM – Wake up kids, get them started on breakfast. Jump … Continue reading »

Less is More: Refocusing on Clarity

Thank you Georgia O’Keeffe, Roy Lichtenstein, Edward Hopper. You reminded me of an important tenet I need to embrace more often. I regularly tell clients that if you remove clutter, you make it easier for web users to make a decision and know where to go on their sites. It’s a principle that is even … Continue reading »

The Tastiest Takeaway from #ASAE12

ASAE’s 2012 Annual Meeting had many amazing things. Thought provoking sessions, controversial speakers, an expo that included a carousel, an amazing opening session… and food. So while more thoughtful posts are marinating, this is a good opportunity to share perhaps the tastiest takeaway I got from this year’s annual meeting. You see, I love to … Continue reading »

Father’s Day Thoughts

One of my favorite hit a splash of reality a few days ago with a post about the fact that You Can’t Parentshift.  He’s right. Work-shifting and telecommuting is common-place with today’s technology. Heck, I work for a company in Chicago and live in Washington DC! And when you do have to hit the road … Continue reading »

The Road Ready Family

I travel enough for work that I have the walking-strip-show down pat as I prepare for security. I’m pretty much unfazed by travel delays and can deal with schedules being off as I go across time zones. But ask me to travel with my family and I become a different person.  (Just put me in … Continue reading »

Jazz, Life Lessons and A Great Teacher

The world lost a great man today. I’m saddened by the loss, but grateful for a man that graced my life and shaped a good bit of the man I am today.

I was actually thinking of him this morning listening to NPR and the story about Story Corps, the National Day of Listening and their encouragement to capture the story of teachers. I ran through the list of those teachers that had the biggest effect on my life and one name stood out. Continue reading »

Don’t Lose It, Man!

My kids are constantly losing things. Toys, books, their jackets, etc.  Thankfully for password keychains on our home computer, the one thing they don’t lose access to is their Club Penguin accounts. If only the same could be said for so many people managing websites and web-based accounts on behalf of their organization. Here’s a … Continue reading »

Bad UI is Everyone’s Problem

My son loves Bakugan.  He collects the cards, knows all the character names, watches the show, and wears the T-shirts.  So, he was just plain ecstatic when he discovered the Bakugan website the other day. My wife promptly started creating an account. Unfortunately it was a very frustrating process that was only exacerbated by an … Continue reading »

Training to Blog

Pardon the random blog post, but one of the things I love about my job is showing people how easy it is to use technology.

Facebook Privacy Breach? Get Over It!

The internet is all aflutter today over the story from the Wall Street Journal that Facebook apps have been passing personal data on to advertisers. I wish I could care.  I really do.  But here’s the sad reality that everyone keeps forgetting: Facebook costs you NOTHING!  It is FREE!  How else do you expect them … Continue reading »