Semaphore, LLC News

Answer:  Abuelo’s in Rogers, AR

I haven’t blogged here in a while, and it’s because our little real estate tools creation engine, Tasman Labs, was acquired by GoPickle.com. Therefore, I haven’t been freelancing under the Semaphore, LLC banner for a few months now. Instead, Vanguide is now a part of the Webtown Media mix of small business websites, and I’ve been designing our next generation of online tools. Well, it’s finally time to journal what I’ve been up to, because it’s so darn cool.

Just two weeks ago, we took the wraps off of our new Local Business Directory, the new GoPickle.com. GoPickle.com has always served as a super-local yellow pages. But in addition to a completely revised backend, now, local businesses can upgrade their listings for themselves. Think of merchantcircle.com without the spam and social networking fluff.

So with the above in mind, we set out to design the best UI experience we could, both for searchers and business users. Our first thought: “Use a map!” it’s intuitive, it’s not too new, and it looks friggin cool.

We quickly ran into the problem of consistent-height headers, footers, info panes, and all the other data that makes a yellowpages website. Our solution: make it all movable! You can see how it works on a search results page for Restaurants in Rogers, Arkansas

With our design, we avoided the persistent-size problem because now you can scroll the extra stuff out of the way, and the map will stay put. Traditionally, either you have to sacrifice your details display OR you have to sacrifice your map size. We get the benefits of both.

The effect has a ton of benefits for our business customer. Compare our customer page:

• Abuelo’s Mexican Food Embassy

To what their page looks like on the competition out there. Notice how much room there is above for photos, description, etc; now notice how small and cramped the actual business information is on all the following pages:

• http://www.insiderpages.com/b/3709734355
• http://www.yellowbook.com/profile/abuelos-mexican-food-embassy_1493600708.html?addressId=0
• http://national.citysearch.com/profile/41371105/rogers_ar/abuelo_s_mexican_food_embassy.html
• http://local.yahoo.com/info-26852378-abuelo-s-mexican-food-embassy-rogers
• http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/139/913535/restaurant/Fayetteville/Abuelos-Mexican-Food-Embassy-Rogers
• http://www.superpages.com/bp/Rogers-AR/Abuelos-Mexican-Food-Embassy-L0112745362.htm

One more consideration: we’re future-proofing our design by making the layout get better as screen resolutions continue to get larger. When you get a new computer with a bigger monitor, you can still make your web browser full-screen and not be afraid of missing all the tiny details, surrounded by boxes and extremely large margins of unused space.

So that’s it. The above is live now, but there is still a lot more on the way.

Daisy Outdoor Products is an industry leading airgun manufacturer and is the manufacturer of the legendary Red Ryder BB Gun. For the 2008 SHOT Show the Daisy booth features the Daisy Design Studio interactive kiosk, powered by IFWORLD, Inc., with interface design by Semaphore, LLC.

The SHOT Show’s 30th anniversary celebration began Saturday February 2 with 1,948 exhibiting companies encompassing more than 715,000 net square feet of space, making it the largest ever. The Daisy Design Studio interactive kiosk is a pivotal feature for Daisy’s exhibition at this year’s Show, which allows retail attendants to create a customized gun with unique materials, colors, and even authenticity certificates for their own stores.

View screenshots of the kiosk interface by clicking the thumbnails below.

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Tasman Labs, Inc. released HarrisMcHaney.com today for client Harris McHaney Realtors. The site is powerd by Tasman Labs’ own Vanguide map based search, and the fresh look and interface is designed by Semaphore, LLC.

Harris McHaney Realtors is based on a Commitment to Excellence and a promise of positive teamwork. Driven by these principles, the company has experienced steady growth and success over the years, emerging as one of the largest and most progressive real estate companies in the state of Arkansas. More information on Harris McHaney Realtors may be found on Harris McHaney Realtors website.

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