The Brand Pyramid.
The traditional pyramid is separated into 5 different tiers, each tapping into different aspects of the brand and it’s identity.
Frazer MacRobert
from Phnom Penh / 115 posts
Wireframing.
A simple visual of your product or website that allows team members to communicate the structure of your product.
Design Pattern Library.
Create an asset library to use as a guideline throughout a project. This library can be used to create efficiency in your workflow while helping maintain the consistency of a project.
AI team members.
We tasked AI with writing a long-form insight on how bots can fit in with our content team.
Prototyping.
A quick and easy way to sketch out your idea either on paper or digitally to find the common errors, get feedback from user experiences to create a functional product.
Site Mapping.
Organising a website vastly improves the user experience. It can also lead to some unique opportunities to guide users through various funnels with ease and added effectiveness.
Contextual Inquiry.
To improve practices it is important to have full context and understanding of how and why users do what they do.
Start With Why.
Finding your Why defines purpose, motivates teams, inspires customers, generates a loyal fanbase, and ultimately builds awesome brands.
Affinity Diagrams.
Also known as 'The KJ-Method', named after inventor Jiro Kawakita. This allows groups to quickly reach a consensus on priorities of subjective, qualitative data.
Lean Coffee.
A contemporary take on meeting structures is to arrive without agenda, and collectively create a collective format in line with the entirety of the group.
Better LinkedIn Remarketing.
Leveraging the ideal b2b lens from LinkedIn advertising, but with the optimised costing and power of more sophisticated advertising platforms.
Weighted Decision Matrix.
Projects can be paralyzed by a lack of clear decision making. Applying this matrix, we can unblock overwhelming choices and drive healthy growth.
Why We Chose Landbot.
Communication is key. Discover how Landbot became the new customer hotline for corporate websites.
Crafting Video Content.
As the digital world booms and face-to-face interactions become more sheepishly hesitant, video content is core to effective MarComms strategies.
Anti-goals.
“A lot of success in life and business comes from knowing what you want to avoid: early death, a bad marriage, etc.” - Charlie Munger
Dark UX Patterns.
Dark patterns are deceptive framing techniques used in websites and apps. They make people make the developer's choice, not theirs.
Writing Loyalty Program T&Cs.
Copy and adapt our T&Cs example for a loyalty program, with key consideration put towards the consumer—and your business relationship with them.
Choosing UX Metrics.
Narrowing down which UX metrics are the most important is not easy. There are a lot of variables to consider.
Using Bots to Automate Content.
We review the pros and cons of bots and explore methods that content publishers can use to automate their creative processes.
Generating Traffic.
As we humbly celebrate Mad.design reaching the top 100 most visited websites in Cambodia, we analyse our methodology and successes.
Naming a Brand.
The art of crafting an iconic brand name. We discuss name types and best naming practises.
An Interview with Adrienne Ravez.
Continuing with our expert interview series, we caught up with Adrienne Ravez, the Director of Operations at QED and Co-Founder of Geeks in Cambodia.
An Interview with Manu Rajan.
Continuing with our expert interview series, we caught up with Manu Rajan, the CEO of Wing Cambodia.
The Sunk Cost Fallacy.
Spent resources need not be ultimate commitments. Knowing when to quit is a powerful leadership quality.
Ad Fatigue.
New ideas aren't timeless. After dazzling audiences with novel thinking, the best fresh ideas fade from 'new' to simply 'great'.
Automating Facebook Replies.
Patience really is a virtue. Unfortunately for businesses, customer expectations for instant gratification is becoming an unavoidable norm.
User Experience Design.
User-centered design is an iterative process whereby you take an understanding of the users, and their context, as a starting point for all design and development.
The Peter Principle.
Promoting great workers to incompetence: How to avoid the mistake, and make better team decisions to nourish and protect talent.
Drain The Shallows.
Concluding our Deep Work series, we look at Cal Newport's final rule, focusing on task prioritisation.
Minimal Synergy.
On the topic of minimalism in design, we look at brand synergy and how the zeitgeist of design effects cognitive loads and expectations.
Universal Instructions.
Foolproofing doesn't mean your target market include fools, but it does ask key questions about the succinctness of your communications.
HARO Marketing.
Help a Reporter Out, with genuine ethical intentions, yet gain a marketing boost through well positioned strategy.
Zeigarnik Effect: Marketing.
Upgrade your marketing efforts by adding this proven tactic to your campaigns. Another psychological growth hacking concept.
MÄDS100+ (Note and Vote).
Design concepts are developed with strategic, cognitive, and practical processes. We refer to this practice as ‘Design Thinking’.
CV Best Practices.
Tech, and indeed AI, continues to improve at exponential rates, but behind all great brands, businesses, products, and teams, are talented people.
App Gamification.
Due to the overwhelming mobile phone addiction culture, it's no surprise that businesses often turn to creating Apps to boost their brands, and sales. Gamification is one key area to inspire continued App usage.
Facebook Verification.
How to gain the elusive blue badge for professional business pages on Facebook, and why it matters.
Mäd Team: Sam.
Mundane and Mäd are polar opposites to us. But, weekly work surely requires a degree of repetitiveness or habits shaped to maximize success.
Ditching Job Titles.
Executive, officer, liaison manager? When do job titles actually matter, and how should they be used. We dive into our opinion on the matter.
Mäd Team: Serahphin.
Meet the team behind the brand, and learn more about the humans in the Human Centric Design Agency.
Thinking in First Principles.
The intellectual toolkit can be sharpened with better mental models for optimised reasoning, judgement, analysis and learning.
Mäd Team: Jon.
Meet the team behind the brand, and learn more about the humans in the Human Centric Design Agency.
An Interview with Denver Gibson.
In the newest addition to our expert interview series, we discuss all things Tech and Success with the Clik CTO.
Collaborating Better.
Effective team work is heightened by intelligent tools that not only allow collaboration, but excel at optimizing it. We've pondered some pitfalls of bad planning, and outlined success strategies for your team.
An Interview with Gabi Faja-Holm.
The CEO of Soundskool and Music Sales discusses hiring 'Black Swans', the future of E-Commerce, and winning business qualities in regards to thinking and team building.
Accelerating Sales.
If you believe that your product adds value, solves a problem, or will genuinely help people in some manner, then equipping your sales strategy with some of our recommendations will help you market it to a larger audience with more efficiency.
Brand Designers.
If you fit our team values, and the work appeals to you, then you could be an ideal candidate for Mäd. If you wish to apply as a Brand Designer there are a few requirements.
The Brand Voice.
Leave a mark, provide structure, build connections, and/or seek paradise. Whatever your brand is trying to do, the Brand Voice is key in communicating your vision.
The Product Manager Role.
Team culture can wildly vary depending on organization size, industry and product goals. This is one variable that makes the 'Product Manager' role difficult to define.
Interviewing Creatives.
How to effectively measure a candidates capability in an area of expertise or expression.
An Interview with Archie Tep.
Kicking off our industry expert series, we caught up with Archie Tep, the head of product design at Fave Asia. Based in Kuala Lumpur, Archie manages and designs products for three countries: Malaysia; Indonesia; and Singapore.
Mäd Team: Frazer.
Meet the team behind the brand, and learn more about the humans in the Human Centric Design Agency.
The Brand Essence.
Building a brand is an exciting process, and at the heart of it all, is the brand essence.
Why Copywriting Matters.
Engage. Inspire. Sell. Captivate audiences with great copy, or be left in the dust with dull descriptions.
The Eudaimonia Office.
Eudaimonia is a Greek word often translated to human flourishing, or prosperity. It's regarded as a state of social welfare, promoting happiness. We explore how the concept adapts to a modern working environment.
The Customer Journey.
When you're close to your own product or service, it can be difficult to fully understand the entirety of the 'customer journey'. Mapping out the process of all potential touch-points between your brand and customers will allow you to greatly optimize processes to improve experiences.
Why Google Search Ads are core to digital campaigns.
Potential customers are trying to make purchases. Are you accessible enough for them? Google Search Ads is a fantastic, immediate, solution to put your business in front of relevant demographics - and the cost could be less than you think.
Mäd team: Angelique.
Meet the team behind the brand, and learn more about the humans in the Human Centric Design Agency.
Prioritization for Entrepreneurs.
Earlier this year, the CEO of Mäd, Emanuele (Manny) Faja, gave a webinar presentation on how startup leaders can prioritize their tasks...
Contact Form Attributions.
Core to successful lead campaigns, is optimized data tracking. Being able to attribute tags to your contact forms, will help you understand those that do (and don't) engage with your lead forms.
Growth Mindsets.
Realigning our thinking to an accountable mindset can help us progress. When we accept that growth is achievable through our own efforts, we spur ourselves on to develop. The main hurdle may indeed be breaking away from a restrictive 'Fixed Mindset'.
Arise+ Cambodia.
Website design often has a bigger picture. New designs can update brands, whilst transitioning the company voice and values. Therefore, planning for accompanying media strategy is an invaluable add-on to any web design project.
ODOM.
Designing for Designers is always a challenge, one we embrace. We recently created a sleek website to showcase the dynamic upcoming ODOM project.
Menu Engineering.
Despite being complex creatures, we often overlook simple habits and ignore intriguing aspects of human nature. Understanding decision making processes is undeniably valuable for any business wishing to influence consumers favorably towards their product or service.
Belaws: Offering legal support to Cambodia during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Belaws provides preliminary answers to COVID-19 related legal questions on contract terminations, salary negotiations, or suspension from work.
The Architect and the Gardener.
In 2019, The Lego Group reported over $8 Billion net profit. The (mainly) simple brick sets are sold globally, to all ages....
The Mäd 'M' shaped person.
Once the T shape was introduced, thinkers suggested 'why stop there' and mused the Pi shape, the Comb and the X. Suitably, we enjoyed the thinking behind the 'M' shape and how it helps us succeed.
Avoiding Statistical Bias in Decision-Making Practices.
“99 percent of all statistics only tell 49 percent of the story.” ― Ron DeLegge II
Pitching to the Neophiliacs.
Recognizing that many favour the tried, tested and safe, means innovators should narrow their focus. I.e. Whom their target audience will be in the short-term.
Career Transitioning with a Pivot Runway.
Arm yourself, for sensibly gauged increments, to pursue your passion with the financial safety net of a well thought out Pivot Runway
The Mäd Six-Pager.
Read our newest operational tool, inspired by the modern world's arguably most successful tycoon.
Black Box Thinking.
Upgrade business thinking to an 'Open Loop' process, and incorporate failures as an important betterment tool.
Why We Chose Figma.
Look through the lens of our design team, and why we moved all of our active projects to Figma.
Air-Con Remotes Redesigned.
At Mäd, we occasionally throw workshops to challenge our team via various thought exercises. This week, we proposed the creation of an 'ideal air con remote', and dissected a major pain point of the existing, traditional models.
Avoiding upwards and sidewards delegation.
Work is traditionally delegated downwards in a clearly defined manner. Yet upwards and sidewards delegation can occur under-the-radar and prove problematic.
The Easy Learn.
We regularly highlight the extra productivity found from additional planning. Managing time and tasks can be approached via the 'Easy Learn' thought process.
CSR: Selfless or Strategic?
It can be argued that a brand intrinsically will have their own interests at heart. The act of effective CSR generates a positive brand image, and almost always correlates to more sales, advertising and positive public image.
Protecting Your Business Against COVID-19.
"Brilliant thinking is rare, but courage is in even shorter supply than genius"
Heineken.
Mäd answered the question of how to scale a digital supply chain across 500,000 locations across a multitude of use cases.
Park Land.
We rebranded Park Land, focusing on a strong modern identity that unified the communications, targets and essence of the brand.
The Mäd Flywheel.
The business flywheel is an established concept that breaks down an organisation into its important parts, and establishes a cycle that helps the business reach its goals each time it is completed.
Scaling Professional Service Firms.
People are the most important part of any PSF, because they are the ones who actually service the client. Ideally, you want to maintain a strong culture that values entrepreneurship, bias to action, and high standards.
How Chess Helps Us to Make Tech Decisions.
There are certain habits in chess that encourage self improvement, whatever industry you are in.
The Problem with Pre-Made Solutions.
“If you only have a hammer, every problem starts looking like a nail”
Working with Millennials.
Their technology savviness means that they are valuable employees as they can use technology to leverage their abilities, and even to up-skill themselves.
Designing for the Lowest Common Denominator.
"The main challenge [are] the assumptions that you must throw out of the window when you are designing."
After Action Reviews (AAR).
AARs, or “After Actions Reviews”, is a fantastic tool to use in any company or organization.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
There are a few handy tools which we use in order to fully find what the MVP would be for every project during the design sprint stage.
Customer Experience through Journey Mapping.
"Customer experience is going beyond human centered customer service to give an exceptional experience showcasing your brand and essence."
RACI Matrixes.
Having clear responsibilities nowadays is even more important than the very definition of what makes up a team.
GOTIFO.
Bringing to life a dedicated football platform designed to elevate the fan experience, so you can share your passion for the beautiful game.
Family Care First.
Our scope of work was to design a new corporate website based on existing wire-frames that were provided by Family Care First, facilitated by Save The Children.
