Enjoy your journey

You may have heard the news: working 9 to 5 Monday through Friday is extinct, much like the dinosaurs (and hopefully soon this renaissance of 90’s fashion trends). الرهان في سباق الخيل With more ways to stay in touch with people than ever, there are also more ways your boss or fellow employees can reach out to you beyond the normal 9-5. A Saturday morning text, an 11pm phone call, you’re more accessible to your job, boss, and co-workers than ever. Chances are; your home is an extension of your office – a more comfortable one, at that.

Despite the never-ending work day for some, many companies are taking a stand against grueling hours. As start-up companies become increasingly popular and offer their employees more comfortable working environments than their corporate competitors, some corporate companies are taking note and making changes. Companies are evolving from business-casual to just plain casual, meaning their leniency on once-strict and heavily regulated policies is changing too. Working in a boutique agency myself, I love having a more lenient dress code that doesn’t require heels and pants/skirt suits every day. I can wear what I’m comfortable in while still communicating through my outfits that I’m a professional. Recently, Richard Branson of Virgin, the mega-everything company, announced that employees could take as many vacation days as they want, so long as they complete their work on-time. His reasoning? “Flexible working has revolutionized how, where and when we do all our jobs. So, if working nine to five no longer applies, then why should strict annual leave policies?” Sir Richard, I couldn’t agree more.

Other companies worldwide have followed a similar lead. For example, Germany is considering passing a new law that will make it illegal to email colleagues after 6pm during the work week. Andrea Nahles, the German Minister for Labour, studied the relationship between employees having constant access to their emails and poor mental health. اون لاين كازينو Her results were not surprising. “There is an undeniable relationship between constant availability and the increase of mental illness,” she said. France passed similar legislation earlier this year, requiring employees to shut off their smartphones after 6PM during the work week. While some people do not agree with this legislation, ultimately it is important to step away from work and have a life, spend time with your friends and family, and pursue your interests outside of work.

Taking company culture to the extreme is Amsterdam-based design studio Heldergroen, who introduced the concept of a disappearing office. You read that right – every night at 6pm on the dot, a key-operated lifting mechanism, supported by steel cables, lifts desks into the ceiling. casino arab No longer can you burn the midnight oil: that assignment you didn’t finish will have to wait until tomorrow. Everything on the desk – computers, papers, pens and pencils, remain in the same position, ready for employees’ return in the morning. Creative Director Sander Veenendaal transforms the floor into a dance or yoga studio, trend session, networking event – anything imaginable: “The floor is literally yours,” he said.

Some people love the hustle and will tell you that money never sleeps. That may be true, but I love to sleep. While it is important to maintain dedication and passion for your work, a work-and-play balance is essential. Some may argue that having a strict 6pm cutoff time, as in the case with the disappearing office in Amsterdam, puts people under pressure to work. Having a strict cutoff time serves as a motivator for people to finish assignments and to go home with a clear head, rather than having to go home and stressing about tomorrow. On the other end of the spectrum, Virgin motivates employees to take as much vacation time as they’d like, but this is a luxury that may be dangerous to some. Some employees may not be able to handle having an open-ended time frame to complete their work whilst fighting the temptation to take vacation days at their free will.

As companies recreate policies to accompany lax company culture, some will make mistakes, and others will flourish. Developing your company culture comes with knowing your employees and your field of work, and finding ways for your employees to benefit from your policies. Think about it this way: do your employees do their best work when they’re overworked, exhausted and under pressure? Or do their ideas flourish when they’re well-rested and fresh-minded?

Check Out The Disappearing Office in Amsterdam!

Our society’s inability to unplug from technology and demand for instant gratification mean the attention and time we can dedicate to even the simplest tasks are decreasing. Even reading factual articles on the Internet is too time-consuming for us! Content shock, as we touched on earlier, is a phenomenon where readers skip reading articles in full because they are bored, busy, or disinterested. So how do we present information to readers that interests and helps them learn? Enter infographics: content that combines text and graphics into one. كيف تربح المال من الانترنت مجاناً Could infographics solve the problem of content shock, or is it just a temporary fix to our society’s short attention span?

Visualize

Content marketers and companies alike create infographics to convey boring material in a quick, creative and meaningful manner. According to Social Media Consultant Mark Smiciklas, infographics are “a visualization of data or ideas that tries to convey complex information to an audience in a manner that can be quickly consumed and easily understood.” Remember the five senses: feel, smell, see, hear and taste. All 5 senses transmit information to the brain, but 90% of that information is visual! In an average day, a person is exposed to 174 newspapers full of information, with only 1% of that information getting through to the brain. Why is this, you ask? The brain processes images simultaneously and text sequentially, meaning that visual stimuli makes it to the brain much more quickly than textual stimuli. To be specific, the brain processes visual stimuli 60,000 times faster than text. Additionally, Google search volumes for “infographics” have increased by well over 800%. I prefer to think of infographics as children’s books for adults: mostly picture accompanied by minimal text. We teach and treat children as visual learners, so why can we not do the same for adults?

Inspire

Great infographics inspire emotions – be it happiness, sadness, wonder, or surprise. Great infographics use challenging content, tell a story, take your readers on a journey, or provide readers with a fresh point of view. As a marketing tool, infographics are viral magnets. They are easy to share due to their attractiveness and versatility across social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Because of their viral magnetism, infographics are helpful to your webpage’s SEO and can ultimately help rank your website higher on Google’s algorithm. You can also easily increase brand awareness by simply placing your logo on the infographic. موقع مراهنات Placing your logo on the infographic allows you to position your brand as an expert of the topic you are explaining. العاب كسب المال If you are not creating your own infographic but simply sharing another’s, you can use the infographic to add value to your content. Just be sure to give credit where credit’s due, which may include the author’s name, website, and a link back to the website or place of origin.

Learn

Research done by Barbara Miller and Brooke Barnett of the Newspaper Research Journal showed that combining both text and graphics is the best method learning information. Their summary stated:

“On their own, text and graphics are both useful yet imperfect methods for communication. Written language allows an almost infinite number of word combinations that allow deep analysis of concepts, but relies heavily on the reader’s ability to process that information. Graphics may be easier for the reader to understand but are less effective in communication of abstract and complicated concepts. … combining text and graphics allows communicators to take advantage of each medium’s strengths and diminish each medium’s weaknesses.”

Think of your favorite children’s book growing up; it probably had tons of pictures and illustrations. Children books feature a combination of text with illustrations because the combination of the two media helps children understand and mentally visualize the story they’re being told. Children have more active and wild imaginations than adults, yet as we age, we find ourselves referencing and learning from text-dense material rather than a combination of pictures and illustrations. In the case of adults, you would think that with a less wild imagination, you would need more imagery to explain concepts. Infographics prove that the adult brain still prefers to learn with a combination of imagery and text than with text-dense information alone.

Research

Beyond having great content and imagery, you must always do your research before creating an infographic. Assuming you want to appear as an expert in your field, it is essential to provide your readers and customers with accurate and up-to-date information. Use multiple sources, but not too many, to gather your data: too much information can fatigue or disinterest your reader. Additionally, use multiple sources to check the accuracy of your information. Include plenty of statistics in your infographic; pie charts, bar graphs, line graphs, and percentages accompanied with images help clearly illustrate statistics and other complicated pieces of information.

Create

Not every company or business has a graphic design department that can readily turn out great infographics. As a content curator, your biggest challenge is not finding content, but rather finding a way to present it to your audience that is both exciting and informative. Fortunately, Peak Seven’s team of dedicated designers can make your infographic dreams become reality. Infographics allow endless possibilities for presenting dense information to readers in ways that are interesting, meaningful, and easy to understand; Peak Seven helps you master these obstacles while helping you stay true to your brand. As 65% of the population are said to be visual learners, we should be presenting information to readers that interests them and helps them learn, not information that exhausts and bores them. Think you’re ready to get started on your own Infographic? Reach out to Peak Seven today, and check out some of our recent info graphics below for Skypatrol.

After watching Apple’s keynote for the iPhone 6 and the Apple Watch, it’s safe to say that Apple wants to integrate itself in all possible aspects of our lives. From the innovative Apple Pay to Apple Health, an Apple product a day may be enough to keep you away from traditional items you’ve used for years, such as the newspaper, and even your wallet. We all know that Apple is ridiculously amazing at marketing anything, but are there more exciting features that make me really want the new iPhone 6, or should I just stick to the iOS 8 upgrade?

iPhone 6 Exclusive Features
When I first began watching the announcement Tuesday evening (a little late, yes), I was excited to see what Apple had in store, but also very skeptical. Every product announcement that comes from Apple is “the best iPhone EVER,” a product that’s “going to change everything,” and they always, somehow, manage to convince everybody that they cannot go another day in their ordinary lives without this extraordinary new device. For every iPhone release, we expect the same things: a bigger screen, better resolution, and a better camera. So how would the iPhone 6 be any better or different from the iPhone 5S or 5C? Do I really need to shell out all that money for a new contract and a new phone?

Mobile Wallet
Apple aims to revolutionize the way we go about our everyday life, and the Mobile Wallet is no exception to that. Ever felt so inconvenienced by having to pull your wallet out of your pocket and decide which credit card to use? Have no fear – Apple has solved the issue for you! With the new Mobile Wallet feature, you can pay for lower-priced items using the integration of Passbook and Touch ID. Skeptical about Apple storing your credit card information and purchase history? They claim to do neither – instead assigning your credit card a one-time unique number that is used to complete the transaction with the merchant. Apple claims they won’t see your purchases or track your purchasing behavior.

Better Battery Life
One of the more exciting but lesser innovative features of the new iPhone 6 is better battery life, which means 11 hours of video watching and Wi-Fi browsing. As Apple gives us reason to become even more dependent on our cell phones, a longer battery life is absolutely necessary.

Faster Networking & Internal Processer
The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus boast a 64-bit A8 chip processor and M8 co-processor. For those of you who are like me and have no idea what that means, the Apple iPhone 6 is now 25% faster and 50% more efficient than its predecessor thanks to the A8 chip. Additionally, the M8 measures your motion activity for the Health app without draining your battery life. The M8 chip also can measure elevation and tell when you take the stairs,
thanks to a new feature called “Barometer.”

Larger Screen Displays
As people have complained that Apple’s screen is too small to watch movies on (seriously people, go an hour without watching TV I dare you), Apple has announced that its iPhone 6 will boast a screen of 4.7 inches, and 5.5 inches for the iPhone 6 Plus, going for a “Phablet” look.

Improved Camera
Selfie-obsessed Millennials rejoice: the newest iPhone boasts an 8-megapixel camera, an improved sensor, True Tone flash, and an even faster autofocus. This means you can take even more selfies in a fraction of the time it took you before!

iOS 8
Despite these new features for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, most of the cool new features are available from iOS8, which can be downloaded onto your outdated and totally lame iPhone 5. Sure, mobile wallets are convenient, as is better battery life and a faster processor. But let’s be real here: nobody who has an iPhone 5 should be crying poverty. If you are due for an upgrade, I suggest you take it. My mom has an iPhone 4S for example and it’s time for her to trade on up, not because its embarrassing that she has such an old phone, but because the functionality of her phone is decreasing by the day. However, if you have a newer iPhone model and are considering the upgrade, I suggest saving your money and instead downloading iOS8 for free; these are my reasons why.

Health and HealthKit
Arguably the coolest feature for fitness geeks like myself, Apple’s new HealthKit feature syncs with third-party apps and services to measure your fitness activity in order to provide you with a “health dashboard.” You can measure your heart rate, calories burned, blood sugar, cholesterol, and even create an emergency card that is accessible from your Lock screen. While the new iPhone 6 boasts the M8 chip, which is more advanced in measuring your motion activity, it is not essential to the use of the app itself.

Better Chat
Texting just became so much more. Instead of being able to send one picture at a time, now you can send multiple. You can also name, mute, or leave group chats, which we all know can be both annoying and serious battery drainers. You can also tap your messages to add video, voice, or your current location at a much faster speed. لعبة القمار اون لاين Apple has also graced us with the convenience of tapping to see any attachment in the text conversation, instead of having to scroll up through endless messages. Thanks Apple!

Interactive Notifications
Ever been so-in-the-zone playing Candy Crush or Words With Friends that you couldn’t respond to a text? Drop down notifications for texts, tweets, and calendar events are now actionable, meaning you can interact with these features without having to switch out of the app you are currently using. بوكر اون لاين Hallelujah!

Keyboard Enhancements
QuickType will feature predictive typing suggestions, allowing you to not only type out messages faster, but finally your iPhone will stop autocorrecting to “ducking!” Additionally third-party keyboard support will come with iOS8. Apps like SwiftKey lead the way in keyboard support apps, which already embody the predictive typing software by memorizing syntax, slang, and social language usage. I hope Apple can totes keep up with all my abbrevs!

Integration of Siri and Shazam
Siri is now voice accessible with the command “Hey Siri,” and she can even identify songs for you and direct you to the iTunes store to purchase the song. I foresee many “accidental” embarrassing song purchases in the future of those who have had a beer too many. Way to capitalize on us during our weakest moments, Apple!

Self Destructing Photos and Recovering Deleted Photos
IOS8 will feature a “Recently Deleted” album in the photos app, for all those who may have mistakenly deleted a good photo (or selfie). Additionally, following the lead of what Snapchat originally was supposed to be, iPhone users will now have the option to make a photo “self-destruct” after 2 minutes. طريقة الربح في لعبة الروليت

Continuity Between Devices
When Orange is the New Black season 2 premiered, I did not want to do anything else with my life other than watch it. However, I was inconvenienced by the fact that my seating location of choice did not have an outlet nearby, meaning that when my computer died, I was SOL. Now, with Apple’s latest feature of Continuity, you can start something on your computer, and finish it on your phone or iPad (or any other combination of the 3), so long as these devices are nearby. Thanks, Apple, for helping me maintain my addiction to Netflix!

Verdict: Save Your Money & Download iOS8
Unless you’re trying to be the next Annie Liebowitz, suffer an actual addiction to your phone, or are truly inconvenienced by the fact that you have to have a wallet, I suggest keeping your iPhone 5, 5c or 5s, and simply downloading the software update. While the price tag for the iPhone 6 is no different than the price when the iPhone 4 or 5 were released, most of the truly great and useful features come in the software update.

We decided to have a friendly pushup contest one morning at Peak Seven HQ: designers vs. Darren. Who won? Check out the contest by clicking here!

The following post was written by our summer intern, Janeicia Neely

If you’re reading this blog right now, you may be a bored reader, skimmer, or someone glancing at the article and skipping over it. These are some of the basic issues content marketers face in 2014 and in the years to come. These types of readers exist as a result of the noisiest, or most distracting, internet to date.

“Content shock,” the cause of the newly uninterested person, describes the idea that people are now so distracted by everything else available on the internet that they struggle to stay on one page for any length of time, let alone read a dense article. Content shock also describes a tendency to view an article and immediately feel intimidated by the length, leaving the article unread and useful information unentertained.

People are much more likely to be entertained or informed by a GIF or a visual than by a content heavy article. كازينو ٨٨٨ There has been a rise in visual content in recent Internet media, attracting these type of readers and skimmers. This trend will definitely hinder content heavy material or writers. كازينو آنلاين  As “Too Long; Didn’t Read: How To Save Your Blog From Content Shock” mentions, the best way to keep readers engaged is to make the content interesting and posed in a way where readers feel inclined to keep reading; the headline must cause a double take, the image has to make a viable, entertaining first impression. There are people out there that will still read an entire article; it’s the writers’ challenge to create a reason for them to reach the end of the article.

The writers who seem to achieve the impossible are often copywriters, who have learned how to compete with the rest of the noise that will forever exist. Studying copywriters’ methods is a great way to find new strategies to compel people pay attention. Through examining their schemes, you will find that there are many different angles they use to approach the topic they are writing about. Pop culture, sports and recent events are all interesting angles to associate another less interesting topic with. Of course, the topic must be relevant and not forced: readers can tell when a writer is trying too hard to be funny. However, using these different facets will surely differentiate your article from the next person writing about the same current event.

Great copywriters write as if they are telling a story, eliciting an emotional response be it a laugh or a “hmm.” Copywriters are often readers and fans of well composed dialogue and storytelling, employing some of the same techniques to make their story worthwhile and attention grabbing. They are tasked with using space and words effectively, style.

Style is something all copywriters must employ to keep the reader engaged. The writer’s voice must encourage readers to keep going. Depending on the article shorter or longer sentences, analogies, or visual language may do the trick. Copywriters always take into consideration their topic, their readers and their goal. لعبة القمار بوكر Though there will always be skimmers and disinterested readers, content shock can be fought and managed by apt writers ready to engage their readers in the most interesting way.

Thanks to iScrap App for nominating Peak Seven for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge! The purpose of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is both to raise money AND to raise awareness. According to the ALS Association’s website, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. When the motor neurons die, the brain cannot initiate or control muscle movement. With our new found knowledge, we nominate Tirso San Jose of SobelCo, Steve Myers and all of the Yatco team, and Tom Buechel from iScrap App for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge! Peak Seven also donated to the ALS Association and encourage all of our clients and nominees to do the same!

Please visit http://www.alsa.org to donate to The ALS Association.