Constellations out of Chaos

I’ve been on vacation (see pic), but now I’m back. One of the nice things about getting away from the city and hanging out in a sparsely populated area is that you can see the stars. It was dark enough that I could even see the Milky Way. However, I realized that what few constellations I knew, I could no longer find. That bit of knowledge has deserted me due to lack of use.

Lots of good reading to catch up on (well, once I’ve gotten a little work done first). Mike Lee points to From chaos to constellation: Creating better brand alignment on the Web [PDF] in Design Management Journal. Wow, this sounds familiar:

But for companies with complex, global Web presences composed of numerous sites, brands, audiences, purposes, and service offerings, the likelihood increases for brand dilution, mixed messages, and inconsistent user experiences. And this can lead to a range of perceptions — not all of them positive — about the flagship brand and parent organization.

The article explores the process underway for one company, a financial services information provider, with 45 sites in 26 countries along with portals, extranets and intranets, going through the process of “organizing all its sites, around the world, into a rationalized, cohesive, rigorously branded Web constellation.”