Case Study

Why use case studies? To show you it can be done right by knowing just a few simple techniques from some companies that have done it right with their simple business.

Jim Coudal – Coudal Partners

Jim Coudal is the founder and president of Coudal Partners, a design and creative studio in Chicago. Initially Coudal Partners operated exclusively as a design/advertising consultancy, specializing in the sports and entertainment fields. Recently however the firm has concentrated on naming and identity design while developing its own line of businesses, resulting in Jewelboxing, The Show and The Deck, examples of a studio effort to keep a greater amount of control of the creative product the firm produces. Jim has been interviewed on a variety of topics by the BBC, The New York Times, Forbes, The Chicago Sun Times, The Voice of America, Computer Arts Magazine, ReadyMade Magazine, RES and others. When he’s not at the mouse he is happily struggling to keep up with Isabelle, Grace and Spencer, his three kids.

Robby Russell – Planet Argon

Robby Russell founded PLANET ARGON in 2002. His experience includes six years as a professional programmer, and (soon) as a published technical writer. Robby’s current project is a Ruby on Rails book, titled Programming Rails, to be published by the leading technical book publisher, O’Reilly Media. This project, in part, stemmed from his Rails related blog, robbyonrails.com. Robby also likes to play music and has a few musical projects in the works. PLANET ARGON is a Ruby on Rails development, consulting, and hosting company that encompasses a network of developers and administrators that love working with open source technology. Founded in 2002, PLANET ARGON started only as a custom web application development company, but eventually expanded its services to offer web and database hosting to the general public, specifically to fellow developers. PLANET ARGON is located in the beautiful Pacific Northwest’s Portland, Oregon.

Derek Featherstone – FurtherAhead.com

Derek Featherstone is a well known instructor, speaker and developer with expertise in web accessibility consulting. Derek delivers technical training that is engaging, informative and immediately applicable. A high-quality instructor, he draws on his background as a former high school teacher plus seven years running his web development and accessibility consultancy Further Ahead. His experience includes hands-on development, web accessibility consulting and training. He advises many government agencies, educational institutions and private sector companies providing them with expert accessibility testing and review and recommendations for improving the accessibility of their web sites to all people. As a member of the Web Standards Project (webstandards.org), Derek serves on two task forces: Accessibility/Assistive Devices and DOM Scripting. He is a dedicated advocate for standards that ensure simple, affordable access to web technologies for all.