Adaptive Path Helps Move Copyright Permissions Into the 21st Century

For Immediate Release

San Francisco, CA, November 18, 2004 – With the launch of the new Creative Commons Web site, Adaptive Path is proud to have played a key role in what the San Jose Mercury News calls “the boldest experiment yet in trying to catalyze support for copyrights compatible with the digital reality of the 21st century.”

The re-launch coincides with the release of Creative Commons’s CD in Wired magazine’s November issue. The redesign furthered the company’s mission to move copyright permissions for audio, images, video, original writing, and educational materials into the realm of “some rights reserved” versus “total rights reserved.”

Collaborating closely with Creative Commons, Adaptive Path ascertained what site changes were necessary to widen the audience beyond tech-savvy Internet users, extending it to non-technical artists and other creative people.

Use of Creative Commons’s site has grown tremendously over the past few years, and the company needed a new way to organize its resources as well as address the needs of customers around the globe. Adaptive Path sought to make Creative Commons’s site clearer and more consistent by carefully reviewing what visitors hoped to accomplish when they used the site, and then matching the site’s functionality and features to those needs.

Adaptive Path’s expertise in user-centered design enabled the team to address these challenges head on. The redesign ultimately encompassed revamping the company’s home page, honing their messaging, and helping improve the company’s licensing engine. Adaptive Path helped streamline forms and interfaces, and added a banner across the top of each page that allows users to select licenses valid in their country of interest. The site’s flow was redesigned to enable visitors to accomplish their goals in as few steps as possible. Before the redesign, visitors often didn’t understand that Creative Commons was a non-profit organization with free tools. The new site explicitly states Creative Commons’s mission on the front page, and indicates that users aren’t charged to use Creative Commons licenses.

The end result of Adaptive Path’s work is a Web site that helps fulfill Creative Commons’s mission and addresses its growing audience’s needs.

About Creative Commons

A nonprofit corporation founded in 2001, Creative Commons promotes the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works, whether owned or in the public domain, by empowering authors and audiences. It is sustained by the generous support of the Center for the Public Domain, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Omidyar Network Fund, and the Hewlett Foundation.

About Adaptive Path

Headquartered in San Francisco, Adaptive Path is a user experience consulting, research and training firm that has provided custom services to a range of clients, including Fortune 50 corporations, pure-Web startups, and established not-for-profit organizations.

Contact

Bryan R. Mason
bryan@adaptivepath.com
Adaptive Path
363 Brannan St.
San Francisco, CA 94107
Phone: 1-415-495-8270