Quick Hits
- Welcome to the Weekend Web
- Brand Building in the “Application Economy”
- Semantic Search: The Myth and Reality
- IDEO’s Tim Brown on Design Thinking for HBR
- How to Stand Out? Try Authenticity
Sites of the Week
Archive for May, 2008
May 30th, 2008
1 Comment »
May 29th, 2008
1 Comment »
Cross posted on Advertising Age
As a veteran of the 1.0 Web movement, I still suffer from flashbacks when hearing the word “sticky.” The notion of creating a “sticky website” was the holy grail of digital marketing back when the web was still in its infancy. The new holy grail, as we all know, is “viral.” But now Silicon Valley has own version of contagious marketing, which as far as I can tell was first documented by an individual named Andrew Chen. Andrew’s reference of “viral loops” was penned in July 2007 and was recently quoted in a Fast Company article:
“Chen calls a viral loop the ‘most advanced direct-marketing strategy being developed in the world right now.’ And make no mistake: Viral expansion loops are about marketing, just not in the traditional sense. ‘Nothing can be truly viral unless it is good,’ [Union Square Ventures' Fred] Wilson allows. ‘You can create a crappy application, build viral hooks in it, but if it’s bad, then nobody will follow the viral channel, and the company will go out of business.’ But if you create something people really want, need, or merely enjoy, then your customers will grow your business for you.”
Read the rest of this entry »
May 28th, 2008
1 Comment »
Cross posted on iMedia Connection
Trouble keeping everyone up to speed? See how this easy-to-use tool can organize your team.
Picture this. You have a senior executive who is responsible for your digital initiatives. She is extremely bright, knowledgeable and savvy. She even spent hard-earned political capital to secure your budget. But she is extremely busy. She is not trained in analytics or user experience metrics. She does not place priority on the minutiae of your many worthy projects. Neither does she have time to keep up on digital-related reading.
Now multiply her by 10.
How do you keep all of these execs informed in a timely, relevant basis?
A widget can successfully provide this information in an efficient little package. At Critical Mass, I’ve had great success utilizing widgets to share knowledge with clients and I’m willing to bet you can too.
May 26th, 2008
3 Comments »
Quick Hits
- Shared Solitary Serial Experiences
- Beautiful And Original Product Designs
- UX Design-Planning Not One-man Show
- Design Anthropology: What Can It Add To Your Design Practice?
- 8 Rules For Getting Clients Through A Design Process
- Studios Should Look To Trent Reznor For Future Of Distribution
Sites of the Week
May 22nd, 2008
1 Comment »
Often during initial kickoff of projects, clients will ask us about the process and steps we take to deliver customer experiences. While there are dozens of methods we use to gather requirements, prioritize investments, explore new technologies, and synchronize experience components, the key centering point we’ve found for the best work is a simple one: alignment.
With alignment comes clarity. But getting to alignment often takes time, even though we look for alignment on three relatively straight-forward dimensions:
- What is the business trying to accomplish?
- What are the needs and insights of the customer?
- How do we deliver on the brand promise within the experience?
May 20th, 2008
2 Comments »
By day, Sean Howard works as a Director of Strategy and Innovation at Lift Communications, a brand experience studio in Toronto, Canada. By night, he goes by the name “Craphammer” – a lone blogger vigilante looking to set the marketing world straight. Sean was one of the commenters on our 100th post and we thought we’d extend an invitation to guest post here on Experience Matters. To our delight, Sean agreed to do so and in the process will be adding a couple of posts to our melting pot of voices. But enough about us, let’s hear what Sean, AKA “The Craphammer,” has to say:
There are many stages in a development (and research) process where I believe prototypes are highly effective and powerful parts of our arsenal. However, more than one person has brought up the costs associated with building prototypes and that this cost can preclude their use.
I wondered about this. Are prototypes really that expensive? Or rather, do they have to be?
This is part two of a two-part series where I present a number of ways to implement powerful prototyping methods on-the-cheap.
Re-enactments
We don’t always have to shoot video, build wireframes, snap photos or even design storyboards. Sometimes we can just act out. Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap devote some time to the power of role playing in their book “When Sparks Fly.”
They speak about how Interval Research had to equip a group of twenty-something researchers to be able to design interfaces for the elderly. They speak of a specific case where the team determined that visiting nursing homes and speaking to those most affected wasn’t enough.
May 19th, 2008
12 Comments »
By day, Sean Howard works as a Director of Strategy and Innovation at Lift Communications, a brand experience studio in Toronto, Canada. By night, he goes by the name “Craphammer” – a lone blogger vigilante looking to set the marketing world straight. Sean was one of the commenters on our 100th post and we thought we’d extend an invitation to guest post here on Experience Matters. To our delight, Sean agreed to do so and in the process will be adding a couple of posts to our melting pot of voices. But enough about us, let’s hear what Sean, AKA “The Craphammer,” has to say:
I recently wrote an article discussing prototyping as an important part of research for identifying latent needs. I’ve taken a rather wide view and defined “prototype” as “a preliminary model of something.”
There are many stages in a development (and research) process where I believe prototypes are highly effective and powerful parts of our arsenal. However, more than one person has brought up the costs associated with building prototypes and that this cost can preclude their use.
I wonder about this. Are prototypes really that expensive? Or rather, do they have to be?
This is part one of an article where I present a number of ways to implement powerful prototyping methods on-the-cheap.
May 16th, 2008
No Comments »
Quick Hits
- Brand Tags
- Market Research at 30,000 feet?
- A Friend Connected Web
- Trend Briefing: Eco-Iconic
- The Long Wow
- Agile + UX: Six Strategies for More Agile User Experience
- Why Gen Y Is Going to Change the Web
Sites of the Week
- Jet Blue: Are You A Flyer Or A Jetter?
- Ferrari California
- BBC – Climate Change – Bloom
- Coca-Cola Football (Brazil)
- Louis Vuitton: Countless Journeys, Countless Emotions
- Nokia 3110 Evolve
May 13th, 2008
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A couple of weeks ago a colleague pointed out a new social application called Brightkite had popped onto the social network radar screen. I’m looking forward to playing with this application more – it promises to deliver a location-based networking service. After checking it out I couldn’t help but think what we’ve all said or thought at some point over the past year – another site that requires me to register, build my profile, add my friends – you know the rest. I also could not keep a certain White Snake song out of my head, but that’s my concern. 
The part I find interesting is that this was a big rant often heard 12 months back – but now there seems to be nothing. Have we decided to stop whining and accept the pain?
May 12th, 2008
2 Comments »
Wired.com was kind enough to invite me to the opening of the Smart Home at the Museum of Science and Industry last week. In three words, I can sum up the entire experience: Green is Amazing. And the fact that technology is enabling the efficiencies, makes it all the more amazing.
To-date, I’ve been doing my part to go green, by reducing my consumption habits – in many cases, making sacrifices to save energy and resources. While my quality of life hasn’t been compromised, I can honestly say that the standard of living hasn’t increased because I recycle or use my own bags at the grocery store. The Smart Home, however, is employing technology to make life better.
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