Archive for June, 2008
June 25th, 2008
We were talking the other day about guiding principles that form the foundation of a great experience. David Armano surfaced this excellent list from Google. What’s interesting is that it is in their corporate information. They hold these guiding principles close to their core. And it shows.
When these principles work in an experience they call them getting “Googley.” The principles are simple but powerful ideas that show why Google is so strong in delivering customer value. It’s a well-known fact that Google’s customer value has delivered a lot of business value to their shareholders. Who says business, brand and customer cannot be aligned in an experience?
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June 23rd, 2008
Last week I had the opportunity to get outside of the office, go out into the real world and interact with peers and industry colleagues in New York city (and Brooklyn too!). Sharing/exchanging ideas with smart people from diverse backgrounds is one of the best parts of my job and this last recent opportunity was no exception. On Monday, I moderated a panel at Widget Web Expo featuring (from left to right) Steph Agresta of Internet Geek Girl fame, Ian Schafer from media agency Deep Focus, Steve Rubel of Edelman, Matt Dickman of Fleishman-Hillard and David Malouf from Motorola. I was also able to present my evolving POV on Micro-Interactions to about 50+ Interaction Designers at IXDA’s NYC chapter. And lastly I got to share those same thoughts at Icon Nicholson. Here’s a few thoughts from my experience over these two days:
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June 13th, 2008
Quick Hits
Sites of the Week
June 13th, 2008
Quick Hits
Sites of the Week
June 10th, 2008
Engagement is the mantra in marketing. Impressions are passé. And word of mouth is an emerging aspect in marketing that we’re only beginning to understand. But engagement – how actively a customer uses and engages with a program or site component – is something we embrace as a key measure of success. The challenge in the past was that between client stakeholders, customer research, competitive assessments, and our own team insight and ideation process, we had a laundry list of features and function that could be implemented. Which were the top priorities? And how could we determine “tie-breakers” on the features and functionality as well as the likely timing to implement?
About three years back, we began to apply more discipline to the application of design personas. Interestingly, that regimen can apply to measures of engagement as well. We now regularly use simple scoring methodologies to prioritize the features, functions, and program elements that are most likely to connect with the highest value customers. It’s a relatively straight forward process once design personas are developed. And the process ensures that customer needs are kept front-and-center when making feature / function decisions. Finally the scoring methodology meets with high client and team buy-in.
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June 6th, 2008
Quick Hits
Sites of the Week
June 5th, 2008
“Like the effect of advertising upon the customer, the methods of political propaganda tend to increase the feeling of insignificance of the individual voter.”
So said 20th-century psychoanalyst and philosopher Eric Fromm.
To a degree, I think I know where he’s coming from. I can’t help but feel apathy towards most of the thousands of one-way commercial messages that I’m exposed to on any given day. And, both advertising and political propaganda have certainly made me feel insignificant.
When I was younger and convinced I could change the world, I moved to Hanoi, Vietnam for a year-long stint as a World University Service of Canada volunteer. Hanoi’s a great city, and it was a fantastic place for a 23-year-old to grow up a bit.
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June 3rd, 2008
We’re all pretty big geeks at my house.
My 12 year old son recently abandoned Star Wars for Star Trek. To paraphrase Weird Al (a current fav), the only question he ever thought was hard was does he like Kirk or does he like Picard? He goes to French immersion school and plays the bagpipes. My wife is an accountant who secretly likes accounting. She has some pretty sweet moves in yoga and Excel and calls herself the “counter-culture accountant.”
Pretty normal household as things go these days.
Here’s a replay of a conversation in the kitchen at Chez Nerd:
Me: We should get one of those Flip Video camera things for your band trip to Scotland this summer.
Wife: Cool – but I want a Creative Vado because it comes in pink. Could we post the videos to the pipe band home page?
Me: Or Youtube or maybe Facebook. Do the other kids in your band use Facebook?
Kid: I don’t like Facebook. My buddy at school told me that all pictures you put there automatically become property of Facebook. I wouldn’t use Facebook if they take ownership of your stuff.
Wife: Facebook does that?!
<Crickets chirping outside kitchen window >
Me (inside my head): <And he just turned 12 in April. Crap.>
Me: Heh, heh. Bad idea, I guess.
From the mouths of babes – Facebook take note
June 2nd, 2008
I recently visited Shanghai on business and I can tell you that no article in a Wall Street Journal or New York Times best selling book can prepare you for the experience that is China. Put aside, for a minute, the obvious cultural differences. Let’s look simply at the overwhelming digital statistics:
1. 200 million internet users.
2. 100 million blog clicks in 2006.
3. 4.5 billion web pages served in 2006.
4. 66% broadband penetration.
Lay on top of these numbers the fact that in a communist government the internet is the least regulated media and what you have is a helluva lot of people spending a helluva lot of time online. The internet isn’t pushing mass media, it IS mass media.
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