experience matters

By Neil Clemmons | Critical Mass Chicago

There’s a lot being written about the iPad – reviews, new applications, the ongoing debate on Flash, what the device does and what it doesn’t do.

Beyond the device, however, there are some implications and the longer-term impact it will have as we create digital experiences.  New devices and interfaces have a profound impact on consumer expectations, competitive moves, and the evolution of digital interfaces.  The Wii ushered in new interface concepts and ideas.  Same with xBox and xBox Live.  The iPad will do the same in its influence on the conventions and expectations of our industry.

We have several of the Wifi iPads in our offices and have had a number of discussions with our team about its implications.  Some see immediate opportunities for the iPad to ‘fit in’ to their lifestyles.  Others are still debating if it replaces something or is a supplemental access and consumption device.  It’s bigger than a phone with no ability to do more than SKYPE calls.  But it’s not quite a notebook with all the file access and productivity tools – so the iPad makes compromises in both directions.  The limitations will change in time as new applications, new peripherals, an updated OS, and improved connectivity come.

One thing the smartphone and iPad do is to force a focus on ‘what’s important’ versus ‘what’s possible.’  As sites or applications evolve, they become more bloated, more confusing, and lose the punch they can have.  Redesigns of a site or an application can be liberating, in removing the old conventions.  But invariably we worry about ‘moving the cheese’ of the habituated consumer and thus add rather than subtract in making experience design tradeoffs.  This is where Apple and the developers of iPad apps demonstrated tremendous courage in leaving behind the conventional interfaces and tools.  We need more courage to advance the customer experience.

What’s the take away after a week of using the iPad from an experience standpoint?

Here are the 7 Areas of Implications for digital marketers:

#1 – Fragmentation.

Josh Bernoff (Forrester) wrote about the Splinternet earlier this year.  That theme is in full force on the iPad.  Media and content fragmentation continue as new devices enable content consumption in new and different formats.  Information ubiquity that started with the smartphone is further exacerbated with a new form factor.  iPhone apps that are played on the iPad look OK, but you’re much more engaged by an iPad native app.   The need for liquid experiences that adapt to the screen become even more important as we look at alternative form factors.

#2 – Development Challenges.

We have to think differently about how content and experiences are created, disseminated and maintained.  Monolithic frameworks start to break down when there are hundreds of thousands of developers creating new experiences.  And with Apple changing their developer terms and conditions, it looks like Apple will expect you to use their tools and frameworks, rather than many of the cross-platform frameworks.  We have several clients working with Android, iPhone, Blackberry and other instances for applications.  The iPad and follow-on products from other vendors based on Windows 7, Chrome, or Android tablets will further exacerbate the challenge of consistency and maintainability.

#3 – Personalization.

We’re at the early stages of more personal (and relevant) consumption of media – that means the customer is even more in control of the experience.  Most will seek out an application rather than a web browser to consume their content where possible. Android, the iPhone OS, Windows Phone 7, Blackberry are all targeting what Mary Meeker with Morgan Stanley says will be a bigger market than the desktop PC market by 2014.  The browser lives on at the desktop, but many of these new devices will take a very different approach to content and experience access. Remixing content from feeds, apps, alerts, and personalized experiences will become even more important.  Add in the intersection of social to these experiences and you quickly see that use cases with these new devices will become even more personal.

#4 – Architecture.

Content consumption means increasingly we’ll see content as navigation rather than navigation discrete from content.  That leads to far more interactive experiences, and a bigger challenge to ‘break out of the template’ we often live in on the web.  The liberation of that experience offers significant new ways of visualizing data in experiences.  Trading apps on the iPad and even weather apps aptly blend navigation into the experience.  As a result, you feel more in-control.

#5 – Focus.

The app economy and the next generation of device are forcing us to think about specific purpose rather than general purpose experiences.  The smaller screen and new use cases suggest that complex experiences will not get the attention they have in the past.  These new apps focus the user in more intimate, personal and substantive ways than web browsers and desktop/notebook PC’s.  Apple by example is making calls as much on what to leave out as on what to include (hearkens back to the imac example).  We need to be as focused in the experiences we craft and make similar purpose-led experiences.  Form will follow function here.  While many websites get created by committee, that won’t work in an iPad experience.

#6 – New Operating Models.

New business models become an element of the experience.  The devices will drive new subscription / app purchase models.  We’re seeing app prices higher than on the iPad / iPhone and content subscriptions that media will try to drive, particularly for entertainment and news content.  The idea of the ‘walled garden’ comes back in the app economy and business models will work to prove it’s viability.  Micro-payments an in-app models result in incrementalism of the experience (and engagement) for a price.

# 7 – Platform Evolution.

Standards will change.  Flash was the standard of the web for years for rich media.  With mobile and iPad and other devices yet to come, that standard will quickly evolve.  HTML5 has accelerated with the iPad.  We’re definitely frustrated that many of our favorite sites won’t work well, but expect that the standards will evolve as these new mobile devices grow in number.

To sum up, here is my recommendation:

Choose wisely with the proliferation of devices.  You likely cannot support all of them, so balance investment with potential returns and customer needs.  A mobile enabled site is likely far more critical than an application, depending on the use cases for your target.  But in any event, design for the need and audience.  We can see some very specific examples where the iPad and robust applications will be a key component of a customer experience in marketing, selling, and servicing the needs of a diverse audience.  Several of our clients have already engaged us with that purpose in mind, and we’ve actually already launched one of the very first iPad applications. Watch for a post around Best Practices for app creation in the next week or two.

This will be a fun ride.  I’m anxious for my 3G version of the iPad to arrive.  And curious how you see the iPad affecting the customer experience.

Neil Clemmons is President of Critical Mass and leads our efforts in crafting strategy for clients and the company