 July 31, 2008
 EBay’s desktop AIR application downloaded 1,000,000 timesTagged as: technology, trendsPosted by: Chris Berk
EBay’s desktop application is definitely a great app. But I kept wondering why it is a desktop application? It makes no use of the capabilities available to it as a desktop app – like access to the file system, printing functions, and other features. Also, the application is essentially disabled if you are not connected to the internet (i.e. offline). This makes sense given that buyers spend their time searching for and buying stuff – both activities that require you to actually connect to EBay. However, most desktop applications are developed to work as effectively offline as when connected. Additionally, every thing that EBay Desktop does, including the look and feel, could have been accomplished inside the browser using the same technologies. So it makes me wonder why this became a desktop application – requiring users to download and install it…1,000,000 times! – instead of just running it as a really cool RIA inside of the browser? While there is plenty of use for a solid desktop app, EBay Desktop seems to be a desktop app because it could be, not because it should be. July 30, 2008
It all started with a spelling bee. The Converse Spelling Bee. (Make sure you’ve got your speakers turned up.) Then Chucks In Soda for a Week, Kissing with Ross and many, many more. I was laughing out loud. I can only imagine the entertainment value to the teen boy who is probably closer to their target than I am…especially as he faces the end of summer and the prospect of clothes-shopping for school this fall. Overall, Converse does a great job staying true to its brand legacy, and also continuing to push forward into the future. I loved it when the brand started letting consumers design their own Chuck Taylors, giving fans an even more Personal experience. And I love how the Converse Spelling Bee and collected sites create entertainment and inspiration that let those fans engage and deepen their attachment to the brand. Fourteen minutes I won’t get back, but 14 minutes I’ll remember with a laugh, especially when I’m doing back-to-school shopping with my son next month. He might even give me a reluctant but knowing nod that I’ve stumbled onto something that even he thinks is cool. July 26, 2008
Yesterday’s New York Times ran a feel-good article about Comcast Cares, a social media outreach program. 10 capable Comcast employees people scan the web for mentions of Comcast service issues and work towards resolution, cutting through red tape like only an insider can. This seems like a pretty good idea. But if you look at the tagcloud below, created from the 84 comments left on The New York Times site, actual customers aren’t so easily won over by a few cases of exceptional service. (To create the tagcloud, I uploaded to the comments to IBM Many Eyes, a free, public visualization tool. Go ahead, click on it and play.) Thanks to the comments on and commentary about The New York Times story, there are hundreds of new candidates for Comcast’s social media outreach. Is this an opportunity to add more staff to the social media outreach team or a wake-up call for true investment in customer satisfaction? Comcast can get a much bigger return on its social media investment with a really good comeback story. People love to share surprises.
July 22, 2008
Using original, engaging content (stunning behind-the-scenes-of-the-shoot photography and video), we created an experience designed to inspire and inform aspiring stylists and beauty junkies about what styles are coming next. (Bryan, that’s you…time to rethink Aveda!) The experience goes beyond the products, to looks and how to get them, to up-and-comers like cult blogger Cory Kennedy (and how to connect with Cory), to hair professionals setting tomorrow’s styles, and countless videos and photos that let consumers inside the Sebastian photo shoot. With all this inspiration, so much pressure to have a great "do" in our office. ; ) Check out Sebastian Professional and see What’s Next for you. July 22, 2008
Sent to NYC to experience the future firsthand at MOMA’s Design and the Elastic Mind, let me begin by saying that reportage is rarely more exhilarating. An exploration of (as the show’s superb catalog would have it) “…one of design’s most fundamental roles: the translation of scientific and technological revolutions into approachable objects that change people’s lives and, as a consequence, the world,” the show was both provocative and practical, optimistic and urgent, sci-fi clunky and simply ravishing, nano and macro—this latter spectrum in particular requiring a certain mental elasticity to span. As digital marketers, we also know that one of design’s most fundamental roles is the translation of basic human requirements into viable commercial experiences. Usability and digital ethnography help us build a matrix of intelligibility and desirability behind every web site, mobisode and digital POS system. Until now, the human body has had paltry interaction with brands’ digital interfaces and environments. So addictive and liberating is the iPhone “pinch” (an example of gestural computing), it’s tempting to think of it as having given rise to a new species of computer-literature humans: those with opposable thumbs! (Lest we forget, this is the distinguishing feature of primates and that which permits the use of tools.) Typing with thumbs on PDAs doesn’t count: here the thumb acts as just another index finger—on its own, doing the same basic act of button-pressing. One installation at Design and the Elastic Mind, entitled “Shadow Monsters” and part of “Not Your Usual Interfaces”, invited greater bodily involvement with the digital universe. A magic lantern show-meets-performance art installation, its responsive design embellished certain physical movements of the participants with sinister appendages (accompanied by monster growls and such), making Monsters one of the indisputable hits of the show. See me on the left, my muscle-flex gesture suddenly met with snapping tentacles (while trying to capture the shot, of course.) Saw-toothed hands kept many people performing way past the point of there being any point. Except, of course, complete captivation by the phantasmagorical world of inner demons unleashed. (Talk about Engaging.) Responsive design is a trend we’ll be monitoring because it pushes basic usability insights to ever more intuitive and imaginative heights. Moreover, the retail possibilities are myriad. What if… (cue my favorite part of futuring) changing rooms offered fantasy backgrounds and accouterments? Trying on lingerie would trigger the projection of a five-star hotel suite; prom dresses would prompt tiaras, red carpets, popping paparazzi light bulbs, James Bond escorts. When it comes to digital brand experiences, it’s about time the (rest of the) body showed up, don’t you think? July 21, 2008
If you haven’t already, meet T. Boone Pickens, billionaire, oilman and founder of a plan that proposes the building of windfarms (with turbines 410 feet tall) to help the US diminish what he describes as our addiction to foreign oil. Headquartered at PickensPlan.com, Pickens is using dozens of OPEN vehicles to explain the plan, share the plan and push the plan. The site offers a truly on-demand experience that gives people ease, control and efficiency. It’s also very networked–making it easy to "join," "talk," "share," and "organize" around the cause. And it ties into more than 30 services (Del.icio.us, Twitter, Digg, MySpace, Ma.gnolia, etc.) through which you can bookmark and share the plan itself. Of course, the Pickens Plan isn’t just about the site, the octogenarian is networked through Facebook (T. Boone has 3,611 friends and the Pickens Plan has 2,952 fans.), MySpace, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn. While T. Boone Pickens is focused on teaching the world about the power of wind, the way he’s gone about it can teach marketers a lot about the power of the engaged consumer. July 20, 2008
 Radiohead Opens Up a House of CardsTagged as: O.P.E.N., creative, digital millenials, engaging, iCitizen, technology, trendsPosted by: Dan Shust
They created the video by acquiring real-time data via a 3D scanning system from Geometric Informatics, and a Velodyne LIDAR. High tech stuff indeed, but what happened next is what makes this video experience truly cool and O.P.E.N. The band released the entire data set of the video for free to anyone who wants it. The data can be explored interactively or, by using freely available software, you can create your own version of the video. Of course, a YouTube group has been started for people to display, discuss and share their work. Performing artists like NIN, and RadioHead understand the power of The OPEN Brand. Who’s next? July 17, 2008
With all due mayhem to the Sex Pistols, the mashup is to the digerati what the safety pin was to the punk movement: an emblem of the power of combinative improvisation. Though the safety pin’s utilitarian value was ultimately superceded by its aesthetic one, and the mashup’s utilitarian value is often only realized through its sufficiently pleasing or simple aesthetic (think Google Maps, not the first mapping mashup by any means but arguably one of the simplest), the two cultural acts both champion the use of what’s already available—whether through thrift stores or open source—to create new value. July 17, 2008
 What do you think of your new iPhone?Tagged as: engaging, mobile, networkedPosted by: Dennis Bajec
The question has been already been asked several times so I think it may be time to provide some answers. Despite some day-one hiccups (Five hours in line outside the Apple store, Apple’s systems going down multiple times, not being able to activate in-store as planned, that kind of thing), YES, it was worth it. Unfortunately, the in-store experience was slow and very un-Apple. Some guy named Chuck opened the box and was the first to handle my phone robbing me of this very important step in the Apple purchase process, thanks a lot AT&T. However, after this blip it got much better. I was impressed at how easily all of my old data ported over to the new device—once I got my own hands on the phone. Like the original iPhone, the new one continues to be much more than a phone or a PDA. I’m sure I’m showing my true gadget-geekiness here, but I find that not only do I always have it with me, but I keep it “on” more than any other personal electronic device I’ve ever owned. For those of you who know my technology addiction, you know what a big deal that is. And it’s not just for me–for mapping bike routes, getting directions to my son’s football camp, posting to tumblr or getting new music. Each time I’m in a client meeting, I dream up new uses and ideas for how we can improve life for consumers with a custom iPhone application. The opportunity that this device is providing will be looked backed on as significant as the development of the public internet. I now dream in gesture-based controls, highly saturated icons with rounded corners and, yes, really slick maps with pins dropping into place indicating my favorite restaurants, shops and clubs. I admit it, I’m in love. But I’ll end with a couple things still have on my wish list: Overall these are all minor issues compared to what this device does so well—balancing/blending the virtual and physical worlds and at the same time improving both. July 16, 2008
As most of you know by now, last Friday was an important day for Apple. Parts of the iPhone 3G launch went well and other parts…not so much. But, I’m going to leave that discussion to the multitude of other blogs and forums already deep into the subject. I want to talk about a little application called Remote.
In a recent report, Forrester Research speculates by 2013 Apple Inc. will have completely embedded itself into the hub of the digital home. And why not? Apple recently passed up Wal-Mart as the largest supplier of music in the United States and the iPod commands the MP3 player market with a 70% share. The report envisions Apple providing products including all-in-one computers that can easily double as primary entertainment systems, home servers, unique networked entertainment/informational devices and a universal remote to control it all. Wait…a universal remote to control it all? That would be cool! What if it also could take/view pictures, check your email, surf the web and knew your location? Heck, what if it was a phone too? Wouldn’t that be crazy? All we need is a little piece of software to get us started… Remote is currently the most popular download in the iTunes App Store. Check it out. Looks like their plan is in motion. |
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Last October at the annual Adobe MAX conference, 
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