I’m working on a post to share with you what I’ve learned from Jason Fried at SxSW, but since it might take longer than expected, I’ll start with this image by Erik Burke that summarizes the overall idea:
We’re working in the NY office on a great cosmetic brand’s eShop site with some 2.0 components, and we’re trying to constantly follow Jason’s tip: question every single element on every single page. Everything that’s on it has to have a purpose, an added-value for the user. Otherwise it’s counter-productive and that superfluous item should be removed.
Sounds simple and obvious, but it’s not that easy. Old reflexes are pretty hard to get rid of.
Created by Carlos Ulloa Matesanz, Ralph Hauwert, and John Grden. Papervision3D is a open-source 3D engine for flash, that allows developers to change the position, size and rotation of a sprite on its X, Y and Z coordinates.
The results and possibilities for this technology are truly amazing, a website is no-longer a flat canvas but can be transformed in to a rich 3d environment. Recent updates to the engine allows developers to uses triangle tessellation to distort textures and render complex objects in real 3D.
The most exciting area to Papervision3D is the ability to embed video into a 3D environment. Could this open-source technology transform the way established traditional medias allow consumers to view their content. Combing Papervision3D and a 360 degree camera can already achieve amazing immersive video allowing us to take control of the camera and become a character in the environment.
Mattel has teamed up with Hasbro to sue the creators of Scrabulous, one of Facebook’s most popular applications.
The two companies, which between them own the rights to the board game, claim that the online version developed by brothers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla infringes their copyright. Hasbro asked Facebook to take down Scrabulous – which attracts over 600,000 daily users and gives the brothers $25,000 of advertising a month.
Why would you want to turn your fans into enemies? Why not just buy the company? Why not advertise the Scrabble board game on the Scrabulous pages?
The rush from the toy makers has definitely not helped, they’ve seemed to have forgotten a number of things:
1. There is such a thing as bad publicity.
2. Facebook Scrabulous users love the game, and they are angry for losing it. It is not likely that these people will buy Mattel/Habro toys for friends and relatives.
3. There already are more than 55,000 members in a Save Scrabulous Facebook Group and talk of boycott of Mattel and Hasbro
4. Realize that Scrabulous turns people on to Scrabble and other word games and creates opportunity for Mattel/Hasbro.
Tv junkie or just a big sports fan, Slingmedia can make your dreams a reality. Watch your team play that big game while stuck in the office or never miss a episode of your favorite sitcom.
The SlingBox, a low-cost video placeshifting device that allows users to stream what they’re watching at home to a computer or smart phone anywhere in the world. It sends the signal from your cable box, satellite receiver or digital video recorder to any computer.
The SlingPlayer serves as your interface and features a variety of components, including a favorites bar and customizable remote controls that help bring your living room experience to your computer.
When addressing Social Networks, most users consider the most “generic” ones such as MySpace, Facebook or Hi5. Although with different functionalities and approaches, the main focus of these Social Networks is the building of a friend database with multimedia elements – photos, videos, etc… But, besides these, there are Social Networks that actually serve a purpose besides satisfying some areas of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – they are directed towards a common trait or goal that members of that particular website share and go one step ahead of “generic”. In the various examples I could mention, I decided that one that would be interesting is a Weight Loss SNW. Continue reading ‘Social Network Profiling - The Weight Loss Chapter’
Fantastic website - infact its more than a website - its an experience - well designed, well presented, great ideas behind it - its one of those website that come around now and again that remind you why you work in all things digital!
Browsing through the Internet demanded originally some previous knowledge when you wanted to find something. Sites were scarce and they were too oriented towards information depots – you knew that there was a clear distinction between real life and the virtual web, as contents you’d find in one were different and required specific search logic to find it. I’m talking about the time of the Web 1.0, of course, where you could find some static non-interactive information regarding your traveling needs, for example.
The evolution in the Web was so amazing that searching for information on any given search engine is a natural input of keywords – users no longer have to devise careful anagrams and keyword combinations to find the page they needed. Essentially, they have to think what they need, type it in and find it. This shows how the fusion of the virtual and real world has evolved – you know you’ll find those tickets you need, the hotel you want to book and information regarding what other users thought about the services you are using.
This leaves a lot of room open for the transition of offline services to the online world – that’s what people are expecting to find – but, of course, taking in account the whole sociological and societal evolution that is occurring online. In this logic, a great amount of services online are appearing in a daily basis, taking advantage of the tools and spirit the users are immersed.
This entire introduction serves as a basis to explain a type of website that is a perfect example of real world meets virtual world in web 2.0 logic – Social Lending Sites or Microlenders. I’m not talking about lending services for objects or services – I’ll approach those on another post. The Peer-to-peer lending focuses on two axis – people who have money to lend and people who want to borrow money. Each user is a bank on its own and can gain interest off a loan while users who want “small” amounts and that wouldn’t be eligible for a loan in a real bank have an opportunity to get that investment cash! Continue reading ‘Can I borrow a dime? - P2P Lending Sites’
Getting back from the summer holidays, Italians got a nasty surprise: the price of a cup of coffee had climbed from 80 cents to one euro! But the Japanese seem to have found an inventive solution to overpriced coffee…
It’s fairly well known that vending machines are an essential part of Japanese culture. The country’s low rates of vandalism and graffiti-writing, high population density and shopping 24/7 have put Japan at the top of the list in terms of number of vending machines per capita: 1 every 23 people.
Last spring, a joint venture between Apex, the second largest operator in the dispensers’ market, and Willb, a Japanese advertising agency, gave birth to a new concept in vending machines, in which drinks are distributed almost for free.
Under the name of “MediCafe“, machines play an advert video for around 30 seconds (exactly the time the machine needs to fill the cup of coffee) on the 19-inch LCD display built into them. Consumers choose their drink by activating a touch screen and this feature provides additional opportunities to develop creative interactive ads.
These experimental vending machines have been placed in universities, hospitals and companies and are filled not only with warm and soft drinks but also with targeted advertisements that have allowed a drop in price to almost to zero yen. It looks like the first two-month trial has been successful enough to evolve to the next (more interactive) stage.
The TrendWatch:
The TrendWatch is the collective postings of some of the FullSIX Group’s designers, strategists, and consultants on new media and marketing trends. It is meant to be an impromptu think-tank, and is a way for us to share theories and beliefs about how we think communication and connectivity is evolving.
We work for The FullSIX Group; a leading full service marketing agency with digital DNA. From our 15 international offices with over 600 employees, we constantly embrace and encourage innovation to make integrated marketing and communication campaigns that are more accountable and efficient for our clients.
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