Branded UX

Social Enterprise: 5 Tips for Getting Execs on Board

Admin — Tue, 04 May 2010 15:58:07 +0000

Even though there are now a plenitude of enterprise social media success stories, we know that driving home the business necessity of social media in the board room can be a daunting task. We turned to five people — Steve Rubel, Jade Bailey, Adam Brown, Angela LoSasso and Brad Nelson — intimately familiar with the Why? enterprise challenge to give us tips on how they go about getting executives on board. What follows are expert tips and strategies for moving from talk to action, and advice to help you secure the ever elusive executive buy-in.

1. Open Their Eyes with Context

Executives are busy people, sometimes so much so that they rarely have time to think beyond their immediate priorities, let alone take the time to grasp the power of Twitter and Facebook. Steve Rubel — Edelman Digital’s SVP, director of insights — flies around the globe meeting with the world’s most powerful CEOs. Part of his job is to sell them on why social media is more than just a fad. He says that the key is to, “expose them to it in the context of their own world view and workflow.” When it comes to context, Rubel finds that Facebook is the perfect dot connector so he uses the medium to move his message for him. No PowerPoints needed. In his own words: “I know that execs are in fact spending time on Facebook. So I am using this platform to expose them to new ideas and conversation … my Facebook page is small but it is concentrated with senior execs so as a result I am steering it more toward big issues, rather than sharing links, which is what I primarily do on Twitter. This gets them immersed and engaged and helps to move my clients closer to where they need to go.”

2. Tie Efforts to Critical Success Metrics

Just because Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Buzz and all the rest can be used for a myriad of use cases, doesn’t mean that your business should try each and every trendy social media strategy. Zero in on what’s critical to your business’ success and approach social media in that light. Jade Bailey, the e-strategy development manager for the Wynn and Encore hotels, is in the business of making people happy. And in her line of work, “Customer service is a critical success metric.” Their success metric: response time. In taking to social media to improve their response time to customer requests, Bailey has found that, “our response time has been improved, thereby allowing us to excel on a level of customer experience which is inherent to our success.” Even if she can’t solve a customer’s problem, she can do her part to help. “There is tremendous demand for tickets to Garth Brooks, who exclusively performs here. Each time we go on sale with tickets, our systems become inundated with requests. Utilizing social media to give guests timely information about availability, approximate wait time, etc., enables us to communicate with multiple guests simultaneously and in a way we haven’t before. Even if there isn’t something we can do, it is meaningful to our guests that we are present and listening to them on a medium where conversations are occurring about Wynn.”

3. Make it Real with Real-Time

Executives need to see to believe and no one knows this more than Coca-Cola’s former Director of Digital, Adam Brown, who was heavily involved in the Expedition 206 initiative. Brown firmly believes that nothing gets executives more interested in social strategy than booking conference room time to stick them deep in the mire of the real-time social stream. Brown skips the data-packed PowerPoints and instead sets up a projector and pulls up the company’s social media monitoring dashboard. He then lets executives watch the tweets, status updates and conversations to give them a sense of volume and tone in the here and now. He says that, “showing them the conversations “as they happen” takes the concept of social media outreach from the “theoretical” and places it firmly in the “this is real” space.” Brown has found that, “Execs need to understand that corporate social media outreach isn’t about technology – it’s about communications.”

4. Show Them What Success Looks Like

HP is already heavily immersed in the social media milieu. Now that they’re set to acquire Palm, social media will no doubt play a role in making the acquisition worth its 1.2 billion price tag. As the head of HP’s social media strategy, Angela LoSasso says that executives need to really see what success looks like before they can understand why social media is key. “The act of “selling” social media to executives is actually pretty simple: How does it support and positively impact the business and its objectives?” LoSasso has found that, “The elevator pitch becomes much easier if you have tangible and measurable successes to share – whether from your business or competitors or other brands. Keep it simple: translate the social plan into specific goals, a description of what success looks like, and how the effort will be measured.”

5. Ask for Forgiveness

Product Manager Brad Nelson has helped take Starbucks from a coffee retailer with status quo marketing campaigns to an early adopter brand embracing social media at every turn. In fact, Nelson tells us that in terms of social media, “It’s no longer a question of where we do it, we use social media on every launch now. It’s only a prioritization issue now. They [executives] get it.” Of course it wasn’t always this way; there’s a carefully crafted strategy behind each social media initiative. On that front, Nelson speaks to taking on properly researched small projects. To do and to ask forgiveness later. “Lots of this involves identifying where our customers are and trying the right new things in small ways. We always look around the corner to see how tests turn out. If it isn’t successful, we ask for forgiveness and move on.” The goal is to find something that works on a small scale and when it does, “It’s a great proof point to scale up.” Nelson and team’s ever persistent eye on social media and their willingness to try and fail has been a strategy that has found favor with executives. He says, “we’ve been able to build trust with our executives and it frees us up to try more new things more often. The cycle repeats itself. In reality, we find that the risk of not engaging online is higher.” via: Mashable

HOW TO: Cultivate Your Brand’s Super Users

Admin — Tue, 04 May 2010 14:56:20 +0000

Far too many social media marketing meetings begin by asking the self-centered question, “How can we get more people talking about us?” Generating “social buzz” is not easy. Just because you tweet and blog doesn’t mean people are paying attention.

What if you were to flip that traditional marketing question around and ask yourself, “How can we pay more attention to our users?”

That is the most common formula for cultivating super users. Once you have super users on your side, they can be the most powerful communications tool your business will ever have. And they’re far more cost efficient than your marketing department.

Nobody is born a super user. We all start out as just users, non-users, or people complaining about a company’s product. Through true one-on-one relationship building efforts, individuals can grow to become super users, and in some cases super users can even become employees.

I spoke to a few companies that spent hours, months, and sometimes years building relationships with their users. No ROI was calculated. They just did it, and it eventually paid off.

What follows are four tales of companies that are dedicated to building super user relationships.

Seek Out Customers Who Rely On Your Products

Many of us have jobs where a specific product is integral to getting work done. Without that product, your job would be more difficult, or even impossible. As you learn more and more about that product, it makes your job easier, your life easier, and therefore you become very attached to it. Such is the case with users of SolidWorks, a computer aided design (CAD) and simulation application for mechanical engineers.

Mike Puckett became a SolidWorks super user solely because he wanted to be a better and more valuable worker for his then-employer. He made his first connection to the company by running into a SolidWorks employee at a conference who just happened to be a user group coordinator. Puckett was looking for a local user group, and SolidWorks was looking for someone to run it. Puckett took on the responsibility, which resulted in a close, three-year professional and personal relationship, and ultimately lead to a full-time job.

Before being hired, the relationship Puckett had with SolidWorks was one of mutual respect, geared toward brand promotion. Puckett talked about the CAD software platform with anyone who would listen. He’d strengthen relationships with existing users or try to convert non-users. Now employed by SolidWorks, Puckett still sees bloggers and group leaders behaving the way he did as a super user. He attributes the continued success to the way SolidWorks builds and maintains relationships.

“When you’re on the outside like I was, and someone on the inside wants to do so many things for you, you can’t help but feel like more than just a customer of theirs — you’re more like a friend,” said Puckett, “They listen to your input, your ideas, and your concerns. In turn, they get invaluable feedback, and insight into what their customers really want.”

Although not quantifiable in dollars, SolidWorks sees the relationships delivering added brand exposure. “[Super users] help us spread company news and updates to a much wider audience than we would ever reach with e-mails, newsletters, and press releases alone,” said Matthew West, Social Media Manager for SolidWorks. “Prospects and customers tell us about things that they learned not from our company blog or website, but from one of these super users.”

Listen For Users Who Already Promote Your Product

Schedulicity is an online scheduling application. The company seeks out potential super users by scanning unique keywords on Twitter. “By listening, we can identify and cultivate super users in the same way you can nurture a budding friendship — letting it evolve out of a mutual respect,” said Bridget Cavanaugh Schedulicity’s Director of Marketing, “You can’t force it, and it doesn’t fit a formula.”

For example, within 24 hours of using the app, Tiffany Taylor, owner of Ms. Esthetician and the beauty salon Wax My Bikini, was tweeting about the product and the company, speaking highly of Schedulicity’s service. To return the favor and cultivate the relationship, Schedulicity offered Taylor an iPod to give away at her upcoming tweetup. “We did it because we didn’t just want her to be successful — we wanted our customer to have an amazing event and know we were behind her 100%,” said Schedulicity’s Cavanaugh.

Over the ensuing months, Taylor’s Twitter and blog activity drove a lot of traffic to Schedulicity’s Facebook Fan Page. Her frequent discussions can be directly linked to new subscribers, said Cavanaugh. Taylor’s activity gave rise to Schedulicity’s Facebook fan culture of users answering customer support questions. “She created more social activity among our users than we could ever do alone,” Cavanaugh said. Cavanaugh went on to admit that Taylor opened their eyes to the market of motivated, socially-connected urban professionals. If Schedulicity wanted to learn from and leverage super user relationships, they needed to let their brand accommodate and adapt to the way super users interact online.

Cavanaugh is completely against building automated “gold member” super user relationships. Everything has to be one-on-one to be impactful. They were so happy with Taylor’s relationship with Schedulicity that they sent a camera crew to her business in Detroit (Schedulicity is based in Montana) to interview her about her business. The video wasn’t for Schedulicity’s use, but rather for Taylor to use on her Facebook Fan Page to showcase her business. Schedulicity wanted to promote Taylor’s business first.

The result has been a mutual relationship of respect and support. As Tiffany Taylor explains, “On a daily basis, on Twitter, on Schedulicity’s Fan Page and mine, we’re urging each other’s businesses forward, creating new energy and excitement for our vastly different businesses.”

Give Super Users Full Access

Mountain Dew scored big with their DEWmocracy campaign, where true DEW fans got a chance to be heavily involved in the development process of the drink’s new flavor. We’ve often heard the story that with social media, corporate communications no longer has control of their message and brand. If you’re trying to build super user relationships, the same could be said about product development.

Super users are passionate, and if you don’t open the gates and allow them access to you and your product, you’ll never realize their benefit. Mountain Dew didn’t want to fall into that classic trap, so they made it clear that DEWmocracy was going to be as transparent as possible.

Mountain Dew’s most prominent super user is Ben King. Initially only a subscriber to the DEW newsletter, King qualified to become a member of DEW Labs. He never expected to get as involved as he did. “When I joined the community, I sort of expected it to be a one-sided deal, where DEW offered up options and we chose what we thought was best,” said King.

“It’s not even close to that,” he continued. “We come up with the ideas through collaborations with the brand team, then we go ahead and choose what we want to see in the final product. I’ve just tried to stay active and put my best opinions and ideas forward, and that was enough to get DEW to notice my contributions and recognize me within the community as one of the (and I quote) ‘most active and awesome members.’”

King was so awesome that DEW flew him to New York City to attend their media event. While the free trip was a nice surprise, the then 18-year-old King got involved with the DEW community for the experience. “I’m hoping to major in business for college, and everything that [Mountain Dew] has supplied me with has allowed me to further my knowledge and understanding of how a business should be run in relations with consumers,” King said.

Mountain Dew is already in full swing with their DEWmocracy 2 campaign.

Make a Genuine Connection

“If we have the opportunity to engage in dialogue with one of our users, we will usually have a fan for life,” said Ethan Austin, Co-Founder of GiveForward, a site that provides free online fundraising infrastructure for any individual or organization with a cause.

So many of Austin’s super users introduced themselves as complainers — frustrated because something wasn’t working properly on their site. “When a user sends us an e-mail, it opens the door for us to interact with them and show that we’re human, that we are listening, and that we care,” Austin explained. “We don’t treat customer service as a chore. We embrace it! We treat every e-mail, complaint, or inquiry about the site as an opportunity to inject humanity into the conversation and win over a customer.”

Austin supplied me with an endless list of stories about how customers were desperate to get the site working, and he would spend an hour with them on the phone to make sure their problem was resolved.

Austin isn’t just sitting around waiting for complaints, however. He’s also proactive about creating super user relationships. Often, Austin will pick a random user and spotlight their fundraising efforts on GiveForward’s front page. The unexpected act of kindness makes the chosen customer feel important, and it also results in a flurry of new donations. Austin reaches out because that initial gesture opens the door for a meaningful dialogue with the customer, which is much more important. “Opening a dialogue with a user gives us an opportunity to be human, to show compassion — to show empathy,” said Austin. “When you can connect on a personal level with your users, you will find that your users become super users.”

The most astonishing story was that of Kim Sutton-Rainey, whom Austin spoke to many times on the phone, helping her raise money for her friend with colon cancer. Rainey was so moved by Austin’s continuous support that she started a fundraising site on GiveForward for GiveForward.

Conclusion

You can’t fake compassion. You either care about your users and show it, or you don’t. Compassion also can’t be scaled. But when you find those specific users, engage them in dialogue, and give them latitude. You’ll learn more from them than anyone on your payroll.

via: Mashable

Google Search Rankings Now Consider Site Speed

Admin — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:54:46 +0000

Back in November, we started hearing murmurs that Google was considering whether or not to factor site speed into its search ranking algorithm. In a blog post today, the search giant confirms it is now adding site speed to its list of criteria that could affect your Google ranking. It’s another step on Google’s long road toward achieving maximum speed and efficiency. The company even launched a Site Performance tool as part of its Webmaster Tools suite to help assess site performance statistics and make changes accordingly. Today’s blog post recommends a few other tools for evaluating your site’s speed as well, including the Firefox Add-on Page Speed, Yahoo’s YSlow and WebPagetest. The new site speed criterion isn’t weighted as heavily as something like page relevance, however. Google says less than 1% of actual search queries performed are being affected by the site speed dimension in the current implementation.

iPad Data Visualized [INFOGRAPHIC]

Admin — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:06:12 +0000

New as it may be, there’s already a wealth of data available for the iPad. Instead of letting these tidbits of data float around unorganized, designer John Kumahara and account planner Johnathan Bonnell decided to put their artistic skills to work and organize the information in a handy infographic. The graphic, included below, offers an interesting perspective on iPad data — think factoids like consumer expectations and adoption rates by state — that we may have otherwise overlooked (though updated sales and apps figures were released yesterday). Here are some points of interest that stand out:

- The average price for an iPhone app is three dollars less than the price for an iPad app. - 80% of iPad apps come with a price tag. - There were 26,668 tweets per hour on the iPad at its peak.

Apparently this is just part one, so stay tuned.

[via Daring Fireball]

LapDock turns an iPad into a laptop… running iPhone OS

Admin — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:13:30 +0000

Sure, Apple offers an optional keyboard accessory for the iPad. But it’s a two piece solution that you can’t easily rest on your lap. Enter the LapDock, a third party contraption that offers the shell of a laptop including a space for a keyboard and… well, not much else. But there’s room to insert an iPad which functions as the brains of the computer, not to mention the display.

The LapDock is just a design prototype for now and isn’t available for purchase. And while it might make it easier to use the iPad and Bluetooth keyboard on your lap, it doesn’t offer any of the other functionality you would expect from a full fledged laptop such as USB ports, a webcam, or the ability to run desktop apps that weren’t designed for the touch-friendly iPad or iPhone.

Since there’s no touchpad or mouse (and the iPad wouldn’t know what to do with one even if you had one), you’d have to tap away at the keyboard and then reach up to the display to navigate — which in my experience is more awkward than it sounds. But hey… you’ve got to give these guys credit for thinking outside inside the box, right?

There’s no word on pricing yet, but the LapDock folks plan to announce more details soon.

You can check out a video of the LapDock prototype after the break.

via Engadget

Post from: Liliputing

LapDock turns an iPad into a laptop… running iPhone OS

12 Fresh Web Tools for Getting the Most Out of Google Buzz

Admin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 21:17:18 +0000

Buzz — Google’s entry into the real-time social web — is becoming increasingly more popular. Because it was launched by an Internet giant and initially incorporated directly into Gmail by default (whether a good idea or not), the service was able to instantly compete with other, more well-established competitors like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace in the crowded social networking arena. What’s more, with Google’s history of supporting web developers through free and public application programming interfaces (APIs), the opportunity to create web-based tools is abundant. In fact, many of them are already beginning to crop up, even though the social network is still in its infancy (being less than two months old). Check out this list of web-based tools to help you get the most out of Google Buzz.

Connect with Other Social Networks

1. Buzz Can Tweet

Anything that averts us from doing repetitive work is always a good thing. With Buzz Can Tweet, you have the capability to synchronize Buzz with your Twitter feed, automatically updating Twitter with the same message whenever you post a buzz. In case you only want to send a Buzz-specific update, it offers an option for selective tweeting only buzzes with certain hashtags (like #twitter). What’s great about Buzz Can Tweet is that it makes messages longer than Twitter’s 140-character limit easier to deal with, generating a short URL to your buzz update so that your Tweeps can read the message in its entirety. Since Google Buzz allows the posting and attaching of multimedia items such as images and videos, another bonus to using Buzz Can Tweet is bypassing the need to use a Twitter image or video sharing service to post richer content.

2. HomePuzz

HomePuzz is a web app that integrates Twitter, Buzz, and Facebook into one interface, giving you the opportunity to update all three services at the same time. It’s a singular location for monitoring your social networks and seeing what your friends are saying, whether they use all or only one of the three services currently supported by this web tool. For site owners and web developers, don’t forget to check out the HomePuzz tools that give you options for incorporating HomePuzz into your website or web app.

Search

3. Buzzzy

If you’re familiar with Gmail’s search syntax, you will no doubt appreciate the built-in search capabilities of Google Buzz (see a list of search methods on Google Help). Native search in Google Buzz blows Twitter’s “advanced” search out of the water, giving you better and more accurate search results. With that said, mucking around with search syntax can be cumbersome for some people. Enter Buzzzy, a web tool for searching items on Google Buzz profiles. Buzzzy has a near-replicate of Twitter’s advanced search interface, undoubtedly designed for people accustomed to using Twitter’s version. In case you’re into mashing up web services, Buzzzy offers a REST API to help you leverage its services in your own custom apps.

4. Mini Buzz Search Engine

If you want to read a Google Buzz user’s feed between a certain date range, Mini Buzz is a simple, no-frills search tool that will help you get the job done quickly. Mini Buzz is bare bones — it only takes three inputs: Username, start date, and end date.

Statistics

5. buzzstats

The site buzzstats highlights how popular a Buzz user is by displaying statistics about their number of followers and the number of people they follow, as well as a chart of their follower growth history. It makes a bookmarkable URL for you to link to for times when you want people to know about your Buzz prowess. In addition, the web tool automatically generates a small snippet of JavaScript that you can simply copy and paste into a website or blog for presenting a Buzz badge with your stats. Bonus facts: buzzstats uses Google’s Charting API to display statistics, and their website has a top 20 list of Buzz users, with Mashable claiming the highest spot.

6. Buzz-Charts

Buzz-Charts is an online web tool for uncovering a plethora of stats about a Buzz profile, including the number of posts, where they send out their buzzes, their total number of replies, the total words they’ve used in the past 100 buzzes, and a bunch of other questionably useful statistics. See this live example for a working demonstration of how Buzz-Charts works.

7. BuzzCounter

Integrating Google Buzz as a widget on your website or weblog is made nearly effortless with BuzzCounter. Using it is simple — enter your Buzz username and it will generate a code snippet that you can copy and paste into your web pages’ source code. The widget displays your recent Buzz updates and some useful associated links, including one that allows a user to directly comment on updates.

Social Bookmarking

8. Buzrr

With TweetMeme’s popularity skyrocketing to over 3.5 million visits per month, it’s no surprise that enterprising web developers are seeking a chance to parallel the Twitter link aggregator’s success over in the Google Buzz arena. Buzrr is one such web tool — a social bookmarking site similar to TweetMeme created by Dennis Hettema. Hettema describes Buzrr as “a website that allows you to add a re-buzz button to your blog so your visitors can share your stories on their Google Buzz. Buzrr.com counts the re-buzz action and provides a ranking of the buzziest stories on Buzz.” He adds that Buzrr is “just like TweetMeme and Digg but just with a different source.”"

9. RebuzzThis

RebuzzThis is another social bookmark aggregator that uses Google Buzz as its source. Like Buzrr and TweetMeme, content shared through their RebuzzThis button is presented and indexed on their website. The service is new, just like Google Buzz, but the site is taking shape nicely, and the creators have plans for improving their public API to give other website developers better opportunities to interface with their service.

10. Njuice Google Buzz Button

Njuice, a web service that monitors the real-time web by scanning social sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Google Buzz, has an online tool for creating a Google Buzz button. The button currently has six different styles to choose from, and two options for implementation — using JavaScript or a dynamically-generated image served from their servers.

Directories

11. Gone Buzz

If you’re in search of interesting Buzzers to follow, check out Gone Buzz, an online directory of popular users. A short bio, the user’s location, the number of buzzes, and a rating is presented for each Buzz profile listed on the site. Additionally, if you log in — they use Google’s authentication system so that you don’t have to create an account on their website — you can rate each user profile on a scale of one to five stars.

12. BuzzAware

BuzzAware is an unofficial web-based directory that catalogs Google Buzz apps. They have categories for browser, desktop, web, and mobile to help you quickly discover applications that fit your needs.

Kellogg Uses Lasers to Brand Corn Flakes in the U.K. – Literally!

Admin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:13:01 +0000

Kellogg Co. is introducing new technology in the U.K. that allows it to burn its famous signature onto individual cereal flakes by using lasers.

Kellogg’s Corn Flakes with brandingEnlarge
The technology, which was developed in Britain, is being used in a trial to stamp out imitation cereals — which Kellogg calls “fake flakes” — by branding Corn Flakes with the company logo.

The news has caused quite a frenzy among U.K. outlets, with many wondering whether this was just Kellogg having some PR fun. But in a phone call the company confirmed that it possesses the technology to do the laser etching and that it’s planning a trial, though it clarified the illustration it supplied was a mock-up.

Kellogg makes 67 million boxes of Corn Flakes every year in the U.K., but the company struggles to get across the message that it doesn’t make cereals for anyone else, and it has lost ground to private-label imitations, or generics, in recent years.

Helen Lyons, lead food technologist at Kellogg, said in a statement, “There has been an increase in the number of [private labels] trying to capitalize on the popularity of Kellogg’s corn flakes. We want shoppers to be under absolutely no illusion that Kellogg’s does not make cereal for anyone else. We’re constantly looking at new ways to reaffirm this, and giving our golden flakes of corn an official stamp of approval could be the answer.”

Kellogg plans to produce a number of trial batches of the branded flakes to test the system. The company will then consider inserting a proportion of branded flakes into each box to guarantee the cereal’s origins and protect against imitation products. If the system is successful, it could be used on Kellogg’s other brands, including Frosties, Special K, Crunchy Nut and Bran Flakes.

The laser uses a concentrated beam of light that focuses the energy within the beam down to a very small spot on the corn flake. The energy density of the laser is enough to give the surface of the flake a darker, toasted appearance without changing the taste.

Ms. Lyons added, “We’ve established that it is possible to apply a logo or image onto food, now we need to see if there is a way of repeating it on large quantities of our cereal. We’re looking into it.”

The initiative comes despite Kellogg’s claim that sales of its Corn Flakes have risen this year, as shoppers with limited budgets opt for recognized, reliable brands. Its factory in Manchester, in the north of England, is the biggest Corn Flake production line in the world, churning out cereals 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Every year, 128 billion bowls of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes are eaten worldwide, in countries as far afield as Guatemala, Japan, Argentina and India.

via adage.com

Demystifying Design: An Argument for Simplicity

Admin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:00:30 +0000

What is design? It’s art and commerce, fashion and environment. It’s industrial and digital, graphic and experiential.

What is design? It begins with ideas–ideas based in purpose. It requires a plan or a process. It yields innovation, invention or creation. It is successful if it elicits response–attention, desire, interaction or purchase.

Design is as much a process as it is an end product. The process should be simple.

After all my years in design, I remain wary of the branding and design consultancies that sell the strategic process before the work. The work should speak for itself. Did it deliver on its objectives? Did it break through in the market? Did people vote with interest, conversation, interaction or purchase? Was it beautiful? That’s what really matters. It’s not about the ability to generate nor analyze reams of data or conduct hundreds of interviews. Smart design requires inputs and information for sure. The best strategy behind design is all about collection and collaboration–of people, talents, ideas, perspectives. It’s about truly seeing vs. just looking. It’s about being curious about what you’re seeing, what it means or what it could mean if used in a new way or combined with other ideas or images. It takes a certain appetite and ability to digest. Honestly it’s simple. The best talent understands that. Rarely does the most extensive or unique “process” produce the simple insights necessary to do more than document a situation. The proof is in the pudding. Talented designers create it.

To be successful, the business of design must deliver truth and unique beauty. To breakthrough, design must deliver creative differentiation.

As with any well-formed point of view, there’s a process to follow in design. Again, it’s a simple process. It begins with collecting as much input as you can regarding a particular subject and understanding the context of the world in which that product or service will exist and compete. It’s about looking for gaps in the marketplaces where others haven’t thought to go. It’s about finding the truth of an organization, where they’ve come from and what they’re capable of. And then it’s about organizing and mixing ideas and visual elements to deliver a succinctly meaningful and artistic perspective.

Design has been my business for over 35 years. But more importantly, when I think of it, design has been my way of life since I was a small child. A way of interacting with people and gathering perspective. A way of thinking and a way of organizing things in my life, so they would be meaningful, work better, look better. I know this is true for many designers.

It’s amazing to see how the power of design has grown in the past decade. People everywhere are singing the praises of design; looking to find the secrets of design creativity and infuse them into their work; seeking the benefits of beautifully designed products to use in their homes and their lives. As a designer I see this as both an opportunity and a responsibility. The opportunity is to continue to use our craft wisely, to solve real business problems, to deliver a means to help people find products and services that are uniquely well suited to make their lives a little better every day. Getting there requires that designers and our clients keep things simple.

Read Joe Duffy’s blog Duffy Point of ViewBrowse blogs by other Expert Designers

Principal and chairman of Duffy & Partners, Joe Duffy is one of the most respected and sought after
creative directors and thought leaders on branding and design in the world.
Joe’s work includes brand and corporate identity development for some of the world’s
most admired brands, from Aveda to Coca-Cola to Sony to Jack in the Box to
Susan G. Komen for the Cure. His work is regularly featured in leading
marketing and design publications and exhibited around the world. In 2004 he
founded Duffy & Partners as a new kind of branding and creativity company,
partnering with clients and other firms in all communication disciplines. Also
in 2004, he received the Medal from the AIGA for a lifetime of
achievement in the field of visual communications. His first book–Brand
Apart–was released in July 2005 and in 2006, he was recognized as one of the
“Fast 50″ most influential people in the future of business by Fast Company.

The Science of Super Mario Bros.

Admin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:30:51 +0000

Some might argue that game design is an art form, something not meant to be taken apart and analyzed, but researchers at IT University
of Copenhagen believe that
making the game design process more scientific could actually enhance player
experience. Their goal is to create games that
adapt to players’ personalities, which they believe would make video and computer games more entertaining.

For their experiment, described in full in an article in New Scientist this week, the researchers broke down Nintendo’s successful Super Mario Bros. in an
attempt to quantify what aspects made the game fun or frustrating for different
players. Some players, the researchers found, preferred fun tasks, such
as kicking turtle shells and acquiring coins, while others seemed to take more
pleasure in challenging tasks like clearing difficult jumps.

The research team has been presenting their preliminary data
at various computer intelligence conferences this fall. Their early results
suggest that controlling for certain features, such as reducing the number of
challenging jumps for fun-seeking players, improves players’ reception of the
game. But, for now, the researchers are still primarily focused on collecting and
analyzing player data. You can take theSuper Mario test yourself at this Web site (it requires a brief survey, then four rounds of a modified Super Mario level).

[Image from Pedersen, Togelius, Yannakakis 2009]

Alienate Your Female Customers? Pepsi Has An App For That

Admin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:58:42 +0000

Update: See our follow-up post with response from AMP and PepsiCo.

Pepsi’s latest foray into social media is certainly bold and controversial, but does it go too far?

The company recently launched an iPhone application [iTunes link] for its AMP energy drink called “before you score,” with “score” meaning (to put it in the most subtle of terms) having a successful night with a woman.

Beyond the premise of the app being rather risqué, it’s when you drill down to the specifics that it becomes much more, breaking women down into 24 types and suggesting “lines” to lure each one of them. If “successful,” the app also encourages users to brag about it over email, or even on Facebook or Twitter.

Here’s AMP’s demo:

Now, guy-centric marketing is nothing new for AMP, who often promotes itself through male dominated extreme sports (formerly, it was known as Mountain Dew AMP). The ads are also somewhat reminiscent of AXE, who insinuates in much of their advertising that its products will help you with members of the opposite sex.

But that’s simply a (far-fetched, but whatever) product claim. Here, AMP has actually built features into its application that make it seem one can systematically “score” by exploiting women’s naivety. Beyond that, they actively encourage users to promote such conquests through social media.

Mind you, the app is obviously targeted for “dudes,” many of whom probably won’t have a problem with it, but many of the women who have caught wind of “before you score” clearly do (see the comments on Jezebel or YouTube for example).

Pepsi certainly seems on its way to creating a lot of buzz – but whether or not that buzz turns into something very negative and becomes a “what were you thinking?” social media fiasco is something to watch for. Meanwhile, let us know in the comments if you think this ad is clever marketing that appeals to AMP’s customers, or something that goes too far and could have big ramifications for AMP’s parent company.

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Tags: amp, iphone, Pepsi, social media, social media marketing