Archive for Hoverblog: July 2006 | Main >
Not Smallpox..Smartpox!
| 7.31.2006
Several weeks back, I did a few lectures on Web 2.0. To many in the industry, Wikis, PodCasts, RSS and Blogs have been around for several years. To the mainstream corporate marketing folks, it’s still in its infancy but growing fast. It was rewarding to help marketing folks start to integrate new technology into their requiem of marketing tricks. Check out the PodCast for yourself.
One of my responsibilities at New Tilt is keeping up to date on emerging technologies and trends that can be adapted to strategic design and marketing paradigms. I’ve been brainstorming quite a bit with one of my colleagues on a trial implementation of RFID chips into the museum experience to make it more personal while letting people create their own tailored “flow” through a museum or exhibit. Currently, people either walk around freely or rent a listening device. The limitations to listening devices is that you’re either tied to a path/flow or you have to type in the exhibit number each time to get the information. By embedding RFID chips into the artwork, a user can take any path they want and hear the information automatically as they approach the artwork. With some intelligence thrown in, it might be able to make "clusters" out of the pieces your visiting thus becoming more predictive (and also providing a way for the museum to track different interests based on demographic or psychographic. We’re still working out the details but hoping to find a test site soon.
Another emerging technology is something called Smartpox. A Smartpox is actually a 2-dimensional barcode. Unlike conventional barbodes, these barcodes contain more data and can be decoded Smartpox readers being deployed to most new cell phones. You can create your own Smartpox tag using a URL, an email address, a telephone number, or just plain text. After you've created a Smartpox tag, you can display it anywhere you want other Smartpox users to see it - on a flyer, a business card, a t-shirt, stickers or even tattoos! Imagine being at a train stop with only Smartpox signs. You would be able to take a picture of the barcode with your phone and have the whole schedule sent directly to your phone decoded – much more information than would fit on a sign.
What’s powerful about this technology is it’s limitless possibilities for marketing programs. Imagine Coke putting a Smartpox tag on each bottle to be decoded by your cell phone. Not only does this technology fit nicely with younger demographics but one would you know instantly if they won (or not) along with detailed information about details, prizes, etc. The museum example is even more powerful. Each piece of artwork could have 10 rotating PoxCodes from different "authors" with their summary of the work. Sort of like listening to your favorite DJ, you could take your own tour with your phone and click on the unique perspectives you're interested in. It's just a matter of time before Smartpox dating starts...
posted at 6:02 PM
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1 comments
Frankensteining
| 7.22.2006
Upon returning from almost every creative presentation, the number one question that everyone asks is "how did they like the concepts? Did they Frankenstein them?" Frankensteining is slang for taking pieces of various concepts and "frankensteining" them together into something that looks like the living dead. It's ok to cherry pick a color or type style from one concept and integrate into another, but beware when a client asks for much more than that. What differentiates one concept from another is not merly color. It's about brand, balance and personality. Typically, multiple concepts are generated to test different attitudes. Once concept may have more of a portal feeling while another may feel more functional. The trick is to keep all your concepts on strategy but not make them look too similar.
I'm proud to announce the launch of our latest site -Spotfire. The site has a rich brand and is FlashFantastic. I've included a Flash EXAMPLE here to show the migration from concept 1 to concept 2 to the final winning design.
What do you think? Frankenstein or a bowl of cherries?
posted at 3:27 PM
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1 comments
Jedi Mind Tricks and the Metaphysical
| 7.12.2006
I teach web design at Boston University. One of the things I reiterate time
and time again to all my students is this: You can be the best designer in the
world but if you can’t speak to your designs and articulate why they’re on
brand, on strategy and on target, no one’s going to appreciate them and ultimately buy off. You could be in a client meeting and not say a word and bet bottom last dollar that the client picks the ugly duckling of the bunch. If you look at this
statistically, it makes perfect sense. Most people in the world don’t have very good aesthetic or taste. Just look at all the bad clothes; colors, cars, restaurants and movies that people think are good. If you’re a designer or aesthetically in tune
person, consider yourself lucky AND in the minority.
Defining and articulating brand is even more difficult. Brand is somewhere
between the physical and the metaphysical. Telling people why your layout and
color choices are good, is hard enough but articulating how a person should
feel about a brand or how they should perceive a certain attitude is much more
difficult. In the trade, we sometimes call it “Jedi Mind Tricks” – talking
someone into feeling a certain way about a logo, color or brand statement.
Below is a logo I worked on for a company. This winning mark was well received
by the client marketing team but we all felt that the executives of the
company, who weren’t involved in the day to day discussions, would benifit from
of a description as to what the mark should mean to them, what it's trying to convey, how it maps to their busienss, how it should make them feel and how they should talk about it moving forward.
Check out the logo and logo modifier statement below:
posted at 12:39 PM
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2 comments
5 facts every client should know about the web
| 7.10.2006
1. Unlike print, having a web presence is organic, ever-changing and a 24/7 commitment
2. A website looks different on every browser and platform
3. An all Flash-based site is rarely the way to go
4. Just because you build it doesn't mean they will come
5. Create some realistic analogs between your physical business and your business on the web - don't make people wait, be approachable, don't hide from them
posted at 9:05 PM
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0 comments
5 reasons I don’t frequent Starbucks anymore
| 7.06.2006
1. I hate it when they start making my drink of choice before I even get up to the counter. At that point, they know too much about me.
2. Because they give me dirty looks when I request a travel lid instead of the default sip lid.
3. Even after asking if I need room for milk (I take half-n’-half) they still fill it to the very top with coffee.
4. The pastries suck.
5. They keep one of the two doors locked and I end up spraining my wrist on the way out.
posted at 7:45 PM
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3 comments
Presentation Tips
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I’ve been doing a lot of public speaking lately. This rings ironic to even me as I use to skip public speaking class in middle school. I’ve been doing so much speaking in fact, that I’ve been getting horse lately. I lecture 3 nights a week at Boston University where I teach a web design class. I’ve been doing a road show of a webcast called Web 2.0. with my Colleague Jeanne Friedman. I’m presenting to clients during the day at least twice a week and I give a web-marketing seminar to MGH every quarter. Even with all this speaking, I’m far from being an expert, but I thought I would share some tips and tricks I’ve come across in helping make better speakers and presenters out of us all.
My fist tip is to rehearse. I can’t say this enough. The best way to do this is to do several full dry runs through the presentation in front of a few trusted critics. I’m not talking about reading word for word out loud. I’m talking about body language; hand movements and having your “audience” interrupt and challenge you with questions and opposing views.
I typically use a pencil to jot down notes, ideas and diagrams weeks before the presentation. One of the valuable lessons I learned early in my career was to take a bunch of blank copy paper and quickly sketch out what each slide will be. This is easier than going directly into PowerPoint or Keynote as you can reorder, add and delete more quickly and efficiently. Once the paper presentation is solid, I’ll put it into Keynote, add effects and rehearse again with it projected on screen.
One mistake that many people make is literally presenting on screen, everything they want to say. While this is a natural path for beginners, it’s boring to the audience. The more comfortable you are with the presentation, the more you can adlib. These days, I’ll dedicate each slide to a particular point that I want to discuss and freely talk to the slide during the presentation.
Another exercise I do is time myself. Typically, everyone talks faster when in front of an audience. Keynote and PowerPoint both have the options for you to time yourself. Given the choice of finishing too early with not enough questions being asked or too late with not enough time for all the questions, you should choose the latter unless you’re good at hand puppet shows. You should figure that you’re going to talk 12% faster during the real presentation and you should adjust your slides accordingly.
If you have the choice of what order you’re presenting in and what time of day, you should go first and before lunch. If you go toward the end of the cue, people tend to get antsy and god help you if you’re after lunch and at the end of the cue.
Add visual interest to the slides. Even the nerds who typically produce all bullet point slides hate looking at all bullet point slides. Take people by surprise. Put in images that seem unrelated but give you a perfect segway into making your point. Check out what O’Reilly did with all their technical books…they put a different animal on the cover of each. What does a Lama have to do with learning Perl? Nothing! That’s why it’s so brilliant. It’s memorable and visually stimulating.
Once I’m done with the presentation, I rehearse more and more until I almost don’t even need the deck in front of me. I don’t keep fine tuning not matter how much extra time I have. At some point, you have to lock it down and get intimate with it. The time you spend “owning” it will show in the quality of your presentation.
When I worked at Philip Johnson years ago, Phil himself would come into a presentation meeting and tell a story about what happened to him on a flight or at the local coffee shop. It had nothing to do with the presentation at hand but it was a way to break the ice, make the meeting memorable and hopefully connect to people in the room on a more personal and emotional level. I once had an important pitch to HBO a few years back. I had the flu the night before and checked myself into a hospital in Manhattan at 2:00 AM to get some medicine. They kept me until 20 minutes before the meeting. After finally getting checked out, I hopped in a cab and went directly to the meeting. I showed up 10 minutes late but what a great story I had for an opening. “Sorry I’m late but I just got my intravenous out but I’m…” My point is that the audience might only remember a little bit about your presentation but they’ll remember a good story.
Nothing makes a speaker more nervous than an antsy audience or one that makes no sounds. Even the most experience speakers hate this. What I do is pick on members of the audience and ask them questions. This sharpens everyone up and even spooks them a bit thinking they’re going to get picked on next. It’s good to turn the table to take the pressure of yourself.
So my tips are:
1. Use iterations in developing your presentation. Start with pieces of paper with ideas on them and then distill them down to coherent ideas, bullets and pictures.
2. You can’t rehearse enough. Pick people who are going to challenge you and poke holes in your presentation. If you don’t have friends do this, strangers are going to do it for you AND it’s going to hurt more.
3. Time yourself. You don’t want to be finished too early and if you can pick the order and/or time you speak, do it!
4. Lastly, don’t be afraid to pick on people in the audience. This is a great card to have up your sleeve if you feel yourself getting nervous or if the audience is making you nervous
Below are a few links to more useful tips.
• How to get a standing ovation
• Advice for the first time speaker
posted at 7:22 PM
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3 comments
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