January 2012
7 posts
Building innovation
One of his motivating passions was to build a lasting company. At age twelve, when he got a summer job at Hewlett-Packard, he learned that a properly run company could spawn innovation far more than any single creative individual. “I discovered that the best innovation is sometimes the company, the way you organise the company,” he recalled. “The whole notion of how you build a...
Things I just realised: I may be crap at it, but I started blogging in 2001 originally (on the ever so wittily named Whine Rack (not my idea)) - meaning I’ve been at it (off and on) for 10 years now. Safe to say things are more than a bit different.
If only I could write sentences without reams of parentheses (my favourite grammatical flaw, natch.)
Code Racer - multi-player game to learn code →
Interesting concept - in line with the math games from the late 80s/early 90s from TLC. Does gamifying learning code work?
Facebook brings sponsored stories to the news... →
I give this a month before it changes back to sponsored. Beacon all over again.
BSkyB invests "double-digit millions" into Zeebox →
If you believe in the second-screen concept (and we do at Holler), this is a smart investment for a broadcaster to get their share of control over a content platform.
I’ve written this post before - how many years have I started off by saying I was going to write more? Each year, I let something get in the way - usually work - and leave all of the rants, ideas, and anything else kicking around unpublished. The last couple of years, I’ve “smartened up”, and just given up writing without any thought otherwise. I remain envious whenever a...
Open Mode: Making Media Easier →
malcolmbastien:
Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ changed how we communicate. Now, people are familiar with social networking, and most importantly that means they’re comfortable with liking, retweeting, reblogging and sharing.
One great thing about sharing becoming mainstream is that any good content that’s out…
Nice post from Malcolm here - think that the sharing being mainstream bit is...
October 2011
1 post
1 tag
July 2011
3 posts
Design Solutions for new Log-in Problems →
Love the approach taken for this one in trying to determine whether you have an account or not…
Redesigning TechCrunch: We Picked This Logo Just... →
While the logo is bizarringly low-fi, there are a lot of neat usability considerations on this, plus some long-needed performance improvements… Nice one.
April 2010
1 post
In my opinion, you show your experience by the questions you ask, rather than the ones you think you don’t have to. Smart questions raise someone’s opinion in my mind more than someone who is completing tasks on their own.
March 2010
2 posts
Brand Butlers: Turn Your Brand into a Service →
An excellent summary of the trend (especially using mobile) of brand experiences providing useful services, rather than just pushing brand messaging. Includes a TON of example apps/sites!
I would attend more conferences if the content was curated better; targeting a (tech/marketing) conference at a crowd skewed towards the upper-end of knowledge of the industry and presenting 101-style sessions doesn’t seem to be congruent with one another. In my mind, every conference should have someone responsible for content curation - whether it’s the only task they have or not.
November 2009
1 post
“Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I might remember. Involve me and I will...”
– Chinese Proverb
October 2009
14 posts
“It is amazing how much you can accomplish when it doesn’t matter who gets...”
– Author Unknown
Design Patterns to Solve Problems →
IA/UX/UI guys, this is for you - despite the Silverlight usage, it’s great.
“My little brother almost bought an album from iTunes the other day because it...”
– (via danielpatricio)
The music industry push convenience, Daniel? But what about the hyper-exclusive super ultra limited edition with bonus acoustic disc?
Crack Pricing and iPhone Apps.
attentionindustry:
[…]
Similar crack pricing models should be applied to applications for news services. Charging for the Globe and Mail application on the whole wouldn’t go over well, despite the excellent job that Spreed Inc did putting it together. But charging $.99 a month, for full sections that aren’t included in the general app, might hold enough value to make money.
You could...
Girl Talk for dummies (well, almost) →
This engine takes whatever words you type in and spits out a lyrical performance using words from other songs - it’s like your own homemade mashup.
“Then I tell them, it’s a brand’s job to be interesting. And what makes a brand...”
– @gapingvoid from his recap of his Mesh Marketing talk. Brands using the web as a social space: take note of his point; it can’t be explained any more clearly.
More here.
iA » Links in Print: Story of a Beautiful Failure →
Awesome stuff - UX as applied to a newspaper in a pitch, plus the full presentation deck. They may have lost, but their thought process is solid.
A question on advertising...
If we could track the effectiveness of direct mail or television/radio advertising like we could online banner advertising, would we use them more or less?
“One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn’t pay to get...”