A Kiwi in NYC

AppBooks for all yer mobile app prototyping needs

dckiwi — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:47:41 +0000

Now there’s a notebook for the “there’s an app for that” crowd!

Mac News: Mobile Apps: Need an App? Ask Your Creative Technologist

dckiwi — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:09:15 +0000

EXPERT ADVICE
Need an App? Ask Your Creative Technologist

Print Version
E-Mail Article
Reprints

By Dan Neumann
MacNewsWorld
12/01/09 4:00 AM PT

Generally speaking, creatives do not keep up with the latest trends in consumer technology, and developers do not care about a brand’s strategic goals. This is why marketing departments and agencies are increasingly establishing positions for “creative technologists” who can steer these two teams toward platforms that enable direct connections with consumers.

Leveraging Social Media To Boost E-Commerce Holiday Sales
Addressing the power of mobile messaging, social media and other word-of-mouth technologies, this paper provides concrete advice on how to integrate them into an e-commerce business plan. [Download PDF: 8 pgs | 665k]

Digital advertising is evolving beyond the desktop computer, leaving companies relying solely on Web sites and display advertising woefully behind the eight ball. More and more, brands are relying on software development to create engaging consumer experiences that span multiple open platforms. Branded mobile applications

are fast becoming an important element of this new digital ecosystem as evidenced by Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) announcement that its App Store had surpassed 100,000 apps in early November.

This shift away from more familiar mediums for brand communication has important implications for the composition of, and interaction between, established groups within agencies. The pervasive dynamic between technology and creative groups is not always conducive to more technically demanding campaigns because of a fundamental disconnect between these two groups’ proficiencies.

Companies need people who are passionate about the creative aspects of branding and effective messaging, as well as the technical elements of software development. Without someone to bridge the divide, brands risk winding up with apps that are either unsuited for their purpose or projects that make unrealistic demands on developers.

While an influx of “do-it-yourself” app platforms have reduced the cost of entry into this new channel, these solutions often depend on inflexible frameworks that limit creativity, leading apps to fall short of the mark when delivering an engaging customer experience to a brand’s target audience.

Considering that enterprises must still invest a significant amount of capital into these template-based apps, it makes more sense to leverage a creative technologist’s expertise rather than create a cookie-cutter app. Leveraging one app build and reskinning it for multiple brands is an efficient way to enter the channel, but companies need to focus on how their consumers engage with their brand within the context of a mobile app to ensure they are creating a positive experience for customers.

Catalysts for Big Ideas

CTs bring creative and technology groups together to develop branded software. That’s made plain by their title, but what does that really entail? How do they create value? The first area seems like the most obvious but is critical to the success

of any marketing campaign — education and evangelism.

To attract interest in a new technology or platform, a CT needs to be able to communicate its value in terms that everyone, both clients and agency peers, can understand. People are scared of what they don’t know. It is still difficult to connect the dots from clicks to sales to real ROI. So then, if after 10 years, the industry is just now getting good at calculating ROI for display advertising, who wants to invest in tactics that don’t have established measurement practices attached?

CTs are the catalysts behind big, new ideas that get marketers excited and then validate their strategies by identifying key consumer interactions within an app/platform and help analytics groups craft measurement plans that will accurately tie back to strategic goals.

The ability of a CT to identify best practices before they are established provides confidence and guidelines for brands seeking first-mover lift. In a development phase, CTs should ensure that their best practices are observed within the architecture of the application.

While this can be very difficult to do, depending on the category, the key here is to remember that the number of downloads is not the only means to measure success. Because it does a brand little good if an app is downloaded and seldom used, consumer engagement is an important metric that should be taken into consideration.

Speaking the Language

A key consideration when establishing metrics for success and promoting your application is its role within the brand’s broader campaign or messaging. It is the CT’s responsibility to craft sensible connection points between the campaign and your app.

How does your audience move from media, to engagement, to realization of a strategic marketing goal? Does your online advertising promote the app? What sort of CRM model makes sense for people using your app? Should actions from within the app generate a post to Twitter or Facebook ?

What, if any, content generated by your campaign should be consumed from within the app? Where are the friction points between discovery, download and regular usage? A CT should be able to create user-flow and experience map documents that illustrate the experience as a whole, and how users are expected to move through various elements of that experience without requiring users to create an account.

While the experience architecture is important, CTs create value for clients and agencies by understanding the nuances of users’ interaction on new platforms and develop apps that work within these behaviors.

Consider developing an application for a newly open platform — Verizon’s FiOS widgets, for instance — that allows users to stream video content from your library. Do you make search a primary navigation element without realizing that users will need to rely on a virtual keyboard? The better alternative would be to design a menu structure optimized for the remote’s D-pad.

CTs are often the quickest route to effective branded apps because they can serve as translators who are fluent in the languages of technology and creative groups. This skill allows them to help brands temper cutting-edge ambitions with the realities of building experiences that work across multiple platforms in multiple channels.

As connected open platforms approach ubiquity, opportunities for marketers are proliferating at an astounding rate. A brand’s ability to capitalize will be vastly improved by staffing with people who can predict which platforms have the potential to alter consumer behavior and which will fade into the sunset.

Dan Neumann is emerging platforms strategist for Organic.

Print Version E-Mail Article Reprints Author Search

Talkback: Join the Discussion.

Great Article.

asciibn

Posted 2009-12-01

I totally agree with your premise. Agencies are producing highly branded software, in terms of …

Next Article in Mobile Apps

Familiar Desktop Features Make Up For Full Browser’s Quirks
November 19, 2009

Full Browser, a Safari alternative for iPhone and iPod touch, brings along some much needed features like text search and a more desktop-like tab layout. The app has a few odd design peculiarities, but they don’t add up to a major annoyance, and

Related Stories

MiKandi Opens XXX Android App Store
November 30, 2009

The Android platform certainly is growing up fast. A company called “MiKandi” is opening its own Android application storefront where developers can sell apps featuring adult content — a sort of red-light alternative to the mainstream Android Market. Apps that developers sell through MiKandi’s store generally won’t be censored, as long as they’re legal.
Apple’s House Rules Won’t Be the Death of App Development
November 13, 2009

Facebook’s iPhone app is one of the most popular wares the App Store has ever carried. But its developer, Joe Hewitt, says he’s through with it, stating that Apple’s review policies are starting a bad precedent for other platforms. However, good apps from talented developers will always find platforms, and Apple’s policies won’t prevent that from happening. They may even help.
Chorus Should Sound Great Once More Singers Join In
November 05, 2009

Chorus is meant to be a social network for app shoppers. If the App Store’s lists have you yearning for a better recommendation system, Chorus is a place for discussing, reviewing and finding new apps among your circle of friends. It’s well-designed, and it could become a great resource for learning about new software when — and if — more users sign up and populate the network.

Related News Alerts

Apple Activate Alert | Search Archives Twitter Activate Alert | Search Archives Facebook Activate Alert | Search Archives Verizon Activate Alert | Search Archives

via macnewsworld.com

A good take on what it means to be a truly creative technologist

First VFF treadmill run!

dckiwi — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:06:49 +0000

http://www.dailymile.com/people/mtbdeano/entries/683694

I can’t wait to run again tomorrow and see how things feel! There is a slight rubbing on the inside arch of my feet (fabric I think) and when I tried them on I thought the toes would be too tight, but they appear to be working just fine.

Posted via web from Run fatboy, run

About « TastyCupcakes.Com

dckiwi — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:05:06 +0000

Tastycucpcakes is a toolkit for project management and software development professionals to create better and more effective teams and build better products. These games, techniques and approaches are here for you to use and explore. All we ask is that you tell others about us and give us some feedback on the games themselves.

TastyCupcakes is a commercial free service published and coordinated by Michael McCullough and Don McGreal.

Please follow us on Twitter!

If you have games or variations of games not listed here, please submit them at blog.tastycupcakes.com/game/ and we will post and credit you.

via blog.tastycupcakes.com

despite the CREEPY header image, there are some great team building games here for both agile and non-agile teams alike!

Johnny Holland – It’s all about interaction » Blog Archive » How UCD and Agile can live together

dckiwi — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:50:50 +0000

via johnnyholland.org

A nice lay up of how user centered design and agile can play well together. Is this the secret to creative technology?

Vibram Five Fingers

dckiwi — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:28:03 +0000

Well, I did it. After months of running (sometimes 100's of miles, sometimes 10's depending on injury) I've invested in some Vibram Five Fingers.

http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/products_footwear.cfm?CFID=1163307&CFTOKEN=78785735

I'll be seeing if their amazing powers http://www.wired.com/reviews/product/pr_vibram_fivefingers_kso allow me to stay injury free over winter.

Posted via email from Run fatboy, run

Mathematically Correct Breakfast — Mobius Sliced Linked Bagel

dckiwi — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:51:41 +0000

via georgehart.com

Now THIS is a creative technologist at work … mobius bagels FTW! It’s gonna make Organic’s bagel Wednesday MUCH more interesting

InfoQ: Real Time Web with XMPP

dckiwi — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:47:59 +0000

via infoq.com

One of the great things about a more open and computable layer of data on the web is the ability for us to use lighter weight technologies to interact with what was a hardcore enterprise technology. Check out the new JavaScript interfaces to Jabber/XMPP messaging systems … brings the real time web out of the age of polling to the age of message passing.

Going everywhere!

dckiwi — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:52:04 +0000

I came across a great example of guerrilla user research: Alaska Miller and Dan Curtis are going to use JetBlue’s “Jet all you want” pass to visit every JetBlue city. Check out my post on threeminds about it and submit your thoughts.

Second gear starts and the art of the zipper merge

dckiwi — Sun, 31 May 2009 13:37:34 +0000

So I hope I didn’t cause too much concern with my first post. I LOVED Shanghai. It felt like the New York of China: fashion, art, culture, gentrified, ultramod, industrial, fusion, all at once. The energy of the city is palpable. One of the side effects of the “one child per couple” policy is that everyone is pushing for themselves, often with their whole family behind them. That creates velocity. Career velocity, social standing velocity, growth, and inertia. It seems, with the Chinese educational system focused on hard sciences and exams that it must be very difficult to be creative in Shanghai. I think we’ll see a surge in the “creative class” in China in the next 10 years. This will be an exciting time. I could live in Shanghai. I’d love to live in Shanghai, but I’d need to focus a LOT on language skills first and reading would be very difficult for me.

Ok, so the next big observation from me is that everyone drives a stick. That is, they all have manual transmissions: cars, buses, trucks. In the US, I don’t know anyone who drives a stick, unless they own a Porsche or a wee VW Golf. It means cars “leap off the line” faster than the US. This leads me to another curious observation: most of the cars started off in second gear. That thunking noise a car makes when it’s in too high a gear for “take off”. That’s the noise all cars make in China. I can drive a stick, but I don’t (typical lazy American I guess). I was always taught to work my way comfortably up through the gear box, focusing on creating the smoothest ride for my passengers. I suspect that in China it’s about keeping rpm low and conserving a little gas by starting in 2nd.

Sometimes in the US, I am very frustrated by the arrogant, selfish, pushy a$$wipes who push in front of people during a zipper merge. You know who you are, the people who push in at the head of the queue, instead of “waiting your turn”. Many people do it, but many people don’t. It’s not polite. In China, it’s the opposite. I wonder if it’s a side effect of the only child policy again. When the light changes you go, you push towards the oncoming traffic, if you can inch in front, then you win. The only thing is that EVERYONE is doing the same. The result: it works. It is NOT how I expect traffic or people to behave, but gosh darn it, if everyone is pushing, selfish people, then it just works.

An example, I have been patiently awaiting the cross signal at an intersection. The wee green man appears and I begin to cross, past half way, almost to the other side and a bus appears, with it’s indicator on. It is going to make the “right turn on red”. In my brain, the equation is simple: I have the green man, the bus has a red light, the bus will stop and give way to the pedestrian. In Shanghai however, my instincts couldn’t be more wrong. The bus HONKS at me and my son. Not slowing from 40kph it attacks the corner expecting people to scatter out of it’s way. Which of course we do. And then it dawns on me. I was probably a split second later than everyone else in the cross walk, but I did it, I got out of the way. It works, I’m ok, rattled, but ok. The bus remains on time, and the world keeps on turning, turning, into the future. It’s a shift of my perception that is required. In the 2 weeks I was there I had already made the shift. I was no longer surprised by mopeds, bikes, or buses crashing red lights. I just dealt with it.

Another great example is when the light turn. The traffic lights warn you that they are going to change. The orange appears to let you know the green is coming as well as the red. This means people can start sooner, and push into the intersection. In the US, when 4 lanes of straight through traffic are lined up and someon is turning across traffic, they might be cheeky enough to push one car in front of them. In Shanghai, 12 cars pushed through the four lanes of oncoming traffic, all as a perfect zipper, first a turning car weaves itself through, then 4 oncoming cars, etc … people honked all the time, but really to say “here I am watch out”, not “get the frick out of my way you moron”.

The final thought on zippers and second gear is this: In the US and most of the western world, the horn is for admonishment. When we toot, we are saying “you idiot!”, in Shanghai, the horn is to announce your presence. Like the “firing a gun at every intersection” of the early days of the horseless carriage.