Viaspire - Define.Innovate.Maximize.

Does your UX include Quick Response (QR) Codes?

Great little video on what QR codes are and how there are so many ways to utilize them.

 

Wireframing: Blueprints for the UX

When you get to the point of doing a presentation in the form of visual design comps, often times, it's the first time people start to see and really understand "the work" you do. There is so much behind the scenes that happens before the design is applied. Wireframes, for one, draft the necessary elements that make up a page or series of pages. Wireframes are critical in defining the concept, testing the information architecture (the buckets, the pathways, the conventions used to create a user's experience) and outlining the real estate of the page to facilitate usable and functional design.

GeekChix compiled an amazing list of templates designed to draft the many details that goes into Web design and development before even placing the presentation layer on for people to "see."

These are some great templates to help create the blueprints for the user experience.

Thank  you, GeekChix!

iPhone Apps Doin' It Right - What's Trending

There are so many Top 10 iPhone app posts out there, but in Smashing Magazine style, this post is highly useful and gives great examples of iPhone apps doing it right. The apps featured model the innovation of the iPhone itself. They reflect simple, yet cutting-edge design trends that enhance the usability and experience of this mobile lifestyle device.

Check out this great article, iPhone App Design Trends for more...

Other iPhone apps, I'd also like to give credit to for good functional iPhone design are:

- Chipotle (iTunes)

- Starbucks (iTunes)

- MiniBooks (iTunes)

- IXpenseIt (iTunes)

- Sherwin Williams Color Snap (iTunes)

Renaissance of Attention

With so many distractions coming in on a day-to-day basis, we are often asked to consult teams on how to manage it all -- email, meetings, project requests.

With the introduction of instant messaging (as a team communications tool), project wikis and a myriad of Web 2.0 and social network tools to keep connected, the interruption factor is at this point detrimental to the productivity it's designed to serve.

In a New York Times article this week, Attention Must Be Paid, Marci Alboher reviews Maggie Jackson's new book, "Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age."

This book takes a look at what working in the Digital Age is like for most of us and how multitasking and other instaneous response actions and expectations are making it tough to have that time to deliberate thoughtfully and "digest ideas" fully.

The "casualties" of our fragmented and distracted attention is deep and significant.

If you are every feeling the struggle to keep up, read this article and the book to understand what is going on here and how to be "attentive" to your actions throughout the day.

Great article. Great book.

Thankfully, it actually inspired me today to take time and reflect, which in and of itself, helped me write a blog post longer than 140 characters. ;)

Community Is Not a Tactic

There is a great article published in Adweek, "These Brands Build Community - How these Web 2.0 companies build good relationships to build their brands," that clearly and succinctly sums up what innovative (and successful) companies are doing, like Zappos, Threadless, Etsy, Craigslist and Yelp.

The key, the article clearly points to, is that these companies are "quietly building brands online on the strength of communities." While I would say there is nothing "quiet" about @Zappos interactive dialogue and "Tweet Evangelism" on Twitter or the "voice" of user-generated slogans and design and community ratings submitted for the latest and greatest Threadless T's slogans or the "raving fan base" of Etsy's marketplace, the article has a quote that is so worth stating over and over again...

"Community is not a tactic or marketing plan line item, but core to what [successful Web 2.0 brands] do. It means being hyper-responsive to customers, laser focused on usability, unapologetically human and OK with customers determining the course their businesses should take. The bonus: When they take off, these brands don't need to do much in the way of advertising, instead letting their customers spread the word."

This cannot be expressed enough in every aspect of your interactive/marketing plan. Community is so core to successful engagement today that it has got to be where your message becomes dialogue, your consumers become relationships and those relationships become inter-personal.

Obama Maximizes the Online Experience, Part I of II

Today is a monumental day. It's Super Tuesday and for the candidates who have been tirelessly campaigning, today is a very big day. I like to keep politics out of our business blog, but I have been smitten with how Barack Obama really gets "user experience" online.

In somewhat of a pictorial blog post today, I leave you with this... If you want to understand what an exceptionally executed user experience looks like today... use Obama for President's website as a roadmap for success.

From the emotive visual presentation of the human experience of this man, his family, his vision for America, you get...

Obama for President

 

From the elemental navigation, providing multiple paths to answers or action opportunities, you get inspiration and direction on how to engage...

From the well organized issue-based verticals of information, you get answers on topics to help you decide on matters important to you as a citizen...

To find video as your first opportunity to see, hear, and learn more. To have "Yes, We Can" looping in your mind hours after your visit, you get impact...

Next, you have the opportunity to read current updates and make comments on the Obama Blog to keep the conversation going...

To fully engage and retain your most loyal followers, Obama for President offers a way to stay connected, to personalize the experience, to store, share and stay completely connected with my.obama.com.

Obama for President puts every best practice in to play here. It is a website, which excels in everything fundamental and simplifies the progressive tactics to make engagement easy and compelling.

Obama for President is a checklist for all things in good user design. In Part II, we'll continue this post to show you how Obama leverages "free media" and understands the value of the Social Web.

Additional Resources:

• Obama Maximizes Reach on the Social Web, Part II of II

Blog Action Day - Learn More About the Environment by Podcast

What is Blog Action Day, you ask? 
Fifteen thousand blogs reaching out to over 12 million readers who have come together today to focus on the environment.  Doing a little research on what we would blog about today, I came across this quote by Margaret Mead, which I think really speaks to what Blog Action Day is really all about.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
– Margaret Mead

Learn More About the Environment by Podcast
Blog Action Day has been a great opportunity to look beyond our day-to-day focus and take a moment to learn what others are doing on behalf of the environment. Always looking for new and interesting channels for information I was surprised to see how many interesting podcasts are available on iTunes in support of the environment, living green, and discussing new technologies and innovations that promote environmental solutions and social change.  In honor of Blog Action Day, I thought I would share our list of latest podcasts we are checking out to learn more...

Bioneers
Bioneers is a nonprofit organization that promotes practical environmejntal solutions and innovative social strategies for restoring the Earth and communities.

Energy Priorities
Energy Priorities is a platform for information, ideas and commentary on smart energy -- a resource for businesses who want to be more informed energy users -- an asset to entrepreneurs and investors in teh new energy sector.

HelioPower Energy Solutions
HelioPower is an integrated energy solutions provider that specializes in helping you manage your energy consumption, as well as helping you reduce or eliminate your energy bills.

GreenTech.fM
GreenTech.fM talks about exciting new environmental technologies that have the potential to solve the worlds energy, pollution and scientific problems. This podcast's focus is on how entrepreneurs around the world are bursting forth with new inventions every day that are radically and positively changing the world we live in.

Freshly Green
Gives helpful ideas and answers questions on living green.

Check Some Other Lists
Avery did a great post aggregating some of the Top 10 Things We Can Do to Help the Environment, reduce global warming and protect our surrounding resources. I love the picture he took in Tahoe to emphasize what's at stake here! Keep Tahoe Blue!

Another list we were really interested to see today was Last100's post on Five Environmental Internet TV Offerings. These were great Internet TV programs I was not familiar with until today.

A Sign of the Times

Last year, we attended many conferences and events where publishers revealed and discussed their challenges and strategies for effective distribution in print and online. As the WSJ recently redesigned its layout and our own local newspaper, the Sacramento Bee, celebrates its 150 year anniversary, this AP report, World's Oldest Paper Goes Paperless, is a timely milestone in the history of newspaper publishing.

How Will Print Media Evolve
Industry experts may say, this is another fissure in the iceberg -- cracking away at news print media.  Traditional subscribers may argue that there is nothing that can replace the experience of reading the newspaper as is in its traditional paper form. The reality, though, is that we are in the Information Age. Just like the transformation brought about by the printing press in the Industrial Revolution, delivering news digitally is this era's method of delivery, reach and consumption.  As GenerationNext has predominntaly "online" experiences (including mobile/wireless) with many traditional forms of information, the future shows this type of transformation is inevitable.

Evolve or Die
What I find interesting in this small, but historically significant publication, is that their history as the oldest publication in circulation, didn't hold them back from adapting. In my opinion, this publication avoids extinction and adapts to today's environment, extending its legacy into a whole new era of publishing.

Lycka till, Post-och Inrikes Tidningar!

The Moblization of Google

Link: Google's ambitions going mobile | Newsmakers | CNET News.com.
Google--the premier online company in the traditional Internet world--has for the past year been focusing its attention on the mobile market.

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There is no wonder why Google's foray into the mobile arena has been successful and will likely continue to be successful. Google has a sense of what consumers want and provide simple, yet effective, services. And with mobile phones, you have to keep it simple. The simplicity of Google services make it a natural fit for mobile phones. Google's mobile services generally are quicker to access and can be personalized (which you can do from your PC/Mac and it will show on your mobile phone accordingly).

Of course, as Deep Nashir points out, a method of pricing for data service has to be established that is also simple and beneficial to the user. Because as it stands now, the data service pricing from the carriers reads like stereo instructions.

By Avery

Mobile Marketing Behavior

Link: Advertising Age - Digital - Behavioral Targeting Goes Mobile.
As mobile carriers look for additional revenue streams, the wait for targeted mobile marketing campaigns is over. The mobile carriers will provide what they deem "nonpersonal information" to advertisers to allow for targeted ads on the "deck," the landing page for customers accessing the internet from cellphones. The deck lists websites that users can click to.

By Avery