Introduction to Interaction Design at SVA
October 14, 2009
For all those interested in understanding the very important discipline of interaction design/ information architecture, I took this good short class at SVA that goes over broad strokes principles (Introduction to Information Architecture & Design). Here is the ppt that the cool Professore (Anh Dang) presented: http://www.slideshare.net/sva.ia/sva-intro-to-information-architecture-design-fall-09
The key concepts and techniques concepts that were discussed: “organizing information, designing interfaces and creating interactions” + “heuristic evaluation, card sorting, analyzing and organizing content, sketching & wireframing, paper prototyping and user testing”.
Digital Case Study: Urban Daddy
September 11, 2009
The “exclusive and illusive” tone of Urban Daddy is one hot commodity – the email newsletter will generate around 5-10 million dollars in 2009. Not bad for an email publication (check out my posting on Daily Candy for another email cash cow). The company founded in 2005 by Lance Broumand and has 1.1 million subscribers. The publication is targeted to a ” style-conscious young male with a high income living in a big U.S. city.” Daddy has also changed it’s strategy a bit – originally being invitation only and now open to everyone to increase its subscriber base. “UrbanDaddy has sought to set itself apart with highly selective offerings, coupled with its increasingly customized sponsorship campaigns. As a result, UrbanDaddy claims to deliver higher metrics across the board, including click-through rates as high as 15%.”
Overall, I really like the look and feel of the site and the newsletter, clean and bold with large imagery and short but to the point commentary.

Interactive Physical Spaces!!!
September 2, 2009
The blog is back from summer vacation! Great article about how digital is even transforming physical spaces and making them interactive (users are playing games on buildings) !!! http://adage.com/digitalnext/article?article_id=138725
Google’s Education Portal for Agencies
July 31, 2009
Google has created a portal for ad agencies “to educate their staff on Google Advertising and also help bridge the gap between Google and the agencies which may have been ‘wary’ of using Google ad planning as opposed to traditional media buying techniques.” This will be a great asset for Digital Ad and PR companies to learn the ins and outs of Google. Tools such as “webinars, a searchable library with more than 200 marketing case studies and short, on-demand video segments” will be offered.
Peace!
“Best Free Website Analytics Tools”
July 30, 2009
Great great posting about free analytical tools for the web: http://webdesignledger.com/tools/best-free-website-analytics-tools
Mobile Marketing
July 21, 2009
Mobile advertising/apps have been hot topics for a while, especially since the launch of the iPhone. The United States seems to be behind the times a bit when compared to Asia where for a few years already ”consumers already pay for merchandise using their cell phones in South Korea and Japan”. Described as the “third screen” (after the computer and television set) mobile is becoming more and more technically savvy – here is a good discussion on Mobile Ad Trends with a panel of experts done by Advertising Age: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1370868150/bctid1775769073
International Digital – Russia
July 18, 2009
I went to an excellent presentation today about public relations in Russia and their digital capabilities. What an interesting market – especially the growing opportunity for international digital advertising and PR! Some cool stats – 30% of Russian people use the internet (34M people). There is a real opportunity to do some great creative work and innovative campaigns.
Guide for Google Analytics
July 16, 2009
As well all know SEM is a very important tool for digital marketers – here is a good article discussing Google Analytics:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/16/a-guide-to-google-analytics-and-useful-tools/
Digital/Interactive Case Studies
July 16, 2009
I believe reviewing case studies is an excellent way to learn more about the industry (what all the cool cats are doing), generate some new ideas of your own and learn from others mistakes.
Besides the Award sites such as the Webbies, Cannes Lions, One Show Interactive Awards, etc. – here are some other useful sites for interactive/digital case studies and client problem/solutions:
http://www.wesellorelse.co.uk/
http://www.rga.com/#/section=client
http://www.doubleclick.com/insight/casestudies/index.aspx?csfilter=DART%20for%20Advertisers
http://www.facebook.com/akqa#/akqa?v=app_2392950137 (not all are case studies but there are some good examples)
http://www.razorfish.com/#/work/portfolio/automotive/mercedes-amg
http://www.agency.com/clients/
http://www.ogilvy.com/portfolio/portfolio.php
http://www.atmospherebbdo.com/home.swf
More to come later – I will keep expanding this list.
Cool service for FREE conference calls!
July 16, 2009
Wow, my collegue told me about this service and its really no hastle. Great free tool for client meetings.
https://www.freeconferencecall.com
Creating a Brand for Your Blog
July 13, 2009
Here is a great post about creating a brand for your blog entitled “7 Ways To Develop A Unique Brand For Your Blog”
Summary of Adam’s tips:
1. Develop a post archetype
2. Create a simple or unique design
3. Refine your writing quality and style
4. Find a way to view your topic from a fresh angle or different lens
5. Focus on a unique topic, or intersection of topics
6. Create a better signal to noise ratio
7. Focus on achieving consistency
As I have mentioned in my previous posts – I am a huge fan of interaction design ever since working at R/GA (which has the cats pajamas of ID teams). I believe that good ID can make or break a project – especially as sites become more complex and require more synergy with the user. The beauty of the medium is that incorporates so many different disciplines together like usability, IA, visual design etc. One of the optimal results of using Interaction Designers (as an example) is that you ultimately produce sites where the user is able to navigate and get desired actions completed quickly, easily and fluently and there are clear calls to action.
What is ID:
- ID “elicits a certain behavior”.
- “UX folks create the underlying framework and skeleton and logic of a site, and work very closely with the designers, to make it not only beautiful, but usable, too.”
- “Interaction design (IxD) is a professional discipline that illuminates the relationship between people and the interactive products they use. While interaction design has a firm foundation in the theory, practice, and methodology of traditional design, its focus is on defining the complex dialogues that occur between people and interactive devices of many types—from computers to mobile communications devices to appliances.”
- “Interaction designers strive to create useful and usable products and services. Following the fundamental tenets of user-centered design, the practice of interaction design is grounded in an understanding of real users—their goals, tasks, experiences, needs, and wants. Approaching design from a user-centered perspective, while endeavoring to balance users’ needs with business goals and technological capabilities, interaction designers provide solutions to complex design challenges, and define new and evolving interactive products and services.”
What is Experience Design:
It is most often described as the umbrealla of ID, Usability, IA, Design, etc.
“(XD) is the practice of designing products, processes, services, events, and environments with a focus placed on the quality of the user experience and culturally relevant solutions, with less emphasis placed on increasing and improving functionality of the design.[1] An emerging discipline, experience design attempts to draw from many sources including cognitive psychology and perceptual psychology, linguistics, cognitive science, architecture and environmental design, haptics, hazard analysis, product design, information design, information architecture, ethnography, brand management, interaction design, service design, storytelling, heuristics, and design thinking.”
For more information on this discipline, please visit the Interaction Design Association: http://www.ixda.org/
On the Hunt for the New OS
July 8, 2009
Microsoft Operating Systems are under a possibly serious threat from Google who in 2010 plans to launch the Chrome OS “an operating system designed from the ground up to run the Chrome web browser on netbooks. ‘It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be,’ Google writes tonight on its blog. But let’s be clear on what this really is. This is Google dropping the mother of bombs on its chief rival, Microsoft. It even says as much in the first paragraph of its post, ‘However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web.’ Yeah, who do you think they mean by that?”
Read this for more info: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/07/google-drops-a-nuclear-bomb-on-microsoft-and-its-made-of-chrome/
Wow – I am looking forward to what Google is concocting!

Email Marketing Tips
July 7, 2009
A useful article on designing successful email marketing campaigns called “Email Design No-Nos Your Designer May Not Know”:
http://www.lyris.com/resources/email-marketing/articles/email-marketing-design/
Here is a summary of the tips:
1. The Top of the Email is Not for Pretty Pictures
2. Web-like Navigation is Murder on Mobile Devices
3. Graphics Don’t Work – No, Really, They Don’t
4. Invisible Calls to Action Don’t Get Clicked
5. Outlook 2007 Snubs Cascading Style Sheets
Infographic Resume Sample
July 2, 2009
Check out this awesome original idea of how to present your resume in an infographic format:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bartclaeys/3351321706/sizes/o/
Super Duper Checklists for the Web
June 30, 2009
Check out this comprehensive article called “45 Incredibly Useful Web Design Checklists and Questionnaires” that lists various checklists/tips for usabillity, design, SEM, blogging, etc – very helpful! http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/29/45-incredibly-useful-web-design-checklists-and-questionnaires/
I am a big fan of using big, bold imagery, interactive navigation (right now I love visual sitemaps), and “free flowing” video components in sites. Copy should be minimal and right to the point. I also can’t stress enough how important the field of interaction design is in making these sites great!
Here is a list of my current favorite websites:
Design:
http://www.ushmm.org/propaganda/exhibit.html#/gallery/
http://www.sexysciencebydita.com/
http://www.laperla.com/home_page.php?lingua=EN
http://www.firstbornmultimedia.com
http://www.heartbeatdigital.com/
(of course there are a number of these in which I like the site for multiple components)
Interactive/Video:
http://www.visittheotherbritain.com – make sure to wait a bit on this page
http://www.whitevoid.com/portfolio.html
http://www.speakvisual.com/#/spotlight
http://thankyou.thisisgrow.com/T37J
http://www.volvocars.com/se/campaigns/Local/C30_kalkylator/Pages/english.aspx
http://www.dreamgrove.org/http://www.maccosmetics.com/
http://dyc.saab-web.com/microsites/turbogene/GLOBAL/en/index.shtml
http://www.lecoqsportif.com/search/#/us/all/filters/pt/
http://www.indelible.tv/
The coolest news website since sliced bread …
May 7, 2009
MSN’s Spectra – Visual Newsreader website is just insanely beautiful on all ends of the spectrum – literally – the color spectrum. Amazing interaction design, functionality, design, graphics …. it just blows my socks off … http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/components/spectra/index.html Makes life a lot more fun for all the news junkies like me out there. Also, I think this site is inspirational for what kind of design and ID we will be seeing more often in the future (at least I hope). You can rotate the news in different speeds, choose whether you want to see images or not, save articles, etc…. Ahh, I am in love

Site inspire – a great tool for web designers!
May 8, 2009
Ovation TV – Make Life Creative
May 10, 2009
Search Engine Marketing
May 12, 2009
SEM is one of the most powerful tools for digital marketers. Users no longer want to spend time “flipping” through websites; they want to find the information they are looking for immediately (I am a big fan of that). So having worked on SEM in the past and thinking about getting Google certified I have realized how extremely complex this space is becoming. There are plenty of companies dedicated to this field alone. An important component of SEM is Search Engine Optimization – “… the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.” – Wikipedia
I am also wondering with all the buzz about Wolfram (natural-language search engine) launching on May 18th what the next revolution of search will be “…users can ask questions using natural language and the search engine uses “knowledge models” to bring you the right answer. But does it really work, and will it be a Google killer? Wolfram says “yes” to the first question and “no” to second, insisting that Google and Wolfram Alpha will co-exist and offer different forms of searching… ” -http://dvice.com/archives/2009/03/wolfram-search.php
Here are some articles with great tips about SEO:
- http://freelancefolder.com/10-top-seo-techniques/
- http://www.searchengineguide.com/jim-hedger/seo-101-basic.php
Here is a top 10 list summary from: http://www.ozelwebtasarim.com/index.php/web-haberleri/9127-free-search-engine-optimization-seo-tips-step-by-step – please click on this article for detailed information.
Step 1. – Analyze your competition
Step 2. – Start to improve your website with quality content
Step 3. – Choose the right keywords.
Step4. – Creating meta tags – TITLE Tag
Step 5. – Creating meta tags – DESCRIPTION Tag The next important meta tag is description tag. It describes content of your web page
Step 6. – Creating meta tags – KEYWORD Tag
Step 7. – Creating meta tags – ROBOT Tags
Step 8. – Check your website URL before submit to search engines.
Step 9. – Submit your website to search engines
Step 10. – Build your link popularity (offpage optimization)
Gestalt and Interaction Design
May 12, 2009
I remember learning about Gestalt principles in my NYU design class – such simple but exceptionally powerful concepts once you got to understand them – every good designer should keep this in mind when creating. These are extremely valuable principles for interaction design, usability, information architecture, etc.
Here is an excerpt of a good article on Gestalt principles of form perception from http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/gestalt_principles_of_form_perception.html
- Law of proximity – when we perceive a collection of objects, we will see objects close to each other as forming a group.
- Law of similarity – The law of similarity captures the idea that elements will be grouped perceptually if they are similar to each other.
- Law of Prägnanz (figure-ground) - … the phenomenon captures the idea that in perceiving a visual field, some objects take a prominent role (the figures) while others recede into the background (the ground). The visual field is thus divided into these two basic parts.
- Law of symmetry -The law of symmetry captures the idea that when we perceive objects we tend to perceive them as symmetrical shapes that form around their centre. Most objects can be divided in two more or less symmetrical halves and when for example we see two unconnected elements that are symmetrical, we unconsciously integrate them into one coherent object (or percept).
- Law of closure – we perceptually close up, or complete, objects that are not, in fact, complete
Rockin RSS Feed
May 15, 2009
Andy Biggs rocks this beautiful site called “Voyage” which is an “RSS feeder that sorts the feeds based on data of each item posted.” Very nicely designed, fun and INTERACTIVE way of looking through feeds: http://www.rssvoyage.com/#RSS=loaded. Make sure to use your mouse wheel to scroll.
Well done Andy!
Seed Magazine is Spectacular
May 17, 2009
Along the lines of MSN’s “Spectra” and Andy Biggs “Voyage” this site is also using a color spectrum and fun way of displaying data visually.
http://www.seedmagazine.com/ui09/
Applying Direct Mail Tips to Email Marketing
May 18, 2009
Email is a very solid marketing tool that can give you a lot of bang for your buck from a cost, ease of use, measurement and relationship building perspective. Recently Advertising Age wrote an excellent article why email is kick-ass: “How E-mail Became a Direct-Marketing Rock Star in Recession“
In this post I will examine how traditional direct mail advertising can teach us lessons in email marketing.
Historically, DM was one of the few advertising tools in which you could directly measure success of a campaign and test different messaging/design to your audience. This was original “campaign optimization” –where based on response you could pick and choose the elements that were working to create the optimal advertisement for your prospects.
“Direct mail allows you to control your campaign and direct spending against those targets that are most likely to purchase your product or service. The first step is to run small test mailings to get a feel for your baseline response rates. Subsequent mailings can try different things such as a different mail piece design, modified copy or new mailing lists.” – http://www.postcardsmart.com/testing_tutorial4.php
Success rates are considered to be 1-2% for direct mail and email.
There are a lot of correlations and success metrics that can be applied to email marketing from direct mail:
Here are some tips from Tom Egelhoff in “Direct Mail: Formula for Success” and my comments on how that applies to email
http://www.smalltownmarketing.com/formula.html:
- “You need a good list to mail to.”
– that is very valid for e-mail marketing as well - “There must be an offer that your customers will want to respond to.”
– a key to a successful email marketing campaign - “You must take advantage of the postal rates the USPS (United States Postal Service) offers.” .
- from an email marketing perspective that corresponds to using a cost-effective and reliable e-mail marketing platform
In regards to calculating revenue Tom suggests:
This can be used for e-mail marketing your cost being that of designing and writing the piece and paying for the e-mail marketing platform tool, list acquisition, etc.
“Here is First, the amount of revenue you want your mailing to achieve.
Second, your closing ratio. 100 customers see the product, 50 buy it, your closing ratio is 50%. Here is your formula for computing number of direct mail pieces needed to produce a specific revenue amount.
To Achieve A Revenue Goal of $10,000 if the average sale is $50.00
Average sale = $50.00
x close ratio = 50%
x response rate = 1%
divided into Revenue Goal ($10,000)
= Number of Direct Mail Pieces Needed
Would be:
$50.00 x 50% x 1% = 0.25
divided into 10,000 = 40,000 pieces”
I have worked with the below email platforms in the past and found them to be very useful from a targeting, list management, measurement and programming perspective however, there are tons of excellent platforms available based on your needs:
- Responsys
- Constant Contact
- Market First
More cool data visualization sites – do you Digg it?
May 19, 2009
Check out these cool sites from Digg Labs – some more great examples of data visualization. I definetly DIGG it A LOT.
Pics
“Digg Pics tracks the activity of images on the site. Images slide in from the left as people Digg and submit them.”
Arc
“Digg Arc displays stories, topics, and containers wrapped around a sphere. Arcs trail people as they Digg stories across topics. Stories with more Diggs make thicker arcs.”
BigSpy
“Digg BigSpy places stories at the top of the screen as they are dugg. As new stories are dugg, older stories move down the list. Bigger stories have more Diggs.”
Stack
“Digg Stack shows diggs occurring in real time on up to 100 stories at once. Diggers fall from above and stack up on popular stories. Brightly colored stories have more Diggs.”
Swarm
“Digg Swarm draws a circle for stories as they’re dugg. Diggers swarm around stories, and make them grow. Brightly colored stories have more Diggs.”
In today’s ever evolving media model the channels that can get you noticed do not have to cost millions of dollars. You can actually market yourself/company/product for a very affordable price tag – what you need is good content, clever strategy and consistency – an “always on campaign” works best!
Recently I heard about Groupon a very cool concept that I tried. Basically it’s a daily deal on a product or service with a kick. I bought a facial session for a great price and the salon told me the “goupon/coupon” campaign was such a success that they were booked solid. Nice! That is what I like to hear. They have a special program that’s a win win for businesses – if they don’t have enough people signing up for the groupon to validate the cost of the discount – the deal does not go through – its risky but smart.
Groupon is based on an original model that they used for fund-raising. “Whether you’re asking people to do something or give money, people only contribute if they think it makes a difference. On The Point, all campaigns have a “tipping point” — people pledge to give money or do something, but no one does a thing until the conditions are met to make contributions worthwhile. That way, you can gather all the resources needed to be successful before anyone is asked to take action. The Point aims to fix the problems with online petitions, mass letter-writing tools, or many fund-raising efforts — it’s not clear how participation translates into results.”
What I love about this company besides the fact that I REALLY DIG clever entrepreneurs is that it was started on good intentions – trying to help do-gooders have a platform for their causes. Check out their story: http://blog.thepoint.com/category/groupon/
Next I will talk about: Daily Candy, UrbanDaddy and HitList
Cheerio
Wolfram is howling!
May 22, 2009
The new search engine tool that is “possibly a rival to Google” has gone live. “Wolfram Alpha is called a computation knowledge engine rather than a search engine and wants to change the way people use online data. It aims to give people direct answers to queries rather than send them to other sites where they may find what they are seeking.” “Typically the results it returns are annotated pages of data rather than a simple list of other sites that might help resolve a user’s query.” – BBC.
The new engine reminds me of Askjeeves.com that attempted to do something similar but was based on a different technology.
I conducted some “simple” and “complex” searches in Google and Wolfram and below is a sample of two.
Question: The number of websites on the internet.

With Google I got my answer within one click and it gave me suggestions (I love that feature):
With Wolfram the result was a message saying “Wolfram|Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input.” – so I never got my result.
Search: Population of Manhattan

With a simple data question Wolfram did great and Google took a bit of digging through the Wikipedia link to find my answer.
My conclusion for now and you never know what the next beta versions of Wolfram will bring is that Wolfram reminds me more of a library reference tool but definitely not a replacement to Google, more of a companion – which might have been their aim.
Sweetness of DailyCandy
May 26, 2009
Here is another (check out my Groupon post from 5/21) cool email newsletter. DailyCandy has been around since 2000 and has 2.6 million subscribers.
“DailyCandy, a free daily e-mail newsletter and website, is the ultimate insider’s guide to what’s hot, new, and undiscovered from fashion and style to gadgets and travel. As useful as it is entertaining, it’s like getting an e-mail from your clever, unpredictable, and totally in-the-know best friend.” – http://www.bizjournals.com/gen/company.html?gcode=2EC1676A72B647588B29E645345A0732
The founder Dany Levy started the email blast after pitching the idea to Lucky as its online companion but they passed and she decided to pursue it on her own – a very smart move (I love entrepreneurs). Check out more of her bio here http://mycrains.crainsnewyork.com/40under40/profiles/2007/10022. “She sold a controlling stake in the business to the private investment firm Pilot Group in 2003 for $3.5 million.” -http://gawker.com/tag/daily-candy/ Pilot group then sold the newsletter to Comcast for $125 Million 8 months ago. Nice profit
Below is information from their media kit: http://www.dailycandy.com/mediakit/:
“Dailycandy began with e-mail addresses of mostly friends and family and turned into 2.6 million subscriptions in only nine years by primarily word of mouth. Deeply passionate about their discoveries, subscribers rely on DailyCandy for the latest products, services, trends and ideas and then spread the news with a zeal that makes them a nearly unparalleled marketing machine.”
Demographic Info:
96% | Female
62% | Under 35
92% | College Grads
32 | Median age
$78 | Median HHI
Readers are:
Devoted 95% read it every day or almost every day
Generous 61% forward articles to their friends regularly
Shoppers 75% bought something they read about on DailyCandy
Influencers 77% see it first and tell others about what’s new and cool
Business Blogging
May 28, 2009
Check this article out for some good rules to follow when blogging for bizznesss:
http://www.ackermannpr.com/blog/?p=307
Here are some excerpts from the article:
1. Make sure your blog’s content offers real value to visitors
2. Avoid explicit marketing on your blog
3. Create a branded franchise for your blog
4. Follow through on blog readers’ expectations
Web Award Sites
June 1, 2009
Here is a good list of website related award sites that I found on this LinkedIn Discussion:
- http://www.thefwa.com/
- http://www.webbyawards.com/
- http://www.oneclub.org/
- http://www.website-awards.net/
- http://www.webaward.org/
- http://www.standoutawards.com/
- http://www.worldbestwebsites.com/
- http://www.dopeawards.com/
- http://websitedesignawards.com/
- http://www.creativewebsiteawards.com/
- http://www.designlicks.com/
- List of Awards by dates: http://exaltcreativity.blogspot.com/search/label/Web%20Awards
- http://www.fitc.ca/
- http://www.sxsw.com/
- http://max.adobe.com/awards/
- ID: http://www.id-mag.com/designawardwinners/
- http://www.horizoninteractiveawards.com
- http://www.promaxbda.org
- Use valuable free tools BUT make sure you are creating useful content that is interesting to your existing or potential clients.
For example- Facebook Fan pages, Twitter accounts, Ning social networks, Google and Yahoo business listing are free but insanely valuable. - Be very selective and request to see stats on the ones you have to pay for (Citysearch, Yelp, etc.) – make sure it’s a good ROI on your time and money
- Use Google Adwords – it’s as cheap as $50 bucks a month but can bring a lot of traffic to your site with good promotions/specials, etc.
- Keep content fresh through all your channels (website, social networks, adwords, etc).
- Have a person on your team dedicated to digital weekly marketing – preferably one that can write well and acts as your content administrator
- Promotions and coupons work very well and can be posted in many places for free (e.g. business coupon on your Google business listing)
- Have a simple, user friendly and intuitive website (SEO compatible) that has the latest updates/coupons, etc for your bizz
- Create a community around you client base and keep them updated with extra perks (for example recipes for a restaurant, special promotions, etc) via email newsletter.
Contact me for additional strategy and tips at illygdigital@yahoo.com or ilana@coopcreative.com
Impressions of Internet Week
June 4, 2009
With all the ups and downs and the stress of living in New York city – events like Internet Week make me feel warm and fuzzy again. If you are a lover of the industry this is the opportunity to get a sense of the digital pulse – who, what and what’s next. The other amazing opportunity is of course to meet the industry peeps. There are tons of free and very valuable events. I wish I had time to go to all of them but I have too many digital duties @ the job.
So far I went to >
- StartupAlpha.com
- Ignite
- SOCIAL MEDIA: The Impact of Social Media on Culture and the Economy
- Venture Capital Bootcamp
These are some of the topics I thought were very interesting >
- Creating a community around the evangelists’ of your brand:
Taking the time to congregate and have evangelists discuss your products in person – the example used was the Kindle – when someone is interested in seeing and playing with the product – an Amazon brand evangelist actually meets you in your city and shows it to you ! That is such an awesome way to create a community around your brand and have a real person talk to you about the products cool and dweebie features.
- There was also an awesome presentation at Ignite about the power of “viral” done by an editor from Onion whose name I need to find. He created a character called “The Swine Flu” on Twitter and Facebook and got a huge following by writing clever copy that played on the various social aspects of Facebook and Twitter and used “The Swine Flu” as a “voice” accompanied by some great images.


- Perry Chan had a nice concept with the site kickstart.com – which helps you raise money for your ventures
- Amazon and Mims – more on this tomorrow
- The Social Media event in Time Warner had a lot of informative discussions such as Twitter and Facebook pages becoming almost a replacement for companies regular sites and the enormous overall impact of social media for business
More on these items and the Venture Capital Event I attended tonight will be in tomorrow’s posting.
Good Night
The Digital | Interactive Future
June 6, 2009
Along the lines of Microsoft Surface comes this new invention – this is the future! Check out this amazing “product”.
Web Based Video is Hot
June 10, 2009
Web based video is becoming more and more popular. With the explosion of Hulu and YouTube – video content on the web is everywhere “By the end of 2013, the equivalent of 10 billion DVDs worth of information will cross the Net monthly, according to a report issued today by Cisco Systems”. I believe that using video components should be an integral part of building current websites and digital AD/PR campaigns – it adds a greater dimension and entertainment factor and an easier way to demonstrate a product or service, etc.
Here are some good tips for YouTube Channels/Campaigns from the article “5 Ways to Kill a YouTube Campaign“:
• “Clear Proposition” – consistent messaging
• “Links” – including links to appropriate places on your website inside your video
• “Regular Contribution” – just as with any campaign, blog, etc – your contribution should be consistent
• “Title Research”- “Don’t be lazy researching the right title. Forget Youtube tags for the moment and concentrate on finding a great keyword heavy title. It’s the most powerful thing for people to find you through search.”
• “Sex” – Keep the sexiness factor on the down low. “Too sexy thumbnails will get your video algorithmically demoted. Make the Thumbnail compelling as 43% of Youtube users say that if it is it encourages them to watch it.”
Check out this innovative way of creating a “website” using YouTube (cool nav):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elo7WeIydh8
The Story of a Webtacular Idea: YouTube
June 11, 2009
I really like featuring internet success stories on this blog because I totally dig people who take an idea and make it into something truly innovative, useful and empowering. They follow their passions, create a killer business and become millionaires to boot! So to follow my web based video post from yesterday – here is the story of YouTube:
The company was started by three PayPal employees – Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim who got frustrated over the difficulty of sharing a video shot at a dinner party. They were all in their 20’s when they founded the company in 2005 (Chad 28, Steve 27 and Jawed 26). The domain name was registered on February 15, 2005 and the site launched in May. YouTube received an $11.5 million investment from Sequiua Capital to help finance the business. They were instantly popular and the sites viral elements (embeds, tell-a-friend, e-mail, etc.) were a huge component to spreading its popularity via WOM (word of mouth). Voting also added another huge dimension to video sharing and creating a community.
Google acquired the company in 2006 for $1.65 billion in Google’s stock. Wowzaa!
Of course the company like Napster has had huge issues with copyright infringement but overall they have come out in a pretty decent shape by offering profit sharing, etc. with various content providers.
The future:
“In November 2008, YouTube reached an agreement with MGM, Lions Gate Entertainment and CBS which will allow the companies to post full-length films and television shows on the site, accompanied by advertisements. The move is intended to create competition with websites such as Hulu, which features material from NBC, Fox, and Disney” –> I wonder how companies such as Netflix will respond to this type of model.
Not a bad outcome for three dudes in their 20s who were just trying to share a video! This is what makes the internet such a powerful opportunity for entrepreneurs – it presents so many business options. And YouTube is the classic case of a service designed by the “necessity which is the mother of invention” principal.
• Fun Fact:
Top watched video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=CA&hl=en&v=dMH0bHeiRNg&feature=related (121,027,858 views)
In regards to advertising:
“Over the summer and fall of 2007 major announcements were made about advertising models for YouTube. In August, YouTube introduced “YouTube InVideo Ads”, a set of flash overlays displayed on the lower portion of videos. Advertisers are charged per impression, and the resulting revenue will be shared with the clip creator. In October, Google announced the inclusion of YouTube videos in its AdSense product. Site owners using AdSense can select videos from certain content providers, and ads will be served contextually as they relate to either the site or the video. Resulting revenue will be split between content providers, site owners, as well as Google.”
References for this post:
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles6/youtube-success.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/youtube
Badda BING Badda Bang
June 15, 2009
The search industry in getting hotter with recent launches such as Wolfram and now Microsoft’s “Bing”. Microsoft launched an ad campaign “which depicts the Google search experience as causing ’search overload’ compared to Bing, which is a more simplistic and relevant ‘decision engine’.”
The article “Thoughts on Bing and Search Engines of the Future, From UW Computer Scientist Dan Weld” does a good job of describing what sets Bing apart.
“When you think of search, everyone thinks about Google, and maybe Yahoo, but there are many other kinds of search, like people searches (you can think about Facebook as a people search), travel search (Kayak and Expedia), health information sites. You can think about Wikipedia as providing a search for encyclopedic information. Shopping searches—Amazon is great in part because it makes it easy to find so much information about the products, and reviews of products. All of these are examples of vertical search experiences. Instead of having wide coverage, you have a better experience within a narrow range.
Bing has tried to marry those things into an integrated wide search experience. All of the engines have been doing this. If you do a search on Google for a movie, you might see information about show times and trailers at the top, for example. Bing has gone further in some directions than people have gone before, in this aspect. If you look at their tabbed pane, it lets you look at different kinds of information right there.”
“All the engines are trying to do it, but the way Microsoft has done it with Bing is somewhat better than what Google has done. With the shopping tab, you get a faceted interface, meaning you can narrow your search using categorical information, restricting yourself to a particular brand or price range. Those facets are specific to the object you’re searching.”
For factual information it really seems that Wolfram is the leader (possibly a big hit with students) but for general searches Google and Bing seem to be better solutions.
“Evolution Web 1.0, Web 2.0 to Web 3.0″
June 18, 2009
More Cool Information Graphics and Data Visualization
June 19, 2009
As you might have seen in a couple of my posts I love info graphics and data visualization. Here is a great post on the topic from Abduzeedo: http://abduzeedo.com/beauty-infographics-and-data-visualization
Here are some of the examples he listed:
http://awesome.goodmagazine.com/transparency/web/0904/trans0409obama100days.html
http://awesome.goodmagazine.com/transparency/web/trans0209whodruggedmydrink.html
http://awesome.goodmagazine.com/transparency/009/trans009onwords.html
- Cool way to visualize Twitter conversations
Free Content Management Systems
June 19, 2009
Check out this useful post from Spyre Studios about great and FREE CMS systems:
http://spyrestudios.com/free-content-management-systems/
What an awesome new way to search! Check out this cool new engine called Spezify that places your search results in one panel – aggregating images, articles, reviews, Twitter, etc. Super cool!
Examples of Minimalist Site Design
June 22, 2009
This is a great article that compiles a list of 50 minimalist site designs. I love the beautiful use of typography and grid structure that a lot of these exemplify:
http://line25.com/articles/50-inspiring-examples-of-minimalism-in-web-design
5 Digital Production Tips
June 24, 2009
1. NEVER ASSUME A DIGITAL PROJECT IS SIMPLE
If anyone – your client, colleague, boss, etc. tells you that a digital project is simple (and should not take too long, require too many resources, not be too expensive, etc) – take a second look and do some research. PRETTY MUCH NO DIGITAL PROJECT IS EVER EASY and needs to be very detailed in its scope, planning, budget and timeline.
2. THE STATEMENT OF WORK SHOULD BE AS DETAILED AND CLEAR AS POSSIBLE
Make sure to do a lot of due diligence in scoping out what exactly your client is looking for and write out a very detailed statement of work with clear deliverables.
What are the clients business objectives and strategic goals? Since digital is an ever evolving medium and things are changing constantly – your client might want to be “cool” and think they need a Facebook page and a widget but that might not be their best solution or just a part of it – show them some examples and take their temperature for what they really like and need.
3. CREATE REALISTIC TIMELINES AND DON’T OVER PROMISE THINGS YOU CAN NOT DELIVER.
Create some general ballpark timelines for your clients when pitching – for example, complex microsite – 4 months, rich media banner ad campaign – 2 months, youtube channel – 1 month, complex widget – 6 months, etc. Then once you create a detailed timeline make sure to review the various phases with them in detail so that they understand why things take a certain amount of time and have realistic expectations. Have a disclaimer that timelines increase based on more complex technical scope changes, delayed client reviews, etc.
If you are building on an existing platform or using vendors, etc. – make sure that you have a kickoff with them to see what their turnaround time and technical specifications are like.
4. DON’T JUST JUMP INTO DESIGN AND PRODUCTION.
If possible break your timelines and fees into 2 phases:
#1. Discovery and Requirements and #2. IA, Design, Production, QA.
This way you can really do your due diligence on discovery interviews, persona development, usability – to really understand what features, content, etc. your project should really entail that would best serve the needs of your client and their user base.
5. MAKE SURE TO PUT TOGETHER THE RIGHT TEAM
Just like creating the perfect dish requires the right ingredients and measurements the team can make or break your project.
Here are some roles that I think are essential for most digital/interactive projects.
- Interaction Designer – for wireframes, ID, sitemaps, possibly functionality, etc (usability and interaction are very important and often left out)
- Digital graphic designer
- Digital copywriter
- Producer – to manage your project
- Strategist/Planner – for overall vision and future phase development of the project
- Programmer – this is VERY important – there are a BILLION disciplines within programming – scope out the requirements you are looking for – Flash Developer or Flash Designer or both, PHP, HTML. Java Script………and the list goes on and on and on.
- Analytics and measurement analyst – reporting – setting up pixels, tracking etc. and conducting reporting on the success or failure of the project once completed
Hope this helps
Google to Launch Free Digital Education Portal
June 24, 2009
Google is starting a new digital education portal called AgencyLand that is currently in beta testing at a few agencies. Check out this article from Advertising Age for more info: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=137473
Rest in Peace MJ! You will be missed!
June 26, 2009
A true enterpenuer, music/dance genius and innovator!
Cannes Lions (My) Cyber Favorites Part II
June 30, 2009
Cannes Lions Interactive Agency of the Year
“This award is given to the agency that obtains the highest score for entries in the Cyber Lions sections, irrespective of whether these have been entered by the agency or another party.”
1. GOODBY SILVERSTEIN & PARTNERS, San Francisco, USA
2. CRISPIN PORTER & BOGUSKY, Boulder, USA
3. BOONDOGGLE, Leuven, Belgium
Link to the Cannes Lions Cyber award winners: http://work.canneslions.com/cyber/
Some More of My Favorite Winners:
http://www.wwpl.net/awards2009/EnvironmentalDefenseFund/links/polarBear.html
Environmental Defense Fund – what a masterly orchestrated way of getting the message of global warming and Polar Bear endangerment across
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQlzX7EyIwU
Samsung Omnia – awesome viral video that poses as a homemade video of a techie with a serious spin
http://www.interachtung.com/snake/pieza_ficticio/index.html
Greenpeace – great email campaign that uses a simple image to send a big message
http://www.llr-hamburg.de/germanwings-wifi/
German Wings – cool idea of using wifi as a marketing tool
http://work.canneslions.com/cyber/?award=3 -
Old Spice – nicely done platform and interface that pumps up a users life through the search engines (I couldn’t actually complete it because its only for males – pooof)
http://www.cyberentries.com/sprint_now/
Sprint – “world’s most elaborate widget”
http://work.canneslions.com/cyber/?award=3
AC/DC– Talk about going digitally where your users hang out. A video and navigation embedded within Excel
http://work.canneslions.com/cyber/?award=3
Radio Head – a beautiful website that reminds me of data visualization sites; except this one is doing it with video.

















As much as I am deeply saddened by the insane speed of decline of newspapers and magazines and the eroding state of journalism – I am thrilled that the power of digital is helping to spread the word of the masses. Everyone who has a desire to speak about a cause, business, corporation, politician, etc. – now has a voice that cannot be silenced. That is extremely powerful and comforting! This creates a demand for transparency from all sides of the spectrum from politicians to corporations – otherwise if you are doing something shady someone will let the cat out of the bag and once she is out she will breed A LOT of kittens! Now, that said – journalism is a profession I highly respect and the objectivity and due diligence of fact checking that it requires cannot be replicated by most none-journalists. I think the best scenario would be to somehow find a combination of the two for information such as news, analysis, etc. There has been a lot of talk on models to monetize content for both newspapers online and “professional blogs” but that is a separate and very complicated topic.







