July 29th, 2009
Blank canvas
I have started a project that I have been meaning to start for some time, developing a one-of-a-kind skate board deck for my son who loves to rip it up at the skate park. I am starting from this extra white deck I picked up last year. Follow me every week as I progress to see where I land with the design. Currently I am thinking of blending a bit of the preppy stripes you would see on a Ralph Lauren polo shirt and a rough hand style illustration of some sort. A little of the refined with the unrefined. Check back next week!
Posted by: Eric Posted in: Art, Culture, Design, Interactive
Tags: Design, Ralph Lauren
July 27th, 2009
Any web designer or developer who faces the daunting task of making the sites they build function and look like their original design in any version of Internet Explorer feels the same loathing and distaste I feel for Microsoft. Their utter lack of support of web standards is a punch in the gut to every designer or developer who cares about delivering a rich and consistent experience to anyone visiting the sites they build. Sure Firefox has taken the lead, but the fact remains that over 40% of usage is some version of IE and the fact that nearly 15% of users out there still use IE6, well that makes me want to cry, scream, and chuck things (don’t worry…soft things: pillows, feathers, anything Nerf).
But throwing so much hate at Microsoft is like hating air. We need air, and we need Microsoft (at least for now) even if that air is polluted and smells a little bit like a 2-day old cheese sandwich someone left under your couch. I think it’s going to get better and here’s why: good old-fashioned competition.
The Invisible Hand of Adam Smith is reaching under the couch and grabbing the stinky cheese sandwich and at least thinking of throwing it out. The air feels a tiny bit cleaner….did someone spray some Febreeze….uh-huh, uh-huh….I think they did. Microsoft is being forced to adapt, to change, to come out into the open and actually give its customers good things. Microsoft will someday have to give its users what they want as opposed to the other way around.
What makes me think this? A couple weeks ago when Google announced its browser based operating system for netbooks I felt a small stitch of schadenfreude. Dictionary.com defines “schadenfreude” as “satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else’s misfortune.” Say the words “new operating system” and throw in the fact that it is Google saying it and I guarantee the suits at Microsoft begin to sweat (a little bit more). And to me this feels good, real good.
Sure, this operating system is intended for netbooks only, or small computers with little processing power or hard drive space, the fact remains that someday very soon even a small segment of the population will be using another operating system not built by Microsoft. This is a great thing. It means even more competition.
But what about Apple and OS X you might ask? Well, Apple makes an amazing operating system, and we know they support web standards. Their browser Safari, is based on the WebKit layout engine and so is Chrome, Google’s browser and the basis for their new operating system. However, the fact remains, OS X only holds about 5% of the operating system market worldwide. What Apple needs, and what we all need is more movement and more effort to releasing Microsoft’s steely grip on the operating system market, and the release of another new operating system, especially by a huge player like Google, is a small step in that direction.
Google’s complete domination of search forced Microsoft to go back to the drawing board, and they came back with Bing, which is gaining at least some favorable reviews. Perhaps even the likes of Google Docs or OpenOffice is forcing Microsoft to rethink how people will use software (as a web service) and how they pay for software (free, open source).
So, you might ask, why care? Just use a different operating system, use another browser, use anything other than what is offered by Microsoft. That sounds fine and dandy and I can do that in my personal life, but as a web professional, I just can’t. I have to care what any of my potential web site visitors use, and I know that a lot of them are using Microsoft products. Also as someone who loves the internet, who has based his career and thus life on it, I hope, need, wish and pray that there can be something better out there than what Microsoft is currently offering.
I can start telling people that if they continue using IE6 that someday soon their computers will melt, locust will infest their homes, and their friends will just stop liking them. I can tell people they would be happier if they bought a Mac. OR, Microsoft could simply begin to build better products and thanks to our good friend competition I think they will, and this is the really important part, if they don’t I think we all lose.
Software as we know it today is moving to the cloud. Cloud computing is here now and people are using it without even really thinking about it thanks to the likes of Facebook and Twitter just to name a couple of big and trendy sites and/or ideas/concepts. That said, and I will use a very technical term here, if the browser we use to connect to the cloud SUCKS, then the experience overall is going to suck too. If the big brains and the cool designers who will re-invent the web and essentially computing itself cannot deliver the same or similar experience to all users then that is going to limit the overall impact. Sure, the hipsters and the geeks will understand and revel in this new web, but what about your parents? (They’re just different kind of geeks.) What about the average, everyday person who thinks they have the latest and greatest technology — who boots up their new Vista-based machine, opens IE8 and all of a sudden it’s just giant cheese-sandwich under the sofa time? Stinky, cheesy air, sucky browser, bad experience and they might not even know any better. I want web standards, consistent user experience and a delicious, fresh cheese sandwich (oh and maybe some of those Sun Chips, yeah those are real good), I want the web to be able to grow unencumbered by products designed not to innovate but to protect turf and market share, which are forced on the unknowing (or the uncaring?).
So either Microsoft is going to do this on their own (won’t happen) or the market will force them to do it (happening now). So let’s all hope for Microsoft’s “misfortune”, and every time an innovator big or small takes a chunk out of Microsoft’s market position let’s all feel a little “satisfaction or pleasure.” We’re all going to better off….even Microsoft.
Mmmmm….Schadenfreude.
Posted by: Damon Posted in: Design, Interactive, Internet, Web
Tags: Apple, Browsers, Design, Google, Interactive, Internet, Microsoft, Web, Web Standards
July 9th, 2009
I love this photo of my son Harrison. When he was about 3 years old, already a huge fan of Spiderman, he got an opportunity to have his picture taken with the one and only. At least that was the case in his mind. I love the fact that he is all nervous with excitement cause he is actually that close to Spiderman, the crime fighting web slinger so widely publicized. The nervous excitement is obvious with his fists clinched and his contained smile. After all, In his mind, at that time, this was actually Spiderman and nothing would convince him otherwise. unbeknown to him this was actually a friend of ours dressed up as a promo to drive moms into my wife’s kids clothing store with their Spiderman crazed boys. The perception was the rule that day for my son who talk about this encounter for days. We were all kids once and this is not hard to believe. The idea of what is perceived is based in reality permeates all of use beyond our childhood days.
That is the key idea behind good brands. To control perception that their product or service is the best out there and that it promises more than their competitors. All to often you see this perception not live up to reality, when you believe the brand to be one way and it turns out to disappoint you. Target recently went through this when the in-store experience fell short of customer’s expectations. What consumers had perceived the store experience to be based on the fancy designer ads that touted designer wares was not what the customers thought was an equal promise. Some people were so disappointed that they had filed law suites because Target was not living up to their promises. When done right and the perception is controlled brands endure a long life and cross generation gaps as trusted staples in consumer’s daily lives. A good example of this is Nike and Starbucks. Perceptions are fickle and can have negative affects that are hard to reverse. Take the US auto manufacturers for example.
It is undeniable that the US automakers had created a romance between man and machine. From the early days, when mass production made cars that the masses could afford, to the incredibly styled coach builds that graced Hollywood during the golden age, up through the ’50s and ’60s when the American car companies were the envy of the world. But something happened that changed everything in the minds of the American public. A period of greed ran through the companies and it was whomever could build the cheapest cars the fastest without any concern for what the consumer wanted. The mentality of “…the consumer will buy what ever we build cause we are the leaders in the industry…” was the mind set of the top brass. Mix that with the economic turmoil and the gas crunch of the late ’70s and you have created a great opportunity for new entries in the industry—the Japanese paradigm. The Japanese came in with unusual cars that were small and quirky. But they where cheap and fuel efficient. exactly what the consumers needed and eventually wanted. The Japanese automakers changed the perception of quality and efficiency. Ever since that time this stigma that American cars were of low quality had set into the minds of people and that perception continues today. It has taken a great deal of effort and expense for the US automakers to shake this perception but still has not overcome it. The fact is that today they create autos with equal if not better quality than foreign automakers that are perceived to have a higher quality product.
We all share in the perception of life and a lot of times it is not what we think it is. We live in an age where we receive a lot of information at our finger tips and sometimes it is easier to believe what you hear and see than taking the time to find the truth. But sometimes that is okay, like my son, believing there is someone he can look up to that creates a feeling of wonder and amazement. And, in his mind, maybe one day he can do the same thing for others.
Posted by: Eric Posted in: Culture
July 6th, 2009
A Scion Marketing team was in Denver over the weekend with an original marketing idea. As opposed to the traditional way of car shopping by visiting dealerships, Scion brought their fleet of cars to the streets of downtown Denver. The Scion Street Team set up camps at various locations allowing people to test drive their cars around the block. In order to lure more pedestrians to drive their cars, they offered gift certificates to the various store fronts that allowed them to set up camp out front of their locations. These locations included: City, O’ City, Tokyo Joe’s and Wax Trax.
Although this may seem like a unique concept, many of the people taking part in this event had no interest what so ever in any of the Scion vehicles. People were asked to test drive one of their cars and then fill out a survey on their perception of the Scion’s xD, xB, and tC, in exchange for a free gift certificate. People hastily filled out the surveys, not taking them seriously, just to get their “free money”. In other words, the businesses that participated seemed to be reaping the benefits of Scion’s advertising attempt.
Many of the street team members were fairly in tune with the fact the people had no real interest in their cars. So they allowed people to skip the test drive, incompletely fill out the survey and get them on their merry way. Scion also hired professional drivers to accompany the few people that actually took advantage of the test drive, who seemed especially unenthusiastic “baby sitting” these drivers.
To me, Scion’s plan completely failed. I believe I would be hard pressed to find anyone who felt differently about the cars after having driven them. City, O’ City, Tokyo Joe’s and Wax Trax definitely experienced a surplus of business from the over-the-top marketing campaign. It seemed all parties that participated in this event benefited, except for Scion.
Posted by: Rebecca Posted in: Advertising
Tags: City, O' City, Scion, tC, Tokyo Joe's, Wax Trax, xB, xD
