blog

As I sit here and write this post, it’s been a crazy week in the digital world. Come to think of it, it’s been a crazy month…a crazy summer…a crazy year…ahhh, I digress.

As I’m sure you’re aware (I make that assumption because you are reading this blog), Facebook announced and released “Places” this week — yesterday, actually. If you follow the industry at all, this has been a long time coming. Nevertheless, this is facebook’s entrance cannonball (from the high-dive) into the location space.

I’ve already heard all kinds of things about how “this is going to kill foursquare” and “Yelp’s in trouble” and…blah blah blah, but that’s not what I want to write about.

Foursquare is growing like a weed to the tune of roughly three million users. Gowalla is the consensus #2 player in the industry, and they’re just under 400,000 users. Despite some great national partnerships on both counts, neither has really reached mainstream in terms of awareness, let alone acceptance.

So…here’s the thing:

Facebook is in a place unlike anyone before them. Facebook isn’t a search giant like Google and they’re not a shopping giant like Amazon. Rather, Facebook is a one-stop destination for its visitors to consume what they want to consume and interact with whom they want to interact. More than that, Facebook is a change agent:

Facebook is well on it’s way to well over $1.2 billion (BILLION…that’s nine zeros) in revenue. They are in such a strong position that they acquire whole companies just for their talent — Facebook is assembling the most diverse, forward thinking, intelligent team imaginable. You’re not a success when you’re on facebook’s radar…because EVERYONE is on their radar. There hasn’t been a startup making noise of any kind in the last 24 months that Facebook hasn’t been aware of. That said, it’s fair to say that you’ve made it when Facebook implements your core functionality into their own product.

First, Twitter knew they “made it” when Facebook implemented the News Feed, “@” mentions and all.
Then, Aardvark and Quora knew they “made it” when Facebook announced Questions.
and now…foursquare know’s they’ve “made it” because Facebook has announced Places.

I don’t say those things to badmouth Facebook — I say those things in awe of Facebook. I marvel at their agility. They’re not set in their ways, they’re not afraid to fail, and they’ve got more money than they could EVER spend and they can pivot on a dime — all the while maintaining commitment to an overarching vision and a dedication to their culture.

Up until this week, they’ve only been on the web. As of yesterday, with the announcement of places, they’re in the real world. They’ve taken a market with unlimited potential, validated by both success and competition of players like Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt, and they’ve shifted the paradigm. It wasn’t but two weeks ago that I published this tweet, and the ability of facebook to expose emerging trends to an enormous audience is exactly why. Facebook, and this is part of the reason I’m in awe of them, continually pushes the envelope, bringing new trends (what’s next) to the mainstream…to mass audiences…exponentially faster than anyone else could dream of.

I’ve tried and tried to get my “non-digital” friends to use fourquare and/or gowalla for the last eighteen monts and I’ve received nothing but ridicule in return and so i realize that, sometimes, no matter how great the reason, people are just too set in their ways to adopt change — unless, of course, you force them to.

For that, I simply say…Thanks, Facebook. I don’t care what anyone else says about you, I think you’re doing great things.

Last week my co-worker, Jamie Timm, forwarded the entire dynamIt team an article by John Battelle called ‘The Gap Scenario‘. I read it, and my mind was blown away by the possibilities he presented. So I started thinking how this particular situation could be applied to other everyday activities.

To quickly summarize the article, this quote from John Battelle gives you a good idea of where I’m about to go.

It’s been a longstanding thesis of mine that Google’s ability to reorder information in microseconds, based on our declared intent through a search query, has habituated us to expect an immediate and relevant response from nearly every website – and in particular, commercial sites. In time, I think this expectation will leak into realspace as well. Marketing is going to change in the next few years, in particular as it relates to the intersection of physical and digital spaces.

Much like John, I believe that in a handful of years this scenario I’m about to illustrate will be the norm.

Imagine you and a friend are out in a place much like the Arena District here in Columbus, you’re hungry, and looking for a good place to eat. With a plethora of options, you decide that you’d like to know what kinds of specials each bar/restaurant is having that evening. Using your smartphone, that can run many ambient apps simultaneously, you bring up a Yelp-like application and put it into Monocle mode. What this augmented reality app allows you to do is see real-time ads, specials, reviews, etc., of each place you are considering based off your location, before you even walk through the door.

Sticking with your guns, and finding no persuasive specials, you decide to go to one of your favorite spots. Like John mentioned, this where you and your friend have declared your intent, much like searching for this restaurant on Google.

What happens next is to be expected, since this is now the norm, your phone will vibrate in your pocket as you walk through the door. When you take it out of your pocket you are greeted with a message from the restaurant’s app, letting you know their daily specials, the possible wait time to be seated, or even if there are available seats at the bar. Not turned off by the wait, you and your friend decide to check in, which would add your name to the wait list, and also push out your location to all your favorite social networks if you have allowed that info to be shared.

During your wait you browse the restaurant’s application some more, and you’re able to see that a couple of your close friends have been here in the past couple days, and they ordered sea food…gross! You’re then alerted that if you “Like” the restaurants page on Facebook you could get 10% off your purchase tonight. Shortly after you get your discount via Facebook, the application notifies you again that your table is ready.

Now this is where the tables get turned. Once the server has confirmed your table is ready on her phone or tablet device, he or she is able to see that you’re a returning customer, all past interactions with the restaurant, how you like your burgers cooked, and any other data that you have agreed can be publicly known about you (like the 10% you’ll be getting off your meal tonight). These employees’ responsibilities have changed, their social IQ is high, and the experience has become much more personal.

If this were 8-10 years down the road, I’d say that Surface was deployed for commercial use, your phone connected via bluetooth, you ordered right there through a beautiful touch interface with your recent history/other applicable data starring you in the face. But I’ll keep it simple, and assume that ordering is still done the “old-fashioned way”.

You and your friend have been seated, and your server has taken your orders. Now imagine if the restaurant’s application would allow you to choose your server from a menu and sync with their phone/tablet device. Allowing you to notify him or her, with a touch of a button, that you need a refill on your Coke or that you’re ready for the check.

At last, you get your food, have a great meal with your friend, but now you’re ready to go. You notify the server through the app that you’re ready for the check, and instead of him or her bringing you a leather booklet, they hand you Square. Square is a mobile credit card transaction application, with a small credit card reader that connects directly to your smartphone through the headphone jack. You could then pay your check with the application, including tip, directly through your mobile device, without the weird handoff of your credit limit to a complete stranger.

After you confirm the payment, you leave the Square on the table, and head for the door. On your way out the application prompts you with a final message thanking you for visiting, and asking you if you want to leave a rating/review. But instead you decide to take a photo of you and your friend outside the restaurant, upload it to their fan page, tag it in Gowalla, and push that notification to Twitter, ha.

Think about all the elements that have to work together for a situation like this to unfold, or the app that seamlessly displays all that information in real-time. Seems somewhat far fetched while reading it, but the technology, platforms and information already exist. Tying it all together is the hard part, as well as finding that balance between personalization and being obtrusive. It’ll take a progressive brand like Gap to set the tone, and then hopefully other industries will see the results and follow suit. Bridging the gap between the digital and physical spaces is happening all the time, and hopefully “The Gap Scenario” or this restaurant experience, aren’t really that far fetched.

Putting together good site architecture is an important and often neglected element of building a website. With so much energy and focus devoted to strategy, design and development, it’s a facet of the web process that is easy to forget.

Good architecture creates an intuitive browsing experience. With good architecture, you’ll know what content a site provides and you’ll have a clear idea of where you “are” within a site. When users complain that a site is confusing, it’s often because the architecture was inappropriate for the content on the site. They might not be able to put their finger on what’s wrong, but they’re likely complaining about the site’s architecture.

I like to frame this topic by comparing site architecture to the Dewey Decimal System. The Dewey system is used in libraries to organize a large amount of information in a way that’s easy for a library patron to browse. Every book exists in a place that is appropriately labeled and grouped. Libraries use this system to overcome the challenges of information organization: website architects can use a similar set of rules when thinking about organizing information for a site.

Over the years, I’ve compiled a list of handy tips to keep in mind when thinking about the site architecture.

• Top-level navigation should provide a structure that houses every page on the website. The Dewey system has ten major categories that characterize all of the nonfiction content of the library. Each category is supplemented by a number of subcategories. Books fall within these categories and subcategories.
• Navigation should be consistent. Do not, under any circumstances, change the site’s main navigation on a page by page basis.
• Navigation labels should be clear, concise, and should not overlap with another label. Be sure that your top-level navigation items have appropriate labels that fairly characterize all of the content in the section.
• Like information belongs together. Group content on your site by the type of information.
• Every piece of unique content should exist in exactly one place in the site’s architecture. A particular book has one place where it logically lives and copies are not repeated in multiple sections.
• Don’t confuse emphasis with architecture. Just because something is an important call-to-action on the site does not mean it belongs in your top-level navigation labels. Make sure that any piece of information that is important enough to reference from a high-impact area on the site can be found through a logical path that starts with the navigation.
• Don’t use your audiences as architecture. Many of your audience segments will have needs from the site which overlap with another audience. Using your audiences as architecture will either trigger the need to duplicate content or promise more information than the section actually provides.

Take a look around, there are examples of good design all over. The icons on your computer screen, the street signs outside your window, the vitamin water on your desk, each are pulling for your attention so that you might notice them, interact with them, or even buy them. Have you ever really taken a step back, and thought about how the choices you make each and every day are influenced by design?

No matter the situation, the way something looks is the first thing that anyone has to form an opinion, liking or perception about. The first time you meet someone, before you know anything about them, you judge on appearance. When you are shopping for shoes, before you slip them on to test for comfort, you judge them by the way they look. Or even a web application, before you dive into it’s functionality and how it works, you judge it based on the design. The fact of the matter is, good design is valuable, because it influences these perceptions, and ultimately your choices.

Recently I was having a conversation with the newest member of the dynamIt team, Andy Hutter, who had just purchased a new TV for his place. So I asked him which television he chose. He said that his decision came down to an LG or Panasonic, and he ended up choosing the LG because of how slick it looked. Two televisions comparable in price, picture, size and specs, but Andy chose the LG because of it’s design.

Design on the web is no different. People will form lasting opinions about a company or organization based on the way their site looks, and make choices based on that. Users make nearly instantaneous judgments of a web site’s visual appeal. These impressions impact perceived credibility, usability, and ultimately influence purchasing decisions. Web users form first impressions of web pages in as little as 50 milliseconds (1/20th of a second), according to Canadian researchers. Check out this article that highlights a study on the “halo effect” and “cognitive bias“, supporting the theory of first impressions in web design.

Sometimes it can be hard for designers to make clients understand the value of good design. A lot of companies/organizations settle with a free template, a site done in Frontpage, or having their secretary’s son do it because he is a computer science major. There is a ton of value in investing in a good web presence, because it’s a lot more than just making a pretty page on the interwebs.

It Will Improve Your Company Image

Visual communication is an integral part of a customer’s experience of a company or product, and it plays a key role in building a brand image.

It Helps Reach Company Goals

Good design is backed with a strategy. Our process at dynamIt allows us to discover a client’s objectives with thorough strategy, and this leads to design solutions that push to accomplish company goals for the future.

It Establishes Trust

Many studies have shown that the design of an unfamiliar ecommerce site will greatly impact the decision making process when a user goes to buy a product. I know that when I go to buy something online, if the site design sucks, I’m leaving.

You Will Stand Out Among Competitors

There is a lot crap on the web. I think this is pretty straight forward.

Even though your site may have superior products and services, an initial negative impression from a poor design can steer customers towards your competition. You only get one chance to create a good first impression, make it count.

Are there other scenarios where design has influenced you?

yes, we made the internet. yes the internet is "remaking" us… to a degree… but the core understanding by those who "make internet" must still be adaptive to the human condition, consumption habits and expectations, no matter their status.

Internet from Jordan Clarke on Vimeo.