Simon joins Bienalto

So the life of a remote contractor can get pretty lonely at times. Especially so if your contract/client is on the other side of the world, in a different time zone.

So, its with only a very slight amount of regret, but a whole heap of excitement that I announce that I'm going back to full-time employment with boutique online marketing consultancy, Bienalto.

After meeting with Hurol Inan (MD) and a few of the team I was very impressed with their knowledge, excitement for and pride in the work they do for their clients.

I undertook a 2 day exercise on a live project, to review the navigational & functional requirements and overall layout of a member console. Obviously not going to let the cat outa the bag but will comment more when appropriate.

Shortly after completing that exercise I was offered the position and duly accepted.

So whilst I wont be taking on lengthy/time critical design work in the near future, I will be interested in taking on small, proof of concept style engagements that can be done more as a research project than fulltime. This is of course assuming that the work is not in direct conflict to my primary role as Snr UX Consultant with Bienalto.

Are we waving hello or goodbye to Google Wave?

So, a short and sweet post today.

Google Wave - that much vaunted breakthrough, disruptive technology that will change the nature of communication. Does anyone who has actually used Waves and has been in the industry for more than 5 minutes not have an underlying sense of DeJaVu?

From all the bumpf, all the rhetoric and hyped 'alpha launch' I get a distinct sense that Waves are just simply Sharepoint portals...just far better pitched at the 'consumer' and better overall marketing.

I'm awaiting my beta invitation, but from all the material that I've seen and read, I just don't get the feeling that this is a game changer, but I have been wrong in the past!!

Voice Over IP Software

So for those of you out there that dont know what VOIP is, you can read about it here.

BUT for those of you that do and that have or are using VOIP in your comms mix, I'd love to know about your experiences with any 'softphones' you have used...the desktop or device software that facilitates VOIP calls.

I personally have trialled 6 or so VOIP clients for Mac OSX and I finally settled on one called X-Lite.

Version 3 of the software (pictured above) was a cute and functional software solution. However, since the update to Mac OSX.6 (Snow Leopard) the V3 softphone stopped working.

X-Lite 4 Beta was released and I updated to that but I find it incredible that the updated software is significantly poorer in terms of User Experience than it predecessor.

Simply moving between missed calls, contacts list, redial, previous calls and simple functions are a pain in the ass, requiring the use of application level menus and nested options.

So, I'm asking everyone who has experience with this type of software to make a comment about what they have observed and experienced.

Why? Well I'd like to design my own VOIP solution - for both desktop and device deployment and I'm taking in experiences, wishlists and suggested features/functions.

Thanking You.

Interesting Font Design

When I first read the abstract about this font design I thought, ok...its not April 1.
I'm not browsing 'The Onion' and it cant be a nigerian 'font scam'...so I had to take a look.

WOW...how incredibly interesting - I can't say I consider the font to be of aesthetic brilliance but the overall campaign strategy, techniques and end result are outstanding.

Well done Happiness-Brussels (the agency) and well done Toyota Europe for living with a really bold strategy.
Will the target market buy this car? I have no idea (I do like short wheel-base cars - just not this one!)
Will the campaign be seen as a success by the client? I would hope so.

I would love to see this expanded. How about every Toyota model having its own signature font...or could you take this into a more grandiose scale and have a set of these cars 'writing' sentences around a city or a square.

Anyway, my interests are the techniques used and the overall strategy...the car, sadly, is lacking!

Full Video Here.

Flash - Fit for Use?

A very interesting debate is brewing about the use of flash.......again!!!

The article by Brian Morrissey on Adweek - Is the Flash-powered agency site obsolete? - opens up the topic of 'fit-for-use'. And in my opinion its a great discussion that shows finally, maybe, hopefully, the more traditional side of the marketing and communications discipline is starting to get it!!

For years these monoliths of traditional media have taken the view that websites are an adjunct, a support piece or a fluffy 'data-capture' mechanism for the main campaign material spread across the 'sexy' mediums of TV and print. This article and the subsequent comments are heart warming.
It's great to hear that the days of 'skip intro' websites from agencies that should know better might finally give way to real, dynamic and relevant online experiences.
Now I don't mean to say that the flash website cannot play its role and that dynamic, motion-oriented websites where interaction and eye-candy are used well, are dead, but I really feel that agencies are starting to look beyond the fluff, are getting to the point of the web and are starting to bring the intelligence and craft garnered from decades of refining the mediums of television and print, to the web.
hoo-Rah! Finally they're bringing beer to the party instead of soft drink ;)

Certainly for the last 5 years or so, the Digital-Centric agencies (that spawned as a result of traditional agency reticence to get involved in the 'fad-called-Web') have led the way and understood that dynamism and interaction in both creative AND content was the winning formula.

Now, I haven't designed a flash based website for quite some time now (I played my part in the 'skip intro' blight), but over the last 7 years in my dealings both from an Adobe employee perspective and an independent UI/UX consultant I have been an advocate for flash when flash can enhance the experience, and in many cases this has been on a 'spot' basis - a tool, a widget, an effect - not the crux of the web environment.


The original site - Flex 1.5 - simply ground the end user experience to a halt.







Suggested updates to the site structure were to drop the 'full-flash' experience and to use flash where flash could be effective...not in rendering HTML text and simple jpg imagery.




In an engagement with the Australian Financial Review a few years ago, I was presented with a much loved, heavily trafficked website that had recently adopted the flash platform - through the use of Adobe Flex 1.5 - as its whole display technology...some 10 or more small, self contained flash 'pods' that whilst independently performed well and with style, as a collective, ground the users experience (and pc of choice) to a halt not to mention the poor servers on which they were housed.
My first and possibly most helpful action was to challenge the overuse of flash as a presentation technology, suggesting that in reality lots of the view could be rendered much more efficiently and effectively using much more traditional technologies.
More lightweight, easier to update, manage and maintain from all angles.
I don't have results or anecdotes on the improvements made, but needless to say the site certainly performed better after this flash stranglehold was released.

What's my point you may ask...well, there isn't another technology that can deliver as compelling an end user experience to as many desktops or devices as consistently as the Adobe Flash Platform can. Period. BUT with all the benefits of this technology comes a responsibility to use it wisely, effectively and deploy it efficiently.

Inspiration - The Sliding House

I find inspiration in lots of things - one of the richest sources for me being in modern Architecture.

This "Sliding House" solution is elegant, innovative and takes advantage of location, climate and overall site conditions. It's a great example of designing within a tight brief whilst still attaining innovation and creativity.

What I love about this design in particular is that you can modify your environment to suit mood, weather or function. Niiiice.

In a associated link to User Experience and design, Shane Morris, UXB (User eXperience Bloke) presented at WebDU and highlighted several references to architectural principles and construction of the user experience/user interface.

In particular that a users experience tends to break at the joins - as does architecture. I guess the point is to focus on where one process, task or activity completes and the next begins...don't let the user hang at the points where two constructs meet. Very often the continuity of experience is lost between two disparate activities due simply to the fact that it had never been considered that those two activities would occur in a sequence.

I find that having a consistency in 'choreography' - how a process, task or activity construct and deconstruct when starting or ending - assists enormously. Obviously there are many other aspects such as language, tone, layout, aesthetic (duh!), placement, etc. etc. etc. Maybe I'll post about this later...

Force Fitting - An exercise in becoming 'unstuck'!!

In a recent presentation at WebDU I shared one of the ideas, techniques, tips that I use to help generate "seed-ideas" and help me become either unstuck or assist in not simply replicating what has been done in the past.

I call it "Force Fitting" - but I'm sure that the more cunning linguists amongst you will have better terminology.

What I do is basically take a magazine, any subject matter at all...ummm, well, mostly!!! The magazine should have lots of images and adverts and assorted contents. On every single page I force an idea from the page...it could be a design cue from the page layout; the way the headline sits; the grid system. It could be the way that a part of the content is emphasised. It might be the image treatment - it could be anything - but essentially you dont leave the page without generating at least one idea for your website, application or component of an application.

After you have finished your magazine, you will be amazed at how many fresh "seed-ideas" you have to start growing with and how much more innovative your solutions will be.

The excuse you needed for that playboy subscription huh?!

Image reference: DanStorey14