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Just found Peter Merholz (from Adaptative Path) slidecast on experience design.
Important lesson:
Don’t focus on technology and features. Heck, don’t focus on the “product.” Focus on the experience you want to create, and build a system that gets you there.
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No, it’s not another Nike campaign. It’s the latest endeavor of Erik Natkze, now a Adobe evangelist for the AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) platform, a cross operating system runtime that allows to build and deploy applications using Flash, HTML and Javascript technologies to the desktop.
The technology is usually associated with Rich Internet Applications, but we now have the chance of seeing Natzke using AIR in the same way Joshua Davis did for the web, and coding beautiful generative art.
Using Flash CS3, PNGEncoder and AIR, Natzke takes photos and transforms them into artwork based on the original photograph.
The technology was showcased in the US, with a onAIR tour, and is probably heading to Europe one of these days, highlighting applications such as Pownce or SalesForce.
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I’m feeling rather lazy to write a decent post, so here’s a load of links:
Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfXb6zb6Upc
Source:Marc Andreessen
Just don’t take the headline serious, since it’s a dark humor European no smoking campaign.
And just in case i’m still feeling lazy on Monday, i can always use the services of The Excused Absence Network.
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Lynette Webb has just released her “Interesting Snippets” book, available for sale at lulu.com, with part of the profits donated to the Battery Hen Welfare Trust, a UK charity organization.
For those who don’t know Lynette, she has a fantastic flickr set, with slides describing the changes in online and media. She works for Isobar and is a guest author at Future Lab.
Besides being self published, the wonderful thing about this book is that photos are all from flickr users thanks to a creative commons license, with Lynette carefully selecting quotes for the captions on each slide. I often use some of her slides for presentations and even have been inspired to create some of my own, so it’s wonderful she has pulled this digital resource out of the web into paper.
Great work, Lynette (and co-photographers) !
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I swear i wasn’t aware of this video before posting my latest question on Facebook: “Why aren’t we questioning Facebook about privacy issues (specially after the Microsoft ad funding) ?“.
That’s scary.
Source: Cpluv/todaynow
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Lucky bastards these folks. Four groups of friends started a journey from Tarifa (Spain) to Murmansk (Russia) with no idea whatsoever of their track and only with 1.400Euros on their pockets.
The 12 spanish backpackers are documenting their journey of a lifetime on blogs (Group Uno, Dos, Tres, Quatro), sharing their experiences and allowing others to comment to help them along.
One of the journey videos, uploaded by Group One
With one of my friends doing the same kind of trip on his own (hope you’re doing well Pedro), i wish he could send updates so often as these groups. Blogs are becoming one of the favorite ways to keep connected, thanks to today’s easy publishing of video and text. Although this trip is co-sponsored by Bacardi, i believe that the tourism industry (in Portugal the most) would greatly benefit if they started to provide digital platforms so their clients could share their holiday memories.
URL: www.murmanskroutebacardi.com
Client: Bacardi
Agency: Seisgrados
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Ted talks has just published a new video with Jan Chipchase, where he presents his research on how people are using mobile devices and their importance on daily life.
Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/190
The video immediately reminded me of a Fred’s post highlighting the importance of ethnography, and “how we should look at user needs through observing people in their naturally setting rather than through research”. Increasingly the focus will shift from the platform to what really should matter the most: how and why people use products and services.
One of the reasons why mobile advertising hasn’t lifted off is probably because people do not care about advertising (contextual or not) in their phones. Mobile advertising is not a perceived primary functionality. Or as Jan points in his final remarks:
With another 3 billion people connected they want to be part of the conversation. Our relevance is really about embracing that and learn how to listen.
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In Britain, they really push hard with their military marketing efforts. Earlier this year i wrote about GetTheMessage, and now it’s time for Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) to launch a new advergaming campaign.
Massive Inc selected popular titles as Tom Clancy Splinter Cell, Need for Speed or Quake Wars for advert placement, trying to reach a younger audience that has fewer traditional media consumption and gamers with interest in IT, with the billboards placed within the Xbox 360 games. Or how a wannabe Master Chief might become the next security expert of the MI5.
On the website you can find all the major threats that Britain faces through a flash interface worthy of James Bond, with several challenging spy activities, a fun interactive way to describe the Graduated opportunities available at GQHQ.
As with the military recruitment, the advertising industry is facing their own battle. With the news of companies like Nike and IBM shifting their media placement, one of the challenges is how to find bright young minds that are keen on these new tools and disciplines, but still having a true passion for marketing and advertising.
P.S: Andre pointed out the coincidence that many of the popular military online marketing efforts usually come from the Commonwealth countries or the USA. Have you heard of any other ones without an English accent ?
Source: The Guardian, via Advertising Etc
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Scifi.com takes us down the yellow brick road on a hotsite to promote their series “Tin Man” that premieres December 2.
Produced by B-Reel/Fallon, the interactive experience has beautifully crafted sound design and art direction, with each painting supported by detailed animations. Feels like we’re falling down on a dreamy rabbit hole but enjoying every second of it.
And unlike the Sony Play-Dooh controversy, they rightfully credited their inspiration on the collaborative art project Zoomquilt (below).
Source: Motionographer
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Michael Wesch, author of the famous Digital Etnography video, produced a new short video “summarizing some of the most important characteristics of students today – how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. ”
Together with 200 students, they started a brainstorming exercise on how students learn today and their future challenges, on a Google Document, edited 367 times during one week. All of the information was later organized into a film script, filmed by Michael and inspired by Marshall McLuhans ideas.
Source: Information Aesthetics
