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Perspective: Precious on Patterns for Multiscreen Strategies

Caleb — Thu, 26 May 2011 18:23:36 +0000

Precious is a German design consultancy for strategic design and visual languages. In their early years, they were involved in website and desktop software design. Today, they specialize in smartphone apps, prototypes for TV interfaces, and applications for tablet devices. Here, we’ve invited them to share what they’ve learned about interactivity within this emerging ecosystem of screens.

precious: Working with all of those devices was interesting and challenging, not just because of the diverse number of screen sizes and input methods, but because, through user research, we learned about how different the contexts are in which these gadgets are used.

Even more interesting, however, is how those devices relate to each other. What does it mean for the digital products and services we are designing when laptops, smartphones, TVs and other electronic devices are connected? What are the implications for interfaces if people are interacting within an “ecosystem of screens”?

We looked at many projects and studies that involved experiences across multiple screens – from biblical stories laid out on multiple cathedral windows and the first computer-based multi-screen installations to current examples, which are popping up everywhere. We also observed ourselves and others using and shifting between different devices.

To make these scenarios more tangible for ourselves and to communicate them better to our clients, we started documenting patterns we noticed. These patterns and associated examples were the core of many workshops we did in various constellations: with brand managers, advertising professionals and design students.

Today we’d like to share this part of our research work: patterns for multi-screen strategies. It’s been a handy reference when discussing solutions for digital products and services. We hope you’ll find them useful too.

Patterns for Multiscreen Strategies

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Tweetworthy: Location-Based Media, Promise Keeper, Postagram, and More

Caleb — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 20:06:46 +0000

1. The Pop Up City – Getting Closer…

“Recent research has amounted more than 6,000 location-based apps to be currently available for the iPhone alone. Here [Jeroen] would like to draw your attention to two new kids on the block that offer a new take on physical proximity: Ditto and Yobongo.”

2. GetGlue Passes 1M Users; 100M Data Points

“The GetGlue network is now averaging over 1 check-in every second with as many as 10 check-ins per second during primetime. On an average day 500,000 new unique data points enter the GetGlue database.”

3. Reebok Promise Keeper

“Just as if someone is trying to give up smoking or lose weight they tell their friends to gain support in their efforts – and relentless mocking if they fail – Reebok has enlisted its paid athletes to add a personal twist to the idea and to help spread news of the app.”

4. JBL ships AirPlay-enabled On Air Speaker dock

“The system lets customers stream music from their AirPlay-enabled devices, like Macs, iPhones, iPod touches and iPads… Other nifty features include a color LCD display, FM radio tuner and an alarm clock.”

5. How Smartphones Can Improve Public Transit

“The point is for transit agencies to provide enough information to put riders in control of their experience and have greater choice in when and where to ride. People don’t want to feel they are at the mercy of paper schedules, even if they are, and there’s nothing worse than waiting for buses that may or may not be on time.”

6. Postagram Transforms Any Instagram Into a Postcard

“The service, launching today, allows you to take any picture you’ve captured on the hot photo-sharing service Instagram and send it in postcard form for a mere $0.99.”

7. Nokia’s Ring That Can Control Your Mobile Phone

“Researchers at Nokia have created a magnetic ring that works as an input device from which you can control your mobile phone. The ring is called Nenya, the name of Galadriel’s ring in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and it is tracked by a wrist-worn ‘baselet’, which connects to the users phone via Bluetooth.”

8. ShowYou Will Change How You View Videos on Your iPad

“The comparison to Flipboard is pretty apt here, because ShowYou takes the video content from all your friends and social networks and presents them in one place but in an entirely new way. This isn’t a feed, and this isn’t a chronological presentation of videos.”

9. Tweet Land – A set of games that play with reality

“What would happen if what people share in their social networks became real? And best of all, if you could play with that? Well, if you like the idea of the twittersphere becoming a virtual universe, this is for you.”

10. Fearsquare: If You Knew the Crime Stats, Would You Still Go There?

“Fearsquare uses public data to show Foursquare users in the U.K. how many crimes have been committed in the places they check in and is part of a study looking at how this sort of personalized data could change user behavior.”

Tweetworthy is a weekly roundup of the most shared tweets from @MobileBehavior. You can follow us on Twitter here.

Tweetworthy: Meal Snap Calorie Counter, Toyota Jailbreaks, iAd Gallery, and More

Caleb — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:42:00 +0000

1. Too Lazy To Count Calories? Now You Can Just Take A Picture Of Your Meal

“While the company chalks it up to ‘magic’, we’re assuming they’ve got a handful of people (be it through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, or a room full of dudes promised free Internet in exchange for calorie counting) breaking down the meal in your picture item by item. Snap a shot of a chicken salad? They punch in some chicken, some lettuce, maybe some dressing — and bam, they’ve got a rough estimate.”

2. Designing for second screens: The Autumnwatch Companion

“We were interested to see how much of the existing online content could be reused, which was easy for the species and habitat information drawn from the BBC Wildlife Finder, but articles and blog posts had to be simplified. This gave us the opportunity to experiment with presentation formats and interactions, including diagrams, image galleries and animations.”

3. Unofficial app store Cydia lands advertising from Toyota

“This is the first major corporation we have seen put direct positive attention into the jailbreak scene, developing specifically for it and addressing this large userbase. Could this be a turning of the tide for the previously ‘outlaw’ jailbreak community?”

4. Did I mention how much I love Instagram?

“You see something, you whip out your iPhone. You take a shot and then you send it directly to someone else’s brain. It’s over in seconds (most of the time). It’s sharing at the speed of thought, almost. Flickr isn’t like that. In fact, I think Instagram makes it easier and quicker than it’s ever been to think of an image and send it into someone else’s brain. This is a huge deal, since we are primarily visual creatures.”

5. What a Provider’s Mobile Phone Logs Reveal about You

“German politician Malte Spitz sued his mobile provider to receive his personal phone data of over 6 months, to prove how this information, combined with other publicly available facts, such as from Twitter feeds, blog entries and website stories, can reveal much more than one wishes for. German newspaper ‘Die Zeit’ and computational journalism company OpenDataCity then rendered this data on an animated map with interactive timeline.”

6. iAd Gallery by Apple

“The iAd Gallery is a celebration of advertising, featuring iAd campaigns from some of the world’s best brands and their advertising agencies. The iAd Gallery gives you easy access to a selection of the fun and informative ads that have run in some of your favorite apps.”

7. Facebook For iPhone Gets Event Check-Ins

“To be able to check-in to an event you have to (obviously) be invited and RSVP’d ‘yes’ to attending. Your location also has to match the location of the listed event venue, and it has to be the correct time of the event. All of this will presumably help dissuade gaming.”

8. In a New Web World, No Application Is an Island

“‘Right now, we’re in a native apps world,’ says John Lilly, a venture partner at Greylock Partners, a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. ‘But people are underestimating the power of the Web. I think we’re going to see an explosion of Web-based apps over the next couple of years.’”

9. TV-Tagging App IntoNow Tries to Kickstart Discussions With New Release

“The startup is accommodating users with a discuss button they can hit to start public discussions with everyone; they can also use the button to initiate more private chats with just friends. Users can strike up conversations around series, movies and single episodes. While not as fluid as instant messaging, the discussions feature is real-time; and users are notified as new comments pour in.”

10. Shall I Buy

“Shall I Buy is a mobile application that allows users to log and share their purchase intentions and get instant feedback from friends.”

Tweetworthy is a weekly roundup of the most shared tweets from @MobileBehavior. You can follow us on Twitter here.

Mobile magic has utilitarian impact

Caleb — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 15:01:18 +0000

This article was originally published at DMNews, where we contribute content

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” Arthur C. Clarke once said. With recent developments in mobile computing, his analogy is increasingly relevant. Sensor-enabled apps like Color have implications on a broad scale.

Behind the scenes, Color makes use of every phone sensor it can access. It hijacks the iPhone’s camera to check lighting conditions and the microphone to “listen” to a user’s surroundings. Through this, Color triangulates location in relation to others and generates “elastic networks” for photo sharing. It’s the secret sauce that has sparked fascination among the tech elite. No one really understands it, but Color demonstrates how mobile could eventually change the way we interact in the world.

According to McKinsey, “Closing this loop from data to automated applications can raise productivity, as systems that adjust automatically to complex situations make many human interventions unnecessary.” Mobile apps offer us “micro-efficiencies,” shortcuts that can make our lives easier.

Ever more impressive mobile applications are on their way. Computer vision, for example, has inspired an entire field of study that looks at the way computers see and extract information from images, information that can in turn be used to perform a certain task. Microsoft Kinect demonstrates this well; hackers have manipulated it to do everything from simulating invisibility to recognizing sign language.

image by frog design

Mobile services that take in the world and enable decision making are already available in rudimentary form. In retail, ShopWell is able to scan product barcodes and personalize recommendations based on a user’s diet and nutritional needs. Walgreens’ new app overrides the need to manually input prescription codes with its ability to recognize images. It can just take a picture of the pill bottle instead. Google Shopper searches for online prices and Meal Snap identifies calorie counts at the tap of a button.

These applications do get a little more serious. Miami University’s Augmented Reality Research Group developed an Android app that “reads” a bookshelf in order to flag books that are misplaced. Marmota, a prototype developed by FBK researchers, analyses and overlays mountains with names, distance, and altitudes. Similarly, Augmented Driving watches the road while detecting lanes for change warnings.

All of this leads to what Google’s Eric Schmidt calls an “Age of Augmented Humanity.” Mobile technologies are dissolving into behavior. For organizations, this could mean a couple of things. Brands will be able to provide their consumers with utility that not only makes things easier, but changes behavior. For example, Chase’s mobile app now lets users deposit checks with two camera clicks, vastly reducing a customer’s need to stop at the bank. Brands can harness these technologies to sell with the magic that Clarke suggested. A service like Color invokes delight and emotion, which in today’s experience economy could be just as impactful on a brand’s positioning as utilitarian applications.

Tweetworthy: Google Ditches Barcodes, BBC Social TV, Runkeeper API, and More

Caleb — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:36:58 +0000

1. Google Ditches Barcodes for NFC

“Google is moving away from barcodes and towards NFC (near field communication) if a pair of stories about the search company are tied together. Yesterday, news broke out about Google’s decision to officially end support for the use of QR codes, the 2D barcodes readable by camera-equipped mobile phones, in its business listings service Google Places.”

2. Pets Win When You Check-In on Foursquare

“The marketing team for Granata dog food in Germany, has designed a unique collaboration with Foursquare that will make both owners and pets howl with delight. Every time you and your furry friend pass a bowl-equipped billboard for Granata food, you can check in on Foursquare and the billboard will dispense a free sample of the kibble into the attached dish.”

3. Street photography has undergone a revolution

“Since everyone with a cellphone tucked in pocket or purse today seems ready to start snapping away on its built-in digital camera, one might say we are all street photographers now. Even though issues of meaning and quality will always remain for individual images, that ubiquity means street photography as a distinctive formal genre is pretty much over.”

4. Augmented Reality App Could Save Librarians Hours

“Miami University’s Augmented Reality Research Group, led by Professor Bo Brinkman, has developed an Android app that could save librarians a lot of time and hassle. Using the Android’s camera, the app “reads” a bookshelf, and with an AR overlay, quickly flags those books that are misplaced. It will also point to the correct place on the bookshelf so the book can easily be re-shelved correctly.”

5. When Twittering Gets in the Way of Real Life

“Whether it’s a dad joining conference calls by cellphone during the family vacation, teenagers texting under the table or moms checking Facebook from the soccer sidelines, technology intrudes upon family life in most American homes. And it’s only going to get worse as technology becomes even more accessible.”

6. Hashtags on programmes – It’s the bat signal!

“The ‘hashtag bat signal’ and the programmes page are not the only way of introducing the idea of a hashtag for the programme (and there are some examples of specific calls to action in programmes which involve hashtags: #askRhod, #bbcFilm2010 etc) but it is an elegant one.”

7. The history and the future of the Windows Phone Metro design

“Metro isn’t a new style designed for the sake of being different. It’s a foundation to build on for a long time to come. It’s our starting point for what we believe is the next era of user interface design, one that is focused on content over metaphors, information over tools, and movement over static pages. It’s a language designed to clearly augment the information around you, by removing the clutter around it.”

8. Runkeeper and the Body API

“With the addition of FitBit and Zeo devices to the Runkeeper store, the company is signaling their longer term strategy to be the connecting tissue between personal sensors and the health and fitness data they’re collecting, All of the current devices in the store and all future devices will be integrated via the Runkeeper Body API.”

9. The first musical album that’s also a location aware iPhone app

“When the album is released this spring, users will be able to download the album over the Mall’s WiFi. The phone’s geolocation will sync up with an impressionistic map rendering created for the app. Hit play and as users create their own path through the Mall, they’re creating their own special listening experience.”

10. Real Racing 2 HD – 1080p Video Out Demo

“With full support for high-definition, 1080p output – a first for any iOS game – in the next major update, Real Racing 2 HD will be the perfect title to see the full potential of Apple’s latest hardware.”

Tweetworthy is a weekly roundup of the most shared tweets from @MobileBehavior. You can follow us on Twitter here.

Hybrid Media: How Social is Enabling Event TV

Caleb — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 10:54:09 +0000

Television, as we know it, is dying. According to the Wall Street Journal, the average age of prime-time viewers hit 50 this year. Kids would rather play Xbox or watch Hulu. Fortunately, television still has something going for it, and we’re not talking about iPad apps or mobile streaming. Rather, we’d like to discuss the emergence of a new hybrid medium.

Traditional TV is where hundreds of thousands or millions of people gather for a shared experience. Enter Facebook and Twitter. These social networks collide with TV to result in something even bigger. Viewers are now participants; participants are now connected, which has implications for the actual content. When we frame the situation as a battle between the Internet and TV, or a zero-sum game, we are calling it from a blind spot. Instead, what we should see is that both live TV and real-time information are converging to reinforce each other and in the process are creating something new.

In the following document, we’ve outlined emerging themes bubbling up around event TV. This is not the future, this is happening now. For those willing to break yesterday’s rules, some long overdue, fresh new opportunities await. As WIRED magazine recently stated, TV is moving from a “vast wasteland” to a “vast garden”. Today, “TV is a crazy, weed-filled, wonderful, out-of-control garden.” It is time to rethink TV. It is time to imagine what it could be and redefine it for the participatory culture of tomorrow.

Hybrid Media: How Social is Enabling Event TV

View more presentations from Tribal DDB Worldwide

Tweetworthy: SXSW 2011, BroadFeed, Junkyard Jumbotron, FOMO, and More

Caleb — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 18:27:44 +0000

1. SXSW 2011: The internet is over

“We’ve been hearing about this moment in digital history since at least 1988, when the Xerox technologist Mark Weiser coined the term’ubiquitous computing’, referring to the point at which devices and systems would become so numerous and pervasive that ‘technology recedes into the background of our lives’.”

2. Google Search app for iPhone–a new name and a new look

“You’ll see that there are now more ways to interact with the app. When browsing through search results or looking at a webpage, you can swipe down to see the search bar or change your settings. For those who use other Google apps, there’s an Apps button at the bottom of the screen for rapid access to the mobile versions of our products.”

3. The Next Wave in Social Content Aggregation

“BroadFeed is a great test bed for [Organic] to try out various relevance algorithms for content, as well as to gather observations about how users interact with stream content on the iPad.”

4. Mobile service connects users with help during emergencies

“When trouble arises, the app immediately alerts and connects the user’s personal safety network via voice conference, sms and email, thereby speeding the arrival of help. Guardly’s LocationAssure technology pinpoints the user’s precise GPS location and provides information about what resources are nearby.”

5. MIT Media Lab: Junkyard Jumbotron

“Junkyard Jumbotron is a project from the MIT Center for Future Civic Media. Essentially, it has created software so that laptops or phones can be ganged together to form a large display. Anyone can take part, and participants can email their own pictures to become part of the virtual screen.”

6. FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and Social Media

“‘FOMO’ stands for ‘Fear of Missing Out’ and it’s what happens everywhere on a typical Saturday night, when you’re trying to decide if you should stay in, or muster the energy to go to the party. At SxSW I see people wondering if they’re at the wrong party—the party where they are is lame, feels uncool, has too much brand advertising or doesn’t have anyone there they’d want to hook up with—and so they move on to the next party where they have to wait in line too long, can’t get a beer, or don’t find their friends, and so move on to the next venue where…and so on.”

7. 26% of Mobile Application Users are Fickle — or Loyal

“With over 10 billion downloads from just Apple’s App Store, it’s clear that people are very willing to try new apps. It’s equally clear that app developers and publishers need to look beyond downloads and focus marketing resources on attracting and retaining the quarter of customers who tend to become loyal users.”

8. How to Hack Video Screens in Times Square

“What do you think: viral ad for the newest iPhone, CNN, and NYC tourism; or an exciting new development in the world of culture jamming?”

9. Foursquare: The importance of platforms, and how we’re extending ours

“Today, through the foursquare Venue Project, we’re breaking out the Venues API, making it available at high rate limits (so even the most popular apps can use it without worrying about hitting a limit), with simple “userless” authentication, new endpoints, and with clear guidelines for use.”

10. GroupMe Won the SXSW Group Messaging Wars

“SXSW isn’t about hanging out with the same groups of people all the time, but rather about having variety of exclusive options. In practice group messaging is kind of weak on the exclusivity thing, because you’re almost always roped into groups with at least one person you don’t like, which prevents you from sharing potentially useful information regarding your whereabouts.”

Tweetworthy is a weekly roundup of the most shared tweets from @MobileBehavior. You can follow us on Twitter here.