jerrythepunkrat.com

The Future of User Interfaces: Touchless

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Thu, 24 May 2012 21:14:00 +0000

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I ran across this post about the future of interfaces and just couldn't pass up re-posting the videos.

Forget your jetpack. This is the future.

A Few Business, Marketing, and Design Blogs to Keep Your Mind Fat and Happy

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Fri, 11 May 2012 22:23:00 +0000

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One of my co-workers at Cardinal Path recently asked me what blogs I follow...probably because I'm such a 'know-it-all.'

Anyways, so I rounded up a few, emailed them over, and they actually found them useful. And I thought 'Why not turn that list into a blog post?'

Yeah, I couldn't think of a reason either.

So here's some of the top blogs that I follow:

General Business News:

Inc.com - an online version of the business-oriented magazine. I get their daily emails which gives you 5-6 quick news stories in business. They tend to focus on tech and startups.
American Express's OPEN Forum - one of my favorite business and marketing news sites. Lots of great stuff here though they do be more focused on small businesses (which is a primary focus of American Express, as a business).
A VC - the personal blog of Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist in NYC, with Union Square Ventures. Fred and USV have their hands in a ton of tech startups (including Twitter, SoundCloud, Tumblr, Zynga, Turntable.fm, KickStarter, Etsy, and others).

Advertising and Marketing:

The BeanCast - Not a blog, per se, but one of my favorite podcasts ever. It's a weekly roundtable discussion of recent marketing and advertising news. They usually come from the perspective of small-to-med-sized agencies and companies (rather than the stuck-in-the-mud giant, corporate guys that populate much of the AdWeek news cycle).
Seth. Godin. Is. Brilliant. Every post he writes is pure gold...or at least pretty shiny.
Convince and Convert is Jay Baer's blog and personal consulting platform. This guy is one of the foremost thinkers in the burgeoning social media marketing world.
Dan Zarrella. If Jay Baer is the Socrates of social media, Dan is the Sir Isaac Newton—a full-blooded scientist. He measures anything and everything about social media and also pulls some pretty amazing insights.

UX and Design

Viget (UX agency out of D.C.) has a great series of blogs for anyone in UX, UI, and/or web development.
UX Magazine is great for general user experience news and articles.
Co.Design is Fast Company's design-centric online magazine. They've usually got some insightful and inspiring posts.

There's a whole slew of other blogs I follow for design inspiration but these here are more informational and high-level.

Definitely let me know what blogs you find helpful in your business. You can share below in the comments.

Slides from Today's Pinterest Presentation

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Thu, 10 May 2012 05:10:00 +0000

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For any that missed the Pinterest presenation Niki Blaker and I gave today at Gangplank, I've got the slides ready as a downloadable PDF.

Feel free to download them and share.

Pinning & Winning: Creative Uses of Pinterest Discussion at Gangplank

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Tue, 08 May 2012 18:48:00 +0000

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Tomorrow, Niki Blaker and I will be holding court over at Gangplank HQ for the weekly Brown Bag event.

We'll be discussing the new social networking site, Pinterest, looking at how we use the site, as well as how others are using it to be inspired, build connections, and market their brand.

If you can make it, hopefully you'll find it helpful in your own creative process (as well as networking and your social media marketing).

You can find all the event details and RSVP on Facebook.

Hope to see you then!

P.S. You can check out our own Pinterest inspiration boards here:

Niki Blaker on Pinterest

Mike Jones on Pinterest

P.S.S. Get even more design inspiration from these two Pinterest board round-ups that we were recently featured in!

On DesignShack.net: 200+ Pinterest Boards for Designers to Follow

On Tripwire Magazine's site: 40+ Interesting Pinterest Boards for Designers

Art as Language

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 21:42:00 +0000

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Luke - Prodigal God

We, today, have a language to celebrate waywardness, but we do not have a language, a cultural language, to bring people back home.

—Makoto Fujimura (from Makoto Fujimura - The Art of "The Four Holy Gospels" video)

(Makoto is one of my favorite painters right now. He strives to express his faith in Jesus through his art while holding firm to his commitment for artistic beauty. I think he is one of the few in our world today that truly understands how art and faith can be unified.)

Simplicity, Complexity and Completeness: telling the whole story, succinctly

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:00:00 +0000

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I have a reputation amongst my business partners and friends for writing long emails. And they like to let me know about it, usually through some fun jesting over Twitter.

Recently, a topic came up on Twitter about simplicity being a trend in design. And I agreed that complexity leads to confusion and failure.

But my friend was quick to point out my penchant for long emails, essentially equating length with complexity. I responded that my emails are not necessarily complex, but complete.

This got me thinking: Are length and complexity the same?

Maybe. But maybe not.

I love simplicity. Just look at the logo designs I find inspiring. But simplicity at the cost of completeness is dangerous.

Let's hear what Albert Einstein has to say on simplicity:

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

I remember having my high school physics teacher explain to us Einstein's theory of general relativity. The concepts involved in this theory are not simple. Otherwise it wouldn't have taken 2 weeks for us to work through the explanation and exercises. But the theory is as simple as it can be.

Einstein understood that complexity is dangerous to communication and understanding. But neither should one sacrifice a complete theory to the idol of simplicity.

Simplicity does not have to mean incomplete.

Now for a more business-minded example:
Imagine your client writes you a lengthy email on how you messed up their order. How would you respond: A simplistic, "Don't worry, we're on it," or maybe a 1500 word essay on how you're not at fault?

Do either of these options satisfy your client?

Probably not. Sure, they want the situation remedied—they want action. And while the simplistic answer might feel good for a moment, it's incomplete—eventually they want more details. When? How? What exactly are you going to do? But they certainly don't need a 14 point essay either.

So what's the right answer?

Be as succinct (simple) as possible to tell a complete story.

Give details...when necessary. But certainly don't add superfluous ones either. Get to the point—but make sure you make the whole point.

What do retro video games and branding have in common?

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:00:00 +0000

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Image by betacontinua

Great retro games thrive on simplistic features. So do great brands.

Think about it: Pong, Super Mario Brothers, Asteroid, Galaga, Street Fighter, Donkey Kong...what makes them great? Their designers chose a limited feature set and ran with it as far as they could.

Shaun Inman explains the simplicity of Super Mario Brothers in a recent interview on The Verge:

The best classic games feature a limited skill set that is thoroughly explored through level design. Abilities are gradually introduced in non-threatening environments, interplay between the various abilities is explored, and environmental safety is removed.

Super Mario Bros. is all about jumping. Mario jumps over holes and onto pipes and platforms. He jumps over or onto enemies. He jumps to collect coins and break bricks. He jumps to reach the top of the flagpole. Mario's fireballs bounce, forcing him to jump for extra precision when aiming. The vast majority of gameplay possibility is designed to reinforce the core mechanic of jumping.

Great brand chase the same philosophy of simplicity.

Take In-and-Out Burger for example. What do they serve? Burgers.

Yeah, they have a few side-items that revolve around burgers (fries, drinks, shakes) but no other main menu item. And even their posted menu is simplistic: do you want a #1, a #2, or a #3...oh and all of them are pretty much the same burger.

What does Starbucks do? Coffee. And then they iterate the crap out of that core product: sizes, flavors, cold vs. hot, etc. Granted they do throw in some food items and other beverages...and time will tell if this is helpful for their brand (I suggest that it might hurt more).

And it's not just the brand's product that can be simplistic. Oftentimes it's the core purpose that should be lifted high and then explored every which way.

Nike is a great example of this. They started with one shoe but now have every kind of apparel item under the sun...not to mention the hottest iPhone app for runners and one of the slickest real-time basketball promotions.

But what is Nike all about? The spirit of personal victory through athletics.

Everything they do is centered on this core value: their ads, their products, even their name. And no matter what they make it is only ever done through the lens of this worldview.

Simplicity in branding doesn't just mean a single product. But it does mean having the guts to focus, to be an expert at your single purpose. Then you can find every means under the sun to accomplish that purpose and iterate to your heart's content.

So how simplistic is your brand? Maybe you've got a million products on your retail site or maybe just one service your provide your clients, but do you know that one purpose your brand is all about?

How to Create Successful User Experiences

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 18:35:00 +0000

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Fast Company recently posted the first article in a series on the need for user experience design in brands' communications. I highly, highly recommend this article to anyone in marketing, design, social media, and communications. There are so many golden nuggets of UX wisdom in here, I can't stress it enough: read this article.

My main takeaway: In the hyper-technology age we live in, brands must begin valuing user experience over technology. Don't use it unless you plan to use it well.

Here's a few quote highlights from the article to whet your appetite and get your UX brain juices flowing:

For brands to compete for attention now takes something greater than mere presences in the right channels or support for the most popular devices...without thoughtful UX, consumers meander without direction, reward, or utility. And their attention, and ultimately loyalty, follows.

...businesses are designing for the sake of designing, without regard for how someone feels, thinks, or acts as a result.

The primary function of UX is the development of an architecture that creates a delightful, emotional, and sensory experience.

Successful UX evokes engagement or purpose, affects sentiment, and influences behavior.

Engagement is not a campaign, it’s a continuum where technology is merely an enabler for a greater vision, mission, and purpose.

You can read the whole article here.

Communication Illusion

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000

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George Bernard Shaw once said: “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

Man, how often have I experienced this one! I certainly won't pretend I've never missed the communication boat with my wife—completely failing to read beneath the waters of her words.

We human beings sure do talk a lot (and few more than me) but we often leave our true thoughts just below the surface of our words, hoping our audience will read between the lines, pick up our non-verbal cues, and get what we 'really mean.'

And we do the same thing in marketing. We think we need to beat around the bush and shy away from directness. Throw out some catchy phrases and the ubiquitous 'offer' (and make sure to add an asterisk!).

But most-times being direct and up-front is exactly what our audience needs to take the next step. They want to know we're not pulling a fast one or throwing a curveball. And they certainly want to understand what the heck we're yammering on about.

So give it to them straight. Don't hide behind fancy technical terms and industry mumbo-jumbo. Don't dig a moat around your business, filling it with legal fine-print.

Honestly, just be yourself. Your clients and customers will love you all the more for it.

Put some soul into your brand

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000

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People rarely buy because of WHAT we do—they invest in the WHY of what we do.

Yes, people will buy from WHY-less brands (just look at Walmart). But no one LOVES them either.

No one is wearing a their t-shirts proudly. No one is begging to work for them. No one is telling all their friends to buy that brand because 'they're the best. Period.' No one is excited to be mayor on Foursquare of their establishment (looking at you McDonalds). And certainly no one is coming back again and again and again, ever satisfied and excited by the experience.

People will just put up with these soul-less giants because they fulfill the need in the moment. But nothing more.

There's a reason why local, independent coffee houses are doing alright, despite (or maybe because of) the giant across the street (starbuckssssss). Here's why: there are coffee drinkers out there who want something more than a corporate sheen floating on top of their morning brew. They want intimacy, and passion, and creativity. They want soul. And they'll live and die with their local coffee house as long as they get at least a little of that every day.

[Sidenote: yes, Starbucks is the big bad wolf of coffee...but if you're looking at global brand building they're near the top of the game. There are a million other coffee drinkers who live and die by their Starbucks because they too provide some soul to the chaos of corporate suburbia. So don't discount absolutely everything they do.]

Look at any inspiring, influential, and iconic brand and I guarantee that behind it is a purposeful movement to communicate WHY (rather than WHAT) in every decision, both within the organization and to the outside world.

Now the question becomes: why are you doing what you do? Put some soul into it.

Write for the reader first, then for the robot.

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000

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This is some pretty insightful thoughts from web developer, Christopher Butler, on planning and writing website content:

"Only by clearly identifying your prospects can you go about creating content that is truly valuable. Oh, and despite the obvious importance of search engine optimization, please don't misidentify search engines as your prospects. Robots don't read, people do."

In retrospect, this is like, 'Duh. Of course content that is written directly for your audience will work.' If you're reading this post right now, I'd put money on you being a real person—not a Google crawler bot. And if your content is compelling—full of the passion you feel for your craft—it's sure to get some people interested.

This is exactly what Mr. Butler discovered when he took a look at the analytics on his company's website. While some visitors to his site that came from a search on Google or another search engine did convert into leads, it was the visitors who came as referrals from other sites that were a higher conversion number. And not only that, but converted at a much higher rate.

Once again, I smack my head and say 'Duh!'

When we make decisions we rarely do so in a vacuum. Do you remember the last time you made a big purchase? Did you just up and decide to buy based on some rhetorical logic in your head? Probably not. Like me, you probably asked around to your friends and family, browsed for information online, sought critical reviews from industry leaders, even asked your Facebook or Twitter network what they thought.

We are social creatures. We love to know what others think (maybe even too much) and our decisions usually come when we feel we've got the right people on our side telling us it's a good idea.

So when our favorite tech blogger posts a link and recommends a new product from this crazy start-up site, we usually jump on it. And we're much more likely to sign up for their newsletter, or their free trial, or even just go ahead and buy the product than if we had just Googled 'new techy do-hickey' and they popped up in the first couple results. We want to trust we're doing the right thing, and what better way to know that than to get there via a recommendation from someone else.

So I suggest taking Christopher's advice: figure out your audience and write for them. You can worry about the robots later.

Interview on the Don't Sell Me Bro Podcast

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:33:00 +0000

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I recently had the great pleasure of talking with Chris Conrey and Dave Cooke on their sales-coaching podcast, 'Don't Sell Me Bro.'

We had a great discussion about my blog post about how business-to-business is dead as well as general thoughts on branding, marketing, and sales.

If you want to give the episode a listen, it's up on the 'Don't Sell Me Bro' site (and in the iTunes podcast library). It's pretty short—maybe 16 minutes—and I'd love to hear any thoughts you might have. Feel free to leave those in the comments section below.

How not to design an HTML email

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

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This was an email I received from Inc.com—basically a standard newsletter they sound out every few days. Do you see the problem?

See that giant grey section at the top of the email? Yeah, that's the problem.

With marketing emails you've got barely any time at all to keep someone's attention after they open it (assuming you got them to open it in the first place).

With all that grey, I'm forced to scroll to see any of the relevant content. And for many readers that's too late. Better to ditch the header altogether (and even decrease the size of the honkin' logo).

Get straight to the point.

Some leader images, headlines, and content. That's what email is all about.

Keep it simple, stupid.

Poets don't go mad

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

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“Poets don’t go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom. . . . The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.”

—G.K. Chesterton

B2B is dead.

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:00:00 +0000

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That's right. I said it. Business-to-business is dead.

With the proliferation of online networking and the movement towards authentic online personalities, selling to businesses has shifted back to where it started. We no longer operate in a world where firms do business with firms, companies with companies. We're getting back to the basics of relationships: individual to individual.

Gyro sums it up nicely on their site:

Death was inevitable when people began to carry their telecommunications and computing power with them. From that point “The Firm” lost its place as the organizing principle of business.

Whether you're a mom-and-pop print shop or a multi-national marketing agency, you're really just a bunch of individuals doing business with other individuals.

So start acting like it.

Is Google+ ready for your business?

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 01:18:00 +0000

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For all the hype that Google+ has been getting over the last few months, I see a long way to go before it's a go-to network for businesses.

Take for example Mastercard. Their Facebook 'likes' vs. Google 'plusses' is pretty telling: 128,000 to 11.

There's a lot of people between those two numbers. A lot.

Before we go all crazy bashing on Google+, we should consider that it's only been around since the end of June (though the 'plus 1' buttons were being tested even before then) while Facebook has been tracking 'likes' (and previously 'fans') for several years.

But still, this is quite the gap considering Google+ boasts some 40 million users.

And yet we should ponder one other possibility:

perhaps the +1 is a closer approximation of true online engagement. I find it hard to believe that a company with the marketing resources like Mastercard can only muster 11 Google 'plusses'...unless their 128k on Facebook isn't really what it seems.

Perhaps the issue is less with the Google+ numbers and more with Facebook's.

Facebook has made it far too easy to game their 'liking' system. I know for a fact that you will gain 'likes' just by running ads. I've seen it. I've done it. And don't forget the countless iPad/iPhone/random electronic device giveaways that clutter the socialsphere—all designed to merely gain 'likes'.

Google has yet to release a feature for advertisers to gain 'plusses' directly from ads and I haven't seen brands pushing giveaways-for-plusses yet. Perhaps, for now, the 'plusses' a brand gains from Google are much more likely to be genuine recommendations than Facebook's 'likes'.

And this all makes me wonder how much 11 'plusses' is really worth. Maybe a lot more than we are giving credit for.

So maybe Google+ isn't quite there yet but maybe Google really does know what it's doing.

Wordpress Launches Best Named Ad Network Ever

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:00:00 +0000

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I kid! I kid!

The WordAds network was announced last week, as Wordpress makes an attempt to beat Google at it's own game—online advertising.

While I don't doubt that Wordpress has a much better handle on what WP bloggers want from from the ads they run (namely more money), I think they've missed the boat on why ads aren't converting currently:

The content.

Wordpress bloggers have been frustrated for some time with Google's AdSense program, which seems to consistently serve up ads that have nothing to do with the content on their blogs. It wouldn't surprise me if Google could do a better job however the responsibility lies in with the blogger, first and foremost.

Time and again I see bloggers with little or no vision and focus to their blogs, trying to wrestle a little extra spending money out of their readers—and failing miserably. Just throwing ads up won't produce growing revenue. Just like a retail brand must create a focused identity for their products, bloggers must have vision and focus to their content. Without it not only will you never gain truly dedicated readers but your ads will rarely match the context of your content.

So if Wordpress thinks they have the answer to serving better ads on WP blogs, more power to 'em. I'm not holding my breath.

But I will sau they should consider rebranding this product. C'mon, WordAds? Seriously? You can do better than that.

When in need of inspiration, steal from the dead.

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 06:24:00 +0000

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Stealing ideas from contemporaries is rude and tasteless. Stealing from the long dead is considered literary and admirable. The same is true of grave-robbing. Loot your local cemetery and find yourself mired in social awkwardness. But unearth the tomb of an ancient king and you can feel free to pop off his toe rings. You'll probably end up on a book tour, or bagging an honorary degree or two.

― N.D. Wilson

Best use of a window envelope...ever.

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 03:42:00 +0000

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When Customer Service Fails

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 21:17:00 +0000

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Last night, the restaurant where my wife and I had dinner failed.

Nothing catastrophic or life-threatening—they merely forgot to take our order. Whoops!

In short, we sat down, ordered drinks and meandered our way through the menu, attempting to make the ever-present restaurant decision: what to eat.

After some 30 minutes or so we began to realize our server may have forgotten about us. We both looked around anxiously trying to spot her (and then catch her eye). Eventually she did make it over to our table, apologizing profusely. She them quickly took our order and even managed to get some fries out to our table within a couple minutes.

While it could have been easy for us to get hurt and take it out on our server, the reality was that it was not entirely her fault. We came to find out that she was working both sides of the restaurant, on a busy Friday night, and our particular table was not in her normal section. When I found this out I started feeling sorry for her. What a crazy work night!

At the end of the day, someone higher up the management chain messed up. Either not enough servers were scheduled, or too many bailed, or our server took on someone else's shift, as well as her own, or even some other management mixup. But no matter how you slice it, our server was over-booked, which leads to mixups, mess-ups, and failure.

While restaurants certainly see the value of well-managed customer service employees, every business is in the business of customer service. From selling food to families to consulting CEOs on marketing to making trades on the stock market, there are clients involved. And whenever there are clients, there is customer service.

And how do you avoid customer service failures? Obviously training is crucial—you can serve a client well if you don't know what you're doing—but scheduling and managing the account load is just as important.

If you have a business where the client is king and you want to build long-term relationships, make sure your staff are not overloaded.

That's great customer service.

What's Your Battle Cry?

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:00:00 +0000

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photo by Dave Pearson

I saw this question brazenly scrawled across the back window of a high schooler's car the other day. What a great question!

When my partners and I at re:sound creative talk with our clients about branding, we like to talk about fans and advocates rather than just customers. Die-hard loyalty can only come from an experience that resonates intimately with your followers. And that can only happen when you truly know and understand what makes your company or product remarkable.

This question seems like a great one to begin to answer in that discovery process.

So what gets your customers excited to jump into the fray with you for the long haul?

What's your (brand's) battle cry?

Social media giveaways: a better way?

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:00:00 +0000

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We've all seen it: 'Tweet this and win a free iPad!' or 'Sign-up for 50%-off!' or 'Follow us on Facebook and get a free meal!'

Social media is rife with promotions and giveaways as business after business tries to build a list of followers and beef up their social network presence.

At one level, this makes perfect sense. In order to make a sale you need potential customers who are following your tweets, posts, and calls-to-action. And what better way to get that attention than to give some stuff away...well, at least for the price of a 'like' or a 'follow' or an email address.

And it works. At least it works in getting you lots of new followers.

Whether they really turn into customers is a whole other story.

This pattern of giving things away or steep discounts and coupons to indiscriminately gain followers only teaches these potential customers one thing: you're all about free and discounts. You are building a brand reputation and a bad one at that.

But I've been thinking: is this really what social media is all about? Gaining followers, pushing news, putting out the occasional PR fire, only to have your brand image lessened?

The power of social networks, for businesses, is the die-hard customers you already have. When Susie talks passionately on Facebook about the new shoes she bought from her favorite brand, she's influencing her friends and followers to a much greater degree than any ad campaign or giveaway promotion ever could. She is your evangelist. And people take much more stock in a friend or respected colleague's advice than the marketing manager's or sales rep's.

And what's even better is that with the data you have access to, you can find out who these people are. It's certainly not perfect yet: Twitter is a smorgasbord of real people, marketers, and bots; Facebook has the lock-down on a lot of data; and LinkedIn...well, we're all still trying to figure out how to use LinkedIn. But there's still people talking about their favorite experiences and brands.

So what if there was a better way to do giveaways?

I'm still figuring this one out but what if you did something very different. Rather than give away things to attract new followers, what if you rewarded your best customers for their social conversations about your products.

And don't announce it. Just do it.

Find Joe and Gabby talking about this great experience they had with your product. Give them both a freebie for next time.

No fanfare, no press release, no blog post. Let them talk about it. Do this enough times with enough passion and good faith, with your truly passionate customers, and they will dish out the praise.

I'm already seeing a glimmer of this with the new service at Klout.com. They are attempting to gather data on people's public social profiles to find out what they're influential about and then allow brands to give out cool stuff and unique experiences for those people to try and hopefully talk about.

But I don't see why you have to wait for Klout. The data is there. You just have to have the guts to do things different than the rest of the pack.

Two Sides of Cool (or a Lesson from Miles Davis)

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 15:00:00 +0000

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'What's the ROI on Cool?' is the question Joe Rinaldi (from Happy Cog) asked recently. He questions the desire of creative agencies and their clients to output work that wins awards and has a high 'cool factor' at the cost of usability and business effectiveness.

For the most part, I agree. Making something just to be flashy, hip, and trendy but that negates basic usability—and ultimately doesn't solve the users problem—is not what building great products is all about.

But there is a flip side to this coin of cool.

For those who tout usability over all else there is a slippery slope waiting dump them into the pit of bland. Doing things the same way they've always been done just because they work does not delight anyone (see yesterday's post for more on the importance of delighting your customers).

Delight is essential to good business. If your customers find your product or site accessible and easy to use to solve the problem you want to help them with—that's wonderful! You've got a good product.

But its not a cool product just because it works. A cool product is one that delights. It has to resonate with the user and hopefully causes them to fall in love with all that you do.

So how do you get to cool?

Let's take a lesson from the father of cool: Miles Davis. Why do we think Miles is cool? Because he forged his own trail; he innovated at the cost of popularity.

Miles was at the forefront of jazz, in the thick of the Bebop movement of the 40's. Bebop was new and hip. It was trendy. And it was certainly all about flash—fast, up-tempo and all about how well you could out-solo your contemporaries.

Miles quit all of that (which is part of what made him cool). He (with piano man, Bill Evans) took jazz in a completely different direction into what they called modal jazz. They slowed it down, got emotional, and made it sensual, all while placing a high importance on improvisation. They completely bucked the trends of the time in the jazz scene. And it struck a chord with many. He is by far most known for his modal jazz sound.

However Miles would do this again and again in his career, creating new genres of music, with little regard for how the mass public—or even how his jazz contemporaries—would respond.

The Miles Davis Cool is an attitude. It's a way of life. It's not caring what the crowd of sheep is doing and forging your own trail.

For your product to be cool, the essence of your brand, the core of your company has to have this attitude: willing to put it all on the line in order to do things infinitely better and infinitely more delightful. Push boundaries; question everything; poke this; pull that; surprise and delight.

If you just want to make money, quit the talk about being cool. But if you want to rock the world, create culture, make people fall in love with you, change people's lives: forge your own trail.

Incredible Tessellated Paper Sculptures

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:56:00 +0000

Keep up to date with me: subscribe to my blog, follow me @jerrythepunkrat, and check out my latest work.

I am seriously digging these paper sculptures by Matthew Shlian (and available from the Ghostly Store).

Anyone have $200 they want to gift me?

Is yours a delightful business

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Jones) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Keep up to date with me: subscribe to my blog, follow me @jerrythepunkrat, and check out my latest work.

You can't just have the 'best' product, you must delight your customers.

Surprise us.
Give us something new, unique, original, different, special; something we haven't even dreamt of yet. It can be the same basic thing as what I already have—a universal remote, for example—but do it in a way that is vastly different than any other. Nobody buys the paintings by the guy who paints exactly like Picasso.

Pay attention to the details.
Let every interaction be a joy. From your product's design, to your packaging, to your website, to your advertising, to the way you answer the phone, let us be amazed by your relentless delight at every level.

Keep it simple.
Don't bog me down in endless feature lists and a swiss-army-knife-of-uses that won't ever fit in my pocket. And don't assume that the loudest of us, your customers, really knows what's best for the next iteration. We may say we want more choices: steaks, salads, and fried mac-and-cheese but will that kill the simplistic joy of eating just burgers?

Make it intuitive.
Can a child figure it out? Or is there a user manual the size of my King James Bible? I'll read a 1000+ pages if it deals with the eternal destiny of my soul. If it's on how to use my sound system, you've failed.

Be kind.
You can be funny, sarcastic, serious, up-tight, wound-up, crazy-go-nuts, or downright stupid—whatever fits your brand. You can paper-maché it over with great design and flashy PR, but if you're not kind, watch us all eventually walk away.

Do the stuff that sucks.
Take out the trash. Clean the restroom. Train your staff. Answer phone calls. Be nice to the nasty guy returning your product because he broke it. We all know business is not all fun-and-games. Show us that you can do the un-fun stuff. And please do it without us seeing you cringe.

There's a million ways to delight your customers. Find them. Do them. Consistently. We will love you for it.