Annoying Design

Jul

Should Web Agencies Sponsor Olympic Hopefuls?

By ross 1 Comment

Categories: advertising and marketing and website design

In April I wrote a post called Digital Agency Sites Suck — pretty self explanatory title — and it’s become my most-read post. I think that’s because it supports what most people feel — many agency websites are flashy, digital masturbation — not the unique, storytelling-driven expressions they should be.

But here’s an interesting attempt I read about on Ad Freak: Kolar Advertising found a real-life story that encapsulates their world-view, and what they, as an agency, believe in.

As a runner, Paul Stoneham endures grueling training in hopes of qualifying for the Olympic 10k. But the odds are against him — he’s 37 — a classic underdog tale, up there with George Foreman’s comeback fight.

So Kolar Advertising — who sees themselves as an underdog — decided to sponsor Paul, the runner. For no other reason than his story (his brand) inspires their brand.

KolarRunning

But this screenshot you see is only linked to from a tiny link at the bottom of their site — with the vague label “Heroes.”

Kolar, if you read this, consider taking some major real-estate of your very “flashy” intro-heavy homepage, to promote this sponsorship. It’s a gutsy, unique move, that says a lot about what you stand for. And that’s exactly what an agency home page should be about.

Agencies need to realize that everyone makes pretty web sites these days. That’s not going to win AoR relationships — that’s just your entry form to the competition. I bet clients really want to know: What about you as an agency, your culture, your processes, your world view, makes you different form everyone else?

I’m going to take this advice to heart, and redo my own website, and portfolio to tell the story of my culture and process. We all have one.

So what do you think about this sponsorship? Does it make any sense for a full-service ad agency to sponsor an Olympic hopeful? Is this just a PR stunt? Or does this really add something to how Kolar presents themselves?

Jun

Your Advertising Gave Me Indigestion

By ross 0 Comments

Categories: advertising and marketing and agencies

Too often we are forced to stare at advertisements — enslaved by intrusive ad placement.

Waiting in a move theater, before the previews, is one good example. It’s a frustrating experience, when the Coke ad comes on and interrupts your game of movie trivia with your friend, or whatever conversation you were having, and I know I’m not the only one who feels that way.

Advertising in its entirety is becoming obsolete, as companies rally around Marketing As A service (MaaS) — here’s one take by TheDrewBlog, and of course, Zeus Jones’ idea (pictured below). MaaS means providing value and meaning to consumers through products and expereinces, rather than just building awareness through messaging.

But MaaS is far out there for most traditional agencies, who are still focused on media buys. And so it all comes down to placement — which sometimes just feels like ad pollution. Continue reading ‘Your Advertising Gave Me Indigestion’

Jun

Design and a theory of everything

By ross 1 Comment

Categories: design

Cati Vaucelle posted a picture of NASA using 3D composing with sound-controlled CGI to make magnetic fields visible, and this got me thinking about universality.

Recently as I have been studying design strategy, I’ve noticed that the most effective design processes as cyclical. User research feeds design prototyping, which feeds user research. And with sustainable design, cradle to cradle creation is all about industry that mimics the cycle of life — a cyclical, universal process.

Ideo process

Back to universality, magnetic fiends, and math…

The fundamental building block of music is a vibrating objects and sound waves, and the harmonic series — a physical constant that when a string vibrates, it’s first in half, then in thirds… etc. etc.. so you hear a pitch, and then a series of overtones in the background.

And so in this way, music is math. Sound is simple geometry. just take a look at these simple musical sounds vibrating in water, and the shapes created by these vibrations…

So music is math.

Math is a universal language.

And the most basic particles that make up world, matter, us, life — are vibrating — are music. This is the essence of string theory, which says that:

“Absolutely everything in the universe—all of the particles that make up matter and forces—is comprised of tiny vibrating fundamental strings. Moreover, every one of these strings is identical. The only difference between one string and another, whether it’s a heavy particle that is part of an atom or a massless particle that carries light, is its resonant pattern, or how it vibrates.”

Looking at the basic components of the universe, it’s hard not to see patterns and very clear parallels between the composition of the world around us, and the way over time we as a species and as a culture have learned to re-structure this world using design.

Jun

Defining Sustainability As Cradle To Cradle Design

By ross 3 Comments

Categories: design and sustainability

What do companies mean when they create eco-friendly products? There’s a big difference between making small changes to a product, and then marketing it as green, and creating truly sustainable offerings.

Poland Spring’s Eco-Shaped bottle uses less plastic than any other water bottle. But the packaging is still plastic, and bottled water is a product that still produces excessive amounts of waste. So ultimately, this effort by Poland Spring rides the line of greenwashing.

eco_bottle

True sustainable design is a product, manufacturing proccess, or business model, that creates minimal waste — whatever it produces for consumption, it takes back and reuses.

Sustainability = business and industry that mimics the cycle of life.

Some are calling this the next industrial revolution . Rather than the cradle to grave processes that dominated the 20th century, where corporations viewed nature as a limitless resource, cradle to cradle design requires a complete rethinking.

Tomorrow’s businesses will be based on timeless models like photosynthesis and the carbon cycle…

carbon cycle diagram

Jun

Turning A Facebook App Into A Viral Hit

By ross 0 Comments

Categories: advertising and marketing, social networks and word-of-mouth

Last month, I wrote about Jia Shen’s approach to designing killer Facebook applications. He’s the co-founder of RockYou, the makers of SuperWall (2 million daily active users).

Today, I want to take Jia’s approach, and season it with some of my own thinking to see how we might redesign an existing Facebook app called “Nordsrtom Fashion Status” to be more viral (here’s the app’s Facebook page).

This app was created by the folks at Zeus Jones — a marketing start-up that I’ve been closely following because of their unique take:

“We believe that actions speak louder than words and are dedicated to solving business problems by helping clients use their marketing to do things for their customers instead of just saying things to them.”

Back to Facebook and the Nordstrom Fashion Status app. Which I’m going to dissect by suggesting changes, and then explaining why those changes will help increase the apps viral success. First, here’s the Nordstrom app right now:

Users can update their mood/status, and also list what clothing their wearing. There are two other tabbed sections on the app, letting you see what brands your friends wear the most, and what’s most popular across the US.

Overall my idea is to transform it from Fashion Status, to Nordstrom Fashion Sense…

First change: Make the app more social, by transforming it into an outfit recommendation tool. Let users detail what outfit their wearing, but also allow them to create their outfit ideas to share with friends — so they can become each other’s “fashion consultants.”

Why?: To make any app go viral on Facebook, there has to be a social component which incentives users to share and even encourage their friends to sign up. As Jai at RockYou pointed out, this is driven by social messaging. When I post something on SuperWall, all of my friends get notifications — which is in essence free advertising of the app. That’s what drives viral growth: notifications and news feed posts.

Second change It should be less about people’s moods, since Facebook already has a status function, and more about their fashion sense. Allow them to vote on the outfits friends create with a simple “hot or not” approach. And then provide rankings to see which friends have the hottest fashion sense. Another added dimension, would be if users were awarded points for their top outfits — and could use those points to redeem something in-store.

Why?: Competitive elements — being able to vote on each other’s content and get a score or ranking of where you stand — encourages active participation. Because it provides users with a challenge, and a consequence to their decisions. Simply put, it makes the experience more meaningful. That’s the success behind sites like HotOrNot.com.

Third and fourth changes: Remove the “US” tab — we want to keep this relevant to people’s friends and close networks. And then loose the heavy-handed links back to Nordstrom.com — users will search for the brands if they like the outfits.

Why?: These two much smaller changes help to make each element in the application support the core purpose of the app — focus on users’ immediate social networks, and make it more about expressing fashion sense, than showcasing Nordstrom on your Facebook page.

Thanks the quick and dirty viral redesign. What do you think? Next week I’m going to write up a cheat sheet for Facebook app design. Stay tuned…

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About Me

Hi, my name is Ross and I’m a design strategist, and I'm passionate about studying how audiences connect with products and ideas. I've worn many hats: a market researcher and consultant at Forrester Research, a game designer at Harmonix, a grad student at Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center, a composer and teacher at New England Conservatory. You can reach me at ross.spw@gmail.com, or follow me on twitter.