March, 2008 Archive
Sunday, March 30th, 2008
Rolling out one of the biggest -- if not the only -- large scale urban 2D barcode program in the U.S., CitySearch will now be tagging scores of local San Francisco restaurants with the pixelated codes. Partnering with Audio Antenna and ScanBuy, CitySearch announced their plans to put up ...
Tags: 2d, antenna, avenue a | razorfish, barcodes, japan, location, Mobile, scanbuy, SmartPox, sprint, wired, wireless
Posted in Advertising, Mobile, Social Media, Technology, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Thursday, March 27th, 2008
Starbucks, more than any other company, has given rise to the “experience economy.” But today the company, with its sagging stock price, is in a deep funk. With shares down around 40%, sales flat to declining and foot traffic falling off, many industry analysts question where Starbucks lost its way: ...
Tags: , appexchange, apple, barack obama, clover, dell, dunkin' donuts, howard schultz, idea, innovation, iphone, itunes, kiva.org, mcdonalds, meetup.com, oracle, salesforce.com, starbucks, treehugger.com
Posted in Advertising, Design Tactics, Digital Branding, Digital Consumer Behavior, Social Media, Web 2.0, eCommerce | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
Last week I had the opportunity to talk to a leading industry analyst about a number of potential small web site investments that marketers and publishers could make to yield the biggest possible pay-off. The premise being, of course, that in economic hard times site owners needed to stretch ...
Tags: acquisition, Analytics, conversion, facebook, hitbox, myspace, omniture, optimization, paid search, red bull, retention, rock you, search, search engine, seo, widgets
Posted in Advertising, Analytics, Design Tactics, Digital Branding, Digital Consumer Behavior, Social Media, Technology, eCommerce | 1 Comment »
Monday, March 24th, 2008
There has been a lot of discussion recently about how web design is influencing mobile. You don't hear as much about how phone interface design, and more specifically the iPhone, is beginning to influence user experience on the web.
Ribbit - "Silicon Valley's first phone company" - is creating some pioneering ...
Tags: amphibian, iphone, microsoft, ribbit, tellme, voicemail
Posted in Mobile, Technology, Web 2.0 | 1 Comment »
Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
Reason # 238 that we love the Internet: The Photoshop Disasters Blog."With great power comes great responsibility" is the tag line at this digital testament to the pitfalls of Photoshop magic gone awry. Take a look at this example for a taste of what's in-store for the design geek in ...
Tags: design, enhancements, fun, goofs, magic, mistakes, models, photoshop, tricks
Posted in Design Tactics, Digital Branding | 1 Comment »
Friday, March 21st, 2008
Once upon a time, long pages that forced users to scroll were anathema. 'Nobody looks below the fold,' design stakeholders cried. 'But if it's useful content they will!', others retorted.Finally, most people got over it. Now we see well signposted pages -- bolding, bullets, heading structures -- with strong information ...
Tags: ajax, information architecture, interaction design, lake nona, rapp collins, rofl.org, the fold, Web 2.0
Posted in Design Tactics, Web 2.0 | 6 Comments »
Thursday, March 20th, 2008
We've seen it with personal computers and we're seeing it with mobile phones, so it's interesting to note that video game consoles are the next digital hardware to be considered for a single platform.
There are about 14 different gaming systems for which major video game developers, such as Electronic Arts, ...
Tags: open platforms, video game design
Posted in Technology | 1 Comment »
Thursday, March 20th, 2008
Wired Editor Chris Anderson has had a profound effect on the internet industry with his book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. One of the key tenets of his theory, for the music industry, was that self-publishing and digital distribution via the internet ...
Tags: birdmonster, chris anderson, diy, long tail, lou reed, record labels, sales, self-publishing, sxsw, wired magazine
Posted in Media + Entertainment, Web 2.0, eCommerce | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
At this point we've just about given up on retrieving our lost data from earlier this week. Here's a quick recap of what we covered:
Adweek's Brian Morrissey nails a number of key trends shaping the digital design landscape in Form + Function -- a must read. Quick excerpt:
Funny microsites ...
Tags: , 37 signals, advertising age, adweek, aquantive, atlas, avenue a | razorfish, critical mass, design, digital, microsoft, nokia, organic, silicon alley insider
Posted in Advertising, Design Tactics, Digital Consumer Behavior | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
Continental has started testing electronic passes as an alternative to paper boarding passe. Travelers simply display a 2D barcode on their mobile device as they go through security and board a plane. Essentially the barcode represents the same details printed on a traditional boarding pass, however it is encrypted and ...
Posted in Mobile | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
Still don't know why, but our servers went down last night. We are rebuilding today and have backed up to last Friday. Thanks for your patience.
Posted in Digital Branding | No Comments »
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
And if there is going to be blood in the digital agency world, who's blood will it be? That was the question (or more accurately "questions") that hung over the SXSW panel that I spoke on at this year's conference in Austin, Texas. The answer was far from clear, however.
The ...
Tags: Advertising, Analytics, api, data, design, tracking, web, youtube
Posted in Advertising, Analytics, Digital Branding, Digital Consumer Behavior, Technology, Web 2.0 | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
Social media, social networking and just about any other type of digital communication literally dominated the conversation at this year's SXSW. Avenue A | Razorfish's Shiv Singh, who writes his own blog at Going Social Now, debuted our new social media practice to a packed hall in Austin. For those who ...
Posted in Advertising, Social Media, Web 2.0 | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
Photo Source: Wired Blog
Referred to by some industry analysts as a train wreck interview, there is no shortage of opinions debating the merits of Sarah Lacey's keynote interview with Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Facebook. I will leave it up to the blogosphere, twitter, Cnet and Wired to ...
Tags: facebook, keynote, social networks, sxsw interactive
Posted in Advertising, Design Tactics, Digital Consumer Behavior, Media + Entertainment, Reviews, Social Media, Technology, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Monday, March 10th, 2008
I went to Jason Fried’s talk about what he’s learned from starting 37 Signals, the Chicago-based company responsible for Basecamp and Highrise. With his no nonsense and thoughtful approach to running a company it is easy to appreciate why 37 Signals is such a phenomenal success. His panel was intelligent ...
Tags: 37 signals, advice, good process
Posted in Design Tactics, Digital Consumer Behavior, Media + Entertainment, Reviews, Social Media, Technology, Web 2.0 | 1 Comment »
Sunday, March 9th, 2008
A lively and thought provoking panel between Henry Jenkins (MIT professor and Cultural Theorist) and Stephen Johnson, CEO of outside.in and author.
Photo Source: ArMiller
Here were some of the main takeaways:
New forms of learning are emerging and Jenkins and Johnson argued that today’s youth culture is not dumber. The youth ...
Tags: civic action, engagement, knowledge, learning, new media, Youth culture
Posted in Digital Branding, Digital Consumer Behavior, Media + Entertainment, Reviews, Social Media, Technology, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Sunday, March 9th, 2008
SxSW Interactive is now well and truly underway. The crowds have gathered. This year the Interactive Festival is expecting more than 7500 attendees drawn from all walks of life including designers, developers, usability professionals, start ups, consultants, authors, tech evangelists, cultural theorists, project managers, bloggers and journalists to name ...
Tags: 2008, sxsw, sxswinteractive
Posted in Design Tactics, Digital Consumer Behavior, Media + Entertainment, Mobile, Reviews, Social Media, Technology, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Friday, March 7th, 2008
Like many of you, we too are packing our bags for this years' SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. The schedule, events and party list are truly Texas-sized (i.e. ridiculously big and somewhat overwhelming). Nonetheless, we are prepared to take it all in and perhaps do some light posting.
Avenue A ...
Tags: , agency, event, interactive, iphone, Social Media, sxsw
Posted in Advertising, Digital Consumer Behavior, Media + Entertainment, Mobile, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Thursday, March 6th, 2008
To coincide with the much anticipated release of the iPhone Software Development Kit, venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has initiated an "iFund" meant to provide additional motivation to would-be developers. The VC firm is anticipating a new wave of games, applications and widgets, but ...
Posted in Mobile, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Thursday, March 6th, 2008
Do we really need to create unique digital experiences for Gen Y?
That's the running debate I've been having with some of my colleagues and industry analysts this week. I've always argued that to create great digital experiences online you need to look past demographics (and psychographics) to focus on ...
Tags: eCommerce, facebook, forrester, gen y, marketing, millennials, myspace, network, Social Media, social shopping, victoria's secret, web design
Posted in Advertising, Analytics, Digital Consumer Behavior, Social Media | No Comments »
The latest on digital design trends and consumer behavior from Avenue A | Razorfish
