Building an App? Keep Your Marketers in Mind

Look at the fantastic group of Type-A brainiacs you gathered around that table to brainstorm the next great Web-based, mobile or tablet application. You have a list of goals, functionality and UI/UX ideas. However, I bet that nowhere on the list is anything about how advertisers will use the tool

But I bet you DID think about how brands will use the tool – didn’t ya?

SURE! Of course you considered the big household consumer names that will certainly have a banner year if they get on board with you. But sadly, the Unilevers, Louis Vuittons and Barclays of the world aren't holding their breath waiting to exploit your app.

However, we are.

“We” are the agencies and creative consultants hired to help big brands catch the next wave.

Crowd Surfing

Interactive and social media strategists spend countless hours searching for new tools. Sometimes we immerse ourselves in the search and stay heads-down all morning without even going downstairs for a fresh latte.

[Editor’s note: Most of your top-notch interactive strategists rent office space over a coffee shop.]

Moreover, we look at new tools in terms of how we will use them to deliver a message. And it's not just social media tools specifically. In fact, the more widely adopted and publicly accepted a tool is, the more likely we are to use it as an advertising vehicle.

Instagram: Here's a wonderful mobile/social photo application. And now brands (and their respective agencies) use it to deliver content about their products and services. They create contests, conduct conversations and aggregate connections using a tool once considered a “toy camera” app. This app will have a larger user base than Foursquare this year. And it's not even on Android yet.

Pintrest: Brands that don't see the value in constructing multiple Pintrests boards are blind to its potential. These are the same companies that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get your eyes to an e-commerce page where all their products reside. Hmmm, sounds just like a Pinterest board!

Empire Avenue: Here's an online social media game played with thousands of users. And brands are weaved in as participating players. Not only are they welcome, they have respect as players. Users don’t disregard the brands as entities that simply bought their way into the fold. This holds miles of digital street cred, because users trust those who they know and like. A good community manager working in-game with a passionate fan base could give you endless brand impressions without the endless expenditure.

So, developers, you need to think, "Where is the marketing loophole?" As strategists, we will look at your app and wonder:

• What kind of audience uses this tool?

• Will this application’s community of users eagerly accept my brand?

• How can a brand naturally engage users within this tool’s community?

And if we don’t get back to you right away, you can probably find us downstairs.

So You Need A Logo?

Here's a quick checklist presentation I like to show people when they work with me on creating a logo/identity or brand mark. It gives you a good sense of what you should be asking yourself and (often more importantly) what to be asking OF your design team or agency. Hope it helps.

Click to read more ...

All Day I Dream About Design: Industrial Design: Bikes

My love affair with bicycles officially started about two years ago. Many of my friends are into cycling, and I owned several bikes in the past. But then the romance got hot and heavy, and I could no longer deny the attraction.

Click to read more ...

Best Practice In Web Design Presentation

Here's the deck from yesterday's webinar:

"Best Practices of Web Site Design"

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Please pass this along (using the tools provided) if you find value in this presentation or know someone that might. Thank you.

What’s Your Website Design Saying?

As a business owner you know what looks good within your industry's vertical. You think you know what your site should, and most definitely should not look like. That doesn't mean that the design is working. As bloggers, designers and social media professionals, we all talk a lot about content and design. Every five years or so a bunch of people pick up rakes and light torches and scream, "We don't need graphics anymore!" Then no one comes back to their lifeless website. But what happened is they must have thought their words were that of the chosen. It's a balancing act to say the least, but creating a 'reason for return' is an essential key to winning in business.

What makes good design are visuals that enhance your brand, articles, posts and overall messaging. Fortunately, these practices can be broken down into some core functional components.

Navigation Styles:

You might say, "What does navigation have to do with design?" Just like laying out a print ad or billboard, the navigational foundation is the driving force behind your usability and therefore the most import decision in your approach to your website.

Left-align primary (or main) navigation can say to the user "I'm all about best practice", it can also say "I can't get away from antiquated thinking." Yes, it's what we all grew up with on the web and sometimes it really is the best option, just make sure your designers show you alternate scenarios before approval.

Right-align primary navigation can say "The content is king!", it can also say "We didn't want to left align the nave' but couldn't think of anything better." Growing with the popularity from bloggers, the right aligned and multi-column layout became a fast favorite for thin sites that wanted to lean on articles, archives and advertising space. It's still a good option, but only for sites that don't require showing prominence to other sub navigational areas.

Horizontal top primary navigation can say, "Efficient use of premier space above the fold", it can also say "We've got a ton of stuff to pack in underneath this thing and needed all the room we can get!" Most feature-rich sites use horizontal navigation to establish primary structure and then often build left and right handed "sub-navigation" beneath it. The important thing to watch out for if you use horizontal navigation is 'drop-down' sub navigation. Are they cluttering up your content to the point of illegibility? Make sure navigating your sight seems fluid.

"Grid Style" navigational compartmentalization can say, "We're foreword thinkers prepped for tablet and mobile" and it can also say "Good Lord this looks cluttered I have no idea where to go!" Many are prognostication that grid formats and content "modules" will boom in popularity for their ability to fill pages as they expand and retract in horizontal and vertical executions for more iPad and tablet environments.

Layout Theme - Symmetry vs. A-Symmetry

In layout styles for websites there are 'fixed' and 'elastic.' Fixed simply means that the size ration is going to be consistently at said width and the columns are a defined (or coded) width. Elastic layouts take into account variable screen sizes and expand and contract applicably to meet the need of the "screen real estate", or size of the user's monitor.

Symmetrical designs (often grid style) make for a visual balance. Apple.com's home page for instance is almost always symmetrical giving equal weight to elements from the left to the right hand side. Apple uses the LARGE PANORAMIC image at the top to denote importance of subject matter.

A-Symmetrical designs (left and right hand navigation) use areas of the website for copy or  larger images, then make smaller subordinate areas for things like sub-navigation and advertising. This visual draws the user to these portions of the page often referred to as "target areas" or areas of prominence. Amazon.com is a master of creating visual flow from their most recent product down into your profiled item selections.

So what do these pages say? Well think of size as volume. Larger areas of images and content are going to demand the most attention. As most blogs use A-Symmetrical design pushing the posts as the matter of importance. While larger business and services often opt for a more equal visual appeal. I would put it to you that if you have many items (products or services) that require equal and respective importance, then a symmetrical design is more than likely the best direction. One last point, if you do decide to gravitate to an a-symmetrical design, make sure that the prioritized content is speaking to your business goals.

Technology Usage

Simply stated, the day of the big giant flash open is over. Still seeing this is a testament to the egos of the company not taking into account platform adoption like iPad viewing and mobile. Additionally, it's important that your technology, albeit video or motion graphic, be as compliant as possible to the myriad of potential platforms that view it. For motion, use HTML5, for video stick with tried and true platforms like YouTube and Vimeo. Naturally, if you're writing reviews of beta technologies the sky's the limit, but remember when building your social graph it's best to stick with the platforms that offer the most traffic base and compliancy.

Colors & Fonts & Sizes

Consider colors, fonts and sizes the clothing you would wear to a pitch. Are you conservative and intellectual? Well then you might be a palette of grays and blues with Times New Roman and clean, amply spaced leading. Are you WILD, BOLD and YOUNG!? Well then you might be red and orange using CSS Font Face to embed some larger than life fonts like Aachen or ClarendonBT.

And just like that tie on your neck, the purse on your arm or the "hot gold" Dr. Marten's on your feet, colors speak volumes about who you are, what you sell and the friends that you keep.

Ask yourself:

• Who are we as a company?
• What is our attitude?
• Who is our demographic?
• How loud is our voice?
• What is our perceived level of quality and professionalism?

All these can be expressed with very fundamental tools for expression. If your company doesn't already have a brand standards manuals now might be the time to establish this level of thinking BEFORE spending money on a website or marketing materials.

Photography & Graphics

A picture says a thousand words right? So is the photography on your site saying, "Hey look who bought a digital camera at Wal Mart!" or is it saying "We're here to make your company as successful as we intend to make our own." And then of course there's the middle of the road in the land of (often) inconsistent stock photography. The thing to remember is this, your imagery must enhance the content, not distract your customer. If it's a blog post then a cell phone pic might be the most appropriate way to tell the story. But if it comes down to showing your product, the best money you spend might be on the images you sell.

Voice, Consistency & Timeliness Of Content

What is the "voice" or the "tone" of your content? Just like music, the way you and or your co-authors write your blog says a lot more than you think. If the content is to set a mood make sure that it does, but pay off your posts consistently. Differentiation may be right in some cases, but people that bind to your content and become loyalists are looking for two things: consistency and timeliness.

All of these elements combine to make the harmony of great design. No one thing will make or break a blog or website. Just be sure that whatever visual and conceptual expectation you are going for is being paid off throughout.

Mobile Ready?

Another remaining point should be is how your design looks on a mobile device. More than likely after all that time and money it will resemble a postage stamp addressed from hell. Make sure that your design team, agency or interactive firm show you a "MOBI" execution. This will speak volumes to certain consumers that run their life from the palm of their hand.

Testing, Testing 123

Lastly, take time to analyze your user data at 30, 60 and 90 days out. If it’s growing progressively then don’t change a thing and continue to monitor. If it’s failing to meet your expectations you can always address design changes and test it again. Pre-launch testing, heat mapping and surveys are also a great way to maximize on your investment. Design “optimization” is a necessary evil when it comes to making the most from your site and if steadfast you’ll find the winning combination.

So have you put the proper planning into your site? Share this article with others that it might benefit and comment below if I can answer anything else.

Web Predictions for Designers, Developers & Agencies for 2011

Comments Gone Wild:
Look to see that blog comments, reviews and ratings are more like the actual content. In a day-and-age where people rely so heavily on user-opinion, look to see the comments not be hidden 2k pixels below the fold but more a hybridization of the actual content. Watch articles simply become conversational seeds for much larger articles. (Bloggers get ready to tend your crops!)

"Weblet" (Web/Tablet) Design:
2011 may simply be the rise of the utilitarian website as we know it.  Wire-framing scenarios will be driving module componentry that will expand and contract to both standard monitors and tablet interfaces. Within these models, watch for a resurrection of the website "widget" to be replaced by a ratio-filling module for whatever purpose seems suited for a given section of the page.

Time To Get Griddy:
Watch designing by "The Grid System" become even more prominent for not simply designing websites, but applications, mobile websites and tablet-ready apps. The grid system for apps like Pulse, most iPad applications and others are essential for using both horizontal and vertical space appropriately.

All Your Base Belongs To Mobile-Readiness:
If you really think that your brand can wait a couple years before they need a mobile-ready website and associated mobile application, then you might be the fool after your competition acquires all your connections. The age of ubiquitous content is upon us. That being said, so is the platform agnostic mentality of all of the people that "expect" your brand should be where they use most. This mass coverage may not be within your spending consideration for 2011, but socially savvy brands are going to own the space and everyone else will pay twice as much to get caught up.

To further the point here you can't just repurpose email newsletter content into an app and push 'special mobile-only content.' People will assess a brand's strength around what their branded app brings to and fits within their lifestyle. Kraft dominated this space early on as a culinary portal, and Nike with their many fitness associated apps that allow you to track and create running paths and categorize your fitness progress.

A brand cannot just be a connective metaphor to your product or service, you need to be smart, related ideas. I don't know if that means John Deer needs to create the Farmer Planner 9000™ but your audience will be waiting for something – and fast.

Online Education, Training & Cross Fertilization:
The time for online education to streamline itself and not feel like an upset but the expectation is upon us. Full Sail University, a multi-tiered program directed at the entertainment, media, and arts industry has seen its online student population grow faster in the past three years then the thirty it's been in existence. But this stems beyond the private sector, as we will see more and more digital curriculum be common place in public and student funded programs alike.

Watch this type of content play itself out in all types of inner-office ways as well. Ten years ago or so the boom was on the LAN systems, then taken over by intranets and extranets. This more open platform will offer more education to a broader audience for employees, vendors and consultants alike to understand training, processes, SOP's and innovation. Watch more offices and brands look to agencies for content creation that might not see the public sector. Small flexible shops that look to scoop major agencies will do so if they can create an abundance of content that will be served up in a learning environment. This will be both repurposeable and modular for those smaller shops to create long-term relationships to keep content within brand and conceptual voice.

Watch for savvier companies to aggressively use the crowd sourcing models internally. From the backbone of the above mentioned educational platforms can spawn a sea of small efficient conversational labs and think tanks.

Clustering:
Too much stuff, not enough places to put it. Sounds like life itself does it not? Well in the social and digital world it's no different. From each year comes at least one to two types of technologies that you adopt into your fold. But the fatigue of using them all might be their downfall OR the genesis of companies that 'cluster' technologies using their API. You've seen it start many years ago with apps like Ping.fm and TweetDeck and Seesmic, but the time is rapidly approaching where more apps will find room to co-exist within the same space if they hope to keep market share.

Privatizing Mobile Credit Card Processing:
I jokingly tweeted when I saw the SquareUp product in person that "Oh, finally yard sales and drug dealers can take credit cards!" Well let's face it, when Southwest Airlines refuses cash to buy an in-flight beer there's something up. Your currency is your card, just face the truth people, we'll all have flying cars soon. That being said, watch as twenty "me too" companies follow and privatize more ways for people to pay with plastic. God help us all.

HTML5 & Standardization:
As the makers of "Angry Birds" can tell you, the mobile (and soon tablet) community fail when it comes to standardization. The browsers have failed for years but are starting the slow ascent to standardization where it seems to count. Unless you're IE, but that's another story entirely and only filled with profanity and loathing. That being said, watch 2011 as the insistence on HTML5 comes into play on the web, on iPad apps and all future iterations of your mobile applications. It's fastly becoming the development language of choice online and it's making headway with developers as the platform to use.

Proximity Meets Coupon Madness:
2010 Has been the year of the "Groupon" but like all good things someone had to buy them up, and dumb them down. We'll see if they can stand the maddening gauntlet-o-greed that occurs after acquisition and maintain a product that on the surface appears to be sound. So, look to 2011 to be the year of "The Deal." This should make every shopping lover that I know happy, as we take to the streets and sell digital couponing, check-in deals and proximity sales initiatives ad nueseum. Look for more apps, more rewards programs and ideally more clustering applications like the new Visa IPhone app that does a lot of the dirty work for you.

Near Field Communications:
Never heard of it? Me either, until I started this post and my research.

Wiki defines it as "Near Field Communication or NFC, is a short-range high frequency wireless communication technology which enables the exchange of data between devices over about a 10 centimeter (around 4 inches) distance."

Think of it like the app "Bump" on steroids. Many Asian retail markets have been using this technology for years. Approach a vending machine and your cell-phone becomes your payment connection. Thereby letting you purchase your product using your cellular platform as its invoicing criteria. It will also read RFID, Bluetooth pairing and others allowing advertisers to push more messenging to your cellphone as you pass outdoor and related NFC hotspots. Lastly, it will synch itself as your digital profile allowing you to access any number of personal connections such as:

• Electronic ticketing
• Electronic money
• Travel cards
• Identity documents
• Mobile commerce
• Electronic keys

Extending Print & Outdoor With Scan-Tags & QR Codes:
And much like last year, keep a keen out for savvier agencies to look to Microsoft Scan Tags and QR Codes to boost traditional media efforts and connect them to further digital extensions.