Understand the mindset, not just the media momentby Robert Davis

According to ExactTarget's 2008 Channel Preference Survey,  younger consumers favor IM and text messaging for personal communication, but they prefer email for marketing communication. And 56% of those 18-24 had made a purchase because of a marketing message received vial email, down a little from 35-44 year olds, 66% of whom had purchased vial email.

The distinction is a clear indicator of the need to go beyond media usage alone as a targeting criteria, and to define the mindset associated with the use of a particular media form in order to understand the potential role of marketing for a particular user of a particular medium.

THINK's model of media usage clearly defines texting and IM usage among 18-24 year olds as an "interaction" mindset, and commercial email as a "transactional" mindset. Based on this model, brands would be wise to take very different approaches to each medium. This latest research bears out the distinction.

I got 2 touchscreens and a microphone...by Bryan Wills

A long time ago in a DJ booth far, far away I used to spend my time mixing these odd black discs that contained a groove on each side. Looking back it sounds strange, but it seemed quite natural at the time and the warm sound of vinyl is far superior to this day imho.

When digital audio became the standard towards the end of the 1900's, most deejays I knew preferred the feel of mixing vinyl. The main thing that bugged me about mixing CDs was not being able to "read" the groove of the song and predict breaks and changes in the music. This was solved with software/turntable based systems like Serato Sratch Live which allow you to manipulate mp3s on a laptop using synced timecode LPs on turntables. I was skeptical at first, but it's the real deal. I would probably feel weird carrying a thumb-drive instead of milk-crates, but I am sure I could get over that quickly! I'm not sure how you get your friends into the club free by letting them help carry your thumb-drive tho.

If you are wondering, yes, there is a current point to all this. It appears someone has taken digital mixing a step further using some flat mounted touch panels.

They call it Attigo TT. Check out the video. It doesn't look like it would have the same feel as spinning records, but maybe I'm just old school. Or perhaps just old.

Vi-Vikki-Vikki-Video...aw yeah!by Bryan Wills

I remember seeing this commercial and thinking how cool it would be to manipulate a video by dragging the objects contained within it. Manipulating real-life objects like the commercial simulates by reaching into it and dragging cars and people around seemed unrealistic (however difficult it is to convince some clients of that!), but objects in a video?...hmmm... and that is where some other shiny object caught my eye....and...what were we talking about?

Oh ya...direct manipulation of video. So it appears someone infinitely more focused than I has figured out how to actually do it. They call it DimP: A Direct Manipulation Video Player. By evaluating the motion of a video and mapping the paths of moving objects they are able to enable those objects to be used much like the scrub-bar typically found in video players. Check it out.

2 Things You Will Never Hear Me Ask...by Bryan Wills

#1: "Hey Mom, what do you think of this new breakcore remix?"

and

#2: "Hey what does Forrester think of [ insert anything relevant here ]?".

In a stunning attempt to simultaneously top Gartner Reports on being accurate, Microsoft on being original, and "Alternative Music" on being an alternative to anything, Forrester has issued a mind-numbingly corny image of Apple circa 2013.

According to the visionaries at Forrester, 5 years from now the Cupertino posse will add to their string of revolutionary, market altering products like the iMac, the iPod & the iPhone with.... wait for it.... clock radios, universal remotes, and digital picture frames. Seriously?!? OK, date check... nope, it's not April 1st. So I guess the industrial design professionals at Apple are really going to have to push themselves if they want to become Spencer's Gifts in the next half-decade.

Even the Mac-player-haters I know would expect more from Apple.

I would give anything to have a video of Jonathan Ive reading this report.... 2 Researchers, 1 Cup.

(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).)

The green limousineby Robert Davis

Here's an unexpected development. The only - ONLY - Earth Day email I received was from the guys I occasionally pay too much money to in order to get a ride to the airport all by myself in the backseat  of Lincoln Town Car. Carey Limousine wrote to tell me about their "...discussion with many of [their] clients and colleagues [that] has turned to that of climate change and impact that ground transportation has on the global ecosystem."

They go on to point out that through offsets and reductions in emissions the Carey San Francisco operation has become a CarbonNeutral operation.

I'm not sure what's more surprising – that I got this email from Carey, of all companies – or that it's the only such email that I got this year.

What can a bacon, egg and cheese tell us about requirements gathering?by Robert Davis

Starbucks will stop offering breakfast sandwiches. Other than the fact that they didn't taste very good – purely a subjective perspective, admittedly – there is another angle here. Starbucks Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz commented that the aroma of the sandwiches fought with the coffee aroma which is a key element of the Starbucks identity and experience.

Aroma is putting it kindly. Those sandwiches are downright stinky.

Reminds me of conversations with clients about business requirements for a web build. One common request is to  "future-proof" an architecture so that unknown requirements lurking in the future can be accommodated. There are certain classes of requirements for which this is possible – in particular, those that can be addressed, say, by abstracting a data layer, or building a rules layer.

And there are others you just can't see. Think back 7 years or so, when the basic plan for a Starbucks location was developed. The requirements included

• Consistent design and fixtures
• Adaptable to newly-built locations, as well as being squeezed into highly-variable existing locations in urban settings
• Accomodate variety of beverage choices, and to-go baked goods (Aside: remember when Starbuck baked goods were truly local, varied from store to store, and tasted good?)

Do you think anybody volunteered a requirement to accomodate high-volume ventilation to account for the "aroma" of breakfast sandwiches being "warmed"? Doubt it. And they certainly didn't build for it.

If they had identified the requirement, would it have made sense to build ventilation – probably at some expense in those funky urban locations – to insure against a potential future expansion of their offering?

Doubtful.

When looking at a largish-scale build that a client considers to be a major architectural step-change, it's worthwhile to spend a little time looking at potential future business directions, and evaluating not just the need, but the potential near-term cost, to address them. In most cases, it won't make sense.

But somebody should write the requirement down and put it in the same folder as the potential business idea. They'll be a step ahead – and possibly insulated from a bone-headed move like stinking up a coffee store that counts on experience to help insulate hefty margins.

Anybody want to buy a few hundred warming ovens? They work pretty well for Quiznos...

Spamology: Finally a positive spin on spamby Bryan Wills

After collecting Spam messages for 10 years, Irad Lee and Santiago Ortiz created Spamology, an interactive audiovisual representation of popular words in Spam E-mail messages. Using your mouse and some keyboard commands (click "i" to read about the project), you can navigate the most common words in about 2,000,000 E-mail messages from around the world.

It's great to see someone finally do something worthwhile with the bane of the digitally connected world. Now how do we visualize the inaccuracy of blogs or the suckiness of MySpace pages?

HAV 2 GO Pby Bryan Wills

Some rest stop bathrooms in Finland can only be opened by SMS messaging "OPEN" to a number printed on the door. The new system was introduced in January in the rest areas along Highway 1 in Paimio and Salo near Turku, following numerous breakages, arson attempts, and thefts in the buildings housing public conveniences for motorists.

Standard text messaging rates apply, but the government is not making any money off the "transaction". The hope is that by having the "users" phone number on file it will deter them from vandalizing the facilities. At this point, "HLP NO TP" does nothing for you.

(Via Helsingin Sanomat .)

Wable wobbles but it don't fall downby Bryan Wills

The Wable is a connected coffee table that displays a 3-dimensional bar chart depicting the current state of your online presence. Perhaps this is what Edward Tufte's living room looks like. Click below to check out the video.

The Wable Connected Table

Gesture Based Interaction - coming to a shop window near you...by Bryan Wills

Orange, a mobile provider in the UK has created a gesture based interactive experience in their downtown London shop window. Like a scene out of Minority Report, users can browse thru movie trailers, news feeds, and music by simply waving their hands in front of the shop window. I wonder how long it is before someone applies this technology to the shop windows in Amsterdam.