attention span

Does the Wii U have an identity crisis?

Dr. John McCarthy — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 12:23:10 +0000

Very much first reactions – and of course I haven’t actually used it – but the the Wii U looks like one of this LeapFrog thingies for kids.

At first glance, I don’t really get it. What am I looking at?

The little screen or the big screen? Or both?

Nintendo have pioneered the dual screen approach with the DS so maybe this is the logical next step. Big screen for social space – little screen for personal space.

I need to get my hands on one to get a feel for it.

When Augmented Reality goes mobile

Dr. John McCarthy — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:34:59 +0000

2008/2009 has a seen an explosion of Augmented Reality (AR) promotions where video from a webcam is merged with 3D graphics. Although most of these are little more than a one shot wow they are compelling nontheless.

Some of my favorite examples so far are:

Living Sasquatch

- because you can create custom sequences

Living Sasquatch – Papervision – Augmented Reality from Boffswana on Vimeo.

Topps Virtual Playing Cards

- aside from being awesome they introduce a simple game into the AR world

Lego Store at Disneyland

- – because it shows how you can use AR in a retail/kiosk setting.

Ray Ban Virtual Mirror

- because it allows you to try things on completely virtually..

You can find more examples here

So what next?

Well the next wave seems to be mobile applications. With the GPS/location based capabilities of phones this introduces a whole new area for development.

Nearest Tube

will help you find the will help you find the nearest subway station. No need to ask for directions, and you will never get lost.

Twittaround

takes the iPhone’s camera and overlays live video of the world around you with tweets. Move around and you can see who is tweeting and how far away. Because words just don’t do it justice, here’s the amazing demo:

A whole new genre of alfresco gaming, social networks and virtual messaging may be just around the corner and it surely won’t be long after before the Lego example becomes a reality on the move and you can get more information or even leave reviews for products.

Advertising Comms: Breaking Channel Boundaries

Dr. John McCarthy — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:38:59 +0000

The problem with many advertising comms is that they only exist in their own channel. If I get an email, sure I can forward it and probably find it again in my inbox (if I’m lucky) – but one thing I can’t do is Google it.

With any kind of comms people don’t always remember where they saw it. Was it in a magazine? A letter I got through the door? An email I got..or even something I saw on telly? And in this haze of memory what to people resort to?

SEARCH.

Now this might seem all very obvious but it’s surprising how much communication and advertising out in the world does not have a digital or web equivalent to support this discovery at a later date. There’s definitely a trick being missed here. And one that’s even more apparent with the relentless rise of Twitter.

I now use Twitter as a search engine to find interesting links that I would never find on Google or Bing. Now if we leave the “I’m picking my nose” Tweets aside, the most interesting and useful side of Twitter is people tweeting and re-tweeting interesting web links. The vast majority of these are pointing at blogs.

This struck home this morning. While searching for something on Twitter I came across several tweets that I had also received as an email newsletter. Now here was someone doing it the right!

The Strategy:

Making the blog or digital channel the central source for publishing content and then pushing this out to other channels.

The Reward:

This means that the emails I get can easily be found via search and they will also propogate through the Twitter broadcast network based on their worth giving maximum exposure.

The good, the bad, and the persuasive

Dr. John McCarthy — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:21:52 +0000

Behaving Badly in Vancouver by design mind

A great talk from Robert Fabricant at IxDA 09 got me thinking.

Many of his examples on the representation of information were (strickly speaking) about perception and how we process information in different ways.

A key to good user centred design must be to get under the skin of the users and what makes them tick. Representations of good and bad and should relate to them at the most fundamental level if persuasion or nudging is going to happen.

To use an example from advertising, since the 1950′s in the UK Persil washing powder has been marketed along with the concept that clean and white is good.

The outcome? Parents in a constant state of stress at their children as they happily rolled around in mud. “No Jonny, not in the mud!!! – why don’t you watch TV instead…”

In light of this, the reversal in strategy by Unilever to use the strapline “Dirt is good” is truely a stroke of genius. Hey parents, don’t get so stressed. It’s not bad any more if they get caked in dirt. Oh – and those dirty clothes. Don’t worry we’ve got the verything for you.

So Unilever aren’t peddling aspirations any more but solutions to your problems.

Is this user centred advertising?