September 22nd, 2011 by Dan Barczak
I generally don’t write posts about harsh critique, but after scrolling through my inbox on Sunday and reading a letter from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings (which has since changed to a more polished version on the Netflix blog), I couldn’t resist digging a little deeper. Although an intriguing read, Hastings’ apology has gone over like a lead balloon for many Netflix loyalists. (see the email here.)
The gist: The streaming service will retain the Netflix branding while the DVD-by-mail service will be named Qwikster. Hastings said the split will better serve customers in the long run because each company will be able to better focus on one type of service. Also, Qwikster will maintain the color equity of red with a new logo/brand, and will also include games, which opens up a whole new avenue for the conglomerate. The backlash and the support is staggering, and many are already detailing alternatives.
From a brand perspective, it will be interesting to see how Qwikster develops: what it looks like, how it’s perceived, how well the brand delivers, and what it means for future technologies such as applications and various platforms. If their website is any indication, things will be evolving and changing very rapidly, as everyone’s watching.
Tags: brand, hastings, launch, movies, netflix, qwikster
Posted in Design, Technology, Thinking | Comments Off
September 21st, 2011 by Chris Hendrixson
Welp, yesterday Instagram rolled out version 2.0 of its popular (and growing) photo sharing app for the iPhone. Live filters, new filters, higher-resolution photos, etc. You can read more about that stuff here, but I want to focus on a relatively small but important update: the app icon. As a designer I’m often enamored by beautiful app icons, especially on the iPhone’s retina display. They are an important part of a product’s identity and although you have already been “sold” on the app since you’ve downloaded it, the icon is a detail not to be overlooked. It captures the essence of your product in all its square, little, rounded-corner glory. I think the Instagram 2.0 icon is a wonderful update. Just like the app, I liked the icon just fine before. Isn’t that the best kind of update though? Something you already like gets even better. Apple is great at this. The Instagram icon update is subtle and at first glance I couldn’t articulate what was different about it (more shadowing, more contrast, INST to Insta below the color stripes) but I knew it was different somehow. It feels better. Sometimes things don’t need an explanation, it’s just ok that they “feel” better. They certainly did not need to update the icon but I’m glad they did. This very high attention to the minor details is a characteristic of a “great” brand/product and something often overlooked by a “good” one.
(The layout of the Instagram icons above is a nod to one of our favorite and most visited blogs, Brand New.)
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September 9th, 2011 by Dan Barczak
Under Armour Maryland Pride Video from NewMedia on Vimeo.
I couldn’t help but fall in love with Maryland’s new football ensemble, while flipping through ESPN the other night. I personally love the design. Not because it’s any better than Penn State’s classic old-school cool, or Oregon’s flashy neon from Nike. I love it because it made me stop dead in my tracks and say “what the hell is that?” I love it because it got my attention. It made Maryland football relevant. And it got people talking. That is great design.
(more…)
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July 5th, 2011 by rachel.mason@hyperquake.com
Focusing on our goal of creating an interface to encourage people to explore new places, events and areas of Cincinnati, we began brainstorming user stories. Each of us thought of the possible desires a person might have for using the app and created narratives in the frame of, “As a { role }, I want { feature }, so that { benefit }.” For example, “As an indecisive person I want an app that helps me make decisions, so I can spend less time debating.” We had many great responses. There were differing scenarios across the spectrum, ranging from general to specific. Some user narratives overlapped in content, while others were unique.
To filter the stories, we will bucket the narratives and try to define the features and benefits we’ve suggested. Next we will have to determine which narratives are most relevant to our goals so we can focus our attention as we continue to develop our ideas.
Tags: brainstorm, Cincinnati, Design, interactive design, pbj, user narratives
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June 30th, 2011 by Matthew Cole
Today’s meeting took us a few steps back from sketching/mapping out the app to reevaluate who and what the app is for. Some of this reappraisal arose from the weekend’s outings by a few Quakers, who came back with a few jotted notes and ideas about their adventures. In short, we began to see that heading down one path would lead to the creation of more of a “Suggestion” app instead of the “Choose-Your-Own-Adventure” direction that had previously resounded among all of us. To stay on track, we need to remember our core goal:
“Create an interface to the city that encourages people to explore new places, events and areas of Cincinnati.”
With that in mind, our next step is to begin setting up some use-case scenarios from the perspectives of several potential users (e.g. Visitors to Cincy, Bored long-time Residents, New-to-the-town Users and Users taking out family or friends (Entertaining)). These scenarios will serve as guideposts for development, keeping us focused on our users and what they will potentially be doing with the app.
Tags: App Development, Design, Interaction Design
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June 24th, 2011 by Kate Kovalcin
We made some breakthroughs as far as our process goes. We’ve come to an agreement about the hierarchy of our ideas and now it’s just going through and problem solving along the way. We have a pretty clear vision of how we want it to start and now it’s just making some decisions about filters and questions. We have some really awesome ideas about ways to expand the app, but for now, we’re just excited to be figuring out the basics.
Posted in Design, Fun, Technology, Thinking | 17 Comments »
June 23rd, 2011 by Chris Hendrixson
We have a few good ideas, a couple that are solid gold and a handful that are just crap. The PBJ team is currently working to narrow our focus a little bit and start to move from idea to some early-level sketching/prototyping of aforementioned solid gold ideas. Stay tuned …
Tags: pbj
Posted in Design, Technology | 178 Comments »
June 20th, 2011 by erik.taylor@hyperquake.com
Today we sat down to further narrow our scope for PBJ’s yet unnamed project. While we may have spent more time discussing social groups like hipsters, bros, and several other derogatory labels, we did however come up with a unique idea that got several of us excited. While discussing how to differentiate ourselves from other apps or websites that offer event information and feedback like yelp or urbanspoon, Dustin threw out the idea for an app styled after the choose your own adventure books many of us remember so fondly. You could see the wheels turning as we all thought of some of the cool possibilities this could lead to. Map and GPS integration, picture tagging, commenting and social profiles were just a few of the ideas being thrown around. Needless to say we are still in the dark ages of this project, the “create your own adventure app” was something to get excited about. Here’s a recap of a few of my favorite ideas:
- plan your night on the fly based on your mood and get recommendations on where to start your adventure
- location based check-in and picture tagging to document the adventure
- achievements or reward unlocks for creating unique adventures or incorporating new venues
- adventure categorization based on social groups
- the ability to share your adventure with others and comment on adventures
- a profile and social factions of users with similar adventures
These are just a few of the ideas we talked about and we still have a lot of polishing to do from a scope and ideation standpoint, but I for one am excited to see where this goes. Check back next time to see how our idea changes and evolves.
Tags: adventure, Cincinnati, pbj
Posted in Design, Technology | 201 Comments »
June 16th, 2011 by Chris Hendrixson
Today we started to narrow down our focus a bit on our yet-unnamed project. More post-it notes and white-board-chicken-scratch. Today we decided that we want to make a product, one that is conjured up out of our collective creative minds as opposed to one for a particular client. So far we are pretty sure we want to make an iPhone app. We are in a debate about whether the app will be more entertainment or more content-delivery focused or (more likely) some combination of both. We are all intrigued by the thought of adding a game layer to the experience, which could come to life in a wide variety of ways.
Some random thoughts from today’s brainstorm:
• Do people REALLY check-in with mobile devices and WHY do they do this?
• Make something cool that we all would use and there is a good chance others will too
• Crowd-source content
• Infuse the experience with “inside jokes” and other funny Cincy stereotypes
• Be upfront and honest about Cincy at all times (don’t sugarcoat!)
Our current mission statement: To show the world that Cincinnati doesn’t suck.
Tags: app, Cincinnati, iPhone
Posted in Design, Technology | 89 Comments »
