Influx Insights Tag Feed: web

the future of the web experience

Influx Insights — 2008-08-05T04:55:00Z

Adaptive Path has been working on an interesting project with Mozilla to explore the future of the browser.

They made a film, shown below. to introduce the concept and show how users might access, share and collaborate with data found through their browser.

The concept demonstrates interesting ways to seamlessly integrate data elements into conversations, that previously would have involved many different steps.

It gives us a glimpse at the potential of a new internet future, which has massive implications for the way in which brands use the web and interact with their users.

Aurora (Part 1) from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Posted by Ed Cotton

nike plus resolutions

Influx Insights — 2007-12-31T01:42:44Z

R/GA's Nike+ site, although created in 2005, has been much heralded this year as the gold standard in "Brand Utility".

It has been the marker to judge this new hybrid world between the banner and the website, sadly, nobody, not even R/GA has come close to the excellence of the Nike site.

So, while we wait for another contender, it's worth taking a look at what's happening on the Nike + site today.

Interestingly, in common with every diet product and fitness center, Nike + is now in full resolution mode.

The site is allowing its users to upload their resolutions, to track them and send notes and encouragement to others making resolutions.

It's a great example of the dynamics of the site and how the experience can be flexible enough to respond to short-term needs like New Year's resolutions.

Posted by Ed Cotton

news content re-constituted as art

Influx Insights — 2007-12-21T07:12:57Z

Cool story about the Movable Type art piece in the new New York Times building in New York.

The concept is all about breaking the original content down into small elements and finding connections between the pieces.

Posted by Ed Cotton

unlimited = a never ending web experience

Influx Insights — 2007-11-06T15:39:53Z

The constraints of integration too often put limits on the creative application of a single medium.

The idea that interactive should follow the lead of television often doesn't make any sense. It's refreshing to see an idea that seems so perfect for the interactive medium and one where the agency has been allowed to play a little.

Poke's campaign for Orange all about a simple unlimited calling service, but it's been treated as an experience.

How many times have we seen this service executed in a boring and predicatable fashion?

Online, Poke have made it playful, random, experiential and masively engaging, it also translates the idea of unlimited into never ending and applied it directly to the web.

The end result is a welcome change from the predictable pathways most users are set.

Posted by Ed Cotton

boing boing does the unexpected and launches a television show

Influx Insights — 2007-10-03T04:25:50Z

Boing-Boing is the breakout blog, the one that most people have heard and perhaps even visited.

The wacky commentators that trawl the web daily for their weird, funny and compelling stuff are now breaking out of their blog home and moving onto and into a new format for them, one called television.

The team promise that this experiment will not be television as usual.

Here's the first taste of fun, so you can decide for yourself.

Posted by Ed Cotton

new web rules from the bbc

Influx Insights — 2007-06-22T04:50:27Z

Some interesting new "rules" from the BBC. (Via Tom Loosemore)

1. Build web products that meet audience needs: anticipate needs not yet fully articulated by audiences, then meet them with products that set new standards. (nicked from Google)

2. The very best websites do one thing really, really well: do less, but execute perfectly. (again, nicked from Google, with a tip of the hat to Jason Fried)

3. Do not attempt to do everything yourselves: link to other high-quality sites instead. Your users will thank you. Use other people’s content and tools to enhance your site, and vice versa.

4. Fall forward, fast: make many small bets, iterate wildly, back successes, kill failures, fast.

5. Treat the entire web as a creative canvas: don’t restrict your creativity to your own site.

6. The web is a conversation. Join in: Adopt a relaxed, conversational tone. Admit your mistakes.

7. Any website is only as good as its worst page: Ensure best practice editorial processes are adopted and adhered to.

8. Make sure all your content can be linked to, forever.

9. Remember your granny won’t ever use “Second Life”: She may come online soon, with very different needs from early-adopters.

10. Maximise routes to content: Develop as many aggregations of content about people, places, topics, channels, networks & time as possible. Optimise your site to rank high in Google.

11. Consistent design and navigation needn’t mean one-size-fits-all: Users should always know they’re on one of your websites, even if they all look very different. Most importantly of all, they know they won’t ever get lost.

12. Accessibility is not an optional extra: Sites designed that way from the ground up work better for all users

13. Let people paste your content on the walls of their virtual homes: Encourage users to take nuggets of content away with them, with links back to your site

14. Link to discussions on the web, don’t host them: Only host web-based discussions where there is a clear rationale

15. Personalisation should be unobtrusive, elegant and transparent: After all, it’s your users’ data. Best respect it.

Posted by Ed Cotton