I haven’t done much thinking about Twitter lists yet, but I did stumble upon this very elegant and smart way to use them.   I like that the lists are completely relevant to the profile and answer questions you would like the answer to.

While we are highlighting the smartness of Work [at] Play…you must check out their site.

I love how the background (image of them working) is supporting and standing behind the work (it pops over the background)  nice little metaphor.  I’m also really into the horizontal movement when you navigate.

Have you seen this commercial from Dawn?   Dawn Commercial, Wash Away: Help Dawn Save Wildlife

It such a perfect marriage of brand, product and cause. When you first see it you get that “of course” feeling. We all know Dawn cuts grease and is mild on your hands right. Why wouldn’t it be the best thing to remove oil from animals fur and feathers.

The interesting thing is that the campaign idea was brought to Dawn from the people who actually work on recoveries, see this  NY Times article, they found it was the best product to use and brought it to Dawn’s attention.

I think they’ve done a nice job with the campaign. It’s on brand, reinforces the value proposition of the product and is telling a true story.  There is conversation on the web about Proctor and Gamble’s continued use of animal testing, but that’s another issue. This campaign I like and it is raising money for an issue I think gets way too little attention.

If you buy Dawn go here to make sure a dollar of your purchase goes to save wildlife.

The story of iSnack 2.0, aka Vegemite, is so interesting (and it is so hard to type iSnack 2.0 without laughing).  I’m not even sure how I feel about it or what the most important lesson of the story is.  Pop over and read Idsng’s article about it.

Are you back? Ok.

From the perspective of a creative professional there are so many things wrong with this story and it’s obvious that the public wasn’t immune to the ridiculousness of it, but what really bothers me is the underlining assumption that everything must be continually improved. It’s troublesome that a product that was clearly doing fine and has the affection of a nation could be vulnerable to this ugly side of business.

Constant unquestioned unending growth, optimization, updating to try and sell more has never set well with me. We’ve seen what can happen when the economy became addicted to growth.  I think that same crash’n burn can happen to a brand when it looses sight of the intention and limitations of a product.

Why can’t companies just leave things alone. The product is special, it brings in a good profit, it strengthens your other brands by bringing stability and trust, people identify and consider it part of their life. What else could you ask for?  To sell more?  I guess so…..  but my approach would be to enrich what is already there. To dig deeper into what people feel and what they need and see what ideas come out of that.

I’m working on talk about Strategy as it applies to the creative industries, digital focused of course, this story is strengthening my resolve to get it done and out there.

ps I don’t think you are a bad guy/gal Kraft. Just a little misdirected. I would love to work with you sometime.

BBC FAQ

While doing some looking around after I made the discovery in my last post about the lack of Author pages on Amazon I came across the BBC’s FAQ page. Couple things struck me about the page.

1. Their FAQ is pretty good.

We should all think a bit more about FAQ’s and how we can make them useful and work on behalf of the site goals and the health of the Brand.

I like that they give a quick list of the answers available below. I like that the answers appear to have some good thought behind them. FAQ’s often leave you with more questions then they answer or use it as a place to dump content that has no other place to live. They seem to really want to address reader’s questions not just lower the calls to customer service.

2. Loving their very open approach to adding a new feature to the site.

They have taken the opportunity to explain to the readers that they are trying something new and they ask for feedback.

We can’t ignore that the websites we design are places that people care about, take time out of their day to visit and often become an intimate part of their life. Being transparent and open about the innovations of the site shows a great amount of respect for the people who care enough to come back day after day. And if you decide the new stuff isn’t going to work it might not be as hard for the users to take since they have been with you all along.

3. The Topics pages are a great idea. Hope it works out.

So much news is being produced everyday. It comes and goes. Great content is pushed down the page till it disappears. News organization should take the time to catalog and curate the best most desired content.

I was wondering last night if the site had changed since the collapse of our financial market. Looks like it surely has.

Wish I had more screen shots from the previous version, but I think this one page comparison says a lot.

Goldman Sachs Careers

I just watched this really wonderful presentation from last years UX Week. It’s given by Katherine Jones and Randall Macon from Milkshake, on the subject of Brands that are appropriate platforms for fostering community.

They walk us through how they think about Brands and how they uncover if community building/expanding/supporting is a viable or useful endeavor for a specific orgainization.

Livestrong and the Blanton Museum are used as casestudies. These stories are both perfect and very different illustrations, both completely engaging and enlighting.

Milkshake uses a process of identifing three distinct pieces of the community picture. Belonging. Connecting. Enduring. I’ll let you watch the video for the details, but I will say that I am excited to try this process out.

My big take aways are:

• External Influences can’t be ignored and are extremly powerful, effecting the way in which your Brand is being perceived. This is especially true when your Brand is carried and shaped by a community.
• You can’t just flip a switch if the switch doesn’t exist.
• Find out who they trust.
• I would love to work at Milkshake. Smart. Thoughtful people.

lynneanelson

disclaimer: I am not a Branding expert but it is infused into the considerations of my work, so I am working through some ideas out loud.

In an earlier post I showed “Brand Needs” and “Business Desires” as consideration of the UX practice. I would like to amend that. I think it is actually “Brand Desires” and “Business Needs”

The attributes of a Brand are wishes. They are what a company hopes people will feel about their company and products. The Brand will exist even if these particular views/feelings of the Brand are not realized. It may not be the Brand perception we were going for but it doesn’t necessary mean the project was damaging to the business. We should do everything we can to further the desires of the Brand but keep a realistic perspective on our ability to effect it.

In the case of the Business, I was trying to get at the fact that what the company thinks they “need” from the digital realm may not always be accurate.

For example, they may want to increase traffic to their Help section because they feel it will decrease calls to customer service, but in reality an increase to the Help section may mean people are having trouble navigating or understanding the site. A business may also want to get people through the check-out process as quickly as possible to increase sales but if the customers expectations of the product or agreement are not properly set before check out this could result in fewer sales in the future.

The Business “Desires” the site to work in a particular way but the “Needs” of the business are what we must concern ourselves with. For example: the business must maintain profitability, it must not harm the customers, it must establish and meet expectations.

Of course we can often satisfy “Needs” and “Desires” but I am trying to see if there is a way to set priorities for our practice.

What do you think?