Another Apple iOS Idea

Establish a spatial link between iPads and iPhones.

Just this week I heard of two more people forgetting their iPads. One was left on a plane; gone forever, and the second was left in a hotel room, but luckily was recovered after a breathless drive back across the city. What about adding a feature allowing people to establish a spatial link between their iPad and their iPhone? That could reduce in the number of iPads left in hotel rooms, conference rooms, planes and taxis in the first place.

This would work by allowing you to define a minimum separation distance between their two devices. Then place a notification alert on top of that. For example:
Warn me if <"iPad Name"> is more than <"10 metres"> away from this iPhone in the next <"6 hours">.
Ideally, both the class of notification and its intensity would escalate as you moved further away from the device in question.

This could serve as an early warning system, preventing many lost iPads. It would compliment the Find My iPhone/iPad feature which is used *after* any loss. My assumptions here are that a significant number of iPad owners also carry iPhones and that people are likely to still possess their iPhone in scenarios where they have left their iPad behind.

An additional feature would be the option to dismiss the notification alert for a set amount of time:
Activate again in <"12 hours">.
This would address scenarios such as leaving the house without your iPad on a day when you are intentionally leaving it behind.

UPDATE
Two weeks later, I have come across the Zomm Wireless Leash. A hardware solution to aspects of this problem, but one requiring you to carry an additional accessory. (Sourced via the Unofficial Apple Weblog.)

Sh*t Brand Consultants Say

Every specialism has its own argot, insider jargon and stock phraseology. Whether we are bankers, bakers, bloggers, bicycle-repairmen or brand consultants, each of us is happily living within our own particular linguistic suburb. So of course many of the stock phrases and expressions that we use daily are bound to be non-obvious, enigmatic and sometimes even faintly ridiculous to others. Yet why not record those and celebrate them in a light-hearted way?

I have incorporated few, if any, viral internet memes into this blog over the years. If you are unfamiliar with the conventions of the current “Shite People Say” meme, you’ can start with watching ‘Shit Cyclists Say’ and ‘Shite Irish Girls Say’. (You should even be able to find a similar “Shit <Foo> Say” video for whatever tribe you belong to.)

It is alway healthy to be able to laugh at oneself, and this meme inspires a light-hearted response. I am short on time – so in lieu of a YouTube video – here is a draft dialogue for a script. (In-joke alert: if you are unfamiliar with the lingo of the branding game then your mileage here may vary.) 

I’m thinking of a fast-cut edited montage of me alternately wearing a suit, a hipster gansey or a trendy shirt, shot in various boardrooms. Of course, I am already completely guilty of delivering most of these utterances at one time or another over the course of my career...

— “Your brand is not your logo.”
— “That is a strategic issue.”
— “Have you any research to back that up?"
— “It depends.”
— “This is about evolution, not revolution.”
— “I need to look at your brand architecture.”
— “Your logo is not your brand.”
— “Well, it’s not always about design.”
— “Is your company a house-of-brands, or are you a branded-house?”
— “I would advise against talking to your advertising agency about your brand strategy challenges.”
— “What you need is a master-branded strategy.”
— “Your brand is your promise.”
— “What you need is a sub-branded strategy.”
— “It’s more fundamental than that.”
— “Actually, it’s a lot more complicated than you think.”
— “Actually, it’s a lot more straightforward than you think.”
— “I would advise against talking to your PR agency about your brand strategy challenges.”
— “We need to address your business issues before we can solve your brand issues.”
— “Your social media strategy needs to align with your tone-of-voice strategy.”
— “I would advise against talking to your digital agency about your brand strategy challenges.”
— “Your brand communications lack a consistent look and feel.”
— “This is about revolution, not evolution.”
— “Your brand communications are too homogenous and inflexible.”
— “You are unclear about what your brand really is.”
— “Your brand is everything that you do.”
— “What you need is a monolithic brand strategy.”
— “I would advise against talking to your social media consultants about your brand strategy challenges.”
— “What you need is a endorsed-brand strategy.”
— “I’ll get back to you on that.”
— “Really, I see that as being more of a graphic design challenge.”
— “Well you could do that: but I wouldn’t advise it.”
— “Ultimately, it’s your decision.”

Did I omit any of the more obvious brand consultant statements? If so, just add more in the comments. I will make sure to incorporate them if I ever get around to making a video version of this.

Content Credits To Offset New Broadcast Charge

I find it difficult to reconcile all of the actual media consumption that I observe with the proposed new universal broadcasting charge intended to support large scale state-sponsored broadcasters.

Consider this domestic snapshot from last Saturday. My son glued to his iPod watching a succession of home-made Lego stop-motion animations on YouTube (this week’s novelty for his six-year old attention). At the same time my daughter was watching some Studio Ghibli movies in the original Japanese (even though she can't read the subtitles yet). I was catching up on some 5-by-5 podcasts while doing housework. This mélange of professional, semi-pro and wholly user-generated content is typical of the mix of media consumed by the people formally known as the audience. Welcome to the 21st century mediascape.

So the existing Irish TV licence is an anachronism given the ever-increasing convergence and democratisation of media. Therefore something is obviously going to change. But is it appropriate to levy a flat charge for all media consumption for the benefit of specific actors in the mediascape. I foresee robust debate about where the proceeds of such a broadcasting charge are to be distributed.

Reading between the lines of recent Irish Times commentary about the proposed charge, I see them already angling for some portion of the resultant subvention fund. I think they want to broaden the state’s framing of what a broadcaster is within the terms of the relevant legislation. If some of those monies are indeed passed on to the Irish Times, then how much should go to Journal.ie, to Politics.ie, or to Broadsheet.ie? And you can just keep on adding names to that list…

But wait, aren’t we all broadcasters now? I broadcast hundreds of tweets, status updates and Instagrams each year. Not to forgot the occasional essay on this blog. A lot of people I know are equally as active as content producers, each broadcasting to their own web audiences. At present we do not receive any state support for our myriad broadcasting activities. Surely we are just as deserving as the Joe Duffys and Pat Kennys? Who will right this injustice?

Here’s a mischievous idea; why not also offset any new broadcasting charges with a system of ‘Content Credits’? Then those who merely graze and consume content* without broadcasting and contributing back into the mediascape would pay the full amount. While net contributors would have their charges reduced in line with their broadcasting activities. I can imagine a sliding scale: maybe a tweet would be worth one cent per thousand followers, while a blog post would earn a one-euro credit per thousand words per hundred impressions. Or, if that kind of approach allowed people to easily spam the system, perhaps the credits could be calculated as a multiplier of people’s Klout score or some similar metric.

Would you be happy to blog your way to a reduced broadcast charge?


* Lets call them “Content Spongers”. (It’s almost too much fun not to resist the urge to spin the rhetoric around.) Think of all the one-percenters sponging on the system who only consume content and contribute nothing back to the Internet.

A Novel Feature Idea for iOS

iOS should present a default device owner’s avatar image to any apps that request one.

Getting started on a new social media service – or on the majority of apps which increasingly require an initial login to create a presence within the app’s community – is now a pretty efficient and streamlined process. If you don’t want to login with your Facebook or Twitter identity [1] then you just need to provide a user name and a password (sometimes an email is not even needed any more) and you’re all set. You get a generic avatar icon to speed your way into the service: completing your profile by adding a photo and any other information can happen at any time later. Because including the photo/avatar is not part of that initial on-ramp work flow you can see a lot of default avatars in the early stages of community building.

What Is It That You Do Again?

“Designers like to play with shapes and colours.”
I had a really strong negative reaction when I read this statement in an article about differing perspectives between information architects and UI designers. So much so that I wanted to quickly analyse why I should be so bothered by a seemingly innoculous and thoughtless throwaway line like that.

One of the downsides of calling myself a graphic designer is that everyone I encounter has their own different take on what that is, what I can do and how I may be useful to them. (My formal job title ‘Brand Director’ also suffers from the same subjectivity.) Of course, in many ways job titles are not all that important, but it is always worth asking – as communications professionals – how well do we communicate what we do to our clients and other interested parties.

Desk

I have worked at this desk for over ten years now.

Tomorrow we move into our new studio space next door. I am not permitting a lot of my paperwork, old files and other general cruft accumulated over a decade to make that move with me. Sometimes it is important to let go of the past. Decide what is important and worth taking forward and jettison the rest.

Time for some new perspectives I think.

Steve

What a day. What a day. We all knew this day was coming. But now that it has we are still surprised. No, far more than surprised: shocked.

Steve relentlessly championed design. He cared about beauty in form, he championed simplicity and elegance in operation.

In my career, I have always used and loved his creations. Not only have they transformed the design industry, but they have repeatedly redefined the possibilities of what each of us could achieve as designers ourselves. 

In recent years the true scope of his ambition has been realised and (without overstatement) has reshaped society.

He wanted to leave “a dint in the universe” and is one of the few who have actually changed the world: my world, your world, all our worlds.

Thanks Steve.

POSTSCRIPT

These were the three best Steve Jobs inspired posts I read yesterday. I would like to share them with you.  Gruber  |  Calacanis  |  Dediu

Some Thoughts on Gamification

I unlocked the ‘client-friendly’ badge on GoldenLadder (or did I?)

I have been joining some dots between the automatic sharing functionality now being enabled in Facebook and the practice of utilising game theory to increase participation within social networks. Facebook’s new frictionless sharing model generates micro-posts based on current activities: I’m listening to a song right now or I’m reading an article right now, etc. That seems of limited interest, and something best experienced in the ‘river of news’ format of the new ticker. But from there it does seem only a short step to generating more interesting aggregate posts that may give stronger signals about what we are focused on.

It is too easy to scoff at the achievement badge notifications showing up in my Facebook news feed: Fred is the mayor of his favourite coffee shop; Daphne has unlocked the Jobs badge for three check-ins at an Apple Store; and Velma has gone to more than five museums in the last month, etc. I think that something interesting is going in beneath the surface that is worth thinking about a bit further. The gamification model is currently most associated with location-based check-ins, but what other possibilities could it lead too? So setting aside all of the incessant buzzing about privacy, Facebook and Google being “just creepy enough” and the related conversations about advertising metrics and monetisation, let’s take a look at some thought experiments.

Blogger iOS App: What Took You So Long?

Blogger UI compared with Google+ and SquareSpace apps. (Oh, and guys. Orange? Seriously?)

I just downloaded the first official Blogger iOS app from Google this morning. I am posting these initial thoughts and reactions while trying it out.

Firstly, I have to note that it is surprising that it took Google so long to launch this product. They introduced an Android version of the app earlier this year. The iPhone is four years old and plenty of third-party Blogger client apps have sprouted in that time, so the demand has been there for a while. Leaving aside the current antipathy between The Big G and the House Of Steve, the iPhone has a substantial user base that must be well worth serving. I don’t think the shine has gone off mobile blogging yet.

For a long-awaited product this app is very rudimentary. Google’s services, including Blogger, have all been getting a badly needed update of their (admittedly now much improved) UI over this Summer. There is little evidence of that kind of design thinking in this app. The recent Google+ app has been criticised in my circles for lacking functionality, features and finish. It's a work of art compared to this.

My only experience to date with a blogging app is the official SquareSpace client that I use for our company website. The difference in both appearance and functionality between the two apps is stark. This Blogger 1.0 app is such a bare bones client.

Given they have taken so long to provide this minimal app I wonder how aggressive their update schedule is going to be and how much focus, attention and support Blogger is getting within Google. This product needs iteration.

Some people are all about their blog analytics and I expect that they will be a strongly requested feature for the next release, but I will be asking for Markdown support in version 1.1. Pretty please.

Atomised, Exploded And Socially-filtered: That’s My New Daily News

After one month without reading a paper-newspaper, some initial observations on going digital-only and on the influence of physical construction as a prompt to reading. 

Two recent events inspired and inform this post. We cancelled our work subscription to the Irish Times in May, and last week I received the final printed edition of Design Week in the post. I have been reading the printed versions of both of those publications for over twenty years. Now that I have the opportunity to reinvent my reading experience of each, it is worth observing the initial changes in my reading patterns and whatever advantages or disadvantages I have encountered in switching to all-digital consumption.

Seven Years Of Blogging: A Quick Reflection

This blog is seven years old today. I am ever so slightly astounded by that fact. While the core essence of blogging as an activity remains little changed since 2004, it is chastening to look back at how limited the Blogger service’s bare bones feature set was back then. It is also interesting to think about some of the innovative related technologies that have come on-stream since then. Here is a quick list.

My Presentation To SIFII REAP Professional Postgraduate Seminar

I have blogged about the year I spent gaining my Masters degree to an unprecedented level of detail (mostly here and here.) However I never wrote any summary or reflection on the whole experience. So being asked to speak at the recent SIFII REAP Seminar on Professional Postgraduate Programmes gave me the incentive to put some thoughts in order two years after the fact. 

One benefit of a fifteen-minute speaking slot is that I was forced to be concise. So this palimpsest of a more thorough retrospective may be of interest to anyone who is weighing the options of taking on a part-time MA and maintaining a professional career at the same time.

Implications Of Multi-Variant Brand Mark Systems

© City of Melbourne

© London Olympics

© MIT Media Lab

Technology now supports the implementation of complex brand identity systems where the most fundamental elements, such as the brand mark, may have multiple variations (examples include MIT Media Lab, Aol and London 2012 identities). In practice, what is the trade-off between the flexibility and freedom of expression and the overhead of time and resources needed to make such systems work effectively?

Rebranding The Office For Social Media Effectiveness

I wrote this fake news story for April Fool’s Day 2011 and we hosted it on the BFK site for that one day. I still like it, and want to archive it here.

Social media solutions within the civil service and the broader state sector.

We have just completed a major rebranding programme for The Office For Social Media Effectiveness to help them deliver on their strategic objectives. Established in 2009, the role and remit of the Office has expanded alongside the adoption of social media solutions within the civil service and the broader state sector. From today it is relaunching as “Status:State”.

Dan Cobley’s Ten Paths To Innovation — #dws5

Image by Dublin Web Summit.

Building Brands Roundtable Panel — #dws5

Photo by Dublin Web Summit. 

The second panel at last week’s Dublin Web Summit featured Ray Nolan of Hostelworld, Breon Corcoran of Paddy Power and brand consultant Noel Toolin.

They talked around the topic of creating a brand for your start-up. The main trust of their conversation focussed on elevating the audience’s thinking on brand beyond visual expression and into the realm of behaviour and culture. Along the same lines of conversations I have with my clients.

Jerry Kennelly’s business axioms — #dws5

Photo by Dublin Web Summit.

 Jerry Kennelly, founder of Tweak.com, was the third speaker at this week’s Dublin Web Summit. His concentrated presentation distilled some personal business axioms that he had developed over his career.

Get Your Blog On

A friend of mine has been talking about setting up a blog, and talking and talking about it some more. A year later and there is still no blog. Here is my advice for anyone stuck at that point. In true blogging metier, I have composed this as a ten-point list (ironic or not, you decide.)

Perception Is Reality

I followed the Twitter back-channel commentary that ran alongside both last week’s five-man and yesterday’s three-man leadership debates on RTE. It is insightful and eye opening to see just how much the preconceptions people bring with them effect their interpretations of such a shared communal event.

Books On Branding

I have curated this short list of recommended books on brands, brand design and branding issues for a lecture on corporate identity and branding that I am giving at the School of Art, Design and Printing in the Dublin Institute of Technology. I am sharing it here as it may be of broader interest.