Posts Tagged ‘Experience’

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Tweetindipity

I love Twitter.

Like everyone else, it took me a period of adjustment to “get it” but once I did, I fell in love with Twitter wholeheartedly. Why? In part because of it’s immediacy. It can also lead you to so many different places; down the rabbit hole, as it were. If you’ve ever spent an evening at home clickling your way through “if you like this artist, you’ll like…” links in iTunes, you’ll know what I mean. But mostly, I love Twitter because of serendipity. In my opinion, it is by far the most serendipitous social network out there. Let me give you an example.

This morning I was scanning through my Twitter list when I came upon this tweet from C.C. Chapman: “One of my favorite views…”. Naturally curious,
I clicked through to see a picture taken from his perspective in the back of a canoe. His son is paddling in front of him, his daughter sits squarely in the centre and his wife is at the front. The canoe floats quietly on a lake covered in lily pads and the scene is very peaceful. As an outdoorsy guy myself, it inspired me to look into canoes at Mountain Equipment Coop (MEC).

Upon landing on their home page, I spied a link to MEC Paddlefest, an annual celebration of canoeing and kayaking. I clicked through to discover that the event will be in Toronto, in our neck of the woods, in two weeks. I called to check the availability for the Canoeing for Parents and Kids program and $11.30 later, we were booked.

I then returned to my Twitter client—Hootsuite—and tweeted: “Inspired by cc_chapman’s photo, I’ve signed up for Canoeing for Parents and Kids as part of MEC’s #paddlefest. Can’t wait!” He responded with: “Awesome! It is a great family activity and SO peaceful. Hope you guys enjoy it.” and then re-tweeted my original post adding “This made my morning.” Indeed, and my morning too.

How has Twitter opened up the world for you?

Posted: June 1, 2010 by mcharbonneau | View Comments
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When Will It All End?

Screengrab of scanned barcodeThat’s a common question we get from people entering the social fray. “Facebook. Twitter. Foursquare. When does it end?”

It doesn’t. And that’s a good thing.

The latest social network I’ve looked into is called Stickybits. Where Facebook connects you to a network of friends and Foursquare connects you to a location, Stickybits does this with both and a brand. How does it work? First, you download an application to your mobile device (only Android and iPhones thus far), then scan anything that has a barcode–a granola bar, a box of Band-Aids, a bottle of Coke. Stickybits then asks you to attach a note, photo, video or audio clip which it then sends (with your location) to a stream where others from around the world can share.

What’s the point?

Well, I could scan a can of Guinness and send like-minded drinkers a cheers from Toronto. I could scan a food product and send along a recipe for others to try out. As David Berkowitz from Inside the Marketer’s Studio explains: “People are already experimenting with Stickybits in cases such as scavenger hunts and business cards. Soon enough, brands will get to take control of their own bits and share their own messages with consumers. Right now, it’s all about having fun, and with any luck it will largely stay that way.”

But what about the numbers? Exactly how many people are doing this and do I really need to be there? The answers: not many and probably not yet. Maybe never. But with all things social, you should be less concerned with how many people you’re hitting and working toward conversing with those that matter to you and your brand. Will Stickybits work for you and your business? Perhaps. The key is to keep yourself open to these new opportunities and decide for yourself if you should embrace them or not.

Are you ready for the next thing?

Posted: May 5, 2010 by mcharbonneau | View Comments
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The Bell Follow-Up

Well, we got our quicker Internet connection today. Unfortunately for Bell, it’s not with them. They did come to install the Optimax service but after arguing with a support centre in India, the technician admitted he wouldn’t be able to upgrade our service.

Which begs the question: why were we told we could in the first place?

Regardless, our Internet service has now gone to Rogers. They were in our office earlier today and just like that, much quicker speed. At less than what we were paying with Bell. You’ve got to love competition.

Posted: December 4, 2009 by mcharbonneau | View Comments
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The “Up To” Promise

by Mike Charbonneau

A Speedtest.net test of our internet connection.

A Speedtest.net test of our internet connection.

Our recent efforts in the world social media multimedia have revealed (or, I should say, brought back to our attention) an issue with our internet connection. It’s slow. Really slow. Looking over our contract confirmed we have a high-speed connection which should give us “up to” 6 Mbps of download speed. Now, I understand the whole “up to” promise and how it’s dependent on where you are and the type of wiring that exists; it’s akin to achieving those theoretical gas mileage numbers but only if you drive at 20 km/h on a new road, with no wind, with optimum ambient temperature. But having checked Speedtest.net more than a few times, we rarely hit download speeds above 2.5 Mbps. Not what you’d call speedy.

So I called Bell to ask if there was a better option and apparently, there is. It’s called Optimax and it promises to deliver download speeds of 8 Mbps. Not up to but specifically 8 Mbps. And all for $10 a month more than what we are currently paying (on a 3-year contract and with a $125 installation fee). We expect the service on Monday, so I’ll keep you posted on the difference.

But the truth remains, we would have gladly paid the difference to get the service we required from the get go. I have to wonder why Bell couldn’t have looked at our service (which they can do), ascertained that it would never reach the ideal target and offered us a different option. I mean, think of it. They get more money, we’re happy with the service and now, we’re thinking of their company in a positive light for having given us with a solution.

I can see how it would require too much time and effort to look at each case individually. Perhaps “up to” is the easiest way to deal with everyone. But as I watch and participate in communications between brands and consumers, I have to wonder, is the easiest way the right way to go?

Posted: November 24, 2009 by mcharbonneau | View Comments
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Creating a Timeless User Experience

Here is an interesting article from Francisco Inchauste at Six Revisions about the user experience.

If we could tear into the fabric of time and look a decade into the future, what kind of experience might we find? It’s easy to imagine the technology would be much more advanced. Something out of a film like Minority Report with holographic touchscreens, or so advanced of an A.I. (artificial intelligence) that the application anticipates solutions without the user having to do much else.

In reality the kinds of products, websites, and applications that survive and continue to be effective are those that that focus on the user experience. The digital world evolves continually, but we need to manage this by making sure we don’t leave the people who use our applications and websites in the dust. In this article we will explore creating a timeless user experience.


WANT vs. NEED

I can’t count how many times a client has asked for something in the craziest timeline, smallest budget and at the best quality humanly possible. Clients today want it bigger, (or for a device… smaller), faster, innovative, sexy. They look at the competition and say “I want that.” Everyone wants to tap into social media. They want an iPhone application, or to do something in Augmented Reality because they just read an article about it. At no point do throwing any of these items into the mix add up to better experiences.



CONTINUE READING

Posted: October 28, 2009 by mcharbonneau | View Comments
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