phil herborn

I was thinking about the processes that make our working lives easier… you know those steps/checklists/routines that we agree on, that are based on our lessons learnt and our ideas for how we want things to work in the future.

The thing is though a process is only good if it is stuck to right? So really it’s all about forming good habits out of good processes.
So if I have worked out a process what have I got to do to stick to it?

These things spring to mind:

1. Know it - really understand what the point is
2. Want it - you’ve got to want the benefit right?
3. Remember it - use prompts like to do list & calendar reminders to remind you
4. Potentially piggy back it on an existing habit
5. Use peer pressure - if a group like a project team needs the habit, be accountable to each other for your process responsibilities.
6. Make time for it - you got to have time for it right

Any other ideas?

This is great…

Get some SEO tips that rhyme

So that you can make your website shine…

Mobile micro payments
I made my first credit card purchase over mobile this week, it was for the n-gage poker game, pretty painless, and no reason why I wouldn’t purchase more off-deck content via mobile using my credit card.
It’s interesting that Nokia seems to be basing a good part of it’s business model on customers willingness to put credit card numbers into their phone. Considering that people struggled with the security issues of doing the same thing online for years, I hope people just get on with plugging their credit card details into their phone. (You can buy n-gage games online too and then transfer to your phone… but I think the point of n-gage is the game platform on your phone and buying and browsing for games from it).

Idea for a location based mobile device
A friend finder that uses location info from phone to determine where you are and where your friends are… my motive for this idea has always been that it would be a great tool to work out which of your friends is the best bet to call for a lift home when stuck in the city…. Oh it’s been done.. check out twibble - twitter plus location info from your phone. (stalkers rejoice!)

Product design paying attention to users
This story on the nokia sports tracker struck a cord for me, it’s an example of the value of good feedback from real users/customers into the product development process. I guess the moral of the story is measure and observe what your customers are doing with your product and give them them ability to feedback into the product design… and use the feedback. Design what they want, not what you want or what you think they want… right?

World Phone Throwing Mobile Champs
Stumbled across the 2007 world mobile phone throwing championships, can’t wait for the 08 meet. So Tommi Huotari from Finland is the world champ with a throw of 89,62 m… that’s a long way, the world record for discus is around 74 metres, shot put 23 meters… think about it.

History repeats itself?

The thing about mobile is while in someways it’s innovative and new and in others, such as browser wars, it’s history repeating itself

3G iPhone for Australia in June?

Things are pointing towards the iphone 2 being released in Australia, hey fair enough we’ve been waiting a year! Plus who’d buy a 2G phone in Australia…. OK so we’ve bought heaps of unlocked 2G iphones from ebay over here.

Mobile Advertising

It’s going to be a huge off deck thing (hey they gotta pay for it some how) and for on-deck content it’s a great way to cross promote content and subscription packs. And the brand peeps will love it according to this blog post which sites research by Limbo which among other things says that in the states people are starting to notice and recall mobile ads more.

Gucci goes QR

Gucci embraces QR codes in Japan

Further to my friday night ramble on the question of QR codes and will they reach tipping point in Australia. Here are a couple of things that I have noticed since.

Telstra is going to trial the technology, this is great, they have a massive influence in the Australian market and can drive forward a new technology like this. They can educate the masses, promote it, and pre-install it on all new handsets. The trial looks like it is a going to be a joint trial between Telstra and KFC and Telstra and Pizza Hut and who else? Anyway thats great news… even if its old news, lets hope that trial goes ahead this year.

I reckon we need a standard barcode/ qrcode format rather than lots of different options. Geekant mentioned it here, a couple of colleagues have mentioned it and after watching a demo of another proprietary 2d barcode offering at mobile mondays  this week to me it is clear that to make this technology take off, keeping it simple for the end consumer is key. Consumers don’t want to have to download a new barcode reader for each new barcode format introduced, they don’t want to have to pay to download another reader if they don’t have to, and they don’t want to point their barcode reader/camera at a barcode and have it not work because it’s the wrong type of barcode for their reader.

SO…. I reckon the ISO standard 2d barcode format “QR Code” that has been around for years and years should be allowed to reign supreme rather than a swathe of proprietary offerings that may create consumer confusion and annoyance and possibly kill the idea before it takes off.

What do you think?

Phil

I reckon QR codes are on the verge of a tipping point in Australia and probably the UK and US. According to Wikipedia, they were born in ‘94 to track the assembly of automobile parts, now barcode readers bundled on phones are the device that promises to connect our offline world with the mobile internet. This is a much needed thing that is going to help the “average Joe” start using the mobile internet more … among other things.

Come on Telco’s get behind it, it’s yours to be had! The Telco’s made it ubiquitous in Japan, they can do the same here surely.

Phone companies like Nokia are loading the barcode reader on new phones in the factory, Kaywa is making a reader for those that don’t.

There’s plenty of QR Code buzz on del.icio.us and on flickr

Make one and try it out today. And feel free to tell me if I am dreaming!

How many times have you heard someone say “if we invest in xyz (something that reduces the cost of something, but costs to setup) we’ll make more money” and thought hang on there is something not quite right with that idea.

So I have come to the conclusion that you can save money and you can make money, but saving money doesn’t necessarily make money.

You make money when you sell something for less than what it costs you.

You can make more money by reducing the cost, but you still have to sell it!

Put another way, you can reduce your operating costs to zero, but if you are not generating revenue, you are not making money.

Saving is good, but first and foremost what makes money is a profitable sale.

OK, if this doesn’t make sense try drinking a large glass of red and reading it again.

I was kicking back in the sun yesterday thinking… what are the high level web design considerations that I would lead clients through this year? These were the most prominent in my mind (perhaps you can help me out? what have I missed?).

1. How to make it Social: 2008 will be the year where we work out how to use social media better, we’ll be experimenting still with how it works (and here and here) and what it is (and here and check this map). So any project team is going to be asking itself… Is it relevant to use social media for this project? What forms of social media are we confident will work for this project? and What forms are worth experimenting with?

2. Make it simple and easy to use: Rather than bloating a website with as many features as the budget can possibly stand project teams should be pushing back on clients who want more features for the buck by selling the virtues of something that is simple and easy to use. It’s the less is more thing… throw out the 80% of features that are just clutter and spend the budget on the 20% that is going to make a difference and that make it 10x better for the end customer.

3. Can I justify a mobile site: The big companies are into it, medium and small size companies will dabble more. Project teams will ask is there some piece of content that would be great to access from anywhere? Perhaps posting a wine review from the dinner table or checking my new car order status from the bus stop. Web development teams will start testing their websites on mobile phone browsers, initially out of curiosity, then out of necessity as clients start to demand that their sites work on mobile too.

What do think? What have I missed?

I’ve been playing around with this idea of the Project Management Square, the triple constraints of project management: time, budget and scope could really do with an extra constraint ” we enjoyed it”. Cause at the end of the day if we aren’t all having fun, was it really a quality project??? whatdoyareckon?

I’ve been chatting to a few people at agencies around Sydney and there seems to be a theme emerging where Online Producers are no longer expected to be Project Managers as well as User Experience/ Information Architecture folk. I think this is awesome and reflects the fact that roles within our industry are evolving nicely and some things that we thought used to work well enough together are having to change as specialisms within a web team develop.

So a producer may have been typically responsible for consulting, dreaming up ideas, planning, information architecture, project management, account management, content creation, team management and more! There are a lot of tasks there and some compete for head space with each other in a big way e.g. Day to Day Project Management Vs Dreaming up ideas.

Going forward I think the roles are going to be more like: thinkers, planners, executers and completer finishers all working in collaboration on awesome web projects. The actual title might change, the number of people performing each component may vary and there will be overlaps still, but the days of a Producer trying to do everything that Visual Designers and Programmers don’t do are numbered.