Post Tagged with: "user experence"

Samsung SuperSwypers Campaign

Samsung SuperSwypers Campaign

Idea & Insights

Samsung SuperSwypersThis campaign was targeted 16 to 35 years old people who lead social, active lives and didn’t want to miss out on anything but that for some reason, study, work, etc they could not attend.
Samsung wanted to establish a distinctive position in order to compete with other smart phones such as the iPhone. They’ve introduced Swype, a new feature that allowed people to enter words in one flowing motion, on a touch screen, allowing them to type up to 50% faster.

The big challenge was to create a kind of “omni-presence” in order to keep the consumers up to date with realtime coverage of the events.

Creative execution

For the consumers who could not attend their favorite events, Samsung Mobile introduced a new service called SuperSwypers which consisted on a personal reporter who can be sent anywhere, to cover the events you can’t attend. SuperSwypers are quicker because they use Swype.

On the website, the consumer shares the event he can’t attend. Samsung will filter the best SuperSwyper to make his personal ‘SwypeStory’.
The SuperSwyper has a series of tasks he must do starting his SwypeStory with a personal video, checks in (Foursquare) at the location when he arrives, and then reports everything that he sees, smells, hears and feels at the event. Everything, by sharing photos and videos which are published live via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube with the Samsung Galaxy S. Samsung finishes the personal service for the consumer with the complete SwypeStory send via Issuu, a digital publishing tool.

With intensive PR (including celebrity endorsement) seeding and guerrilla (if you were the first to see the SuperSwyper after he checked in at the event and shout the codeword, you immediately received a Samsung Galaxy S), Samsung increased earned media.
As I don’t understand Dutch I am assuming the following video shows a SuperSwyper introducing herself and announcing that if you spot her and shout the codeword you can with a Samsung Galaxy S.

Results & Effectiveness

By the end of this campaign more than 160 consumers received a personalized story. Over 620.000 people where reached and more than 4.800 people received a Samsung Galaxy S by shouting the codeword when they saw a SuperSwyper. Samsung got over 270.000 twitter contacts, more than 600.000 video visualizations and most importantly consumers associated the Swype to Samsung (39%) allowing Samsung to achieve an unique position overcoming Nokia.

Usefull links:

3 de November de 2010 0 comments Read More
Vertical search on a Semantic web

Vertical search on a Semantic web

What is Vertical Search?

Vertical search engines
A vertical search engine differentiates from a regular search engine due to it’s focus on a given subject or content type.

Topic focused vertical search engine
A great example of topic based search is Trip Advisor, a website with great information for people who are looking to travel.

Content focused vertical search engine
Media Type search can be found on sites such as Youtube, Vimeo, Flickr and others, where you search within specific media file types.
For example when I’m looking to fix CSS bugs my basic instinct makes me search on Google but if the first page doesn’t return the best answer for my problem I use Delicious, for books I use Amazon, etc.

The advantage of using a vertical search engine is that it will narrow the amount of information indexed which will result in more relevant search results.

What is Semantic Web

Semantic Web Experience
Semantic web can be interpreted as an intelligent, self-learning web. The future of semantic web will belong to services that will understand the user and deliver them the best answers for it’s need.

While it’s not perfectly clear for users, semantics have been implemented on several websites for a while now. Amazon was, as far as I know, the first site to implement a semantic user experience when it started suggesting further products based on users preferences. When a user bought a book, Amazon’s software would recommend other books based on purchases made by users who have bought that very same book. The result was a massive increase of sales and profit.
Google also is improving it’s search engine by reordering search results based on user navigation history.

So it’s fair to say a semantic web, or Web 3.0 as some call it, is each more a reality and not a trend. This brings me to this posts topic:

Can Vertical Search Engines coexist in a semantic web?

Personally I see vertical search engines as a the first step into the semantic web concept. I believe some people will say there completely separate things and I’d love to hear a different opinion on the subject.
If I want to find a needle inside a huge barn and know the needle is inside a haystack, I’ll search only inside the haystack. The haystack is my vertical search engine.

Using the same metaphor with semantic web once I’m inside the barn I’ll get a suggestion the needle is probably on the haystack, along with a picture of how the needle might look like and also where in the haystack it will probably be.
Eventually, once I find the needle, related subjects such as strings, other kinds of needles, groups, etc would be suggested as a complement to my interest on the needle.

Being the first time I searched for something I would also get suggestions related to hay and the haystack but if I show no interest in that, further similar searches would not retrieve those suggestions.

What do you think about the future of vertical search? How can it grow in order to survive on a Web 3.0 environment?

25 de April de 2010 4 comments Read More
The Gutenberg Diagram in Web Design

The Gutenberg Diagram in Web Design

The Gutenberg rule points out a user behavior called reading gravity which is the western habit of reading left-to-right, top-to-bottom. It can be represented as a simple diagram that splits a page in four quadrants:

Gutenberg Diagram

  1. A Primary Optical Area
  2. a strong follow area
  3. a weak follow area
  4. and a Terminal Area

The higher left portion of the page is the user primary focus, it’s where the eyes will automatically focus regardless if the user is searching for something, wanting to read or just doing a quick scan on the page.

The second stage of the reading habit is moving to the higher right portion of the page, you can think of it as a follow up from the left portion but less important. It’s not a good idea to break the reader’s experience created from the starting point. Meaning that if you have a call to action the user will stop at this point and act.

The lower left portion is the blind portion of the Gutenberg diagram, although readable the user will not give much importance to content in this area of the page.

When the user reaches the lower right portion of the page there is a break in the reading / page scan process and the user will need to take an action. This is the perfect spot to insert call-2-action such as buttons, links, forms, video, etc.

By understanding the reading patterns of the users who visit your website you are able to place the most important content in the areas where they will be most effective.

If you’ve read about web users reading patterns you probably read Jacob Nielsen’s report on the F-Shaped Pattern that shows the lower right area as the less important area. I wouldn’t say this theory is wrong but consider the F-Shaped pattern for users that are scanning the page and the Gutenberg Diagram for user that are reading or genuinely interested in the content.

F-Shaped Pattern

For example, a user is searching for information about the Gutenberg Diagram and reaches this article. The user will look at the diagram image and read the lines above the image starting an inverted Gutenberg Diagram.
If the user is looking to buy a product on E-bay I believe the primary pattern on the product listing pages will be a typical Gutenberg Diagram.

On the other hand when a user is searching for information on a search engine and finds multiple articles about it, the user will engage an F-shaped pattern when visiting those pages trying to find quick and concrete references to it’s search.

Complementary readings:

7 de March de 2010 0 comments Read More
Nikon Virtual Touch

Nikon Virtual Touch

The future of technology is augmented reality. Nikon decided to take Digital Cameras to the next level with their Coolpix series and have recently introduced the Nikon CoolPix S70 with touch screen allowing users to get more interactive with their cameras and reducing the camera size.
Apart from the camera itself Nikon also released a place where you can see navigate pictures using a webcam and gestures removing the need to touch or click.

Visit Nikon’s CoolPix website and try their augmented reality experience using your webcam and basic gestures to navigate and zoom their gallery.

24 de February de 2010 1 comment Read More
Get 10% off your ticket for UX-LX

Get 10% off your ticket for UX-LX

UX-LX is a user experience conference held in Lisbon, Portugal during the 12th, 13th and 14th May 2010 with a wonderful speaker panel and several workshops.

I’ve been fortunate enough to get a discount coupon that will give you a 10% off on any ticket purchase. Get your 10% discount now before February 2010 and save over 200 euros. No catch, no email or registration required from me, just simple, direct indications on how to get your 10% discount.

23 de February de 2010 0 comments Read More