Eleanor McDonald: here I am

Sticky content

eleanormcdonald — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:58:17 +0000

It’s kind of gimmicky, and the aesthetic is far too cutesy for me, and yet I like it. I have always been intrigued by the stories behind objects – kind of a ‘walls have ears’ syndrome I think. I also continually have my memory or imagination jogged by sight of a particular object and then of course perpetually forget it. The most interesting thing about Sticky Bits is not the technology, or even the application of that technology, it is the ancillary content it might throw up: histories, inventories, opinions, stories… literally giving inanimate objects a voice.

One cool panda

eleanormcdonald — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:54:54 +0000

WWF keeps it simple

Very nice press ad from the World Wildlife Fund proving the virtues of blank space on a page.

FAQ: the most depressing three letters in the English language?

eleanormcdonald — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:53:47 +0000

To have my entire probing, cogent, logical enquiry directed to the smiling obsequiousness of an FAQs list is not only patronising, it is utterly unnecessary. You mean to tell me my question to you, Dear Mr Website Owner, is so typical, is so standard, that you have already anticipated the answer? In which case it leaves me to say, why didn’t you give me the damned answer before I had to undergo the hideous performance of clicking on the button marked FAQ (Facile Answer Queen)? You’ve done the hard work, you have successfully anticipated the User Needs and Content Requirements, so why not integrate this into your main site and resist the urge to FAQ your visitors out the door.

The Curator Phenomenon

eleanormcdonald — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:17:37 +0000

Curation is perhaps the most desirable of the “new” skills to emerge from the last digital decade. Our desire for increasing openness, latitude and access has spawned a seemingly opposed ancillary need for direction and guidance – presumably a result of the “choice paralysis” I spoke about a while back. We have been obsessing over things like consumer-power, business transparency and citizen journalism whilst ignoring the gradual creep of the aggregation engines and the editorial voice.

Let’s take the likes of our meercat pals as an example: comparison shopping sites do not, as we commonly believe, give the consumer new liberties to peruse and purchase from the four corners of the shopping universe. No, no madam, they make it simples by directing and manipulating your choice – they do the schlepping around so you don’t have to. Is this the expansive horizons of the newly flat digital age? Nope, this is the curated service of a provider.

And how about a personal favourite of mine, fashion. Net-a-porter and asos.com are perhaps the biggest success stories of the online fashion industry and what do they do? They too follow the same process of expansion-contraction as their insurance industry counterparts; we have been to all the runway shows from Milan to Mongolia and brought back just the things we think you (should) like. Oh mais oui, mais oui we know you are allowed to visit any bespoke-custom-vintage-store’s holding page of a website anytime you like morning, noon or night… of course you can, it’s the digital age madame, every shop is yours to open. But, why would you when we can get the 6 inch heel blisters for you? You take a seat, give us ten minutes of your time and we’ll give you a curated show all of your own.

You see, we may like to believe our lives were irrevocably changed for the better by the possibility afforded by the world wide web of sourcing for ourselves the hand-stitched moccasins of the Essoairan beach hawker or the 0.9% no claims bonus from WelshDriversInsurance.com. But the truth is, it’s the possibility rather than the reality that made the difference.

Sadly, perhaps, few of us have the time or inclination to explore the infinite options presented by the latitude of the networked age. That’s not to say we do not want to receive its benefits (oh yes, we still want those moccasins), we just are rarely interested in the process it takes to get them. Ergo the rise of the aggregator, the concierge, the curator.

So what does this mean? It means anyone considering the value they are providing in a networked world must get an editorial perspective and curational credibility. To be cont…/

A creative suffix-ation:

eleanormcdonald — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:22:11 +0000

Creative: (definition) tending to create, having the nature of creating. That seems a pretty accurate description of our perception of the role of “creative” today doesn’t it? Nicely vague, non-specific. Compare that to “creator“, defined as a “person who creates”. Ah, a person who actually creates, like actually makes stuff rather than just has it “in their nature”. Different? I reckon so. One creates stuff, the other thinks about creating stuff. Somewhere along the way we decided the latter is more valuable. Perhaps it’s time we addressed that balance, got more creators in, or maybe let’s do away with the desperately broad container label all together.

Monetizing the mid-curve

eleanormcdonald — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:31:56 +0000

Content aggregators, producers and distributors are beginning to see gold in the middle of the rainbow, that rainbow is something loosely referred to (by myself) as the Content Value Arc. This maps the perceived value of content to its audience – Premium Catch Up being the highest point on the curve…descending to the longtail of Socialized UGC. In the middle sit the vast banks of content held by these distributors, but rarely accessed or consumed by the mass audience. Until now, perhaps.

Kangaroo and Joost are both priming this model. Joost is focusing more on the socially generated recommendations, whereas Kangaroo is relying on navigation and curation to resurface old hits.

An incubator system

eleanormcdonald — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:31:08 +0000

So all these people are being laid off right? All these talented, diligent, passionate individuals are being thrown out with the bath water…. and where are they all going to go? Australia maybe for a spot of leisure time, China maybe for new opportunities, Thailand to spend baht and save pounds…. Dubai to search for gold?

Wherever they go one thing is certain – we are on the cusp of mass migration of Britain’s endangered species, young, dedicated, hard workers. So what will we do when warmer climes are upon us? What if we can’t attract them back? Who will fulfill their posts? Where has all the talent gone?!

How about this? How about we ‘incubate’ people for a while. Companies can reduce their salaries right down to the bare minimum in exchange for which their ex-employees will take part in valuable activities e.g. working for a charity, doing training schemes, exploring creativity, studying, promoting our national identity, becoming athletes….

Imagine if we could come out of these dark times a shinier, happier, invigorated race of newly talented people?

Blue Peter: the daddy of audience engagement

eleanormcdonald — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 15:05:52 +0000

That was the best possible example of audience engagement.

We think we’re all new in our thinking now, but look what Blue Peter was doing back then…. they created unique activities for the audience to participate in, they developed programming to complement these activities (i.e. watch n’ learn), they encouraged communal activity as well as individual achievement, they commanded two-way communication with their audience (the letters), and then they rewarded their active users (the legendary badges).

Brand charisma

eleanormcdonald — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 15:05:33 +0000

That magic something. Je ne sais quoi. What a brand has that makes it loved like brethren… outside of all advertising, trends or utility. Marmite, the BBC, Michelin, John Lewis….

My Seamless Life: Ubiquitous applications

eleanormcdonald — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 15:04:47 +0000

e.g. The FitBit

Applications that run throughout your life and join the dots between your various activities.

e.g. a diary that syncs all the various activities and real time updates (tube delays, phone messages, travel info, ticket bookings) of your quotidien being

e.g. a journal which records all the conversations, dialogues, photos, text messages of your life and collates, sorts and stores them as one central book

e.g.a pocket ‘master tagger’ which marks anything and everything on your way which you want to remember and review later…clothes in store windows, concert notices, train timetables, recipes… relies on a sticker barcode system to be ubiquitously applied to all products, locations etc.

e.g. an in-car system which knows where you have been and where you are going

What this means is that all our various selves are interconnected, our data, content & experiences are portable, mutable, responsive, predictive and cumulative.