IQ has been lucky enough to pick up several Windows Phone related projects in the last few months. These apps are fun because they are in various sectors and give our creative department a new platform to innovate within. Last month we were lucky enough to send a few folks to a Windows Phone 7 Designer Days event in Redmond, and videos from that event have recently been posted here. Just this week we have managed to start testing our apps on actual devices, and that is making the work on these projects all the more exciting.
While Windows Phone 7 is a hot topic right now already in the tech market, I can’t help but believe that many brands are going to be caught off guard this holiday season when WP7 launches. While Silverlight developers like myself have been paying attention to Windows Phone 7 news for what seems like forever, most folks in the public sector still aren’t aware of its pending release. While many brands first entry to mobile was the iPhone, and most brands wish they would’ve been in the marketplace sooner, it seems some brands are about to miss the bus on the next big mobile platform launch. It may not be until commercials start rolling in the next few months that pandemonium sets in for getting apps knocked out and ready for the marketplace.
We are psyched to be working on launch apps for the platform, and can’t wait to see where Windows Phone goes from here.
A new study by Adobe finds that if markets had to choose between a mobile app and a mobile site they would choose the site. It then goes on to say that consumers want rich tools and experiences on these sites and, of course, to do that easily you need to use Adobe Flash. That brings us back to the Apple vs. Flash contest. Apple says no flash on it’s products, but Flash is still used in so many sites and is comparatively easy to develop rich experiences with. So what’s it all mean? Who wins? will Flash fade away because it doesn’t work on an iPhone or an iPad? or will consumers, especially with iPads, start to be bothered by the fact that so many sites just won’t work. Part of the answer I think is what happens in the tablet space in general. Tablets like the iPad are killer web browser devices so if other companies introduce tablets that surf the web better than the iPad, then perhaps Apple’s ploy doesn’t work. We’ll see.
This week, Adobe featured IQ’s work for the UPS Racing Trackside Challenge as a Customer Showcase on their website. Adobe recognizes select success stories each month based on Adobe product innovation and overall business solution effectiveness. Read more here.
Great point in this post from Forrester about consumer expectations. Expectations are set by the interactions consumers have with all brands not just those in a competitive set. The performance of a brand against these expectation benchmarks, for each facet of customer experience, in each channel, contribute mightily to the overall brand perception. A brand team needs to not only understand the relative importance of the components of customer experience, in each channel for each segment, but also what the perceived best-in-class performance criteria are, for those components. These then become the Experience Benchmarks for the target audience that should define a brand experience that meets consumer expectations. And, of course, that should only be the starting place for brand differentiation. Read the Forrester post here
Our clients often ask what our work-stream looks like. When we answer, I think they are often surprised at the level of collaboration we have throughout all of our departments.
When a project comes into iQ, it is assigned to a lead representative from all departments. This includes accounts, project management, creative, technology, and customer experience. We make a true effort to only hire people who use their specific discipline to show their creative ideas. Whether it’s technologists thinking about ad campaigns or writers thinking about technology platforms. Matter of fact, on several occasions, a project manager has contributed the winning idea.
It’s about having a truly well-rounded team. We find by using this system we don’t run into the rut that one does when they only look at a problem from one angle. We also find that, as opposed to a waterfall process, the entire team feels ownership over the idea. We get fresh perspectives from creatively intelligent folks that do most of the living and dying in this town. Sorry, It’s a wonderful life reference.
Why do we sometimes say “bear with me” as we begin a story? Why do we sometimes ask an audience to hold their questions to the end of a presentation? Why is it important in some instances to communicate without interruptions?
Or is it because we want to reach the conclusion of the story as efficiently as possible? Is it because we know we are about to tax the attention of the audience, and feel a need to ask for their patience, indulgence or forgiveness? Are we trying to avoid distraction or derailment that might cause the audience to forget some of the points? Sometimes one or all of these are true. However, I think there is often something else going on in these situations — something more important and also more interesting: many times when we say this what we are trying to convey is a holistic idea. Intuitively we understand this calls for special conditions around our communication, and it is these conditions we are requesting.
