Work + Play

1. Go Wachowskis, go!

   May 14, 2008
   By: Genevieve Elliott
   0 comments

   
   As we approach summer movie melt-your-face-off blockbuster season, I have to say I’m super pumped to see one of the first out of the gate: Speed Racer.
   Most of us remember the Saturday morning anime about a boy, his Mach 5, and his monkey, but who thought it would be brought out of the Vault of Shows Time Forgot by no less than the Wachowski brothers ? But wait…there’s more.
   Never wanting to make a “normal movie” the Wachowski’s used new film techniques involving a multi-focus camera that allowed them to shoot scenes with everything- characters, foreground, background, Pop’s mustache- in full focus.
   The goal was to give the movie a two dimensional, cartoon feel, and as anyone can tell by the trailer their use of the new camera and extremely saturated colors more than qualify the film for crazy cartoon status.
   In an interview on collider.com, Susan Sarandon, who plays Mom in the movie, talks about her experience with the new technology, which apparently comes with its own guards.
   Whether Speed Racer comes away as a mega hit or a seizure-inducing dud, new ground has been broken in film, and I will be interested to see where others might use this kind of full-focus camera work.
   Someone keep an eye on Michael Bay.

   
   

2. Do me a favor

   May 13, 2008
   By: Liz McArthur
   0 comments

   Chicago lawmakers are trying to pass a “Promoter’s Ordinance” that would make it difficult, and in some cases, impossible to perform in this city.

   Check out the craziness here.

   Do something about it here.

   UPDATE!!!! 5/13/08-2:19p.m.
   Promoter’s Ordinance on pause.

   
   

3. Thick days

   May 13, 2008
   By: Dave Reidy
   0 comments

   Two Fridays ago, I attended a semi-formal event wearing a suit I don’t like. That same night, I hopped online and started investigating options for bespoke (made-to-measure) suits. I figured I could make price work one way or another, but was concerned from the start that my limited sartorial vocabulary would render me unable to communicate to an American tailor the sort of fitted, European cut I wanted.

   I first considered an option I’d noted here at Work + Play about a year ago. For the record, I think that the Mark Shale/Coppley option is a good one for bespoke tailoring. But I happened upon a second option that beat Mark Shale on price and left little doubt that the tailor already understood the finer points of a fitted cut.

   Based in Southern California, Thick as Thieves uses a consultative e-commerce model in a space that many would have considered the poster-child for the limitations of online ordering. The company’s site, though not well designed and somewhat difficult to navigate, showed me what I needed to see—that their standard cut was slim. The price for the standard suit—one, two, or three-button—is $435, which beats by more than $300 the price I was quoted last year at Mark Shale. But the question remained: if I wasn’t standing on a carpeted platform while a man with a tape measure flitted around me, what kind of suit was I going to get?

   Thick as Thieves requires 12 measurements and suggests that you and a friend, rather than a tailor, do the measurements. Many tailors, the site says, “pad the measurement since they are probably used to a looser fit being ‘correct.’” Just what I was worried about! So I took my measurements with a friend’s assistance and sent them in. [Full disclosure: I padded the inseam measurement by an inch. I just wouldn’t have been able to stand it if the suit arrived and the pants were too short.] Everything else I measured as instructed (the tape should be “snug,” the site said), taking each measurement a couple of times to be sure.

   The next day, the tailor and I exchanged an e-mail, and I made a payment through Google Checkout. Just like that. My reasoning for taking the risk was threefold: a) the Thick as Thieves cut is very much what I want, b) the measurements they asked for seemed to be the right ones, and their warning about tailors aligned with my own experience and suspicions, and c) the prospect of getting a made-to-order suit that fits the way I want for less than I would pay for an off-the-rack suit was too good a pitch to take. Plus, if this first suit fits, I could order another in another color, pattern or material and have reasonable assurance that it would fit just as I’d like it. The process frontloads risk. I’m dealing with most of it right now.

   If the result is pleasing and not crushing, I’ll post an update when the suit arrives in a few weeks. For now, read the return policy and cross your fingers for me.

   
   

4. It's my party and I'll buy if I want to

   May 12, 2008
   By: Paul Pace
   1 comments

   It was my birthday recently. I’ve never been too fond of celebrating it though. I agree with Seinfeld – isn’t it a little arrogant to celebrate the day you were born? Like you’re so great? But I digress.

   Besides the standard emails from family and friends, when I checked my inbox that morning, I was greeted by additional Happy Birthday messages, from two local radio stations.

   

   Now I haven’t listened to Q101 for a good ten years, I think I gave them my email address to get in on an advanced ticket sale or something. But I don’t remember telling them my birthday. Did I give it to them? Did they buy it? I don’t know, don’t really care. I just know I enjoyed getting the message. And Q101 obviously doesn’t care that I don’t subscribe to any of their newsletters, or visit their site, or listen to their station (could they know that?), they just care that I’m someone who at one time gave them my email address, and they want to make sure I remember them.

   On the flip side, XRT is one of my favorite stations, I subscribe to their newsletters, register on their site, and get email updates from them all the time. But it’s always nice when a business you’re loyal to recognizes you, even though I already do what they want me to do.
   
   Plus the XRT birthday email comes with exclusive coupons for things like free drinks and half-price dinners, a nice bonus.

   The point is, if you want to start a relationship with new customers, or build a lasting relationship with your existing customers, it always helps to remember them, recognize them, and make them feel wanted. And it’s okay to contact them without an offer or sales pitch, just let them know you’re there and appreciate them.

   
   

5. Doing your part to improve the economy

   May 9, 2008
   By: Michael Tapson
   1 comments

   Last Friday there was some discussion around our office of how people spent, or intend to spend, their economic stimulus money. There were some interesting takes on whether or not this was a wise distribution of money. I won’t go into details. I’m definitely an economics layman but I am confused as to how increasing federal debt makes the economy better. I’m sure the credit card companies are not happy about it. People paying down debt is no good for them. Don’t get me wrong, I like getting the money. I plan to buy all kinds of awesome stuff. I’m going to get 10 bags of candy corn and some licorice whips. The kind that you can lace your shoes with. The Brach’s folks will be delighted. Anyway, the point of this post was to share a site were you can check out what other people are doing with their money.

   
   

6. Were you ever on Saved by the Bell?

   May 9, 2008
   By: Liz McArthur
   1 comments

   Odd’s are, you were. Fellow blogger, Abby Covert just pointed me in the direction of Wikipedia’s HUGE list of minor characters on Saved by the Bell.

   It’s not just a list. Wikipedia also provides you with a brief description of each over-stereotyped character, how they were introduced, and how they met their demise. The latter is, more often than not, due to Zack’s lack of interest in said minor character, and re-interest in Kelly Kapowski.

   Here are a couple gems:

   “Becky the Duck – named after Mr. Belding’s wife. Having bonded with her over the weekend, Zack returned her to her natural habitat in the pond, only to have her die as a result of an oil geyser just a short time later.”

   I forgot about all the serious issues this show tackled. Not just oil spills, they also had a show about homelessness.

   Frank and Laura Benton – a homeless father and daughter, who caught the eye of Zack around Christmas time. Laura seemed to be a tentative love interest for Zack. Eventually the Morris family took the Bentons in until they could “get back on their feet”. The Bentons disappeared the very next episode and were never mentioned again.”

   I can only guess that Frank got a job and nice condo someplace and the two of them are living happily ever after. As for the rest of the gang, Nyssa Bulkes of the Northern Star has her opinion of what they are up to these days.

   www.northernstar.info

   
   

7. The skinny on Skinny Corp

   May 7, 2008
   By: Abby Covert
   0 comments

   One of our favorite Chicago companies, Skinny Corp, was recently interviewed by blog site HorsePigCow. In this brief interview, many salient topics are discussed around the success of the Skinny Corp brand, and building an effective community online.

   The focus of the interview was around the most successful site Skinny Corp has out there, Threadless. A community focused t-shirt company where all the submissions for shirts are designed and voted on by the community. If you can’t spare the time to watch the interview, here is a breakdown of some of the most valuable topics they touched on.

   Flexibility of Change

   If you don’t like something about how Threadless works, just tell them. They are constantly listening to their user base and reacting to the growing and changing needs, being a relatively small and definitely nimble company allows them to turn on a dime if needed.

   Participation

   In the case of Threadless, it is more than essential that participation is top of mind. After all, this site doesn’t work without the support of it’s devoted followers.

   Having a good time

   They don’t focus on function, as much as fun. Threadless is a fun looking site, it uses casual language and never feels too heavy handed in terms of functionality. It’s easy to use and fun to experience.

   Support Tourism as well as Residence

   This was probably the most interesting point raised, Threadless while community based is also a huge tourist attraction on the web. Tourist in this case is used to describe someone who purchases Threadless shirts but doesn’t necessarily participate in voting or submission. Threadless is very interested in making these tourists feel at home, maybe even at home enough to move in and never leave.

   Honestly, Trust and Transparency

   These guys know the downfalls of hiding the truth online, especially when a large community of your peers (web workers and designers) is always watching you with a spotlight. Because of this, Skinny Corp has a huge focus on being honest and trust worthy. Also they try to remain as transparent as possible in communicating all their business dealings and shifts in the wind to their user base.

   Love what you do

   Last, but definitely not least, these guys LOVE what they do. Not only that, they love the friendships formed both in the company and with their user base. And to them, this is way more than a paycheck.

   
   

8. Moving Expectations

   May 7, 2008
   By: Paul Pace
   0 comments

   I had an interesting experience recently. I was able to sell my condo faster than I thought, and was left with no place to go. Luckily, I found a little temporary apartment, just 3 miles away. So I packed up my little 650 sq ft place, and hired a moving company to move my things to the new apartment.

   Now a one bedroom, 650 sq ft condo doesn’t hold much. And what it did hold, I had taken the time to get all boxed up and ready to go. Both buildings are elevator buildings, and the moving crew had three people.

   Feel free to leave a comment with how long you think this move should have taken. I was thinking maybe 3 hours, tops.

   This move took almost 6 hours! And I was a very unhappy customer.

   Did everything get moved? Yes. Was anything broken? No. Were the movers courteous and professional? Pretty much. So why was I so unhappy?

   Sometimes, even if you do your job, if you don’t consider expectations, you can be left with unhappy customers. Now this moving company didn’t know I was expecting them to be finished in 3 hours. Should I have told them? Probably. Should they have asked? Definitely.

   If a business wants to build a lasting relationship with customers, they should always consider what those customers are expecting as far as level of service, because sometimes just giving them what they pay for is not good enough. If this moving company had asked me what I was expecting as far as time, and then said they probably couldn’t do it, but would try, I doubt I would have been so unhappy.

   
   

9. Recently in Gaming

   May 7, 2008
   By: Ned Kost

   It’s been awhile since I’ve posted some video game related news, so I feel like it’s due. Without further ado, here is a double feature pulled from recent headlines:

   First up, Wii and PS2 owners will soon be able to get new Rock Band songs! Harmonix will be releasing a Track Pack Volume 1 disc which will include 20 master tracks for $30. The new disc will be playable as a standalone (without needing to purchase the Rock Band game), but you will obviously still need the instruments. The disc doesn’t have near the number of songs that XBox or PS3 owners have access to through download-able content, but at least it is a good variety of fun songs.

   Next up, the video game publisher, Take Two, is suing the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) for taking down game advertisements for their game, Grand Theft Auto IV. Controversy always follows in the wake of GTA as it is usually blamed for violence amongst teens. Whenever something terrible happens, parents and media alike swivel their blame finger to “those terrible video games that glorify violence”. I guess Fox was just a little premature this time…

   
   

10. Pitchfork.tv

    May 6, 2008
    By: Dave Reidy
    0 comments

    Pitchfork.tv launched in beta on April 7. The new online “24-hour music network” (a seemingly conscious effort to echo of early MTV’s billing) is being continuously hyped on the Pitchfork parent site and, in my assessment, at this early stage, pitchfork.tv is delivering on the hype.

    Pitchfork has billed the Pitchfork.tv video player as “one of the web’s largest and sharpest players.” Even at the default low-bandwidth setting, the video loads quickly and looks crisp on my high-bandwidth connection, which is fast but not screamingly so. In fact, I’m not sure I’d bother with the high-bandwidth setting. Video does not play in full-screen mode so far as I can tell, but the viewing area is big enough that video can be watched comfortably.

    As for programming, Pitchfork.tv leads with a professionally produced, feature-length documentary that runs on-demand for a week. Other shows (also running on-demand) include: Interview, which is a series of Pitchfork-produced interviews with indie artists, Don’t Look Down, a series of Pitchfork-produced rooftop concerts, and Juan’s Basement, a show in which acts like Liars and No Age “drop by the Basement” to chat and play live.

    Navigation is usable, but leaves a little to be desired—users must scroll through a relatively short show list, and text pops into unexpected places after clicks. The plan is to integrate Pitchfork.tv into the Pitchfork parent site later this year as part of a “massive redesign.” In light of this plan, I’m not sure how to take the current navigation issues. Are they to be dismissed as the kind of minor troubles one would expect of a beta launch? Or are they signs that the integration of Pitchfork.tv into the parent site will result in a compromised user experience?

    I’ll say this: as it stands, I’d check out Pitchfork.tv before turning on my basic cable. And that says something.

    
    

11. Get to the Point(s)

    May 5, 2008
    By: Paul Pace
    1 comments

    

    In November of 2004, the Chicago Tribune launched Subscriber Advantage, a loyalty program designed to give exclusive benefits to newspaper subscribers. With more and more people getting their news from the internet, the Trib needed a way to leverage the popularity of chicagotribune.com to help declining print newspaper subscriptions.

    The program is available to all print subscribers and offers them coupons, discounts, and other incentives that must be selected from the website. This drives traffic to chicagotribune.com, and offers a compelling incentive for becoming and remaining print newspaper subscribers.

    The Subscriber Advantage program has close to 300,000 members and has proven successful in reducing print newspaper cancellations.

    Recently, Subscriber Advantage introduced TribPoints, a program that allows members to earn points and redeem them for various items. Members can earn points for reading certain article on chicagotribune.com, by answering trivia questions, or by doing numerous other activities on the site. Basically, Chicago Tribune is giving its best customers points to do what it wants them to do.

    Why is this and other loyalty programs successful? Because they help businesses build relationships with their customers. We all like to receive free things, and we tend to like those who give us free things a little more than we do those who don’t.

    If a B2B company website has white papers it wants visitors to read, why not give those visitors something for reading them? Or, if this B2B company has a specific section of the website it wants visitors to visit, why not give them something for visiting that page? All it takes is getting their email address, and sending them something of value like an e-coupon. It also will entice the visitors to return and see if they can earn something else. In short, it’s the beginning of a relationship with your visitors.

    The Chicago Tribune has realized that building relationships with its customers is an effective way to stay competitive in a changing world, something from which all businesses can learn.

    
    

12. Neighborhood watch(ing)

    May 1, 2008
    By: Jeff Cenna
    0 comments

    A couple years ago, HousingMaps changed the way people searched and advertised for apartments.

    Soon after came an incredibly useful, sort of addictive, and now-retired site called ChicagoCrime, which allowed users an aggregated look at the shady shenanigans within any cross-street.

    The good news about ChicagoCrime’s demise is that site owner Adrian Holovaty has spawned a more holistic approach to local happenings, called EveryBlock.

    This multi-city aggregator finds literally every bit of news within a 1-, 3-, or 8-block radius of a given spot. (This idea was predicted way back in 2003 and dubbed “NetHoods”.)

    Using EveryBlock, I learned that within walking distance of my apartment, Beyonce partied with Mary J. Blige, crack dealers were busted, ER was filmed, and a horse ran loose in the city.

    Now that’s some useful information!

    
    

13. The MLB user experience

    April 30, 2008
    By: Jeff Cenna
    0 comments

    Sports Illustrated just released a fascinating breakdown of the fan experience at every Major League Baseball ballpark.

    SI compiled tons of data regarding every facet of a fan’s user experience, from the quality of team on the field to food offerings, parking, and neighborhoods.

    The result is a quantifiable evaluation of which fans are getting the most bang for their buck. The #1 team: My hometown of Cleveland, followed by #2 Milwaukee and a surprising #3 Pittsburgh, who definitely didn’t win for team quality.

    The bottom three consist of a firesale owner who sees the team as a quick buck for his portfolio (#30 Marlins), a relocated franchise with lots of local competition (#29 Nationals – formerly the Expos), and a quality team surrounded by brawling fans, decrepit facilities, awful food, and a classy crosstown rival (#28 Mets).

    We don’t usually think about sports teams when evaluating user experience, but really the same needs of real-world customers can be applied to virtual ones: Users want quality product (team). They want to find what they need quickly (parking in a nice neighborhood). They want to enjoy dealing with the company providing service (ballpark). If they can have many or all of those needs fulfilled they will come back for more.

    
    

14. Go ahead and judge this by its cover

    April 30, 2008
    By: Abby Covert
    3 comments

    In reading an interesting post over at Web Strategist yesterday, I was reminded of one of the most important aspects of any relationship: Trust. The most surprising point that is brought up in looking at the featured Forrester research is that blogger reviews of products are less trusted than that of major news organizations and the manufacturers themselves. While this seems to be contradictory to the idea of the semantic web, I think that when we dig in a little deeper we can reveal some very important points about trust and the creation of a trusting relationship with online users. Are these channels truly being measured on equal footing or does something besides quality of content come into play?

    It is well discussed and hypothesized that first impressions affect the overall judgment of quality for online experiences. I group into quality the aesthetic, functional and informational quality of a site or experience online. Research has been done that indicates that as little as 50 milliseconds are needed to pass judgment on a site from a visual appeal and aesthetics standpoint. And after that point, the damage is done and any further impressions will build from that initial impression, often building evidence in the favor of the direction initially perceived. In other words, if the initial impression is negative, a user is likely to hold additional issues or findings about an experience to a higher set of standards than if the initial impression was positive. In fact, some go as far as to say that usability issues can be forgiven if a site is particularly pleasing in the aesthetic realm.

    So, that explains how visual appeal can affect the online experience a user has but what else goes into building trust in a virtual world? This article from Human Factors International loosely defines trust as “…the attitude that an agent will help to achieve an individual’s goals in a situation characterized by uncertainty.” This happens to be a perfect definition for the task we want to analyze, reading a product review. They go into what factors impact trustworthiness online: Professional Looking, Ease of Use, Speed of Response, Interactive Features, and Informative Content are just a few. There is also the aspect of familiarity to consider in this quandary since it has also been hypothesized that people prefer things they have seen before to having brand new experiences.

    So you may wonder, what does this all have to do with the lack of trust in blog sites as compared with major news sites, well known blogs and manufacturer sites?

    To answer that, I leave you with 4 links:

    The No Name Blogger

    The Major Blogger

    The Major News Outlet

    The Corporate Website

    Which site would you trust to have the best review? See if you can use the ideas discussed above to predict which will be perceived as more successful without actually reading the content, then read the content and see if your first impressions were right?

    For those interested, there is a great paper available called: Aesthetics, Visual Appeal Usability and User Satisfaction that provided a lot of insight on this topic for me. But why should I even bother, I am just a blogger no one can trust.

    
    

15. Word on No Depression: Somewhat depressing

    April 29, 2008
    By: Dave Reidy
    0 comments

    Listening to the podcast of a recent installment of Sound Opinions, I learned that alt-country magazine No Depression is ceasing publication as a print magazine. The May-June issue will be the final print issue in magazine form. According to editor Peter Blackstock, No Depression will publish shorter-form music news at nodepression.net, and issue semi-annual “bookazines” through the University of Texas Press.

    In the course of the interview, Blackstock and his interviewers, Sound Opinions hosts Jim Derogatis and Greg Kot, contextualized the demise of No Depression with the folding of cult magazines like Punk Planet and an overall decrease in ad revenue at major music magazines such as Blender. They also mentioned the closing of independent bookstores and a reduced demand for long-form music writing among younger readers as factors contributing to the No Depression sea change.

    All of the above arguments make good sense, but I’m wondering if any account of No Depression’s misfortune is complete without an examination of changes to the alternative-country genre. When the magazine was founded, alternative country was a new term, but it was clear—alternative country blended the energy of punk with American country and folk music. Though many of them have gone on to successful recording careers, original alt-country standard bearers like Jeff Tweedy and Ryan Adams have all but abandoned the term and the kind of music it once defined. And perhaps they left the term behind because of all it came to include. A quick survey of No Depression covers reveals that the punk-country ethic, and the aesthetics represented by its forbearers, outlaw-country legends Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, were never abandoned by the magazine. But the same survey reveals that something—either No Depression or alt-country itself—changed over the years. Maybe they both did.

    One thing is certain: the decline of print music criticism likely means that readers will be fed more under-researched, half-cocked music writing like the kind I’m perpetrating (though not maliciously) here. Great music writing takes time, and time and talent demand money. The instantly updateable web demands that writers take less of the former, and few web outlets (Pitchfork excepted) have the ad revenue to pay enough of the latter. For the moment, print outlets are coming short on revenue, too.

    Such is our landscape, music lovers. Whether we made it or not, it’s our bed, and it looks like we’ll have to lie in it.

    
    

16. The Musical Brain

    April 25, 2008
    By: Michael Tapson
    0 comments

    A company by the name of The Echo Nest has released an automated technology that appears to be similar to what Pandora does manually. The Musical Brain listens to audio files, extracting musical attributes, such as tempo, instrumentation, key, time signature, energy, harmonic and timbral structures, to understand every song in similar ways a musician would describe it (e.g. “heavy beat, swing groove, fast tempo, 4/4 time, key of B flat, mezzo piano”). The interesting thing is that they are offering an API for developers to harness this ingenious “brain”. Their website is a bit confusing and not terribly informative, and the current crop of applications using the brain are lackluster but there is a ton of potential here for developers to build some really cool and useful music applications based on the brain. I’m definitely going to keep my eye on this one.

    
    

17. One tow over the line

    April 25, 2008
    By: Liz McArthur
    0 comments

    My husband’s car was recently towed to the City of Chicago Auto Pound at 701 N. Sacramento, for the millionth time. We still don’t have the car back, and I’m not going to get into the RIDICULOUSNESS we’re going through to get it back. If you live in Chicago, you already know. I just wanted to show you this:
    

    This is what 200 cars a day looks like.

    
    

18. A Fistful of Quarters

    April 23, 2008
    By: Abby Covert
    1 comments

    In an effort to remember the good ol’ days (yah know, the 80s), Seth and I rented The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters recently. Celebrating the age old tale of victory for the common man over the celebrity god figure, The King of Kong follows a man trying to beat the world record for the highest Donkey Kong score. The drama unfolds as we find out that not only has the record been held by one man since 1982, but also that that man is a video game god of sorts. The journey takes us behind the scenes into the ups and downs of video game addiction and the culture of professional gamers. Overall a great watch, even for those on the other side of the gaming fence – like yours truly.

    
    

19. Taking us at our word

    April 22, 2008
    By: David Ormesher
    0 comments

    Don Peppers has a concept he calls the Trust Formula. It is a model that captures four behavioral elements that lead to trust in a relationship, including business relationships. The first one is Reliability, or, “can I depend on you to do what you say you will.” It obviously makes sense in business; if FedEx consistently misses their promise of overnight delivery, we lose our trust in them.

    Reliability is a theme I’m hearing in the subtext of conversations here in Rwanda. They certainly didn’t enjoy it from the international community back in 1994, and so they are particularly sensitive. Lately, Rwanda has been showing great promise in terms of safety, lack of corruption, and a visionary governmental leadership. There have been many VIP visits lately from the West, but accordingly to some officials here, off the record of course, there hasn’t been much follow through on promises of involvement. Lack of reliability.

    Trust is still the key to all relationships, starting with reliability.

    
    

20. Is your Rich poor?

    April 16, 2008
    By: Abby Covert
    0 comments

    What does rich really mean in the context of online experiences? The term most connected is rich internet application, which was coined in a paper by Macromedia in 2002. In its origin the term was geared pretty narrowly towards the technology layer, describing a would-be desktop application interaction moving to the online/browser world. With it (and a host of other integral concepts and technologies) came the end of install, the shift online from product sales to software as a service, a decrease in the need for the page reload model and many other amazing revelations leading us to the online world we know and love today. Arguably the most impactful of all the changes coming from this paradigm shift is the increased feasibility of “whiz bang” type features in web sites and web applications. Insert drum roll and choir of angels here. The impact these new models have had on the evolution of user interaction is clear, and it is also clear that this is where the word rich started to gain new meaning in the world of online experiences.

    Almost daily we hear about companies out in the market experimenting with technology jargon like AJAX, web 2.0, flex, and rich internet application. But more and more the word rich is being used to describe the feeling that you would like to evoke in a user about a particular feature. You can hear sentences that seem to impress despite the nonsensical use of jargon and misrepresentation of technology. “Let’s do some rich web 2.0 type slider widget for that.” I can’t even start to tell you all the things that are wrong with this kind of statement, but when said in the right board room this kind of talk sells. Rather than pick apart the types of sentences I do hear ad nauseum, I think it best to tell you the sentence I don’t hear too often if ever. “Let’s give the user a tool to do x.” The difference being that the discussion focus here is on the task at hand, not the technology of choice (or the moment.)

    In my mind, this evolution towards the misuse of technology terms in business strategy happened because the people in the driver’s seat of business innovation didn’t necessarily have the technical prowess to understand much beyond the interface level. So for example, we started using the term AJAX to describe any onscreen interaction that did not require a page reload, regardless of the need to go back and forth to the server to retrieve additional data.

    Because of this “whiz-bang” “new is better” “fast is the new reliable” world we operate in today, much less attention is being paid to the implementation of new technology. We think of rich as a way to differentiate from our competitors, to woo our users with smoke and mirrors and not that rich in it’s new meaning is really an experience driven feeling not a technical attribute or a rich web 2.0 type slidey widget. If I was to try to define the term as I would like to see it evolve it would be, when a feature or site provides the tools the end user needs when they need them and allows their path through the experience to promote additional value-add for them. Unfortunately this kind of rich can’t be coded; it comes from experience with your users, planning and upfront strategy for your user experience.

    So I have to ask you, is your rich poor?