Blog

The future of the newspaper industry does not, apparently, sound like Kraftwerk.

2010-08-17T01:34:48Z

Recently, my favorite radio show, On The Media, held an election for an updated rendition of their newspaper jingle "Present and Future Business Models for Monetizing the Newspaper Industry." On The Media uses this jingle to introduce segments where they discuss the business of print journalism.

OTM listeners were invited to vote for the show's new newspaper jingle on Facebook. The result tells you a lot about its listeners (on Facebook at least).

In spite of lyrics which literally invoke ideas of innovation and change, the selected jingle clings to a comfortable simpler time. It's country, folksy, and sounds like a one man band.

This alone makes makes me worry for the future of the newspaper industry. If they can't get behind a jingle that evokes a modern sound, how can they support the behemoth effort it will take to evolve the industry?

Web Analytics can save our democracy.

2010-05-20T00:04:53Z

ABC's This Week has begun providing third-party fact checking in partnership with Politifact.com. Here's how it works: a guest is interviewed live on Sunday and during the next week, This Week posts the fact-checking of the guests statements to its website.

Bob Garfield interviewed This Week host John Tapper on last week's episode of NPR's On The Media. Garfield inquired about This Week's website traffic – did Tapper know if there was a rise in traffic with viewers visiting the site to review the fact-checking. And Tapper's response was a bit disheartening. "I don't. And I will be looking into it. We've only been doing it for about four weeks."

HEY JOHN TAPPER, DON'T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY!

Web analytics could support the fact-checking initiative in a huge way.

1) Demonstrate success or failure for the experiment. If viewers are visiting the site - it shines a light the hunger for the information. Information that at this time, only ABC's This Week is providing. BOOM! Niche content! If not, evaluate if this mechanism is the best way to surface this valuable information. If traffic has risen – what can be done to improve those numbers? And again, evaluate if the web is the right channel for the information.

2) Look at the demographics. Let's track the site's visitors and take a look the potentially wider (and perhaps more attractive?) demographic. I'm talking The Daily Show with Jon Stewart demographic. If the average Sunday morning talk show visitor skews older - could the fact checking device lure younger viewers to This Week?

Analyzing the success or failure of idea of accountability is going to help This Week better understand what resonates with viewers – with citizens.

One World

2010-05-11T00:27:37Z

Meedan.net homepage

I recently visited a site I heard about during a piece on language translation on NPR's On The Media podcast.

The website is called Meedan.net and it's self described as a "digital town square where you can share conversation and links about world events with speakers outside your language community." Specifically, it's an event / topic driven forum that is addresses issues of interest to the arabic community - and translates the discussions to and from English to make the dialog accessible to a wider audience.

HOW IT WORKS.
Each "Event" is a topic. Meedan members comment in either Arabic or English. Those comments are first translated by a computer and then nuanced by one of the many translators who volunteer their time.

The original comment appears on a white background, the translated content appears of a gray background.

Meedan.com event page
WHAT I LOVE
First and foremost, I love the mission of the site. The ability to engage in conversations that had previously been closed due to language barriers delivers the promise of the internet. It gives all of us a larger world.

CLEAN, INVITING SITE DESIGN
From an aesthetic point of view - home run! The clean, open design of the homepage feels inviting. The topics / events are easy to scan. Graphics are small, but engaging. The typography is really top notch.

The Revolution will not be monetized.*

2009-12-10T19:35:24Z

I attended a lecture given by Bob Garfield of On The Media on December 8 at WNYC's Greenspace. The lecture was a platform for Mr. Garfield's book, The Chaos Scenario. The Chaos Secanario describes the end of advertising, news, entertainment and marketing as we know it.

The lecture provided lots of frightening statistics, some great anecdotal evidence. Bob Garfield is an entertaining and informative speaker. I'm a huge fan of On The Media's radio show so much of presentation for me consisted of details around concepts to which I was already was familiar.

It was some questions from the audience that really challenged me.

One audience member asked why should we care if the News, Advertising and Entertainment industries collapse? If you don't work in the effected industries, is their demise really going to effect us?

THE MISSING PIECE
Relevancy. It's hard to illustrate what we're missing (and what we're going to miss), when we're "getting" so much more now.

But are we? We're drinking from the firehose, people and it's bowling us over. Without credibility, criticism and curating, it's impossible to navigate relevant, interesting, and valuable content. So while we may now have vast choices in media, are we really better off?

Another audience member felt they were better off, they had more information than they ever had - think Tweets from the Iranian election in June and recommendations of books via friends on Facebook or videos of charming kittens on YouTube. And that's all true. We never had those outlets before. They allow The People to speak out publicly and account for a huge rise in citizen journalism. But how long can that last?

HERE'S THE RUB:
Not one of those companies that we have come to rely on has a workable business model.

Seriously. One of the stats I heard in the Bob Garfield lecture was that YouTube was on track to lose close to a half a billion dollars in 2009 in spite of their advertising-based model. And Twitter and Facebook have no such business model to support themselves.

So in all honesty – how long can these companies continue to run? Remember the late '90s with all those internet companies that were "post–profit"? What happened to them?

And if we as a society require these mechanisms for all our media, what happens to us?

*I totally stole my headline from Bob Garfield.

Datavisualization grab bag

2009-11-03T03:02:19Z

I'm not only a practitioner of datavisualization, I'm a huge fan. Here's some a collection of inspiriting artists (and subjects).

Information Aesthetics. Fantastic blog with a bevy of inspiring information graphics. Above is an example from xkcd.com

Stunning sports stats with design love from infojocks.com

Information design with a political sensibility - the art of the late Mark Lombardi

A wee bit more political information design from the good folks at TheyRule.net. Their interactive allows users to find the connections between board members of some of the world's largest multi-national corporations.

A little art with your information design: Stefanie Posavec's graphic maps of literary works. Her website (www.stefanieposavec.com) seems to be down, so the image links to where I first found her work: notcot.com

Chad Hagen's Nonsensical Infographics. Infographics that are based on nothing but aesthetics. They explore the beauty of infographics without all that pesky data.

I admit it, nytimes.com I find you highly crushable.

2009-09-01T02:03:00Z

A sample of the work by the New York Times Interactive DepartmentIn a data visualization sort of way. I sneak peaks at you when you're not looking. Just to find out what you're up to. Because I'm always interested in what you've got to say, and, more specifically, what you're wearing when you say it.

In all seriousness, the good folks at the New York Times Interactive Department do fantastic work. They create some beautiful interactive pieces that are informative, compelling, insightful and they look gorgeous. There's a stellar article in New York Magazine that tells the department's origin story, describes their team composition + process and walks you through a project on a detailed level.

GREAT RESOURCE FOR QUICK AND DIRTY RESEARCH

One of their more recent pieces was so useful I quickly filed it away for future reference. The interactive How Different Groups Spend Their Day supports an article about how the ranks of the unemployed spend their day. But the interactive doesn't stop with the unemployed - it illustrates how many different segments of the population spend their day.

From an ethnographic point of view the snap shots are fantastic. There are views into: men, women, black, white, hispanic, varying age segments, family types and levels of education. So when you see that no more than 1% of seniors 65 and older are using a computer at any given time, you may confidently suggest to your client that perhaps this isn't the time to launch a new poker site targeted to seniors.

CAPTURING A MOMENT – OR TRACKING A TREND

Twitter Chatter During the Super Bowl captures a moment in time when a huge portion of the population is engaged in one activity: rooting for their team. Ok, a team. But whatever - it's a joy to watch. The "People saying go" slice is a gem and was clearly driven by the data – not a preconceived idea of what folks might be tweeting.

What Your Global Neighbors Are Buying offers a view into how much Americans spend on household goods than the Italians (hint: waaaay more) and that alcohol and tobacco purchases are apparently the great equalizer.

Function trumps form. And features.

2009-07-22T01:59:08Z

Since my last post, I've been switching back and forth between last.fm and Pandora.com. I've been trying to determine what qualities / features these two products excelled at and where they dropped the ball.

To do that, I set up "stations" on both last.fm and Pandora.com. The set up is essentially the same on either site: one creates a "station" by providing a band's name. Music from that band and similar artists are then delivered via the "station". Each product uses a proprietary algorithm that analyzes music styles to provide its members with credible similar musicians.

HERE'S WHAT I FOUND
Pandora's good at music. last.fm is good at everything else.

Guess what, over time, the only thing I cared about was the music. Pandora consistently exposes me to more new music. last.fm "ran out" of music fairly quickly.

last.fm provides a richer experience in which to learn more about new artists. The "stations" are shown over a series of animating images of the new bands I was turned on to. Band videos are available and there was tons of access points to people who were listening and loving the artists too. And the community feels very active.

But within a week, my "Santogold Station" kept replaying M.I.A, Katy Perry and Tapes 'n Tapes and honestly, I was getting a bit bored with them.

In contrast, Pandora seemed to reach a lot deeper and exposed to me to a far more varied selection of music. The Pixies would come on after The Ting Tings and it seemed perfect. My Spoon Station kept me rocking for three afternoons straight and I never grew tired of it.

And frankly, that's what I use the site for: music.

pandora.com member homepage

Overall, Pandora.com provides a more staid experience. There's not much of visual interest there. And if there is rich, community-based content - they're not doing a very good job at unearthing it for this user.

Which, ultimately, is an opportunity for Pandora.com. There's some huge leaps they could make in terms of brand, social networking and design – but they have the most important feature over last.fm: the music.

The rare twofer: Last.fm rocks the user-generated content AND builds a brand.

2009-06-05T00:40:24Z

I've been a member of last.fm for the past three years. For the uninitiated, last.fm provides a free music service: members can listen to a variety of playlists or "stations" based on their musical preferences.

Obviously there's a fascinating technology behind last.fm. And an ongoing debate as to whether last.fm or its competitor, pandora is more successful in providing the best music.

This post isn't about the technology, but rather, it's about the experience beyond the music. And for that – because the internet is more than a radio (woohoo!) – last.fm is a standout. It successfully uses solid design, an appropriate tone of voice and a variety of social media strategies to deliver a rich experience.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIES
Artist biographies are written by members. It's a super-cheap way to get lots of content up on the site. The wiki technology leverages the crowd's passions, allowing them to craft the musician's bios. And it (rightfully) relies on their ability to sniff out folks who are writing press releases instead of legit bios.

last.fm uses a combination of professional and amatuer photography

Photos + videos are uploaded from members. "Official" videos are labeled as such, but fan videos are posted right along side. The wide variety of photos and videos provides for a rich experience beyond the sanctioned images + videos of artists.

Events - users can post listings for upcoming gigs and festivals for artists.

WHAT I LOVE
For all the user-generated content and the huge takeover of the background space for sponsors - last.fm utilizes some excellent devices to own that content and build a brand:

• because the photos of artists are uploaded by users, quality can vary significantly. Last.fm manipulates those images by overlaying them on a gradient and throwing a mesh filter on top. The result is a cohesiveness to the images that speaks as much to last.fm as it does to the image's subject (or uploader).

Last.fm manipulates all the images in their player - overlaying a gradient + a texture.

• tone. Man, a clearly defined tone of voice is the cheapest, easiest and one of the most effective methods to establish brand. And Last.fm does it so well. It's the little things like nomenclature on buttons: "Go on, impress me" labels the button the "Find your favourite band's similar artists" call to action. How much sweeter is that than the pedestrian "submit" "enter", or "go"?

AN EASY WIN
Email - reach out and touch me, last.fm. I gave you my email address. I told you could send me stuff, and I never hear from you! There's such an opportunity to connect with members based on something your members are passionate about: music.

Google's swine flu information + infographics.

2009-05-22T16:37:27Z

There's some really interesting work being done on influenza that's come to light during the outbreak of the swine flu.

Google Flu Trends - from google.orgGoogle's philanthropic arm, google.org has a tool called Google Flu Trends. Flu Trends uses users search terms and geographic locations to map a likelihood of flu outbreaks. The New York Times reports that Google's Flu Trend detect these outbreaks more than a week before they're reported to Center for Disease control.

The above graphic does a nice job in laying out the data pretty neutral way. The user sees the trending of flu search terms across the United States. Each state is color-coded to reflect to intensity level of the flu activity. The user can also utilize the drop down to show the flu activity in a specific state.

The overall effect is informative and clear. Which, frankly, is a refreshing change of pace from the frightening stories of the nightly news. And why is that? I see a couple of reasons:

1) IT'S ABOUT THE DATA - NOT HUMANS
It's hard to get worked up about a map. Stories about children and the elderly getting sick – that's scary. Colors on a map just don't pack that kind of wallop. The marketer in me sees that disassociation as a negative most cases. But here, the analytical distance is perfect.

2) IT'S ABOUT FOCUS
In this graphic users are being guided to focus on the overall percentage of flu trends – not on individual cases. The image below from the New York Times takes the opposite approach. It highlights the number of cases. One gets a distinctly different emotional impression from that graphic.

The New York Times – Tracking Swine Flu Cases Worldwide interactive

Under the influence of Ladislav Sutnar and Mr. Steven Heller (Oh, I'm feeling influenced, part 2)

2009-05-02T17:27:33Z

Here's a few more thoughts from The Influencers, one of the Dot Dot Dot Lectures sponsored by The School of Visual Art's MFA in Interaction Design program.

Steven Heller introduced me to a graphic designer I didn't realize I was influenced by – Ladislav Sutnar. Sutnar was one of the first information designers. If all he did was introduce the convention of confining the area code within parenthesis, I'd be wowed.

Sutnar was one of the first information designers, for twenty years he was the art director for Sweet's Catalog Service. At Sweets he developed iconography to support a customer's navigation throughout the catalog and developed grids and layouts to articulate products and parts.

WHAT I LOVED
Sutnar's clear, graphic, systematic approaches were well before his time. His desire to increase understanding and facilitate efficiency through design is all well and good, but if his work is so visually compelling and unafraid.

Ok, this last bit is independent of Ladislav Sutnar, but it's still relevant: I loved Steven Heller's presentation.

I can say that regardless of who gave this presentation, I would have been interesting – Sutnar is fascinating. But Heller's touch really sold it. He had this great grasp of all of Suntnar's career highlights, but he peppered the narrative with just enough gossip-y tidbits to be totally entertaining as well (ask him about Sutnar's Joy Art). I was left as impressed with the presentation, as with the subject.