SensoryMetrics

There seems to be a whiff of competitive cake-making on Flickr… who can make the best iphone cake?? So far DebbieDoesCakes has the best entry! There are a lot more pictures of Blackberry cakes – but then they’re MADE from blackberries…

It also appears that iphone cakes are much harder to make than ipod cakes…

…and it’s no surprise no one is rushing to make Zune cakes!

[tags]cakes, flickr, iphone, ipod, zune[/tags]

Popularity: 73%

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Business cakes, Flickr, iphone, iPod, zune

Yesterday, I was thinking to myself, “I wish there were more dating websites, no?” Perhaps I was thinking aloud because the jolly folks at aWOWtrip launched their new dating site today. They have an interesting twist – it’s aimed at meeting people while you’re travelling. You can search for travellers or locals at your destination.

These days, millions of people travel everyday, for business or leisure. But travel can be lonely at times. aWOWtrip lets resourceful travelers and open-minded locals hook up and have amazing connections.

A member’s quote from the website:

With aWOWtrip.com, my business trips are so much fun! I’ve met so many great people from all over and they bring me to the best restaurants (expense on the company). Thank you aWOWtrip, business trips are no longer boring and stressful!

Expense on the company???? Perhaps you should ask your boss for an increase in your per diem meal allowance!

[tags]awowtrip, dating, travel[/tags]

Popularity: 23%

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Business, Long Tail, User Experience awowtrip, Dating, travel

There’s been growing pressure in the US and the UK for getting rid of hard plastic jugs as milk containers. There’s also the growing popularity of buying milk in glass bottles – just like the old days! Some UK dairies are looking to Canada for packaging ideas. Since the 70s most of Canada’s milk is sold in plastic pouches (or bags.) These use a lot less plastic than rigid containers. Some people even reuse them as sandwich bags. According to some research, pouches seem to be the best alternative environmentally – reusable glass bottles require transportation, and steam cleaning.

But what about the experience? Does milk taste better coming from a glass bottle? I’ve long believed that those cute little 6oz Coke bottles taste better than the 2 litre plastic ones. An Aquafina plastic bottle filled with tap water tastes like… well… tap water and plastic.

There’s even a new store just up the road from my house… LifeWithoutPlastic that sells non-plastic products…

So what’s your preference?

[tags]milk-bottle, taste, packaging[/tags]

Popularity: 32%

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Environment, User Experience milk-bottle, packaging, taste

Snooth has a database of millions of wines, and today they’re launching a wine recommendation application on Facebook (in beta of course). The press release describes their proprietary technology:

Snooth analyzes a user’s unique set of interactions with the site and, using its powerful recommendation engine, leverages this digital fingerprint to generate highly-personalized wine recommendations. Snooth also interprets wine queries more naturally and optimizes the relevancy of search results, by incorporating semantic search elements into its core technology.

One annoying aspect of Snooth is that they force you to create a separate snooth account before using it on Facebook – why so overly complicated???

I’m also wondering if Snooth will also be available on Twitter? “what are you drinking now?” “what are you drinking now?”"what are you drinking now?” etc

Cheers, and pass me the Baby Duck, will ya?

[tags]Facebook, wine, Snooth[/tags]

Popularity: 21%

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Long Tail, User Experience Facebook, Snooth, wine

Jobe and the rest of the planet are getting spam e-cards – putting that entire industry at risk. I’m also starting to get fake Classmates notices. What’s next? Someone writing “Get bigger, longer lasting ********” on my Facebook wall? Every fake online pharmacy accepting my LinkedIn invitations? What about Twitter… “I’m getting a glass of water”, “I’m opening the bottle”, “I’m swallowing two viagras”, “I’m…….” Will the madness ever end?

Popularity: 21%

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Pirates, User Experience

For the past three weeks I’ve been getting spam email with the subject “greeting card sent to you..” Of course, as soon as you open the email, it’s evident that it’s an IP address link (HIGH ALERT FOR PIRATE ATTACK!) So, I’ve been ignoring them, and guess what, the byproduct is that I’ll be ignoring all greetings cards including the legit ones. So, I know, you’re saying, but that’s not fair! Darn right! It’s no wonder email will be replaced by IM or by some other text messaging environment(s). Some people have become downright suspicious about the email they get and ignore almost all of it. Here’s a quote from a friend of mine, “I get all this spam with names that are the same as my friends, so I often ignore and delete my real messages by mistake.”

eMail is very closely tied in to the overall web experience, by which I mean: browsing the internet, and buying stuff from companies. (I know, there’s more to the web than that!) Unfortunately, eMail is often a component of the transaction, typically there’s a confirmation of the transaction by email. eMail is part of the transaction which is part of the entire cUstomer eXperience. If the customer experience has any real weakness it will stem from dealing with eMail. Spam deteriorates the customer’s overall view of what is trustworthy on the internet. This one weakness with a single communication application can affect all business online. Further, a large and wealthy demographic have already stopped using eMail.

Banks have been targets of email spam and phishing for such a long time now that it’s a wonder they can still do business with their customers online. I never interact with my bank using eMail and I think this is an excellent practice for businesses to follow.

Even the best of us sometimes get caught off guard. No wonder email is being rejected and services such as Facebook are being adopted. For some older people, using Facebook is far more frightening than email. This unfortunately, is reinforced since Facebook interfaces with email. You’d think more features would be a good thing, but in this case, I think it’s hurting adoption rate for some older folk. Yet, you know as well as I do, parents won’t be far behind in picking up on what their children are using. For sure, grandparents are now getting hip with web 2.0 Goodbye eMail!

eMail will no doubt continue to exist, but when it comes to doing business with your customers online, spam must not be part of that experience. This might sound like an impossible hurdle to overcome, but it’s actually easily solved, don’t use email as part of the transaction. Instead, provide the user interface which you (the company) can control and guarantee to be a safe experience.

Facebook fights spam but still has some weaknesses..

[tags]email,spam,phishing[/tags]

Popularity: 43%

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Business, Pirates, Usability, User Experience email, Phishing, Spam

I know, you’d think most of us would be able to easily ignore ads on a web page by now. Most of us are able to ignore those odd Google ad links, but the ‘in your face’ flashy visual advertisements are competing with the purpose of your site (unless your purpose is primarily to advertise someone else’s stuff). Sure, ads are fun, or so you’d think. For many users ads are a frightening distraction. Did you know that people visiting a page with large flashy visual advertisements will not spend as long on your site when visiting while at work? Further, that learned behaviour at work is repeated at home. What? Well, who cares? It’s the hits that count right? Wrong. Time spent is becoming the defacto measure for pleasant UX appeal. What’s wrong with the flashy advertisements? Using a site with ads looks like you’re wasting time to your co-workers (and worse yet if your boss sees). However, animated ads are particularly bad because they’re unpredictable. “What will they show next?” I always thought Google was a more appropriate search engine than Yahoo because it focused on the tool that is required (search) delivering a clean User eXperience. Yes, there are ads, but they’re not in your face. So, is SensoryMetrics serious enough to impress your co-workers? The one thing SM has going for it is that we don’t have either Google adsense text links nor flashy animated banner ads. Our readers deserve the best user experience available. But isn’t SensoryMetrics advertising stuff all the time? Yes for sure, but we control what we say and for how long we publish it. You’re reading an advertisement for SensoryMetrics right now!

P.S. If you want to advertise your product right here please contact us now! Special offer available! Hurry, availability limited to the size of the web.

[tags]scary-advertising,web-experience[/tags]

Popularity: 18%

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User Experience scary-advertising, web-experience

With man and with woman as for of shoes source of trouble

Coming out of Japan, this unique product makes sense – simply pull out the holding racks, hang your shoes and the “Shoe Pure PURE 100″ (so pure, ya gotta say it twice) zaps some ozone into them for a refreshing purification! As a bonus it glows blue while it cleanses!!

Their marketing message seem clear enough:

With say, in the reason which does not wear the heel the woman who does not go many expectation. At least, those which want the goods which effectively the disinfecting going out are ill-smelling and are possible. This time you tried, “shoe pure”, generating ozone, the disinfecting going out is ill-smelling the shoes, you say that it does, the going out of the everyday shoes the male be completed they are the goods which we would like to do in the person who is troubled to ill-smelling measure. In the optimistic market, it purchased for 8,180 Yen.

via Shiny Shiny

[tags]Shoe-pure, ozone-depletion[/tags]

Popularity: 30%

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Environment, Geek Wear, Mobility, User Experience ozone-depletion, Shoe-pure

It had to come… Launching this fall is this grand social net site. There doesn’t even appear to be a closed beta going on. I guess these folks have a solid business plan because TheAlarmClock reports Grandparents.com just got funded by Laser Partners and is now headed by Jerry Shereshewsky – a former Yahoo sales exec. Although there’s no source for this data, Grandparents describes an interesting demographic:

On average, grandparents spend about $500 per year on each grandchild. 30% spend more than $1000 per year! The most popular gifts are clothing, toys and music, movies and books.

Among grandparents who are online, 91% e-mail, 70% shop and over 40% book travel. More than 80% do these activities via broadband connections.

90% of grandparents report that their grandchildren are a very rewarding part of their life.

87% of grandparents report that passing family values and history to grandkids are among their top priorities

[tags]Social-network, Grandparents, VC[/tags]

Popularity: 35%

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Business, Long Tail Grandparents, Social-network, VC

As a Product designer, one of the first things I do in planning the “architecture” of software is nail down the colour palette – that’s the range of colours developers will use, and the guidelines for using them. The magic of colour palettes isn’t just for software though – it’s for all products, including movie posters.

Armin Vit, a Brooklyn graphic designer, presents a fascinating analysis of the colour palettes of the top 25 grossing movies. He breaks the data down into the film’s age rating. Notice how the palette changes from the Family designation to the hot steamy NC-17?

So what’s your web 2.0 app compare to? Shrek or Crash? Amusing kiddie fun or raunchy adult blast?

via ColourLovers

[tags]colour-palettes, movies[/tags]

Popularity: 34%

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Movies, Usability, User Experience colour-palettes, Movies