Function, keep us from the dark side…

Now as most people that know me can confess, I am in no means a fan of Star Wars (most people will probably stop reading now). Truth be told I haven’t the slightest clue how many films have even been created thus far. So do forgive me if my post isn’t latent with Star Wars film references or characters.
Unlike my fellow designer (Andrea) my character knowledge is limited to Jabba the Hutt only cause I remember him from my childhood, and I tend to prefer a bit more Moonwalker than Skywalker.
Although we’ve sat side-by-side for a few years now, occasionally bickering about irrelevant topics in the grand scheme of things, this whole Form vs Function debate seems to have taken our ‘designer’ discussions to a whole new level…

What’s the purpose of this?

The debate is on. Which follows the other? Should form define function, or does function dictate form. It’s a question I would so love to ask any one of the great designers of our generation, and those of generations past… Designers that focussed on the true essence of their creations. What’s the purpose, the offering, the user benefit?
Greats like Ferdinand Porsche, who gave birth to the humble VW Beetle and later the ever-classic Porsche range. A legacy that has produced and given form to some of the most beautiful machines known to man.
His origins, though, as the designer of the Beetle, where not focussed towards the form we associate with his brand nowadays. Rather, it was to create the most functional vehicle possible. A vehicle that would be inexpensive to produce and can be sold to the masses. Boring right? Not exactly, not when we consider how his functional design inspired generations, not to mention going on to be one of the best-selling cars of all time.
Even the Porsche range we know today, with all of its form over function appearance, still maintain the same Function First fundamentals. Admittedly, they are cars of beauty, drooled upon by most (including myself ), but this beauty is nothing more than a representation of the brand’s ‘purpose’ to produce vehicles with exceptional driving performance. A vehicle which functions flawlessly. So much so that Porsches haven’t really changed in form since inception.

It better function, or else!

Function has given birth to so many of our much-loved gadgets and gizmo’s. Cell phones turned smartphones, Walkman turned iPod, big things scaled to tiny things, all born from the need of greater functionality. Their form, an expression of current trends or simply to accommodate their new incarnations.
No, I’m not saying we shouldn’t focus on appearance or form, of course, we must. After all, as Andrea so rightly expressed in his post, items of beauty tend to capture our imagination and our undying desire for all things shiny and clickable. But I ask, what’s the point of browsing through a beautifully designed website, downloading a great looking App or buying the latest and greatest if it’s functionally useless?
Most users/consumers just want something that works, whether it’s a website, product or service. If it looks good then it will most likely have greater appeal. But in a world where plenty are likely to express their disappointment when faced with a product/service that hasn’t functioned or performed as expected (especially if we’ve paid good money for it), I argue that functionality is key.
My bet is that brands focusing their efforts on customer retention and brand loyalty will be hard pressed for luck if their offering isn’t up to par, even if it does look the part.

BB-8. Sure it’s not a Dyson?

Another great designer that springs to mind is James Dyson. You know, the guy that invented the weird vacuum with a ball stuck to the bottom. A revolutionary designer that has managed to combine the best of both form and function.
Sure, he didn’t invent the concept of the vacuum, nor did he invent any other product we haven’t already seen. His genius is his ability to revolutionise and enhance the way many conventional household products function, whilst packaging them in a more aesthetically pleasing form. As with Porsche, Dyson’s mantra has always been one of function first. So much so that even the brands television adverts purposely state that their products utilise patented technology, giving them a functional edge on their competitors.

Functionality. Built-in.

As with many debates, the points for and against either perspective are many. So yes, I do agree that form does play a very important part of any design, though functionality takes a design beyond the superficial. Though, in my opinion, functionality is the key factor that separates a nice design from a great one, allowing for greater user integration and thus a greater user experience.

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1. Apple Pay
2. Android Pay
3. PayPal
4. Bitcoin

Apple Pay

Apply pay, making credit cards redundant since October 2014. Basically, Apple pay allows you to store your credits cards in your “Passbook”. Once the cards are stored, to pay for your shopping all you need to do is put your phone over contactless readers and your purchase will be completed. Now obviously the first thing that comes to mind is “but what if someone steals my phone?”, Apple came up with a quick solution to that. If your phone is stolen all you need to do is sign in to iCloud and enable “lost mode” which will suspend Apple pay. Another pro to Apple pay is that your card details are never actually stored with apple, but are stored within the phone itself, so every purchase you make will never be recorded with apple, so yes go ahead and order the Michael Buble Limited Edition box set, no one will ever know.

Android Pay

Who could have predicted Android coming out with a payment method after Apple did? Anyway, with android pay there is no application involved, all you need to is tap the phone over a contactless reader. Upon purchase, loyalty points and offers are automatically applied. Regarding your card safety, android has got your back, because android uses a virtual account number so that your credit card and debit card details will never be sent out. Whenever you make a purchase, android pay will give you the merchant’s name and number, for theft reasons. Lose your phone, don’t sweat it! Android device manager allows you to instantly lock your device, change your password and wipe clean all your personal info, you know, James Bond style. In the near future, android pay will be available for use at McDonald’s, Subway, Macy’s, Best Buy and many more retail outlets.

Paypal

Okay, so we see PayPal almost everywhere, but what exactly is it? Paypal provides users to pay online without revealing any of your financial data. The brilliant thing about paypal is that it uses the latest encryption and anti-fraud technology. Probably, the one place we all know paypal from is ebay. It simplified the process and made those midnight online shopping cravings a hundred times easier.

Bitcoin

The conception of bitcoin is kind of a mystery, but what we know is that it has become a massive online P2P transaction method. However, the thing about bitcoin is that it can never be regulated, and we all know what that means.
In 2014 the CEO of BitInstant, Charlie Shrem (bitcoin exchange) was officially arrested for selling over 1 million dollars in bitcoins to Silk Road users, who would use the bitcoins to buy drugs. Anywho, bitcoin is a new payment system of digital money. It is owned and run by the users around the world.

Conclusion

All in all, we may easily come to the conclusion that in just a few years time we could all say goodbye to our paper money, and say hello to cryptocurrency.

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IOS9

Every minute of the day something interesting somewhere around the world happens. However, instead of focusing on news like who Donald Trump is going to offend next or One Direction splitting up, we are going to be focusing on news related to technology and computer related news.
Firstly, IOS9 is almost here! Bringing you a better Siri, enhanced multitasking, better Apple maps, and new built-in applications. But the one thing that really caught my attention was, the long awaited power saving mode! IOS9 will give the users the opportunity to enable low power mode and which will award them with longer battery life. Now that’s what I call an update!

Ashley Madison hack

In other news, some people just got caught red handed after the Ashley Madison hack. If you don’t know what Ashley Madison is, it’s basically a website where married people sign up for “internet dating”. A few weeks ago it was hacked and everyone’s details were revealed. The hackers responsible for the hack are known as the “Impact Team” – and what an impact they made. This must teach everyone a lesson, always be careful with what social media websites you are signed up to, because one hack and all of your information will be leaked, leaving you exposed. Apparently these hacking groups can get through to anything!

Bionic hand

Lastly, 3D printing has gone the extra mile and actually printed an artificial limb! Joe Oxenbury was born with upper limb deficiency, but now has a fully functioning left hand thanks to a charity who specialised in 3D printing where a kind soul named James Holmes-Siedle crafted the hand. The charity which created the 3D printing took measurements of Joe’s right hand and designs inspired by George Lucas’ Star Wars (Darth Vader’s hand). The future is here, the bionic hand!

From longer battery life, to hacks, and bionic limbs, the past few months sure have been hectic! Who knows, maybe next up is flying cars and fully functional hoverboards (a boy can dream).

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Another abstract word which can be applied to many different contexts, what does intelligence have to do with Digital Marketing?
Apart from the fact that you need to have a good head on your shoulders in order to have successful marketing campaigns, intelligence in relation to the digital world goes much deeper.

Human intelligence

It’s not always about textbook knowledge, it’s not simply about theory, facts, and figures – sometimes it’s even more complicated than all those combined- it’s about intuition. If you want to be successful you’ve got to have a specific kind of intelligence – the kind which allows you to understand the various layers that go behind something and to just ‘get it’.

This is especially true when it comes to audiences. You might have all the data in front of you. The demographics, the age range, the times they’re online, and the pages they spend the most time on. But if you can’t understand the human beings behind the numbers then your strategies will only go so far.
The problem is that you can’t teach intuition. However you can train yourself to be slightly better at hitting those immeasurable targets.

• Put yourself in their shoes – would the campaign be relevant to them? It’s useless trying to sell high end designer stilettos to the over 50s who have no desire to break an ankle.
• Appeal to them on an emotional level – will they want to be a part of the campaign and engage with it, creating long term benefits for both parties? Or will they simply get what they need and go, possibly never to return?
• Look into all the pros and cons – how will an outsider view the campaign, is it user friendly? What’s the UX like?

Technological intelligence

According to Back to the Future’s predictions by now we should all be driving flying cars and wearing funny clothes. While I’m still waiting on the flying car to be manufactured, it is impressive to see that technology has advanced in leaps and bounds in ways which we could have never imagined.
Who would have thought I’d be able to speak to my phone and get almost human replies (thanks for the laughs Siri)? Wearable tech and the smartest apps you could think of have simplified life and made the mundane interesting. Artificial intelligence, real time data, and the ability to sync across devices and instantly connect all your tech has revolutionised our world.
And while some fear that A SkyNet/Terminator situation is imminent, we can’t help but count our lucky stars for the convenience created by our intelligent tech.

Intelligent Marketing

This is probably our favourite aspect of intelligence in the digital world.
Let’s go back a couple of years – before digital marketing was even conceived. Marketers had a tough time trying to get quantifiable data regarding their campaigns. They did brilliantly of course – they had their suitcases full of artillery, their pitches, their theories of hierarchical needs, and anything else a traditional marketer could ever want.
What they didn’t have were instant results, data about even the most seemingly irrelevant thing, the option to target specific people, and the possibility to customise their adverts.
This is why we love digital.
Google is God when it comes to simplifying the marketing process. From highly specific SEO criteria which ensures that the best search results are displayed, to the constant improvement to make digital marketing more human. Digital marketing is putting people at the forefront. Whereas before marketers would talk at an entire broad audience, now they can select, tweak, and even target specific groups. What’s more is that with things like retargeting and context marketing you can easily come up with a strategy which really gives people customised adverts which will actually be relevant and useful to them.
So at the end of the day we can say it’s true that sometimes it’s not how much you know, but how you use it. We’re always ready to see what new forms of intelligence the digital world will throw at us. Let’s just hope it won’t be terminators.

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First off – how will this affect you?

This depends on your answer to the next question:

Is your site mobile friendly?

If you’re not really sure, then you can check out what Google itself thinks. Just insert your website’s address here and you’ll learn soon enough.There’s no ranking, your site either passes the test or it fails it.
Passed the test? Then this is good news for you. You now have an advantage over people whose sites fail the test on mobile searches. Failed? Going forward, when people use mobile phones to search for keywords that you ranked well on previously, your site’s ranking will drop down the rankings.

Why should I care?

These two (identical) statistics should make you care:

• Up to 80% of Internet users use smartphones to search.
• 80% of local searches that originate on mobiles result in a conversion.

With numbers like these, the only thing that remains surprising is why not more people are putting a bigger effort into making their website mobile-friendly.

What should I do?

Simple – if you don’t have a mobile-friendly site, then get in touch with your favourite web design agency (us, quite naturally) and get us working on a site immediately. If you’re not quite ready for that, the least you can do is start creating some new pages that are mobile-friendly. The ranking is based on pages, not whole sites, so this way you can start winning Google over on your new content.

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Great to (almost) get to know you

We’re used to getting plenty of content against no apparent payment. The internet has dramatically increased the spectrum of services we’re no longer prepared to pay for. And we’re also used to having part with varying amounts of personal information in exchange. How often have you spotted something you really want to read more about, only to U-turn when faced with a form you’re expected to fill out? The trend towards increased information requirements has finally peaked, and the more clever content providers have started to reduce the request to tolerable levels. 2014 should see a steady decrease in the amount of information requested of us. If you’re hosting valuable content behind an info-request wall, it is time to seriously consider making your offering more attractive by being slightly less annoying.

I care as far as I can care

Our generation has inherited a planet that was mindlessly assaulted by our predecessors. Unfortunately, we’ve also inherited the guilt associated with that harm, even if we are doing more than all our ancestors put together to set our green globe back on track. We are now made to feel guilty for consuming practically everything that has a measurable footprint. This goes beyond its weight in Carbon. The footprint includes the practices employed for manufacture and the way employees are treated along the way. 2014 will see a rise in the demand for guilt-offsetting products and services. The most sought after will be zero-guilt, where the benefit to society or the environment associated with a particular purchase offsets the sum total of guilt associated with it. Show you care and present products that are visibly guilt-free.

I’ll get my watch to talk to your shirt

We have expected more connected devices for several decades now. Douglas Adams predicted a smart-device that taps into Wikipedia when he wrote the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in the seventies. The trend for 2014 will go beyond connected devices used as communication and media consumption devices. It will see smarter, more bio-aware devices that relay data about your health to your medical carers. Cars that read your pulse, helmets that detect impact direction and shirts that detect breathing and movement will all be connected to the web for instant transmission of health-related information. As we’ve come to expect, the rich will have access to the finest healthcare first. But refer to the previous trend – we’ll see a much quicker cascade to affordability this year.

There is an ‘I’ in tribe

I have the ability to influence my immediate surroundings. I can wear headphones to make my world sound better, for instance. I can leave home an hour early to beat the traffic. But with more connected devices in everyone’s pockets, we are able to use information from across the tribe in any space to shape impromptu gatherings. Smart DJ software can read the musical tastes of everyone who has checked in to a bar and influence the playlist accordingly. GPS traffic data from multiple devices along the same stretch should shape traffic news. A percentage of vegetarians at any one beach should tell the right food truck to head that way…

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