Conference on Building Windows 8 Apps

The Ramp Group, a local digital UX agency, is co-hosting an event on Wednesday with Microsoft you might find interesting. We will be talking about using Windows 8 to extend existing applications into the field via Windows Phone and tablet devices. Along with it being a good introduction into designing for Windows 8, it also should be a great networking opportunity with professionals in the interactive space.

I will be speaking at the event about designing simplified interfaces in the tablet medium, as well as the virtues of branding and usability.

It will be held in the Microsoft Civica Building in downtown Bellevue (108^th Ave and 2^nd Ave).

You can register using the link below:
www.rampgroup.com/register

Agenda brief for Wednesday, 27 February 2013:

8 am Why Windows Phone and Surface make sense for business.
10 am Designing Windows 8 apps for high usability
12 noon Lunch - Sponsored by Ramp Technology Group
1 pm Microsoft Customer Stories and Demos
1:30 pm Interactive Design Session for your business scenarios
3 pm Extend Networking at Sea Star Restaurant

Guest speakers Bill Baxter and Ron Notbohm demonstrating apps they have built at buddy tv and UCIC School and Jason Levine, Creative Director and lecturer at the University of Washington.

Come for any or all of the agenda. Hope to see you there. And if you have some scenarios you’ve envisioned enabling with mobile or tablet solutions bring your ideas and we will see where they can go. Some of the best ideas might be developed as proof of concepts.

You can check out the brochure here:



I hope to see you there!

Sample Class Work

This spring, I began teaching two courses at the University of Washington. The class has been very enjoyable and I have been extremely impressed with the level of talent and creativity my students have demonstrated. Everyone had shown tremendous talent, so I wanted to share some of the work that they had come up with.

 This was a fun car selecting tool that a team of my graduate students came up with:

Here is the same project as an iPhone application that a team of my undergrad students thought of:

 This was a presentation a student did showing how the psychology of patterning propogates addictive behavior when using Instagram:

And here is a sitemap designed by a student showing the inter-relational data of a local music festival's website:

These are just a small sampling of the innovative abilities of these students. If you happen to be looking for interns for the summer for your company, seek me out and I will be happy to provide you some great students who are eager for real-world experience.

GreenLight Music Goes Live

Perfect Pixels provided the initial persona research and information architecture to the recently launched GreenLight Music service. A Corbis subsidiary, the service launched with more than a million-song catalog as a solution to the often frustrating and convoluted offline process of licensing music for commercial use.

The offering makes it feasible for a corporation to use a song for a corporate presentation, video or any other commercial need, by obtaining a license. Typically, getting a license from music labels and publishers can be difficult and frustrating. GreenLight Music simplifies the process by providing a one-stop shop to license songs for common commercial uses, such as videos, presentations, campaigns, and more. It can get your music clearances quickly, easily, and at competitive prices.

The deliverables included Personas, UX Strategy, Sitemap, Wireframes and Userflows. The solution required solving for allowing users to name their price for the song they want. Once you find a song, GreenLight will help guide you to submit a competitive offer to the music companies. When you make an offer, GreenLight goes to work securing the necessary approval from song owners.

The logic behind the UI was to streamline as much as possible the number of steps involved and to hide from the user the possible confusion of multiple scenario variations that normally would arrive in an offline experience. The result was to focus on a solution that was quick and intuitive.

Perfect Pixels' Jason Levine will begin teaching at the University of Washington in 2012

Beginning in the Spring 2012 quarter, Jason Levine will be teaching in the undergrad program for the Information School as well as the Masters of Communication in Digital Media program for the University of Washington. The two classes will be Information Architecture and Interactive Design.

The Information Architecture class will be focusing on how to structure content as well as creating an intuitive and logical presentation for complex websites so that users can put information to use.

The Masters Interactive Design class will focus on learning how to interpret user needs and placing users at the center of site design by learning the fundamentals of brand and usability.

Case Study for the Employment Security Department

We were tasked with a complete re-architecture and redesign of the Employment Security Department's employment and economic information website which is set to go live in a few months. The site contains thousands of publications, reports and presentations which required a complete overhaul. The case study below describes how we accomplished this task by focusing on a persona-based, task oriented navigation structure.

Just hit "Play" to hear the accompanying voice over.

Defining Content Categorization for a Website

View another webinar from Jason Levine

CareOregon case study

Last week we launched CareOregon's new website. The process included user surveys, usability tests, creating user personas, brand exploration, editorial, photography selection, sitemap and wireframing, and design. You can view the video below to hear more about the various deliverables.

The design was targeting to improve the level of user engagement and efficiency in users reaching their intended content. The following stats were pulled for CareOregon's new site comparing the month since the launch and the previous year's numbers for the same time period (2/7/10 to 3/5/10 and 2/7/11 to 3/5/11):

• +34.88% improvement in new visits
• -34.44% reduction in bounce rate
• +34.18% improvement in time spent on the site
• +10.46% improvement on the number of pages viewed per user
• +38.36% improvement on visitors sourced by search engines
• +35.77% on new visitors
• .02%of users relied on search (65th most visited page was search results). Previous: 10.1% , the 9th most visited page)

Check out this SlideShare Presentation. You can hit the Play button to hear the voice over:

CareOregon case study

View more presentations from Jason Levine.

Video Produced for Cobalt Group

We just completed an animated video promoting Cobalt's new ad service. Cobalt is a web hosting and online advertising service for car dealerships. They wanted an innovative and fun video to send to their customers to introduce their new service offering without being boring while saying it. So the challenge was to take on a complicated concept and explain it in 2 minutes or less without putting to sleep the viewers.

PPMG concepted an idea using a rainmaker machine as the metaphor of how the service could create customer traffic. Our process was to break each element into its own separate deliverable.

First, we provided three summary concepts. Then after a concept was selected we made rough storyboard and attached narrative copy to it. We then provided three illustration styles to choose from as well as voice over talent selections. Once each was approved, we just stitched it all together and dropped it in Flash! You can see the preliminary sketches and the illustrations below:

Persona Research for Discovering Website Needs

A Masters in Psychology class presentation I had done about discovering the core needs of a website's users in order to better optimize the user interface. Just hit the Play button to hear the audio voice over.

Defining Users for Finding Website Needs

View more presentations from Jason Levine.

A Pixel Takeover

Chemistry.com signs with Perfect Pixels Media Group

Chemistry.com, started in 2006 by the Dallas-based dating giant Match.com, Dallas-based Match.com, owned by IAC/InterActive, is an industry behemoth by any standard, with 30 U.S. brands. It also operates sites in 24 countries, including China and Australia, in eight languages. And it powers online dating for the MSN network as well as AOL.

Helen Fisher, the biological anthropologist who developed Chemistry.com’s questionnaire, says the site is designed to predict compatibility based on traits of temperament like adventurousness, decisiveness or empathy. The sites attract cohorts of people interested in slowing down the online dating and mating process, in finding out more information about potential partners — or in ruling out unlikely suitors — before they graduate to the meet-and-greet stage.

Its parent site adds 20,000 new members each day. That amount of “churn” is vital. If success in online dating is measured as an exclusive relationship or even marriage, many lapsed memberships are sure to result. Several researchers estimate that online dating will generate about $1.9 billion this year, with some 40 million Americans active in the medium.

Perfect Pixels Media Group, a Seattle-based interactive branding and design agency with clients like ING Direct, All Recipes.com, Classmates.com, Microsoft and Trulia.com, will be creating interactive applications to further generate connections amongst Chemistry.com members.

Sometimes a brand needs a hero

Empty space ads, an innovative ad network service, scans a site and appends additional banner space to a website to increase advertiser's reach and content provider's revenue. I was thinking an owl would make a good logo - as in a knowing seeker that searches for empty space. The client was thinking Batman. And so, a hero was born, the Empty Space Girl!

The logo itself was devised to represent the contrasting metaphor of the negative space in the word "empty" then shown filled with the word "space". The color pallet was devised to create a unique differentiator for trade shows, networking events and of course, ads.

Twitter for Business

Twitter is successfully being used from pop culture icons, well known athletes, businesses to every day folks. But what is to say for twitters true usage rate? There are around 6 Million users that have signed up for twitter as of August of this year. This equates to 3.8 of all internet usage. So what does that mean for you?

Twitter is expected to at least double within a year to an estimated 12.1 Million users. For brands to understand this power and available accessibility, it is at the least, very powerful. This mean "brands", you have the opportunity to search a database of millions of users and find out if they are talking about your company, service, product. If customers have issue with your service, believe me, they will tell the world. Stop the fire before it catches on and show how responsive your company is to it's customers.

What about using twitter for business? A novel idea, perhaps. Out of 6 Million people, someone is interested in your product or service. Send DM's to your people on your twitter list and let me know how successful this is for you. We want to know what kind of success you are having with any tips we are planning to give weekly. Our blog is not a daily blog. We will report on the most important information relating to digital marketing, iPhone marketing and social media tips.

Let me know how this works for you.

PPMG Featured in Fuel Your Branding

Fuel Your Branding is a great online magazine about branding and design. We were recently interviewed by them talking about using digital media to enhance your brand. Here's an excerpt:

"FYB: What about when the CEO wants to to see the numbers?
Jason: The problem with brand marketing on the web is that people want ROI. They want to see clicks that lead to conversions. It’s incredibly hard to quantify. Everyone wants a million hits on YouTube. Anything less is somehow not acceptable. They immediately want high traffic and what they often get is a slow curve of overall acceptance and awareness.

There is a choice every company makes; to be a direct marketing company or a branded company. If you want to be a branded company that does direct marketing you can. But you can’t be a direct marketing company that attempts branding. The brand has to come first."

Read the full article here: http://www.fuelyourbranding.com/brand-builder-perfect-pixels

On a related note, we also received a mention in Techvibes in regards to our new partnership with a great dev house, Appnovation.

Trusted Places : Social Media in Europe

Trusted Places is a community website based in the United Kingdom. It is a forum for user-generated reviews of neighborhood pubs, services, and restaurants. Trusted Places came to Perfect Pixels Media Group because of our expertise in Social Media and Branding in order to help Trusted Places create a better user experience overall.

PPMG first spent time in a discovery phase where we came to understand Trusted Places’ audience, business goals, and the competitive space. From this we were able to work from an informed basis and we were able to effectively evaluate the registration process, create a refined information architecture, recommend A/B testing, and extend the brand.

We first engaged creating in a moodboard. This excellent tool allowed us to show Trusted Places a visual language that would articulate the brand going forward. Trusted Places readily bought into our vision because the Discovery phase allowed us to quickly show Trusted Places’ value through images, iconography and recommended messaging. From the moodboard, we were able to tweak the logo in a way that users would still relate to the old branding, but would emotionally connect with the new direction. This was also a basis for the design, value proposition, and message extensions.

PPMG is always cognizant of our clients’ budgets. In the spirit of offering the most value for the least amount of money to our customers, we suggested a short User Experience Definition phase. This high level study, through simple user flows, allowed us to confirm Trutsted Places core strategic user scenarios. These were based on existing pathways and the desired traffic flow per each business objective. PPMG helped Trusted Places create a larger, strategic view of their key user activities and we were able to propose enhanced user engagement. This exercise saved Trusted Places money because we had a solid base from which to work on the tactical user experience change requests. With a deeper understanding of the site and its users, we were able to make cogent, educated solution suggestions as we continued to work with the Trusted Places stakeholders. Changes during the design phase can be very costly; however, these sorts of targeted deep dives can provide rich information in a short period of time that can then be extended to the remaining phases of the project.

Trusted Places came to PPMG with a myriad of requests. Through the above, PPMG was able to identify that many of the ancillary requests looped back to the registration process. PPMG reviewed this and we were able to recommend email improvements, a more user-friendly and efficient registration flow -- which included the gateways to the registration page, follow-up emails, and the confirmation pages on the site. Our recommendations drove people to register while creating a better experience while doing so. Upon implementation of our recommendations, Trusted Places’ registration numbers went up, and there was higher user engagement and retention. Our research and recommendations also created a roadmap for PPMG to solve the ancillary requests of Trusted Places more efficiently.

The groundwork had been laid for an efficient re-architecting and redesign of the Home Page, the My Trusted Places page, and the Place Page. We worked to up the conversion opportunities, clarify the value proposition while driving registration and user-engagement. We also created a virtual “black book” experience for the registered Member. Users became much more aware of existing features and our changes drove usage, engagement, and stickiness.



PPMG is known for its holistic approach in helping its clients solve their new-media issues. We work closely with all of our clients to ensure their best interests are at the forefront. The layman may not initially understand the value of high-level studies and deep dives, but they ultimately pay for themselves in cost savings. PPMG works to base all of our recommendations and designs on the client’s strategy, business goals, and user profiles. Making something pretty has no value if it is not driving the significance of the brand while presenting information in a consumable manner.

Earthly Inspiration

We are regularly asked where we get inspired for creativity. For us, it can come from anything. A painting, an innovative design, architecture, or just a stunning view. A latest source of inspiration has come from some satellite photos we came across of the locations across the earth. They are magnificent pieces of art in their own right. The color combinations, textures and negative space are all elements to draw upon in design. You can view the entire set of photos here at Environmental Graffiti. Here are four favorites that represent their beauty from space of the terrain, as they are completely different perspective and experience from the ground eye view of those same locations. Feel free to click on them for hi-res versions.

Shifting Sand of the Terkezi Oasis, Chad
Kalahari Desert, Namibia
Under Water Ocean Sands, Bahamas

Farms in Garden City, Kansas, USA

Three Steps to marketing your iPhone app.

You've heard the news, seen the commercials and now you are excited to get started creating an iPhone application for your brand. Now you find yourself asking how do I get started?

First: You must establish a direction for your "new creation", are you going with a brand driven application, or an application "brought to you by" your brand? There is a distinct difference and value for both.

Second: Pricing matters in the competitive iPhone market. 0.99cents is the most common, $1.99 is a growing starting point. Here are a couple of strategies used by iPhone Developers

Strategy "Lite Version": If you believe that your app has the legs to crawl out ontop, then you may want to consider creating two versions of your application, a "lite and full version". Offer the lite version for FREE and with the right app, your user base will climb. The extended full version needs to also be available at the same time. This way, you allow the user to play one level or two, get them excited to download the full version, all within the app.

Strategy "Price it and then Promote the drop": You price out your app at say $1.99 or $2.99 and then run a special promotion for a price drop after you believe your app has hit it's highest point of sales, promote it like crazy as a limited time offer. You will see this happen quite a bit in the app store. But make sure you price it right. Too high can yield low returns. The lite version is a proven method, as it stands today.

Third: Create a microsite, viral campaign, and special twitter promotional that will get your app recognized. Viral Marketing is power!

We would love to help you with your application next steps. If you are interested, please contact jake@perfectpixels.com for details and a marketing evaluation.

PPMG Introduces iPhone & Mobile Phone Development

PPMG is pleased to announce the introduction of iPhone Application Development and Mobile Strategy as part of the company’s core competencies. Over one billion downloads demonstrates the value, ease of user accessibility and adoption, as well as the huge opportunity our clients have within the app store.

We understand that due to the growing number of applications available, fresh approaches to innovative marketing and product awareness are important. This is why we also offer microsite design and development services to promote each application. Microsites give each product promotional exposure outside of the confines of the app store.

Our team includes 2D and 3D animators and mobile-UI Designers. PPMG is always striving to differentiate our clients’ products with a unique combination of features, strategy, and execution.

We see the tremendous value this new product offering affords our clients and are thrilled to be a part of the growing mobile movement. PPMG exploits this new medium and its capabilities to provide excellence and innovation in all of our iPhone Application design and development.

Review a case study of one of our latest iPhone projects.

iPhone Application Development / Mobile Strategy
. Entertainment and Utility Application Development
. 3D and 2D Animation
. Storyboarding
. Script writing

Features:
. Accelerometer
. Dash-code and X-code
. GPS Maps API
. Streaming Video and Audio
. In Game Voice Use

Jewish Family Service Website Launches

Jewish Family Service (JFS) of Seattle has deep roots in the Puget Sound area with over 117 years of commitment to the community in the North West. JFS has grown from an agency that provided support to Jewish immigrants to a non-profit organization that services many diverse populations in the Seattle area.

JFS’ website was not adequately presenting the mission, scope, and strategy of JFS. Many of their users couldn’t effectively find the information and support they needed with the old design. JFS came to PPMG with these concerns and we worked very closely with them to solve for their complex situation.

PPMG embarked on two parallel tracks to meet the needs of JFS and its constituents. We entered into a Mood Board process to define the visual language of the site, as well as an Information Architecture phase where we defined the site structure and document taxonomy.

For the Mood Board, PPMG chose images and colors that would represent the various populations that JFS serves, as well as photographs of the founding mothers and shots of the Seattle area. This did several things. It gave JFS the opportunity to discuss and define the high level value of JFS and choose a library of images that would evoke appropriate emotional responses from their users. PPMG worked with JFS to create a visual language that would provoke a feeling trust, community, safety, and show concern. Our goal was to connect viscerally to the needs of the site user.

View the Mood Board here >

The IA phase was challenging because of the complexity of JFS’ offerings. We concluded that the best way to meet all site-interaction scenarios was to have navigation by both persona and by service. This created a difficult puzzle to solve, but we were able to effectively create a structure and navigational system that provided easy, intuitive access to all of JFS’s services in a manner that was easy to use and understand. JFS had ample content per page, so PPMG was able to easily flow the existing information into the new design.

The Mood Board and IA phases worked together to create a cost-efficient design process because all of the elements had been defined at a higher level. Repeated touches to the pages during the design phase was not necessary because consensus had been achieved before that phase started.

Through our collaborative efforts, JFS’s understanding of their audience, and PPMG’s expertise, within the first month of the newly designed site launch:
• Average user time spent on the site increased 81%
• The bounce rate decreased 22%
• Page views increased 54%

JFS had a limited budget, complex needs, and a short time frame. PPMG worked closely with the stakeholders through work sessions and presentations to provide a robust website, as well as a meaningful experience for both the JFS staff and the community that they serve.

View the live site here >

New Advert for Bluephone.com

BluePhone is a subscription service that provides online and phone support for consumers with computer and device problems. Perfectpixels was hired to create an advert spot to appear as a pre-roll for network webcasts. The objective was looking to create a fun take on their brand while representing the main issues BluePhone customers look to solve.

Our solution was to create a campy, fun and tongue-in-cheek set of characters accompanied with a voice over of an over-the-top announcer. The characters and scenes chosen were based on the personas of typical customers. Part of the advert was to create associated banners you can view here.

The Most Cynical Website So Far

Skittles.com takes its website with a far more realistic look at itself as an online entity than most other self-promotional product websites; inconsequential. The Skittles website is not really a site, but merely a portal to finding Skittles on other sites. The homepage and product pages are Wikipedia pages. The photos is a Flickr page, the videos section is a YouTube page, the Friends page is a Facebook group page, and the Chat page is a Twitter page.

Skittles is experimenting with the idea that an offline brand exists online elsewhere on other websites and not within its own branded confines. Its profound in a way with either a cynical look at itself, or a clever way to promote Skittles directly to where users may actually be talking about their product- not on skittles.com. Brilliant.