Kizmo

Announced several months ago (and previously mentioned on this blog), Microsoft’s new interface for the XBox, to be released Nov. 19, brings major changes to the previous “Blades” interface. More details are out now, and Ars Technica has a good preview of what’s to come.

It’s been years since MTV played anything remotely resembling “Music Television” via their broadcast. For those of us who remember the time you could actually turn on the TV and watch music videos, we may finally have the alternative we’ve been waiting for. MTV has put its entire catalog of music videos online at MTVMusic.com. The interface is clean, if basic. In a nice change from the panic that content owners have perpetuated over rigid control of their content, MTV has even made the videos embeddable, so you can put them up on your own page. It’s nice to see the media company get back to their original brand: actual music television (um, on the Web).

The site even includes my favorite example of early metadata visualization, Pop-up Video. Check out a classic or two.

Apple products

Sometimes I can be a little late to the party, just the other day it dawned on me, Apple’s marketing campaign is ingenious. Let’s start with Apple.com. A clean, easy to read and navigate. Very open, lots of white space but still a lot of content. The color palette is white and gray which allow pictures and icons to take focus. Apple’s products are similar, cleanly designed, simple and effective user interface understated color. Now lets look at the ad campaign they started a few years back Mac vs. PC. All white, simple and clear statements. There is no clutter to their ads. Everything Apple does follows the same rules, whether it’s an ad, a product or their website. Cohesion, consistent and constant. That has helped shape Apple into a brand that consumers will pay for, respect and continue to follow even when they make mistakes.

First Google announced its energy plan to save the planet. Now, Google is continuing its philanthropic activities for a very different cause: wicked beer googling! It’s tough to meet the needs of a target audience that includes just about everyone, but way to stay in tune with the real concerns!

I loaded Ubiquity other day. As Tony mentioned when we discussed it in the office, Ubiquity is like Quicksilver, but for Firefox. However, the similarities end after you set your keyboard shortcut to access the functionality. Ubiquity is all about function, being able to quick look up, add, translate or send anything that is within the Firefox browser window. It ties in well with gmail but not with other mail apps. So if someone sends you a name of a restaurant, you can quickly look up a review in Yelp, map it, and set a date in your calendar. I think the concept is great, the functionality is getting there, it will be better when it is integrated into the computer system. For people who love using Quicksilver, Im pretty sure they will love using this Firefox add-on too.

This could be a Richard Estes print…. but it needs more reflections. He did do an airport series that is very cool.

These young women waiting for a cab at a nearby hotel served as a testament to the value of viral marketing in its most subtle form. And made me laugh.

With the same shoes, jacket, and purse in different colors, they pulled off looking eerily coordinated without crossing the faux pas of exact duplication.

I laughed at my friends and I for the same thing a few weeks ago. Affinity marketing is a hot topic these days, and occurences like this one are a reminder how powerful influence can be when it comes from those most similar to yourself or to whom you relate closely. The execution of this influence is so ingrained in those affected it goes unnoticed, though is often extremely clear to outsiders.

On Tuesday, Peter Merholz announced that four years after its original publication, their report, “Leveraging Business Value: How ROI Changes User Experience”, is now available for free (previously, it cost $395). As Peter notes, despite being four years old, many of their conclusions are as valid now as they were four years ago. Check it out (PDF).

The act of buying a BART ticket is, well, difficult. I will save that for another longer, more studied entry. But I need to comment on my experience from the other day of getting a change for one dollar so that I could get on MUNI.

The default screen for buying tickets has green type in the bottom right corner that says: “Press “H” to get change”, so I put my dollar bill in the slot. Then, without reading the screen again, pressed the “H” button. And my dollar gets spit out. I’m very confused, so I read the screen again, to determine that I had pushed the correct button, then put my money again, and went to push the “H” button. But this time I read the screen. Now in red type it said, “To cancel press this button” pointing to the “H” button. So the same button I used to get change, now becomes the cancel button. How confusing. Changing the action of a button in the middle of a transaction (and on top of that, making it cancel out the process) is not a consistent interaction model. There are at least six other buttons to choose from that could become the cancel button. Why not dedicate one of them to always being the cancel button?

Something fun for Friday: Test your “color IQ” with this test.

(via Todd Warfel)