Photography has come a long way since its beginnings, as more than 250 million photos are uploaded per day to Facebook alone (source Facebook statistics). Smartphones have become so popular that even professional photographer Annie Liebovitz recommends the iPhone as the camera to buy:

“When friends ask famed photographer Annie Leibovitz what camera they should buy, she suggests the iPhone. Appearing on NBC’s new Rock Center news program, Leibovitz suggested the iPhone because it is ‘the snapshot camera of today’, saying it is ‘accessible and easy’” (source MacRumors).

The artistry of photography has also evolved significantly as photo editing applications are available for free or for pocket change, and are very easy to learn and use. You can see some stunning examples of how far you can really go with these applications on iPhone Art, a collaboration site dedicated to iPhone photography.

The following are my top 5 favorite photo apps, and while there are a lot of great applications to choose from, these are the ones I use the most. I generally use more than one application when I edit my photos as each app has something that another doesn’t have, or it’s easier to use on one than another. I also tend to buy most of the in-app purchases, which are inexpensive and I use them frequently.

Camera+ $1.99 USD
Best features: Everything. This is my favorite all-around application, it’s very easy to use and has a lot of choices. The features I probably use the most are Clarity (which sharpens the image) and Vibrant (which enhances the image’s colors), but I use a lot of the other filters as well. This is the app I go to first when editing my photos.

Adobe Photoshop Express Free
Best features: Straighten (fixes my crooked horizons) and Reduce Noise (gets rid of grainy speckles). It has a lot of other great functions and filters but those are what I use the most.

Snapseed $4.99 USD
Best features: Center Focus. This function allows you to choose any part of your photo to focus on, then you can adjust the radius and choose from a few different textures to work with. I’m also quite fond of the Grunge filter set.

Example of the Center Focus function, you can choose where you want to focus and adjust the radius, then add a variety of textures to the unfocused area. Source: my iPhone

Tiny Planet Photos $0.99 USD
Best features: I can only describe this by showing an example

Before and after using Tiny Planet Photos (photographer: me)

Photojojo external lenses (macro, telephoto, fisheye) $49.99 USD for all 3
Not an application, but these are external lenses that you can attach to your iPhone. They’re great for getting shots in better focus than what you can get with the stock camera or any of the applications I’ve tried, plus the fisheye is just plain cool. And not only are they reasonably priced, but they ship internationally which is a big plus for those of us who live outside of the United States. You can also buy the lenses separately for $20-25 USD each.

Photo courtesy of Photojojo

Some additional links of interest:

• Wired.com: How Smartphones Are Changing Photography: The Numbers Are In
• The Next Web: The Top 30 Best Photography Apps for iPhone
• Photojojo: 10 Tips to Make Your Phone Photos Amazing; Plus, Our New Phoneography Blog!
• Mashable: How to Master Smartphone Photography

A good deal of companies maintain a Facebook page as part of their web presence, for marketing, hiring new employees, even for customer support. It’s an excellent medium to interact with users, both to release information quickly as well as to receive feedback. The following are a few tips on how to increase your user interaction:

Make your profile noticeable, this is what your audience sees first

Your profile pic

“Profile pictures matter. The site feature that attracted most attention on Klout, Facebook and StumbleUpon was the profile photo.” Source Mashable: Here’s How People Look at Your Facebook Profile — Literally

Who you know

“Who you know gets noticed. Even if for no better reason than their placement on the page, people do look at those little thumbnails of friends that appear on many social profiles. You can see this in the data from the Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Klout profiles.” Source Mashable: Here’s How People Look at Your Facebook Profile — Literally

Posting for the most effective user engagement

Posting images gets more responses

“Post Effectiveness by Post Type: In a surprising turn, image posts are more engaging then video or text for Facebook as measured by the number of fan responses, likes and shares. Image posts received 22% more engagement than video posts and 54% more engagement than text posts. Video was a solid secondary favorite with more than 27% more engagement than text posts.”  Source Social Media Modus: Effective Facebook Posts: Study Based on 42.6 Million Fans

Post during the week, in the morning

According to the last cited source, Friday is the most popular day to post, and before noon is the time you’ll get the most responses. Source Social Media Modus: Effective Facebook Posts: Study Based on 42.6 Million Fans

The next source disagrees on the day, but the general consensus across the board is that weekends are the least effective time to post, and more active posters generate more attention.

• “On Wednesdays, fan engagement is 8% above average.
• Posting one to two times per day produces 40% higher user engagement.
• Posting one to four times per week produces 71% higher user engagement.”

Source Social Media Today: Writing Effective Facebook Posts

Post about what’s popular in the news

In 2011, the top ten global topics being discussed on Facebook were:

1. Death of Osama bin Laden
2. Packers win the Super Bowl
3. Casey Anthony found not guilty
4. Charlie Sheen
5. Death of Steve Jobs
6. The Royal Wedding
7. Death of Amy Winehouse
8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
9. Military operations begin in Libya
10. Hurricane Irene

Source Mashable: Facebook Reveals 2011′s Most-Popular Status Trends

Controversy generates interest and engagement

Entertainment: “Take This Lollipop”, an interactive video about being cyberstalked, is the fastest growing Facebook app to date. Source All Facebook: Facebook’s Fastest Growing App Is Take This Lollipop

Social media uprisings: “Social media has not only been at the core of major protest stories, but drove some of 2011′s biggest news, from Occupy Wall Street to the Arab Spring.” Source Mashable: 9 Social Media Uprisings That Sought to Change the World in 2011

Guerilla tactics

“Social media marketing is a huge avenue for guerrilla marketers because of the high ROI possibilities. Ogilvy Tunisia recently did a campaign for Axe Body Spray through which guys can be ‘in a relationship’ with literally, hundreds of girls. When other users clicked on that status, they were taken to the Axe app, where they too make their friends jealous. The application spread virally through the facebook newsfeed and likes.” Source Creative Guerrilla Marketing: AXE Creates Jealousy with new Facebook Social Campaign App

What do you think?

The future of social media and its effectiveness in reaching out to a particular audience is an incredibly dynamic platform at present, and predictions on trends for coming years get fuzzier and fuzzier as technology begins to exceed the human ability to keep up. User generated content has been taking over corporate-owned media at an exceeding rate, crossing over borders, cultures, and languages. There are no longer six degrees of separation as users around the world continue to connect with each other, and the number continues to shrink. “Facebook users average 3.74 degrees of separation” Source BBC News: Facebook users average 3.74 degrees of separation

What will 2012 and beyond bring to the digital world how we interact through social media? How far can we really go?

As outlined in our last blog entry, we reviewed over twenty automotive and motorcycle mobile websites in Europe and the US. We also had a look at the native apps (available through the app store) that these manufacturers provided. An interesting trend has emerged – the move away from native app towards more capable mobile websites.

Mobile websites versus Desktop websites
It seems that fewer and fewer manufacturers are prepared to tolerate their users muddling through the full desktop version of their websites while using mobile phones. This is the case even though some of these sites perform quite well on the small screen (if you count the need to zoom and scroll horizontally apart). Instead, most provide bespoke sites for mobile browsers. In general these mobile web sites can be described as scaled downversions of the desktop website in terms of content, functionality and needless to say physical dimension.

Mobile web versus Native App
Inevitably the question is asked whether or not to create a sumptuous mobile app whose content can be curated and that can perform morequickly. The answer all depends on what you need it to do. Unless you have to rely on functionality that only an app can perform then the answer seems to be – build a mobile website. Mobile websites generally cost less to build, need less specialized skills to put together and are quicker to market.

Arguably they also offer greater convenience and accessibility for users. There is no need to go to app store, find the correct app, download it and remember where you put it when you want to open it again. With a mobile website all one has to do is to open the browser, enter the manufacturer’s name or desired query into the search box and hey presto! A simple process that users complete hundreds of times a week for other search queries. The likelihood of visiting the site is increased. It’s the old adage; go to where your customers are.

The Hybrid, The Web App
If only things were that simple. We now see the emergence if the web app. This is where the user is asked (via a popup message) to add the webpage to the phone’s home screen.  This is performed via the browser’s options menu. Instantaneously an appropriately branded new icon is created on the home screen. Upon clicking on the icon the browser is launched once again and your page is displayed (see Audi USA).

The advantage of this trend is manifold. For the user there is faster access to what might be one of their favorite sites. The brand gets a more permanent presence on the user’s home screen and any sales made through the site are not subject to hefty commission from the owner of the app store. Browser controls at the bottom of the screen can be removed, freeing up more screen real estate and giving the opportunity for an even more attractive or app like presentation.

We are now seeing fixed tab bars appearing at the bottom of the screen, behind which the content of the page will move. The tab bar typically contains three to five buttons where icons are accompanied by a label, as in the classic app experience. Landscape is achieved by fluid design and smart use of background colors.

What are your thoughts? Is this a trend that you have observed, are we heading in the right direction?

Visual Design and Navigation

In terms of visual design approach, sites fall into two broad categories. There are the experiential sites and there are the more functional sites (Audi USA/Vespa and Renault/VW respectively). The former presents larger, more lavish imagery whereas the latter focuses more on presenting comprehensive and obvious navigation that aims to get the user to where they want to go as soon as possible.

Sites now offer dynamic navigation brought to you by the wonders of HTML5 and CSS 3. This is where additional navigation options are shown in neatly expanding or collapsing accordions or where navigation appears almost immediately from the sides of the page.

Typical Content

The best sites have spent time thinking about what users are realistically going to do or expect to do while using their phone given screen size and other important factors. This seems to boil down to information on new products, finding dealers and displaying current campaigns. This fits well with what we know about these customers from speaking car owners and bikers at our workplace. Many treat browsing new products as mental oxygen while commuting or during lunchtime, as if it were feeding their aspirations of new ownership. Others appreciate being able to complete the rudimentary tasks of finding a dealer’s number for assistance or to action a sales enquiry.

Some sites additionally offer to book a test drive or to download a brochure.  Although most sites refuse the temptation of including servicing or other technical info about product repair or support. Never did we observe a car configurator or other more complicated functionality. This is left to the premise if the native app.

Pages dedicated to product information concentrate on presenting a gallery of the product alongside selected brochureware information. Inevitably there are varying levels of technical specification, the emphasis being on miles per gallon (km/l) and emissions for obvious reasons. Finally, we observed some nice but rare implementations of interactive 360 views of the automobile (VW).

The find-a-dealer function usually appears a distinct option in the main navigation or consistently at the bottom of every page for easy access. There is a split of sites that incorporate a map into their own pages and those that launch the map application on the device itself. The advantage of the former is a more curated content set. Typically we see a ‘near me’ function and also a search field for more general enquiries. The best examples show maps within the site itself that immediately point out the location of dealers around you.

Finally at the bottom of any given webpage we see options to view the full site, legal terms and social media options that typically cover Facebook, twitter and YouTube.

Next time we will talk about Mobile websites versus Desktop websites, Mobile web versus Native App and The Hybrid, The Web App.

For more insight on mobile web or app design please contact Craig.Stuart@mediacatalyst.com

MediaCatalyst
Herengracht 182
1016 BR
Amsterdam
The Netherlands

MediaCatalyst has been working with Sony’s in-house development team at London Studios since 2009, joining in a dynamic partnership to develop a web presence to showcase such titles as Killzone 2 and SingStar, plus involvement with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s Digital Comics in 2008. Because MediaCatalyst is known for expertise in integrating game data with a live site, the two entities began working together on their DanceStar Party game site.

DanceStar Party is much like SingStar, the hugely successful karaoke series initially launched in 2004, the new addition to the family being focused on dance rather than singing. The user can use a hand-held controller in conjunction with the web cam to mirror moves shown on the screen and be scored on personal performance, plus be able to compete with others across the digital platform.

One of the problems that Sony first faced after launching their SingStar series was that the game was only known to people who actually played it, it needed to be visible to non-players as well in order to create awareness of the product. Together with MediaCatalyst, the two companies worked to build a place where users could create their own community by uploading videos and snapshots of their performances. This gave the gamers the opportunity to showcase their own goods for their own friends and family via the site, Facebook, Twitter, or other social media sites. And we all know that gamers love to show off their mad skillz!

The benefits of integrating game data into a web presence:

• User generated content within the gaming industry can greatly increase the interactivity of the game’s site, which in turn increases playtime within the game
• Allowing users to post their own experiences that they’ve had within the game creates loyalty for the product
• The social media aspect of sharing user generated content creates the desire for others to join in the experience of the game and share their own experiences

You can check out the new DanceStar Party site here. We are confident this site has achieved its ambition with a positive response from the gaming community, especially the DanceStar Party players.

Let us know what you think of the site, and be sure to check out some of the uploads from the users, absolutely priceless!!

From the beginning of the project I was aware that close collaboration within the MediaCatalyst team (IA, UX design, technical strategists and strategists) as well as with the client would be essential for success. This process began from the onset with intensive interactive workshops and regular working ideation sessions throughout the project. This was an essential part of building a solid working foundation for all areas of the site, such as UX and CMS. There were many areas to be explored as part of a team, with everyone working in the same direction. During the design phase we encountered 3 main design challenges, working with large amounts of CMS content, showcasing images on the homepage and presenting contextual information throughout the site.

How to present CMS managed images

The World Press Photo site is very large, containing the Winners Gallery, The Archive, Events and even a bookstore. This means large amounts of content needed to be CMS managed and showcased, which was a substantial design challenge as all of these images needed to be presented to scale. To deal with this we turned this into a design feature by top right aligning all images across the site, giving a uniformed stylized system for images to be presented and help deliver the brand message across other digital media.

Showcasing winning images on the homepage

Images need space to tell their story and housed in a way which best showcases them. With this in mind we devised concepts for this, such as on the homepage, we gave the hero images as much room as we could by dropping the top navigation below the fold and replacing with a menu button. This gives a fully immersive experience to the user when first entering the site, providing World Press Photo a campaign section with flexibility to showcase winning images.

Contextual information throughout the site

We looked at the site though the eyes of the viewer, asking ourselves “how can I be in inspired and explore more information”. So we treated the homepage similar to a blog where contextual information is viewed contextually in a design hierarchy system starting with the larger contextual modules and going down to the regular contextual modules. Both the larger and regular modules are treated as communications modules where copy call outs can be placed. This system stems across the site giving a uniformed contextual modular communications system which is also CMS managed.

When a new site goes live with a new user experience it often takes time for users to get used to. However, we are confident this site has achieved its ambition with a positive response from the photojournalism community and fans of World Press Photo. Furthermore, the site has received recognition from and the likes of Creative Review and the BBC, both giving positive comments. We hope you agree World Press Photo now has a great platform to promote photojournalists and continue to Inspire Understanding.

Please let us know your thoughts and comments on the new site.

Why we chose Drupal 7 for World Press Photo

To start off we’ll explain why we went for Drupal 7 instead of Drupal 6 or another CMS system like for instance Joomla, Typo 3 or EZ-publish. While all previously mentioned CMS systems would have been suitable candidates we went for Drupal because of its advanced out of the box capabilities such as custom content types, taxonomy and the pretty much default installed Views module which when combined allows for the creation of highly customised sites. On top of that Drupal also has a very grown up user community and a huge user contributed code repository. Drupal also has an advanced theming system which allows the flexibility to skin pages on any level required and enables front-end developers to work with the modules that back-end developers have written.

The choice between Drupal 6 and 7 was partly made by the client who preferred to use a system that could be used for the next couple of years without the need for upgrading to a new version within that time. Other reasons for using Drupal 7 where the clean user interface, core and theming improvements.

Building a strong, visually appealing and multimedia heavy site using Drupal 7

Our information architects and designers layed out a very visually appealing design for visitors to experience the photos and understand the stories behind them. One of the main aspects of the concept was to give users a different browsing experience which would allow them to learn more about the photos, the photojournalists and the organisation. While traditional navigation is certainly present, users can navigate the site through contextual modules and the photos as well. This manner of navigation allows users to not think too much about structure, but more about what attracts their attention, what do I want to view or read about next, instead of what does the organisation show me next.

Putting World Press Photo in the driving seat

To be able to create this kind of flexibility we needed to create functionality within the Drupal 7 CMS system that allows the client to create contextual modules and let them place these throughout the entire site. Currently pretty much all pages contain placeholders where large, medium or small contextual modules can be selected to show up. Now this type of navigation only works when there is an healthy amount of interesting information available which is already the case with the contest, multimedia and Joop Swart Masterclass galleries, but World Press Photo was able to take it one step further by adding more contextual information to the site about the background of the contest, photographers and their stories. They are able to do this because of flexible content pages that they can create which consist of a text area as well as multiple placeholders for the contextual modules.

So much flexibility and control usually comes with a price no?

Giving this amount of flexibility to a client usually comes with a price. All content that is put in needs to be of high quality, be maintained and too much flexibility can sometimes break the site. The last item we have restricted as much as possible, the client can create pretty much everything using default Drupal 7 functionality but the first two potential issues cannot be enforced technically. Fortunately, World Press Photo has a dedicated content management team who are able to create and maintain quality content, see the proof on the new site!

How the contextual modules work

The way this system works is by using a combination of a custom content type in combination with several views and panels. The content type is added to relevant content types (e.g. pages, photos, etc.) via a node reference and allows for storage of text, images and multimedia while the view takes the NID as context and then fetches the content type using a relation that matches on the node reference field name. This view is then places in a panel pane for display. Of course these fields are only outputted when there are modules found connected to the current NID. In some cases multiple views need to be made when multiple module placeholders exist on the same page.

The last missing link are the Drupal .tpl.php templates which we use to enforce a certain output (small, medium, large but also call to action, image, multimedia, etc). For each version and size its layout is determined using these templates.

Additional complexities

Driving Drupal 7 has been a great deal of fun, but of course a project is not complete unless there are some complexities to work with.

The early state of development of the new Drupal 7 release

When we chose to go with the latest and greatest version of Drupal 7 we assumed that 6 months lead-time would be sufficient for the most important modules to get a stable Drupal 7 release out. Besides that 6 months is a pretty long time, they all had pledged to be ready for Drupal 7 when it came out. Unfortunately the reality was quite different which made clear that all those pledges (“#D7CX: I pledge that [module name] will have a full Drupal 7 release on the day that Drupal 7 is released”) were worth absolutely nothing! Still today – 7 months later – many modules have no stable Drupal 7 release, so lesson learned for module builders (I hope), don’t pledge what you cannot deliver.

Drupal 7 Excel data migration

World Press Photo has got thousands of images and multimedia files. For this release we had to incorporate all relevant files for the 2011 contest which are still a couple of hundred photos and multimedia files as well as the same amount of contextual information. Because of the amount of content we decided to use the Drupal 7 Migrate module. Our input format was Microsoft Excel which by default is not supported so we needed to build this in ourselves. While doing this we noticed that the module is very advanced on importing from an existing database but less advanced and documented on importing from CSV or XML. Both formats would have been a great starting point to use for the Excel version. While this did add some additional development time to the project, we got it to work sufficiently enough for our needs and in the end this did save the client many hours of content input. Thanks for such a great module guys, if you want to work with us to get the Excel reader into the modules core (or extras module ) just drop us a line.

Multiple technical teams working on the same site

For the realisation of this website MediaCatalyst partnered with Belgium based ONE agency for most of the technical implementation while MediaCatalyst was in the technical lead of the project. In addition to that we also worked with Revolt, a company who has built a very advanced multimedia production tool and also delivered the front-end player for this to World Press Photo which was then integrated into the site. Both very professional and pleasant partners but of course when three parties work on the same site this does need to be managed which can take up quite some time for the tech lead.

Client Drupal 7 experiences?

World Press Photo are very happy with Drupal 7 and its advanced capabilities which allowed us to create such an advanced website with all the options that they desired. They also appreciate the clean user-interface which they could easily use without any prior instructions, something that was certainly not the case with their prior CMS (Mambo). The only downside at the moment is that there is no search interface in the admin interface to find content easier (they need to mange hundreds of content items which will grow out soon to thousands) as well as that it is not possible to select which fields to show in the content overview page (they prefer to show a system name instead of the title). Both missing items can be added with custom development and or modules, but it is functionality that would make any content editor’s life much easier and really should be there by default.

Your Drupal 7 experiences?

So what are your (or your clients) experiences with Drupal 7, let us know your findings about Drupal and or this article!

In 2009 World Press Photo asked MediaCatalyst to identify how their site could be improved to support their evolving user needs, making it accessible and useful for a variety of audiences.

www.worldpressphoto.org before the redesign

World Press Photo wanted to see photography treated as the main focus of the user experience. For World Press Photo, photography is core content, not just an important element in visual design.

Creating a new digital strategy:

MediaCatalyst began with a deep exploration of their existing digital presence, extensive research and interactive stakeholder workshops with collaborative ideation sessions. The objective of this collaborative process was to first understand the goals and needs of the organization and of their primary target audience groups whilst also identifying emerging new users, key trends and areas of opportunity. This process also opened a dialogue with World Press Photo to share ideas for adopting online technologies to improve tools, applications and services.

The outcome of the workshops led to a highly tailored and concrete new global digital strategy for World Press Photo, redefining their future online strategy and developing a new online presence, with a focus on using several channels including social media. MediaCatalyst also strategically partnered as technical lead to development agency One Agency to build and implement the new website.

A gallery page of the new World Press Photo site

Strategic design:

To deliver a truly integrated approach to World Press Photo’s request, MediaCatalyst used a strategic design methodology: a holistic approach which looks at the complete brand and all user touchpoints both off- and online. For this, we also involved sister agency StrawberryFrog Amsterdam – experts at branding and marketing communications – to work as one integrated team to develop the overall brand. This has involved an ongoing and highly collaborative way of working with World Press Photo, further strengthening the strategic partnership.

The design team working on the World Press Photo user and brand experience is reflective of MediaCatalyst’s multi-disciplinary approach to the strategic design of business. Business, brand, user experience, creative and technical strategists and designers have contributed to the effort.

The launch of the website is only the beginning of the new strategy for World Press Photo. There will be new and exciting developments in the coming months, further evolving World Press Photo’s brand presence.

In the weeks ahead, MediaCatalyst will continue to publish additional blog posts and articles about the World Press Photo experience from the perspective of several of our team experts, from the beginning and moving forward into the future.

One of the early and simplest aspirations of those in the design community who feel that design can and should play a role in the formation and realization of business strategy is that design not simply be used in a tactical, ad hoc fashion…later in the process of bringing a product to market…just to add aesthetics and make something look good. Over the years there have been enough market success stories to allow for this expanded role. Many companies would even describe themselves as design-driven. This has expanded the role of the designer and design strategist.

However, when design has succeeded in making its way up the strategy ladder to have a more front-end role, communication between business strategists and design strategists has not always been the smoothest. Separate left and right brains have not always easily been able to produce a shared creativity. The language is not the same. The thinking is not the same.

I have always advocated that the best-case scenario driving innovation by design is the designer as design thinker who can move up the process to become a business thinker and naturally integrate the two. Why? Because the designer cannot just designthink but can also designdo and is in a great position to translate the strategy into action by producing a design. I like the designer as strategic designer!

With business realizing the benefits of good design business schools around the world have been introducing innovative new programs to teach design thinking as a valuable compliment to traditional analytical business thinking. Much of the design thinking portfolio of approaches are essentially the approaches to forming strategy for good design; it is the innovation by design process exploring the fuzzy front end. Many of the program attendees are non-designers. They are business students getting a business education…not designers getting a design education.

This begs the question…is there a danger that the business thinker who is learning to be a design thinker in a business school will take over design strategy from the designers once again excluding designers from a leadership role in the strategy process, because now they believe they can do it themselves, and once more use designers tactically to, for instance, pretty up my quantitative personas, make a prototype, make a strategy presentation look good …and then hand off to a design team for full development.

MediaCatalyst attended the Creative Company Conference in Haarlem this week and had the opportunity to pose this question to one of the presenter’s, Banny Banerjee from Stanford’s d.school. I asked him if this worried him. In short, Banny, who himself is originally a designer, agreed that this was a concern. Design agencies have successfully used the design thinking movement to market this more strategic approach to design. However, it is not a time to rest on our laurels. Design agencies need to continue to innovate the services and level of consultancy that they provide business. Design agencies don’t own creativity but they do have the ability to take an idea and make it real. Showing the real value of naturally integrating strategy and design through creativity is the future.  I will close with this link to a snippet of an interview with Mark Parker, designer and CEO (of Nike).

One aspect of the design of business upon which I would love to see such discussion is the role of design in the creation of competitive advantage. I have always believed that design thinking is most powerful when paired successfully with the elements of business thinking and that this happy marriage can provide great momentum to the process of producing market innovations. Market innovations that provide competitive advantage often exhibit one of its key characteristics…they differentiate the business from competitors in the market place. I believe it is the responsibility of business designers to understand how to achieve this and to continually innovate the tools and methods of design to achieve this. It is core component of the strategy formation process and an important area in which the role of designers and design managers can move upstream. It is strategic design.

In the design innovation process insights drive ideas and the deeper the understanding generated by your insights the more plentiful, inspiring and diverse your ideas are likely to be. Design research methods that engage with customers and users are the principal way that designers gain the insights that reveal unmet needs. Customer personas are an important by-product of such research and provide a lens through which empathic designers can imagine and validate ideas and concepts aimed at satisfying their goals and needs. However, I would like to suggest a desk research tool that builds on the primary research and resultant personas and can help focus in on potential unmet needs and which are not provided by competitors. The goal of this tool is to identify competitive white space that a business might occupy and which can result in differentiated products and services. The tool is called the competitor customer experience audit.

What makes the audit powerful is that it enables an expert experiential critique of leading competitor offerings through the eyes of the business’s customers.  This technique goes beyond a basic usability evaluation or feature inventory, and instead focuses on how well competitors satisfy the goals and motivations unique to each of the personas that comprise the business’s target customer base.  For example, it’s useful for a brokerage firm to know which of its competitors offer complex options trading, however it’s far more valuable to know which (if any) competitors provide a complex options trading experience that meets the needs of its target personas.  The persona perspective allows for a deeper investigation and analysis in that it provides many more benchmarks upon which to evaluate the success or not of the competitors’ experience in satisfying target customer goals. The end result is the uncovering of experience-driven competitive white space that can be used to feed idea generation, concept development, feature definition and prioritization.

The competitor experience audit benefits business by:

• Helping to bridge competitive gaps, gain competitive advantage, and differentiate the user experience
• Contributing to efforts to define business and design strategy
• Identifying important features and opportunities for innovation
• Informing design teams tasked with defining and designing the “experience” aspects of the site
• Contributing to creative brief and design principles
• Establishing competitive benchmarks

In conclusion, from a customer-centered design and marketing point of view, market-based practices must be developed that inform the strategy formation process. The systematic production of design information and intelligence is essential to support the creation and iteration of a unified and integrated customer experience manifested in a wide range of products, services, environments, and communications, both analog and digital. When businesses contemplate new digital business initiatives, they are often confronted with analyzing an overwhelming amount of customer and competitor research.  As a result, there are seemingly an endless variety of directions a company can design their customer experiences via digital channels.  The problem is not a lack of data – it’s applying that data to the right initiatives – the ones that successfully align customer needs with business objectives.  The competitor customer experience audit provides the focused insights that can drive innovation.

Image source: http://www.different-shirts.de/