Insights into User Experience Design

“Surprise” and “delight”: two words that are rarely associated with Microsoft. But that’s just what Microsoft did at the Mobile World Congress this past week in Barcelona. Well, the surprise part, at least.

Much has been made of David Carr’s NYT column this week, The Fall and Rise of Media, and it’s depiction of the end of a New York dominated by traditional powerhouse media publishers (“the large heaving engine of books, magazines and newspapers”) and the “bright young things” that are replacing them. It’s a phenomenon as fascinating to observe as it must be hand-wringing to endure.

When The Wall Street Journal launched its new website recently, it got almost everything right. Popular articles bubble up; related topics help readers go deep; rich media like videos, podcasts and slideshows attract a broader audience. And users are given the tools they need to share and engage. In short, the site does what all newspaper — and other content — sites are scrambling to do: It tries to meet the needs of its connected, social users who have upended how news content is distributed and consumed. The only problem with the new WSJ.com is what it isn't. It doesn't look, feel, or taste like The Wall Street Journal we’ve known for years. For all its faults, the old site, endearingly clunky and flat, instantly communicated the Journal's gravitas and authority — its style.  The new site could be NYTimes.com or CNET or CNN (it actually feels like a combination of all three). WSJ.com is simply one of many now; that's not the differentiator that will attract a new audience willing to pay for content.

Bing
By now you've probably heard that Microsoft has pulled out all the stops to go head-to-head with Google on search. Is Bing better than Google search? Many folks think so. But when people don't know the difference between a browser and a search engine, the question is will they switch? Time will tell.

Google Chrome OS
A few weeks ago Google baffled the world by announcing a lightweight open-source operating system initially optimized to run on netbooks. There's bound to be confusion here between Google's other open-source OS, Android. The product isn't out yet, but speculation has run wild on the Internet. One thing is for sure though: Google will rely more on data than humans for the design.

Adobe Flash Catalyst
Flash Catalyst is a tool for creating rich interactive rapid prototypes without coding. Currently in beta, the software has the potential to break away from the pack with its seamless integration with other Adobe products like Photoshop and Flash. We see this being a powerful tool for both our internal teams and our client's in-house teams.

TweetMeme
Have you come across a "retweet" button lately? They're cropping up everywhere from blogs to news sites to b2b corporate sites. TweetMeme is the service behind this. As you've probably guessed the button publishes the link to your Twitter account. All the links are then totaled and categorized on TweetMeme.com. As Twitter continues to gain momentum as a viable business tool, this service has huge potential for helping your content reach the right audience.