I think it was about a year and a half ago when Adobe told me they were working on a then untitled online version of Photoshop. This week that project now called Photoshop Express finally launched. With Express you get a paired-down version of Photoshop with the basic photo editing tools like touch-up, red-eye reduction, saturation controls and cropping. Since it is an online tool you can upload the photos you need to work on to the 2GB of storage you get free with each account. I am not sure that I would ever really have a need for this but I know I am not the target for this product.

It is an interesting first step into creating a true online application. When you use it you feel like you are using an application and not a web site or web application. It will be interesting to see how this evolves with the upcoming releases of Air and Thermo.

For me Netflix has always felt like it was designed as a direct result of the Jakob Nielsen approach to Web design. It is clean and informational with no embelishments and no real design beyond the logo. It looks like their approach is changing today when they did a mild re-launched of their site that does include a slightly more designed look. It is mild but an interesting step to show that sites should be a balance of design and functionality.

Labels: Design and user experience, Site re-launch

Scion has launched a new microsite called Scion Speak that let's users create their own Scion coat of arms. This site continues to support Scion's positioning where they encourage buyers to customize their Scion to match their taste and personality. In this incarnation of the concept you create the coat of arms by choosing you creature, left and right elements, shield, shield icons, scroll and text. Once you have the look you like you can then use a paint can to color it all the way you want. You can then take your personal crest and use it for AIM icons, social network photos or even put on their cars.

I think the trend of letting users customize and create and extension of your brand is really smart. It takes the digital medium from a passive viewing experience into something that you invest your time and personality in which makes the brand personal and creates a connection.

Labels: Consumer generated content, Design and user experience, Digital culture, Exceptional experiences, Exceptional Flash, Site review

Some former co-workers of mine have found their way down to GSD&M in Austin and have created a cool new viral campaign for BMW called "Rampenfest" to launch the new 1 Series. The campaign centers around Jeff Schultz who traveled to Oberpfaffelbachen, Bavaria to film a documentary about a small village and their Rampenfest. What is Rampenfest? It’s just like Octoberfest except there is a a 454 meter-high ramp that will launch the 135i over the European landscape and across the Atlantic onto U.S. shores.

You can check out the trailer here, the filmmaker's blog here, become a fan on Facebook here and if you're 21, female and willing to email a picture of yourself to be voted Miss Ramp, you can enter here.

The full campaign and movie are coming soon so keep an eye on it because this looks to be very cool an one of the more effective viral launch campaigns out there.

Labels: Design and user experience, Digital culture, Exceptional creative, Viral

I noticed today that Yahoo! has abandoned their long time search format of the logo on the left and search field on the right for the Google format of the logo over the search field. I know they have been trying to shift search behavior back to their site but it seems like kind of a sell out to do it by mimicking the competition so closely.

Labels: Design and user experience

Agency sites are usually nothing to write home about. Leo Burnett is the only one that comes to mind. In this case the new site is for Publicis and Hal Riney. The twist for this site is front as center when you get to the site and see you can navigate it using a traditional mouse or your Web cam. For me the use of the Web cam as a navigational option saves the site because without it the experience isn't very memorable. The visual design is made up of the nav sitting over plumes of red fluid that flow in the direction you are moving through the site. Using the webcam takes a little getting used to but is fun to play with but after a little while the novelty wears off and you are left with a design and content that isn't as memorable as the interface.

This goes back to what I have said time and time again that technology and production techniques will never work s well or be as powerful as an idea. The reason why the Leo Burnett site is successful for me is that it has an interesting production technique BUT it is done through the black pencil that is their brand icon. This way the technique has a reason for being and isn't just cool for the sake of cool. This new site for Hal Riney lacks that concept and idea so the technique is asked to carry the weight and it just can't survive it.

Labels: Design and user experience, Exceptional Flash, Site review

Those of you who design for Flash and especially those of you who code in Actionscript should get your bookmarks ready because you are going to be in for a treat. My collaborator, resident Actionscript super guru and partner in crime Anthony Cintron has just started blogging at Cintron Codegasm. It is going to detail his insights and learnings from creating his unique and explorational work in Flash, Actionscript, Flex, Papervision and who knows what other technologies plus anything interesting he finds in the 100+ RSS feeds he reads everyday (he is insanely driven). So do yourself a favor and watch this blog because great things are coming.

Labels: Great resource

It is no surprise that since Microsoft launched Silverlight they have been struggling with adoption and finding a niche for the technology. I saw on article on Gizmondo today that was reporting that even Microsoft itself isn't investing in the technology as their Windows Mobile group just licensed Adobe's Flash Lite and Reader PDF formats. IS anyone out there developing in Silverlight and maybe be the one who can show me why I should care about this technology?

Labels: Digital culture

I am once again very excited to announce an innovative interactive experience for Sheraton hotels we create with Avenue A/Razorfish.

As a follow up to SheratonPlay.com and as part of our NCAA/March Madness sponsorship we have launched SheratonWave.com. The site lets you part part in the world's first virtual wave to celebrate March madness. Can can either upload a video clip or turn on your web cam and do the wave. Then tag it with your favorite school, city, or any keywords you can think of. Then you can search those keywords to create your own personal wave that you can embed into your personal blog or social media pages (facebook, myspace, etc.). To add the sense of competition we have also created a leaderboard to see which schools upload the most videos.

You can also see the online advertising cmapaign that will be running with the NCAA online partners; CSTV.com, CBSsportsline.com and NCAA.com, notably, on the streaming live feed of the tournament games and as a sponsor of the CSTV downloadable widget.

Visit SheratonWave.com, upload your video and join in the wave today!

Labels: Consumer generated content, Design and user experience, Exceptional Flash, Shameless self promotion, Viral

Looking for photography is not the highlight of any designer's day. I got a browser plug-in today that takes this process in an interesting new direction. It is called PicLens and it lets you search and see photos from sites like Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Flickr and others. This in itself isn't any great revelation but it integrates into these sites or works by itself and when launched it has a full screen 3D interface that displays the results like a long wall. You can move up and down the wall, zoom in on photos of interest or change it into a more traditional 2D viewer. It is all very slick and fairly addictive since you can move seamlessly between the sites and see what each term will return on each site.

The interesting thing that could develop here is the trend towards consuming content through browser that bypasses the portals all together. With this I can search Yahoo and Google without ever going through their home pages so the sites lose those ad impressions and that revenue. If the right application comes along and this develops into a main stream trend then the portals could be looking at having to rethink a decent part of their ad model.

No matter happens it is an interesting piece of technology that is an interesting idea starter how this could be used for client work in the future.

Labels: Great resource

If you are going to be here in New York City anytime between now and Mid May you should plan to check out the new exhibition at MOMA called Design and the Elastic Mind. The show is a survey of the latest developments in the design field focusing on designers' ability to grasp momentous changes in technology, science, and social mores. These are changes that will demand or reflect major adjustments in human behavior and convert them into objects and systems that people understand and use.

In addition to the show the site promoting this work is also a real standout with a unique interface design that doesn't compromise usability for cool factor. It was great to be able to experience something that celebrates design and uses it so well at every turn.

Labels: Great exhibition

If you are looking for something interesting and different to throw in the NetFlix list it is worth checking out the documentary 'My Kid Could Paint That'. It follows the rise to glory and fall from grace of four year old modern painter Marla Olmstead. I thought it was a very interesting exploration of the adults that surround Marla, what they may have done for fame and what goes on in the modern art world in general. It was released in only a small number of theaters and doesn't seem to be in big demand on NetFlix so if you get a chance throw it on the list and check it out.

Between the agencies and technology companies I have pitching me at work and the research I do for this blog I don't feel like I miss much. A friend of mine, who is just as up to speed on everything digital, sent me a link today and after seeing it we both felt like we had caught flat footed. We saw this, how polished it was and how thought out it was and couldn't stop saying - how did we miss this? This all gets even weirder when all the fuss is about a new browser called Flock.

This is like a cross platform Swiss Army knife of everything in your digital life and they are calling it a social network browser. It's broken down into three areas - Active, Share and Know. Active is the integration of things like Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube and RSS so you can access all of them from one place. Share centers around the ability to drag and drop photos and video to you friends and sites. Know will alert you to new emails, notifications, posts from your friends or your favorite sites update.

Right now there is only one extension called Me.dium which is an interesting take of social web browsing and and a real time map of the Internet where you can see what your friends and other people in the system are doing.

All of this can be overwhelming to people who do not consume this information but I am always bouncing from site to site, consuming content, looking for new content, and spending a lot of time trying to take it all in. So for me having all of this come to me in one place very appealing.

The browser is just at a 1.0 stage so it still very early in it's life cycle but even at this early stage you can see the huge potential of what this could become.

Labels: Design and user experience, Exceptional design, Great resource

I saw this today and thought it was really funny.