Project OrielEmbracing Change

Here are my rolled-up and somewhat summarized notes from the conference. Enjoy! -Peter

MAJOR THEMES FROM THE CONFERENCE

• Existing technologies (tablets, smartphones) will be adopted by a much broader audience this year.
• The iPad is getting far more attention than Android. Often Android devices are not even considered.
• Making your content/experience/application location aware (Location Based Services) is gaining momentum.
• There is a lot of interest in Gamification/Gameful approaches to products.
• QR codes were everywhere.

RANDOM NOTES OF POSSIBLE INTEREST

• The Like button is only 11 months old. (!)
• Ambient Location with automatic check-in’s is emerging. Ambient Location is location tracking such that automatic things can happen: your lights turn on when you get home, get an sms when you need to get off the bus, letting the boss know when you are running late, etc.
• The hyper-local approach seems to be morphing into hyper-personal
• QR Codes were used for contact info, liking on facebook, downloading apps, viewing promo web sites, on the backs of t-shirts, on business cards, etc. Once you know how it works, it is hard to *not* scan them.
• QR codes can be made here or you can read about them here.
• App development recommendation: go big or go home, and it is vital to have a solid well-organized back-end
• Users are much more aware of how much you support (or don’t support) new features. One app got a 3/5 rating in iTunes because they didn’t have retinal display graphics in their audio player … be ready to embrace upgrades without delay when new phones/software updates become available
• Check out Qwiki (be sure to turn your speakers on). I can’t help but think of StarTrek. Recommended use: search by name name to find out more info.
• WordPress powers 12% of the web
• Flipboard is moving towards an ad-based model. 31 employes, $0 revenue so far, VC ends at the end of the year. An iPhone app is in the works.
• People spend 3 billion hours a week playing video games; 10,000 hours by age 21 — essentially an entire 2nd education. Playing games produce: positive emotion, stronger relationships, meaning, accomplishment. Gamers spend 80% of their time failing, “work is more fun than fun.”
• Dropbox had a cost per acquisition (CPA) about $300 through google ads but the lifetime value (LTV) was only $99 so they switched to referrals with a 2-sided incentive program. They saw a sustained growth of 60% when they made this change.
• Engagement metrics from newest thinking to old-school: daily active users, time on site, frequency, customers, registered users, returning visitors, unique visitors, visits, page views, hits
• * Watch the smartphone and tablet penetration this year. Smartphones are in the early majority stage, tablets are still at the early adopters. 15 mill iPads sold in 2010, 28 mill predicted for 2011 (looks like 0.6mill iPad2′s sold in first 3 days)
• Google’s specific blue “was worth at least $80 million” – Paul Ray of Bing
• In tablet design: clarity trumps density, and buttons are a hack.
• There are two types of designers: Intuition based design and Data-driven design. The latter helps reduce arguments based on opinions but may lead you to a local-maxiumu … where the design is not optimal, but can’t get any better without whole-sale change or intuition.
• Video of 4 year-old on an iPad, “how did you learn how to do that?” “I’m just learning all these things from the screen”… for kids, all screens are touch screens.
• Favorite tools for designing: white board, paper prototypes, lots of gesturing, listening and translating jargon. created a gesture map.

TIPS FOR NEXT YEAR

• Pre-select sessions online (plancast, lanyrd, sxsw app), but paper may be easier when you are there
• Take pictures of things you want to remember but don’t want to write down or carry
• Wi-fi was really good except 10 minutes before major session times (keynotes), AT&T worked reasonably well for me
• Group text messages via GroupFlier worked great for coordinating meet-ups
• Have a team email list
• Make t-shirts with a QR code