Apps are software programs that have been created for a specific purpose. We use them to play games, to get directions, to communicate, to socialize, and to organize. Apps provide us with wanted distractions and useful information in real time. Apps meet users where they are.

The success of a brand is no longer directly related to its products’ pricing, entertaining advertisements, or celebrity endorsements. With today’s technology, customers can quickly and easily find cheaper and better solutions to what you are offering. Customers no longer want the best product for the best cost, they want more information, more interaction, and a relationship with the brand. They want an experience.

Here at KA+A we believe that the sum of all customer interactions with your brand is the user experience. To be successful, brands have to break the traditional molds of marketing and sales and focus on creating an experience that extends into their consumer’s lifestyle.

Lifestyle apps are created around activities that people use to express who they are, what they do, and what interests them.

A few brands have made this transformation by creating lifestyle apps. Lifestyle apps are created around activities that people use to express who they are, what they do, and what interests them. Through this channel, brands are able to provide their customers with the specialized interaction they desire. These apps go beyond the scope of a company’s products and services and provide relevant and timely information on activities their customers are engaged in.

Ultimately, customers are thankful for a brand’s vested interest in who they are, and in turn become more loyal to the company’s products and services. There are many channels a brand can take to create a great user experience. However, if an app sounds like the right solution for you, be sure to take a note from brands like Clorox, Northface, and AAA who have made my life a little bit easier.

Clorox: My Stain
I am one of those people who can’t go an hour without spilling something on myself. No matter how hard I try I always seem to ruin more clothes than I can save, but not any more! Clorox created the app MyStain which is completely dedicated to prescribing how to remove the toughest stains.

The app is searchable by type of stain, such as, red wine, egg, or mildew, and then it provides users with tips and tricks on how to get the stain out while they are on-the-go or at home. Clorox’s suggestions aren’t just restricted to their products, but rather, they include helpful hints like when to use soap and water over club soda. This app has been extremely helpful in preventing the continued loss of more clothing in my wardrobe.

Northface: Trailhead and The Snow Report
Northface has two great apps for outdoor enthusiasts. The first, Trailhead, is searchable for paths and trails based on your current location. Users can narrow down their options by selecting an activity such as biking or hiking or by selecting the amount of time they have to finish a route. The best part is that the app tracks progress, speed, and elevation allowing users to share their trip with friends via Twitter or Facebook.

The second app, The Snow Report, focuses on a more specific community, such as; skiers, snowboarders, bobsledders, etc. This app provides users with snow conditions, weather updates and advisories, maps of trails, and even comes with push notifications so at any time they can see where their friends are, find their favorite skiing spot, and get notified when there is a fresh blanket of powder in the mountains.

AAA: TripTik Mobile
As a AAA member I am always looking at what discounts I can get when traveling. However, I was very excited to find that they created an app that is useful throughout my entire trip. AAA’s app TripTik provides users with the most up to date gas prices, maps, restaurant and attraction locations, and lodging details based on their current location. Now when I take a road trip not only can I find the best gas prices but I can also pinpoint must see attractions. Who doesn’t want to see the largest ball of twine in the world?

The Evolution of QR Codes
Quick Response Codes (QR codes) are two-dimensional barcodes that can deliver large amounts of information while taking up a small amount of print space. QR codes can be made up of many different types of data and can be downloaded at a high-speed by a QR reader. Originally these codes were used in the automotive industry for manufacturing, but due to their ability to store and deliver a message in a fast and concise manner, QR codes quickly found purchase in a variety of industries.

Much like its predecessors, Microsoft Tags and Jagtags, QR codes are easily read by mobile devices, which use the camera as the reader. The contents of the tag typically direct the viewer to a URL where they can find more information on a product, service, topic, or issue. Since QR code software is open source, multiple companies can create QR codes, and theoretically each company’s reader should be able to read any QR code. This is an advantage that alternative solutions lack.

Best Buy was one of the first companies to take advantage of the QR code, using it to amplify the awareness and promotion of their products. They added QR codes to the fact tags, which instantly catered to shoppers’ desire to use their mobile phone in their purchasing decisions. Shoppers use the QR Reader on their smartphone to get detailed information about the product they are considering; they can read consumer reviews, compare benefits and features of similar products, and quickly share information with a friend.

Uses
Best Buy employs just one of the many ways retailers and businesses can use QR codes to market their company, product, or service.

• Depth: QR codes allow you to share a larger amount of information about your product or service. By placing them on advertisements, packaging, or business cards you are able to provide details that you’d otherwise have to limit.
• Discovery: Let QR codes help people discover something. Cities, parks, and museums are placing QR codes throughout their streets, paths, and exhibits allowing people to take self-guided tours.
• Simplicity: It doesn’t have to be complicated. Adapting to the paperless trend, event organizers are now using QR codes to serve as paperless tickets.
• Surprise: Think in new and innovative ways to share your QR code and end message. One of the most innovative ad campaigns I have ever seen using QR codes is the press freedom campaign, The Voice, which was developed by Reporters without Borders.

Marketing your QR Codes
When creating a QR code strategy, be sure to consider each customer touch point. Identify where your target market exists and the best way to communicate with them. Placement is key, so understand your audience’s mindset when they scan your code and how you can tailor your message to meet them where they already are.

Lastly, before you launch any marketing campaign that includes the use of QR codes, make sure to check out this list of issues that could make your campaign fail. 1 out of 4 QR code campaigns fail, and you want to make sure the experience your deliver doesn’t result in an error message.

What does it take to be a successful consultant?
If you find that you are asking yourself this question there may be a simple answer. Change the way you engage others.

I know. Easier said than done, but exactly how do you change the way you engage others? First, you have to understand that you have your own personal experiences, opinions, and goals. You are not meant to fit into anyone else’s perception of these, just as they are not meant to fit into yours. Next, you have to surrender your perception of control, predictability, and consistency and learn to value the inclusion of others.

Achieving Positive Results
We can all agree that the primary goal of every organization is to achieve positive results. Peter Block, author of The Flawless Consulting Fieldbook and Companion, believes organizations that are focused on delivering these positive results through consulting require three factors to be successful:

• The ability to give original and unique responses to customers.
• The ability to create new knowledge and successfully apply it to products and processes.
• The ability to create a workplace in which each person chooses accountability for making the entire enterprise successful.

Enabling Accountability
To ensure your organization has the capacity to fulfill these factors, it will require that each employee makes the business their own. This may sound simple at first, but you can’t just go out and demand your employees to pour their heart and soul into their job (maybe their tears and sweat, but not their heart and soul). Nor can you force them to take accountability for the good and the bad. So, how do make this change?

You must enable each person to make this type of decision on a personal level. Block also references three factors he believes are required to achieve a workplace where each person chooses, supports and sustains their own accountability:

• You must engage people in radically different ways.
• You must forsake utilitarian thinking about change in favor of inviting engagement as the means of creating change.
• You must deliberately let loose the reins of power and commit to a broad and deep distribution of business literacy and accountability throughout the workplace.

“Sustainable change would require us to give up programmatic intervention and engage the will, freedom, and intelligence of the people with whom we worked.”

This model needs to be accepted and implemented internally, before you can be successful with your clients externally. If you looked around right now, would you find that your successful peers have already chosen to live and work within this model? Are those who aren’t as successful still pointing the blame in other directions? Can you identify which you are?

Creating a Win
As a consultant you may find that you are stuck in this mindset where you are consistently viewing your interactions with others as a means to reach your end goal. By doing this you fail to create a situation that allows each person involved on a project to accept accountability for its success or failure. Block states that, the key question to ask yourself is not “How do I get my way?” but is instead “How do we employ our freedom to work together and create a worthwhile future?’” To be a successful consultant and employee you need the freedom to question the meaning, choices, and accountability of your own decisions, as well as others. You also have to enable others to use their freedom to challenge you in the same manner.

“The question is not ‘How do I get my way’ but is ‘How do we employ our freedom to work together and create a worthwhile future?’”

Consulting isn’t easy. Engagement isn’t easy. But, rather than trying to manipulate a situation to achieve your desired outcome, remain open to exploring unpredicted territory. I know that taking this approach in your consulting could make coming to a positive result a lengthy and difficult process. There may be times when you feel like you’ve lost more than you won. However, you will be wildly more successful and satisfied in your job, in your company, and with your clients if you invite others to explore the opportunities for success with you. As Block summarizes:

“Engagement is about inclusion. It is an affirmation of faith in the capacity of each individual in the organization to contribute toward positive change.”

Yesterday morning I attended the monthly Linking Indy Women event. (A great event if you’ve never been!) I had the extreme pleasure of listening to Nicole Misencik from WTHR share her professional experience. Nicole is an active user of both Twitter and Facebook professionally and personally. As she walked us through the benefits and challenges she faces in having such an active social media presence a common theme presented itself in the Q&A:

How do I find what I am actually looking for?

Many of us enjoy using Twitter and find it to be an additional bonus to our professional lives, and many of us also find it to be an additional task that seems unmanageable to stay on-top-of throughout the day. Either way, we can all agree that unless you are able to dedicate 90% of your day to following your Twitter stream it’s hard to keep up with all the information flying around.

If you’re like me, then you often find yourself logging on and skimming the mass of tweets that have piled up over the last 10 minuets, last hour, or last day – searching for relevant information worthy of your time. I haven’t given up on trying to manage it, but I knew I needed a more effective way to take advantage of all that information within the small time frames I’m available. I read a great article on Macworld.com by David Chartier that has given me perspective and a strategy to do what it is I am really trying to accomplish – find, share, and respond to interesting relevant content.

I’d suggest checking out the article, How and Why to Search Twitter, in it’s entirety, but if you’re short on time here is quick overview:

Why To Search:
There are millions of Twitter users that are tweeting around the clock about anything and everything – it’s physically impossible to follow it all. With so much content passing in front of your eyes it’s important to take advantage of the search functionality within Twitter and additional applications that can help get you what you are looking for faster.

Where to start:
Use search.twitter.com as a starting point for basic searches like a name, company, product, feature, trendy topic, etc.

Hashtags – you can’t over use them enough. A # it makes it easier for everyone to follow the same conversation!

Incase you didn’t know: ”Twitter only provides access to a few days’ worth of archive.”

Don’t fear there are other ways to search for information that are farther back in history. For example, Google’s social media specific search engine Realtime allows you to find relevant information on Twitter and Facebook. Bing offers a similar solution, www.bing.com/social/, but with less depth into the past than Google.

Specific Searches:
Twitter allows users to search for information with the traditional “or” and, “and” functionality but it goes a step further in it’s advanced search features which you can access at search.twitter.com/advanced.

Search Tools:
Twitter’s Search Widget allows you to paste a customized code into your website that will return tweets on a specific topic you tell it to.

“For example, you could run a query like “yourproductname ” which will return happy tweets from users who mention your product.”

There are many additional apps like Twitterific that allow you to search and save your results to refer back to later. The article can give you a few more places to look pending on what your needs are.

Hootsuite is a great app for businesses that manage multiple accounts and need to keep tabs on searches and keywords.

The New York times recently featured an amazing infographic that offered great clarity into the rent vs. buy decision. On the cusp of turning 26, I’m still in the age of Big Questions (e.g. marriage, children, home), so found this particularly relevant.

But it wasn’t just relevancy that drew me to this infographic; it was the experience. Afterall, mortgage rates, rent, home cost, and property taxes aren’t the most scintillating of subjects. But with the sleek design of this calcualator, you can customize all these inputs, and the graph updates instantaneously, on the same page. No new windows pop up; no circle spinning as it loads. It’s dynamic, and you can see not just a pictorial version, but also the supporting data charts – all custom to your situation. The design is so clean, simple, and functional – that you almost don’t notice it. You expect it to work this way – why should it be any different? But the ability to take a complex equation, and make it immediately understood is no small feat. It’s the result of comprehension, constraint, and user-oriented design. It’s good design.

Experience it for yourself here.

JabuAfrica is a non-profit organization that is focused on financially and emotionally supporting grassroots organizations in Africa, that are dedicated to working with orphanages. The Castors have personally participated in a variety of these organizations as they have grown their family of five through adoption from Ethiopia, South Africa, and Kinshasa.

Branding
We began our process by solidifying the organization’s name, JabuAfrica, a seemingly perfect fit, as Jabu is an African term meaning to celebrate. We developed a visual identity that resonated with brand’s personality, placing the emphasis on Jabu the layout allowed us to subtly reference Africa by incorporating an image of the content in the negative space.

Website
The website was developed as the core external expression for all of JabuAfrica’s outreach. The homepage invites visitors to take time exploring the JabuAfrica story.

About Us
The about page allows visitors an inside look into the Castor’s personal experience and motivation to establish the non-profit organization. The clean and simple design gives JabuAfrica the platform to inform and educate visitors about their mission, and delivers and experience encouraging them to dive deeper into the site and get involved.

Gallery
We designed a photo gallery to house all the photography JabuAfrica has to share. Each photo snapped by one of the founders passes along first hand experience to visitors.

Blog
The blog allows JabuAfrica to share their history in a conversational way, and keep supporters abreast of the needs that exists in Africa and the opportunities to participate. You can follow JabuAfrica through their blog or on Facebook.

It was such a joy to work with JabuAfrica and further assist them on their journey; we look forward to watching the organization flourish in the years to come.

When using heuristics in user interface design, guiding a user to the “good enough” solution begins with providing the right set of solutions at the right time. Providing users with every possible action at once will impede their ability to make quick choices and leave them feeling confused and frustrated. When possible, it can be beneficial to limit the user’s choices to only those that are necessary by burying advanced tasks out of the way.

“Less is not necessarily more … Just enough is more.”

By providing users with the “good enough” solution, you’re empowering them to make decisions faster and more efficiently. Crafting a UI that does this is about more than just removing features and UI elements. As designer Milton Glaser said, “Less is not necessarily more … Just enough is more.” Good UI design provides users with no more and no less than what is required to elicit the appropriate action or reaction. Achieving the proper balance will make a UI more intuitive and help guide users to find the “good enough” solution.

In his presentation, How Print Design is the Future of Interaction, Creative Director at Microsoft, Mike Kruzeniski posited that “The visual language of UI (user interface) has evolved from that standpoint: that it should evoke the familiar, analog experience of tools, buttons, knobs, and dials” but that moving forward we should look elsewhere for inspiration.

GarageBand for iPad uses many analog visuals to represent the UI

While skeuomorphs can be useful tools, they have become a crutch for Interaction Designers. We have been conditioned to design by replicating artifacts from life—pushing physicality into digital interaction and rebuilding our world inside of the computer.

“The public is more familiar with bad design than good design. It is, in effect, conditioned to prefer bad design, because that is what it lives with. The new becomes threatening, the old reassuring.”
Paul Rand (Design, Form, and Chaos)

Instead of a reliance on digital metaphors, designers should consider the concept of “information as UI”. Content is represented as it exists and is assumed to be interactive. We can click text or images without the need to create a simulated physical button or other skeuomorphic metaphor.

Kruzeniski has worked on Windows Phone 7 which makes good use of content as the UI

In a recent blog post, A Richer Canvas, Mark Boulton challenges designers to “Start designing from the content out, rather than the canvas in.” In Print Design, the page is the canvas which provides a constraint with which to design. On the web, content should be the constraint. But content can do more than just inform the UI, it can be the UI. The biggest takeaway from Kruzeniski’s talk this year at SXSW was that, as interaction designers, we must learn from the rich history of Print Design by practicing a restrained use of digital metaphors through a focus on content.

If you think Email is dead, let Doug Karr persuade you otherwise:

“There’s no better medium to carry a message like this than email. It’s exclusive, it’s private, and it’s classy. A blog is a great medium, but broadcasting to everyone puts the content in a different perspective, and wouldn’t be consumed or reacted to the same way.”

After launching in April, we were able to prove that there was an interest in our content. We gained several hundred subscribers and blew past industry average read rates. However, our design, although functional, wasn’t delivering the same exceptional experience that our content was. We turned to KA+A to remake our look and position our brand for success.

KA+A developed a brand mark that was sophisticated and city-chic, with a handwritten flair that creates a sense of intimacy and personality as well. A palette of colors were chosen to create a dynamic mark, which ultimately manifested in email templates of various hues that could be coordinated with the occasion and content being featured in IndySpectator.

Boldly shot panoramic photos of the city (taken by Joetography) set the stage for the website, which currently serves as a marketing & subscription platform. The site was designed to support the submission of tips from the readers, which have begun to fill the margins of the daily issues. The website is built on a flexible content management platform, optimized for mobile viewing.

We launched the new look and new venture on November 11, 2010 at the Ball & Biscuit to a packed house of subscribers, followers, and social media stars. New subscription rates more than tripled that month, and IndySpectator is taking its place in the Indianapolis media community.

Following the success of the reinvigorated IndySpectator, Jenni and I announced the launch of a new sister publication – Startup Spectator – a blog and newsletter that promotes the influx of startup activity in Indianapolis and the rest of Central Indiana, and features the culture and community that sustains it.

An idea that has been long forming in the minds of Indy’s hackers, founders, and investors, Startup Spectator was spurred on by Chris Baggott who was drawn to the IndySpectator format as a better approach to convey the culture, humanity, and brilliance of Indy startups that are boosting quality of life of our city. The platform for Startup Spectator includes a more intensive blog approach in addition to the signature email, and an aggressive social media effort to sate the tech appetites in our city. KA+A developed a brandmark that meshed nicely with the Spectator family of brands, and designed a complementary website and blog.

As the new year approaches, IndySpectator is looking forward to providing even more ways to discover Indy through new authors and approaches, rolling out Startup Spectator, and building an advertising platform across the two brands.

Subscription based font services seem to be the way to go these days, as predicted by Joe Farquharson, our resident font expert. Look for a “slight” refresh of our website in the next week as we transition to Typekit. I can’t wait.