images from www.cesweb.org

The magnitude of the CES show is stunning: 150k attendees striding through the bright lights of Vegas.  CES is a still a showcase event for big consumer brands, so it’s fun to see the displays and the shows put on by the likes of Samsung and Intel and LG and Nokia and Sharp.  It’s also a lesson in business, watching companies both big and small and how they interact with their customers.  One common thread, people on booth duty are working hard and selling hard all day long.

There were definitely a variety of stories at the show.  Connected cars got big press (see here and here), but connected cars still seem more hype then use.  Once you get past a phone, tunes and a GPS, how much more connected do you really want to be?  At least as a driver.  As always there were plenty of connected fridges and washing machines, but again – beyond smart energy management, what I want from my dryer is dry clothes.  Plenty of tablet makers were there as well, and Android was featured prominently in devices and in tablets.

Not to mention the goofier side of CES – Biebs and the TOSY dancing robot (the Bie-bot?),  Android powered ski googles,  Kinect powered skateboard.  Here’s a nice summary of the weird.

All that aside, the main story this year was the TV – there are so many things are happening on the TV right now.

First of all, the advancements in core TV technology are continuing unabated.  The improvements in display technology are phenomenal.   There were some stunning TVs, like the Samsung Super OLED TV.  The display was gorgeous, and was so thin (0.3 in) that people were taking pictures of the side perspective.

Secondly, there was a lot of 3D.

images from www.cesweb.org

3D theaters, 3D monitors, 3D games, 3D glasses.  The amount of 3D content in the world is slowly growing.  ESPN was doing a live broadcast of 3D boxing from the CES show floor.  One thing that was really interesting were 3D games – 3D Fruit Ninja with gesture recognition takes on a whole new meaning.  You truly can become a Ninja!

And there was TV connectivity.  Google TV was being demo’d by many of the majors (Samsung, LG, Sony, Vizio, …), and had a big presence with their partnership with chip maker Marvell – read about that here.  The Android market was prominently featured in the demos.  Plus, Google TV’s content search interface is sweet – they make it easy to find streaming content from Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, etc. and call it up in a few clicks (or even gestures).

Are TV apps the new frontier?  Samsung thinks so – with both Google TV and their own aggressive development program and Javascript SDK for their bada OS.  Google thinks so, with their partnership with Marvell and many big TV vendors, as well as their push with YouTube to change the nature of content production, not to mention ownership of Motorola (think set top boxes).  Does Apple think so?  Rumors are strongly yes:. late Jan could be the real Apple TV announcement.

So let’s face it: TV apps are the new frontier.

images from www.cesweb.org

Re-imagine your living room when gesture and voice recognition are common place.  There is most definitely going to be a new wave of innovation that will marry great new content, lots of it in 3D, using gestures and speech for control.   Apps that are going to ride that wave need to figure out how to fill up not just the screen, but the entire living room.

So here’s to 2012.  It’s going to be an interesting year.

December marks the 3rd anniversary of everybody’s favorite bootstrapped company – that’s right, Rocket Farm.  We celebrated in style at the Blarney Stone in Dorchester, with an official Rocket Farm cake (below).

Happy Rocket Farm

Three years is a milestone, for lots of different reasons.  We’ve survived.  Not just survived three years in a down economy, but thrived, designing and building apps for other companies.  Confidentiality restricts what we can talk about, but some quick highlights:

• we’ve built apps for 3 of the companies listed on the US Fortune 500
• we’ve built apps for 4 of the companies listed on the World’s largest 500 corporations

Not to mention the countless startups that we’ve helped with apps and SDKs.  Highlights that we’re especially proud of include writing Motally’s iOS SDK before they were acquired by Nokia and doing the SDKs for iOS and Android for AdMeld prior to their acquisition by Google.  We like to think we helped make those acquisitions happen :)

But what I’m most proud of is the team we’ve built.  We’ve assembled in the Boston area a world class set of mobile enthusiasts and stars, a team that has tackled incredibly hard strategy, design and implementation challenges on iOS and Android and lived to talk about it.  A team that delivers every day with fun, enthusiasm and incredible hard work.  Thanks team!

Rocket Farm looks forward to a fantastic 2012, to the chance to build on the vision of what we’ve started.  ‘Connected everywhere’ opens up a pretty big landscape.  We aim to shape that landscape … for everyone.

It’s a sad day, a profound day.  And we are grateful.

I think the keys to Apple and Jobs’ success were the following:

• extraordinary vision – the vision of tying iPods to iTunes and then extending iTunes to being the distribution mechanism for all things digital. But that vision wasn’t just at the level of far reaching distribution mechanisms. Mossberg also points out that decisions even at the hardware level – such as getting rid of removable batteries – were visionary in their own right.
• relentless attention to product perfection. The products that Apple created are stylish, well built throughout with amazing attention to the elements that go into great design. Apple apps (clock, mail, etc) are just as carefully designed as the iPhone itself. And the relentless attention extends to quality. The OS is more reliable. The body is my MacBook is more reliable. Solid state drives that started in the AirBook and now will make their way to more and more places. Want to read more on this aspect of vision: read this.
• relentless attention to the customers. Despite intuitive design and relentless quality, systems still fail. And when things fail the company goes to great measures to fix the problems. Mossberg wisely points out that people often ignore the Apple retail chain as a key element of Job’s legacy. But how central it is. Anytime you have a problem with Apple products there is absolutely one place you know you can go to get it addressed. Try that with any other electronic product brought through the BestBuys or Amazons of the world. They fix, repair, replace, and sell, all from an incredibly helpful and enthusiastic staff. Visit any Apple store and you can see the results – is there another retail chain in any segment of any industry that has as much buzz, and as many people buzzing, as an Apple retail store? I think not. They sell you great products, but they have very physically made the statement that they stand by their products, creating a virtuous circle that will only grow.

Two other great articles that sum of the enormity of the Jobs/Apple turnaround are here and here. The articles both trace the return of Jobs with only 3 months cash left in the bank, and how things went from there.

But probably is the most enduring legacy right now is the business that Rocket Farm is in. We make apps. 3 years ago there was no such notion. Some quick stats on what’s happened since Apple introduced the iPhone and then expanded on the iTunes distribution network to bring the app market to life.

Some quick stats:
- the app market is expected to be $35 billion market by 2015 (Source: Forbes)
- 450,000 apps in the Apple marketplace, 250k plus apps in Android market
- 50 billion overall app downloads expected in 2012 (Source: Chetan Sharma Consulting)

Mobile changes everything. New platform. New way of users experiencing the world around them. And, as the Carpenter’s so ably said, “we’ve on just begun …” Go ahead, watch it – I dare you to get through the whole thing.

Check it out here: http://mattgemmell.com/2011/07/22/apps-vs-the-web

There are so many good points in here that it’s really a must read for anyone who needs to make a decision that considers both user needs as well as the technology choice and investment strategy that is best suited for your organization.

The arguments back and forth are many, and this article does a thorough job of listing out reasons why web apps are different from native apps from the user’s perspective.  A lot of it has to do with how close the app is running on the platform – the device.  Web apps, by nature of running in the browser, are several degrees removed from the platform. You have to do all the work through the browser, which is itself an app.  So even with the benefits of HTML5 (local storage, a canvas, etc.), you still don’t get full access to the underlying platform and you still find an app adorned with aspects of the browser experience (forward, back and all the other menus of the browser itself).

To quote:

Apps feel designed. They feel tailored, and special. They’re lean-back, on-the-go, crafted, targeted things. The immediate extension of these properties is how at home they feel. We’ve all been pointing our fingers and hissing for years at the app that just wasn’t at home on our platform. An intruder in our midst, often from that worst of all possible worlds, cross-platform.

It’s a great consideration when picking a technology strategy.  The argument frequently gets made that web apps benefit from faster release cycles, no need from approval, and so forth.  But those arguments need to be supplemented by the arguments that largely consider things from a user’s point of view, and that point of view has to be a primary focus.  It’s not the only focus, but all toO often gets ignored when companies are committing dollars to a mobile strategy.

If you haven’t heard Jim speak, you should. If you haven’t been to the brewery for a tasting night, you should. And if you can find a way to combine the two, well, that’s cash money.

Jim Koch in his element

Jim is the consummate entrepreneur and listening to his story should be inspiration for anyone who is doing a startup. His passion for creating a great company, for redoing an industry, and for changing how things are done is infectious. And he tells a great story. Jim’s story about early days, about promoting his beer, bar by bar, bartender by bartender, is a good one.

What’s interesting to me is watching how Sam Adams has grown through the years. They used to have 1 beer, their Lager. Twenty-something years later, check out how many different beers they cover (note: age verification required. hint: pretend you’re at least 21). You might not like all of their beers, but Sam Adams has such a wide variety that I bet you find something you like. The Sam Adams brand has something for everyone – and they manage to wrap all their brews under the Sam Adams banner in a way that should be studied by app makers, in particular game studios.

What’s also fun about Sam Adams is how much they encourage innovation. Sam Adams is continually bringing out out new varieties of beer, and they are incredibly active in encouraging brewers to try new things. They encourage the community to innovate with them: Sam runs the Longshot contest every year and the winner gets their home brew produced and packaged by the company. And they experiment constantly with new ingredients and new processes.  The result: an entrepreneurial organization that has experimentation at its core.

All of which brings us back to Infinium. With Infinium, they created a new process and a new brew that had never been done before. Notable quote from Jim Koch that night? “I’m with Steve Jobs, who is famous for saying ‘consumers don’t know what they want’”. Of course that line caught my attention. And my takeaway? In the context of Sam Adams, they created Infinium not because consumers were crying for it, but because they wanted to do something crazy and notable. Sometimes you just have to put stuff out there because it’s in your head and no-one else is going to think of it. Which is completely relevant for app makers. Nobody asked for Angry Birds or Cut the Rope. Just some crazy developers who had an idea that took hold of their heads and they put it out there.

One final note, did you know Sam Adams also encourages entrepreneurship outside their company by running a unique program called Brewing the American Dream, which funds entrepreneurs in the food, beverage, and hospitality industry through small loans?  Sam works with the non-profit ACCION USA, which is a leading micro-lender, to make loans from $500 to $25,000 to lower and moderate-income entrepreneurs, and complements that with organized seminars, mentoring and speed coaching events.  Way to go Sam!

So let’s raise one to innovators. I’m raising a Winter Lager. What’s your choice?

84 Hamilton

Our new hosts are CityVoter, client and friend to the startup. The story goes like this. One day, after looking at a potential sublet space, we happened to bump into Josh Walker from CityVoter at Starbucks. “What up?”, sez Josh. “Looking for space”, sez us. “You should check out our space”, sez Josh. “Can we bring our friends?”, sez us. “Sure!”, sez Josh. And so, our Mini-incubator (or Mincubator as it’s commonly known), consisting of Rocket Farm, Noteflight, and MedicalRecords.com, moved, en-masse, from LocaModa down the street to CityVoter.

The lessons here? 2 biggies.

1) As an entrepreneur you have to dream for what you want and never stop asking. When LocaModa informed us (Rocket Farm, NoteFlight, and MedicalRecords.com) that they were expanding and needed their space back we set a goal: “let’s keep all three companies together and find another place where we can keep the magic going.” All three companies have been hosted, gratis, by LocaModa for almost 2 years. Thanks LocaModa, we wrote back in August. And the Mincubator has been great. We (RocketFarm) are working with Noteflight on a project to bring their amazing music technology to the iPad; we brainstorm all the time with Ace from MedicalRecords. So keeping the companies together was obvious. Bumping into Josh from CityVoter was happenstance. Asking about space was not! You have to dream about what you want and never stop asking and trying for it. Determination rules all in startup land.

2) The second lesson is the miracle of Mincubators. Stephen Randall from LocaModa blessed us with internet and a ceiling, and a collaborative environment for almost 2 years. Now Josh Walker from CityVoter comes along and does the same thing. Is this a characteristic of Dace portfolio companies? Not sure. But we are sure that we love it. It’s amazing as a startup to have that kind of sponsorship from bigger companies.

Word is that the Mincubator concept is active and growing throughout Cambridge and the Boston area. David Cancel from Performable is rumored to be interviewing startups to help fill out their new space in Central Sq. From the intrepid Dan Stevenson from T3 Advisors: “As far as mini-incubators, here is a list of companies and/or clients that really support the ecosystem by helping give start ups a home:”

• Viximo in Cambridge
• Conduit (now Zynga)
• Wistia in Somerville/Davis Square
• PerkStreet in Boston
• BzzAgent in Boston
• CustomMade in Cambridge
• Emo labs

Good job companies!

Be determined. Live the Golden Rule of helping others.

Know of any other Mincubators in the area?  Add them below.

HP Slate vs iPad

The Slate, which will run the Windows 7 operating system and will be limited to Wi-Fi access only, is targeted almost exclusively to business professionals. Though its not likely to remake the mobile market or be an “iPad/iPhone killer,” the Slate does provide an interesting perspective on the future of mobile computing.

The Slate is most definitely more laptop than iPhone. It contains several features that are not included in Apple devices such as a USB port and Adobe Flash capability. Will this turn out to be a seismic shift in the tablet industry toward the functionality we are used to in our laptops and desktops?

Probably not, but it does represent a sample of the pent-up demand for mobile computing. Between the Apple, Android and Slate devices, the room for growth in the mobile market is clear.  A big questions remains, how each of these new devices is going to attack the market, are they going after laptops or are they considered still a completely new class of device.

According to Nielsen, in Q4 2009, 21 percent of American wireless subscribers had a smartphone, up 19 percent from the previous quarter. On average, Americans download 22 apps per device.

The Slate may not replace the iPad or even make a dent in those who already own iPhones or Androids, but its fair to say we have now moved beyond the initial phase of mobile computing. The big-bang is over and the fact that H-P thinks it can still carve a niche out of this market is very encouraging for developers.

This comes back to some earlier posts: the web is dead and how iPad is transforming the news. Other consumption-based industries are going to find more and more places where they are again relevant in the new tablet world (read this and this blog for further validation).

I came across this interview with Sam Farber, OXO Founder, the other day. He spoke of Human-Centered Designs (HCD) and how his number one guiding philosophy was Universal Design: A product’s function should be immediately apparent, and anyone should be able to use it.

This really got me thinking about design principles in general. Is universal design the same as User-Centered Design (UCD)? Not quite. When Sam Farber speaks of HCD, the design principles are applicable to everyday tangible products from Oxo’s kitchen products to the iPhone to the door handle on your front door. Think industrial design.

In the last 2 decades UCD has been practiced by Designers and Product Managers alike to design desktop, web and mobile -based software to solve business and user problems. UCD is applicable to all of the intangible technology-based products that focus on user needs to drive design solutions and improve efficiency.

Now, in the last 6 years, we’ve seen a movement or more like a deluge social-centered web and mobile products: Facebook and Yelp started in 2004, Twitter in 2006, and then the first iPhone was introduced in early 2007 which provided the vehicle for the revolutionary iTunes App Store. Since opening its doors in July, 2008, the store provides 250,000+ mobile apps and counting.

Almost every new mobile app or website created these days has some element of ‘social’. The use of social interactions as a rule rather than an exception are used as THE main driver for user adoption and traffic.  So, are there Social-Centered Design principles (SCD) to help guide these new products? The term excited me even if it didn’t exist (yet).

The characteristics that make up the term are out there, which brings up some other questions:

• Are Social Centered Design (SCD) principles the same or different from user-centered design (UCD) or human-centered design principles (HCD)?

• What are SCD principles and what should a Designer think about when designing products with social drivers?

At Rocket Farm Studios, every App we’ve designed to date has either a social element or social at its core. Here’s what we think about and what I think every Designer and Product Manger alike should incorporate when designing for social-centered products.

Top 5 Social-Centered Design (SCD) Principles:

1. Community

As people, it’s in our DNA to feel like we belong to part of a greater whole. People want to feel like they are part of a community with like minded people or opposite minded people passionate about the same subject. Apps should create a…

• Sense of belonging and ownership
• Enable sense of community
• Community driven and regulated content

2. Integration

More so than ever with the onset of mobile products and technology, products need to be designed as part of people’s daily ritual. Gone are the days when we only need to worry about how users interact with your product when sitting at home or at work in front of a computer. Your product needs to be integrated with the person’s lifestyle and everyday life allowing them to use it anywhere at anytime.

• Integrate with the user’s greater social network: Easily connect and share information with their other social applications (Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.)
• Multi-platform and Multimodal. Need to consider how it is used across multiple platforms and not just the web or just mobile.
  • Web, mobile, desktop, TV, easily ‘mashable’ (see Wikipedia’s definition of Web2.0)

3. Emotional

Unlike enterprise or productivity applications, social applications have an emotional aspect to it. UCD is more about making sure you’re solving user needs and problems. Social-centered products need to incite and anticipate emotional responses. It needs to be fun, bring delight, satisfaction or laughter to the user.

• For example, ‘Watching silly YouTube videos makes me laugh.’  ‘I love seeing what my friends’ are doing.’ ‘I like sharing my ideas with others in the community.’
• Remember, people choose to use social media products. People have to use enterprise and productivity applications in order to complete tasks.

4. Incentives

It’s the Me generation. For every one idea out there, it is competing with a dozen more just like it. Users will always ask ‘What’s in it for me?’ and those incentives and values need to be very clear for the user.

• What’s the reward for users to interact with the product? To create an account? To check-in? To provide content (photos, video, audio, personal statements, etc.)? To return to the site or app?
• Provide a clear accomplishments, recognition, and rewards system. Tap into the emotions of the user and make them feel special for contributing and using your app.
  • Possible incentives are: Badging (making them ‘top dog’). To save time and money. To giveaway money. To be recognized in the community as an expert. To win or be the best.
• Provide personalization. People want to be part of a community, but still be unique.
  • Personal identity: avatars, screen name, branding
  • Personal sections/pages: ‘I want my own stuff.’

5. Contributions

People no longer only consume (pull) information from web and mobile products, they can and want to contribute (push) information, interactions, and opinions out to the community. One of the key successes to a social-centered product is its ability to acquire and aggregate quality user generated content and interactions in volume. The act and goal of contributing need to easy and clear for the user. How can your users contribute?

• Think distribution not centralization. Provide the push AND pull of information.
• Sharing as a means for distribution: email to friend, download, subscribe, invite, add to other social networks
• Contributing: ratings, reviews, favorites, check-ins, likes, dislikes, wikis, comments, tags
• Conversations: comments and replies
• 360 feedback: consumer to owner interactions

Conclusion

I don’t know what the future holds for web and mobile designs. What I do know, is designing social drivers into products will become an essential part of all designs. It’s not ‘Should we include social drivers into our product?’, but ‘How and what do we include?’.

The evolution of UCD is happening before our eyes to include social-centered design principles. Start integrating SCD into your design thinking today.

References

• Oxo’s Favorite Mistakes
• What is User-Centered Design?
• LukeW: Ideation and Design: Social Web Application Design