Weekly Highlights

Sorry about the silence. But here they are again - the Weekly Highlights.

Create Flash Without Knowing Any..
Jumpeye Components helps the non-designer create sleek flash transitions and use flash components at a very reasonable price (considering the cost of hiring a designer to do it for you). If you ever need to build something flash-y yourself.. this is a great solution.

Great Promotional Site
It takes a little while until you get what it's all about - but when you do, it's an entertaining and well executed promotional site for a major brand. It's nice to see clients go beyond the straight launch sitelets once in a while.

Spock Yourself
Are you on Spock.com? It's the new people search engine and is getting hit hard after its launch - 300 to 400 page hits are an unexpected, but very positive result for them. Spock picks up random data about you from social networks, Web sites and other sources and consolidates it all into search results.

HBO Voyeur
It's been all over the Web and it's somewhere between cool and disturbing. Do you like to watch? HBO Voyeur.

Virgin America
Very cool blogpost over at boing boing on the launch of the new Virgin America fleet. Makes you wanna fly..

Weekly Highlights

Here's the weekly dump:

Microsoft Surface
Check out PC 2.0 - Microsoft's surface, an intuitive touch-screen system.

Widget Box
Widgets are the latest and greatest. Clients request them, user love them.. if they're useful. Add them to your personalized google home page or your blog.. whatever the heart desires - Widgetbox has it.

Leo and Lisa
An impressive, recent theatre play with Kevin Spacey that examines the story around... Leo and Lisa. Truly a gem.

Encyclopedia of Life
“When completed, http://www.eol.org will serve as a global biodiversity tool, providing scientists, policymakers, students, and citizens information they need to discover and protect the planet and encourage learning and conservation.”


20 Great Nike Commercials
Check out the Nike campaigns... found at Parlayer.

Kylie is back - HM Loves Kylie
The new HM campaign, HM loves Kylie, featuring Kylie Minogue. Nice execution, great pictures.

A Word on Navigation

Site navigation is one of the core parts of every website. Sufficient time should be spent determining what's appropriate for the audience you're trying to reach. Some of the most important questions to ask, answer and then consider during the inital phase of the site design are:
- Is the site B2B or B2C?
- How many products or services are offered?
- Is it an e-commerce site?
- If the site is not for e-commerce, what's its goal?
- How does a user reach the site's goal? (Example: Learn-Buy-Checkout)
- How can Search Engine Optimization be ensured?

Once these questions are answered, potential type(s) of navigation and the ideal combination of them should be reviewed. Here are some examples of good solid executions (looking mainly at: labeling, ease-of-use and clarity)

Primary navigation:
Volkswagen
Rolex

Primary navigation and sub nav:
Acura
Mini USA
Amazon
Whirlpool

Left/Assisted/Faceted navigation:
Dell
Home Depot
eBay

Innovative navigation:
Usage-based: Navigate your way and organize the site navigation in a way that helps you find what you're looking for - an approach more companies should explore: Virgin

Purely innovative, great concept and visuals, but not that easy to navigate (BUT neat background music): Metropolis.

Intuitive, alphabet-based flash navigation on this Mercedes UK micro site.

Great integration of products into navigation on the Wrangler Europe site.

A helpful penguin in the bottom right helps users through the initial steps in the Red Universe, while more conventional navigation is also featured on this site.

For further reading and thinking, have a look at 'Where Am I?' on A List Apart.

Weekly Highlights

Here we go...

Each Nation Has Its Favortie Web 2.0 Tool
Adweek ran an interesting article - according to them, different nations prefer different Web 2.0 tools. The Germans love Second Life, the Japanese are all about Twitter, North America obviously lives and breathes Facebook.. have a read on Adweek.

Good, Nerdy Stuff at AdAge
AdAge has published the Digital Fact Pact. Dive in - you'll learn a bunch.

Heineken
Heineken is running a cross-media UEFA Cup-specific campaign - check out the TV spots on the campaign website and see how the world enjoys Heineken while watching soccer.. sweet spots - even if you're not into soccer.

Boo.com
A pre-dot-com-boom site (which crashed when things went sour in '99) tries a comeback. Check out the history and have a look at the new site. Success? We will see..

Jaiku
Meet Jaiku, Twitter's older brother. It's basically Twitter functionality with syncronized feeds and icons added to it. You're either Twitter, or you're Jaiku - it doesn't really matter as long as you have a way to tell the world what you're up to every second of every day. It's a way to make every second of your life meaningful and find an audience for it. Pretty strange. Pretty sad. The good thing? Most jaiku-ers update their feed with their real-life activities...

Beautifully Flawed

'Doll Face', an animation by Andrew Huang, is the portrait of many things - the influence of television on society, the need to be 'like her', immitation instead of innovation, the consequences of living a lie... an amazing piece of art.

Digg's Digital Boston Tea Party

Interesting story on Forbes about Digg's attempt to stop users from posting cracked HD-DVD encryption keys - I doubt anyone foresaw this user reaction..

Weekly Highlights

Sorry about the missed week - things were a little hectic. Here they are for last week and this week:

Audi TT
Very well executed flash micro site for the 2008 Audi TT - of note are the navigation that remind me of wireframe flows and the 'Build Your Own' section with an intuitive selection.

Rolex
Rolex created a new collection of watches and launched them on their site just in time for Baselworld. Beautiful watches, amazing video footage, worth dreaming about..

Volkswagen
VW launched a new site for North America, pushing the Jetta, Beetle and Rabbit looks, leasing deals, and interesting 'Compare-o-tron'-comparisons to competitor cars like the Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla. Also of note - the navigation that reminds me of the cassette radio in my first Golf 3...

This American Life
I've heard comments from 'interesting' and 'hilarious' to 'surprising' and 'scary'... personally, I find This American Life to be an interesting look into the US society, offering unique stories of mostly unknown, everyday people. Worth a look or listen.

HP
An interesting approach - HP partners with Vera Wang for 'Work in Style', a campaign that pushes an HP notebook. This is one of the very few approaches that focuses on attracting female computer buyers. On this section of the HP site, Vera Wang, her work and fashion itself take center stage, while the HP notebook is supporting this look into Vera Wang's work. This is a smart and fairly new move for any of the computer giants to partner with a great name to reach female customers (as opposed to men, hipsters, gamers, or families).

Webby Awards Announced

Enjoy the latest and greatest of our industry at the 2007 Webby Awards line-up. Impressive if you're looking for inspiration, glorious, if you're one of the nominees.

Fifth Portfolio Night

www.ihaveanidea.org just announced the next round of Portfolio Nights on May 3rd 2007. Interesting twist this year - they signed hard rock band Burn Back to headline Portfolio Night 5.

Weekly Highlights

This week - all time favorites! The sites I refer to the most when brainstorming, for best-in-class examples, for great site experiences etc.

Mercedes Benz UK
Great execution on this Mercedes Benz site - copy, design, animation.. the concepts are great and break the touch-feel barrier. One of the best sites I've seen.

Albertsons
A smart, helpful, well-organized micro site called Albertsons Everyday Rhythms makes planning and preparing meals for the whole family easier.

Whirlpool
The Whirlpool site offers inspiration for every type of page, every type of content and smart content disclosure. From tutorials to hot spots and product details - every item is well thought through and never overwhelming.

The Home Depot
Given the breadth of product choices, The Home Depot has managed to create a solid flow, robust search functionality and smart search results that are even helpful when no results can be found.

Rolex
The brand is strong and established and sales are seemingly no concern. The site ozes aspiration, inspiration and beauty and shows what's possible for motion, flash, video, photo shoots, 3D and copy. Enjoy the world of Rolex.

Google Maps Go Personal

You can now create a 'personalized, annotated, customized map' with Google Maps. This includes adding photos and videos or sharing maps.
Read more on the O'Reilly Radar.

Weekly Highlights

Audi
Very slick, flash-based Audi TT micro site.

Get the Glass
Great micro site with a fun game - all based on the 'Got Milk' campaign

What is it about facebook? Everybody is joining and I find myself spending my lunch hour adding, writing, posting notes, adding to my profile and browsing other people's pictures. SO web 2.0, SO hip, SO strange...

Red

Red, an interactive agency has launched their beta site, including the Red Universe - a strange place, but fun to play around in. Chat, fight, explore.. check it out when you have 10 minutes.

Weekly Highlights

The weekly highlights...

Saab
Saab celebrates 60 years with an interesting execution of an interactive timeline.

Imagini
What is your visual DNA? Check it out at Imagini

MediaMaster
Neat idea...
1. Sign up and upload your digital music to MediaMaster
2. Publish your music collection on blogs and social networks with our flash widget
3. Enjoy your entire music collection on many devices, and / or host your own online radio station!

Kohler
Completely off brand, not funny, not viral, not environmentally friendly, not... - okay, I'll stop. See for yourself

The New Yorker
Nicely redesigned - The New Yorker in a new look

iConcertCal

iConcertCal is a free iTunes plug-in that takes the artists in your iTunes collection and generates a personalized calendar in your iTunes interface of those artists’ upcoming shows in the city of your choice. It's available for both Windows and Mac OS X and supports worldwide searches.

Weekly Highlights

Mini Cooper
The Mini Hammer & Coop site - great execution.

Musicovery
Discover music you didn't know you liked - great, usage-based internet player from musicovery. Much better IA, design and features than Pandora.

Nissan
Car + Skateboard = Strange but interesting Nissan car ad...

Zafu
Usage-based, well researched Jeans selector tool from Zafu... for people with real bodies.

Weekly Highlights

Altoids
A new Altoids site. Say it with chocolate covered mints...

Crowd Spirit
Invent a product, rate products, refine products, support products, get products made, and buy stuff on Crowd Spirit.

Count Your Drinks
An alcohol unit calculator, but also a functional rich media application that is loaded with information and asking you 'how many'?

Landrover
A seamless 360 view that makes you wanna buy this Landrover.

Samorost
Strange, but interesting game called Samorost with great graphics and fairly intuitive navigation - for the next lazy afternoon...

Axe
Another interesting concept from Axe - the dirty rolling microsite.

Weekly Highlights

Last week's highlights were:

Trendwatching
This site reveal the latest and greatest trends and while somewhat predictable, it has some interesting insights into monthly trends.

Nike
Very visual, very well done. Check out the Nike Jumpman

The Machine is us
A great video on the evolution of the web, content, rules and perceptions.

Ideas, Visuals, Aesthetics

Notcot is an interesting site that offers art, inspiration and amusement from comics to photographs.

Weekly Highlights

Here are the slightly delayed highlights of the past week:

Mercedes Benz
Mercedes Benz launches a sexy microsite that is fully integrated with their overall media efforts at this year's Fashion Week in NYC.

Superadfreak
Check out the consolidated Super Bowl blog where industry experts discuss last night's TV ads.

MarketingSherpa
If you are involved in online advertising and marketing, the MarketingSherpa site, newsletter and studies are a must read.

Microsoft
Microsoft has partnered with companies across the globe to get people interested in Windows Vista. Interesting strategy, as the partner companies from TV and gaming to productivity are well-known companies and of high interest to many consumer groups.

Superbowl Ads

Adweek has set up a new blog devoted to Super Bowl ads. Well known, high-ranking industry experts from Seth Godin to Jeff Goodby will share their views and insights on February 4th during the big game and in the weeks to follow. Great idea, a must-read for anyone in advertising and possibly the first-ever live ad analysis in a blog.
Check it out at superadfreak.com.

Official Rolex website launches

The new Rolex site launched this morning. It is stunning.
Amazing design, copy, photography, animations, and movies were created by agency of record, Critical Mass.
This site takes the Rolex brand to the next level and sets new standards for what can be accomplished. The first awards to follow shortly...

OTTO and Windows Vista

Germany-based Otto, one of the largest B2C companies worldwide, has launched a special version of its online store that fully supports Windows Vista and the Aero interface.
The ready-to-download application features 3D shopping, videos and drag & drop navigation. In addition, Otto offers a personalized shopping experience with the option to try on clothes.
Otto's Vista store claims to be the first one world wide and made it into the national evening news.

Read more on Otto and Windows Vista on Microsoft's site

Mac vs PC

Mac ads go UK.

Weekly Highlights

Here are this week's highlights:

Touch Screen 2.0
This touch screen was presented at the TED. At first, it looks like a normal screen that you navigate using your finger. But it gets better: you can navigate with up to 10 fingers, do multiple movements at the same time and it is fully intuitive without an interface. I want one.

Phillips Shave Everywhere
We all remember the site, I talked about it in this post and now Phillips Shave Everywhere won FWA site of the year for it. Congrats.

Motorola
This interactive microsite lets you create designs with all the colors Motorola cell phones come in. The navigation is intuitive and it's just so much fun.

Mercedes Benz UK
I really like what Agency Republic does for MB UK. They recently created a microsite for the Mercedes-Benz R-Class where consumer reviews meets writer, meets different interests, meets great creative. Very innovative.

My all-time favorite for Mercedes Benz UK
I’ve never fought harder to read online.. this site is interactive, fun, and a great overall concept of showing how Mercedes Benz technology, features, testing create a unique driving experience. They highlight Mercedes from A Class to S Class with great use of copy, flash and interaction. It actually makes me wanna buy a Benz.

Snap!

From now on, I will not be posting many images on my blog. The reason? I found Snap over on Bryper's blog. This great little gadget lets you preview sites that are linked to from this blog on roll-over. That way, you can view sites before going there. It doesn't work for all sites yet, but I'm sure they're working on it.

The future of Google

[...] Google controls more network fiber than any other organization.
[...] Google intends to take over most of the functions of existing fixed networks in our lives, notably telephone and cable television.

Great article on Google's global takeover.
Read more on I, Cringely.

Weekly Highlights

Check out this week´s highlights on the web:

Jeep - the waterfall

iPhone - A first look at the iPhone experience

Interact10ways - Great zooming experience











Toshiba - uses personas as a recommendation tool...

Carlton Draught - Flash beer... great tv ad

iPhone vs. Blackberry

While browsing the Forbes review of the CES and a preview of the latest technology for 2007, I came accross this page, showing the future market leader and the future thing of the past united on one website. An amusing side-by-side.

The Apple - Cisco Lawsuit

Cisco's lawyer Mark Chandler is blogging about the Cisco - Apple lawsuit. His blog entry sounds a bit like an attempt to emphasize that it was neither greed nor jealousy that convinced Cisco to sue Apple. Whether this is true or not, there is a fundamental problem that Cisco won't overcome with a lawsuit...

My very simple, initial gut reaction to the trademarking issue was:
'Just let Apple have the name'.
I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case for many people.

Why? Because Apple has created a very strong brand, both through naming, quality and uniqueness of their products from iMac to iTunes. Anything else that hits the market - like iPhone - will automatically be associated with Apple if:

a - its name starts with 'i[product name]'
b - it is white

In addition, any product will most likely create huge disappointment amongst consumers if it does not turn out to be and Apple product, let alone an internet phone service provided by Cisco.

Apple iPhone Part III

Ode to the iPhone on Wired.com and some interesting points on what the iPhone could mean to the future of computing.

Weekly Highlights

This is more of a monthly highlight due to Christmas and travel, but here they are - my recent favorites and notables:

Consolidate your ad feeds:











This one is making my life so much easier. I never took the time to set up ad my feeds on my google home page... but now I'm only one click away from all of them thanks to The Adfeed. http://www.theadfeed.com/

Google's Picasa:
Neat, free picture organizer - intuitive and smart.
http://picasa.google.com/

Etsy - neat designer stuff:











Buy unique clothing and accessories online. From what I've heard it seems to be a great platform for young designers.
http://www.etsy.com/

Swivel.com:
Get your fill on graphs and analytics.
http://swivel.com/

Cambrian House:
Learn about and vote for the latest and greatest online ideas. Apparently the birthplace of some very successful concepts.
http://www.cambrianhouse.com/

Volkswagen Eos - Eos Tarot:










Neat execution by CPB, even though I'm not sure how many 'successful women' actual relate to and look for advice in tarot cards and then jump into their VW Eos...
http://www.eostarot.com/?ic_id=promo_eostarot

Apple iPhone - Part II

The first lawsuit hit one day after the iPhone was presented at the Apple conference. Cisco sued Apple for taking their patented name... read more here

Apple iPhone

Apple just released its iPhone - a truly smart phone that combines iPod, cell phone, digital camera and laptop (it runs OS X).

A great day for Apple, a disaster for blackberry - let's wait and see how the first reviews of the iPhone are, but I wouldn't be surprised if it puts blackberry out of the market.

Have a look at Apple's site for high res pictures and animations of iPhone that make you wanna buy it today... and engadget for a detailed review.