Archive for September, 2010
Stage Two Announces Greg Franzese as Head Writer: Gets Even Awesomer
Regular readers of the Stage Two blog may have noticed a new name popping up on newer posts.
That name is me, Greg Franzese. I am the new Head Writer for Stage Two and you can follow me @GregoryFranzese
I recently joined the consumer electronics marketing, positioning, and product experience shop and I am pleased to be working with the amazing folks at Stage Two. I am excited to engage our readers and help grow the Stage Two brand. I will also be blogging for Legacy Locker and creating other marketing collateral for the group.
My passion for media, technology and writing makes this a great opportunity for me and I am excited to connect with our readers on a daily basis.
Professionally, I have experience writing for the entertainment and technology industries. I was previously Head Writer for ReputationDefender, a northern California reputation management firm. There I managed their official blog and oversaw corporate social media strategy. While at RD, I motivated teams of creative and technical professionals and created custom online campaigns for clients in the financial, tech, energy and medical industries. I also launched their testimonials page and managed an aggressive deadline calendar.
Earlier in my professional development I served as Associate Editor for National Lampoon.com where I wrote daily content and worked closely with the Editor-in-Chief to build an interactive humor brand.
I studied American Literature at UCLA, where I founded an improv comedy troupe and hosted several radio shows. I also wrote a feature film that was optioned and produced. You can Netflix it.
In my free time I enjoy reading, playing my vuvuzela and exploring Northern California.
Stage Two is an amazing company full of amazing people. My hopes for this blog are grand. I want to provide relevant information to help companies build better products that resonate with customers. I want this blog to be honest, opinionated, relevant and engaging. Hopefully the posts here connect with a wide audience of end users, tech press, tech companies and thought leaders.
Stay tuned for more content, more knowledge and more fun.
Why User Experience Matters For Brand Loyalty and Customer Retention
Have you heard the one about the San Francisco designer who got so frustrated with a company’s website that he literally redesigned it himself in a couple hours? Oh, and in the process he managed to create an internet firestorm and get a company UX designer fired (but not for the reasons you think).
The designer in question is Dustin Curtis, and the company is American Airlines. Mr. Curtis was so frustrated by the confusing site design of aa.com that he swore to never fly with American again.
But before he took his business elsewhere, he wrote American Airlines a letter documenting his frustrating user experience.
Dear American Airlines,
I’m a user interface designer. I travel sometimes. Recently, I had the horrific displeasure of booking a flight on your website, aa.com. The experience was so bad that I vowed never to fly your airline again. But before we part ways, I have some questions and two suggestions for you.
He also took an an hour or so and redesigned the American Airlines homepage himself.
A clever move by a creative designer that shows not only how disgruntled customers can disrupt a major corporation online but also shows how central a great user experience is to brand loyalty.
But the story doesn’t end there.
After Mr. Curtis posted his very public complaint, an unnamed UX architect from American contacted him via email. The short form? “You are right, our website is a mess.”
Curtis published the email from the American Airlines UX designer and even though Curtis did not mention the American employee’s name (calling him only Mr. X) the company got wind of the email and fired Mr. X less than an hour after his response was published online.
What happened next presaged the Kevin Smith “too fat to fly Southwest Airlines” tweakout of 2010 (an epic customer experience fail that went viral and even got picked up by USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, ABC News and others). The internet picked up the story (1.2 Million unique views) and then the MSM ran with it, as well.
While American Airlines did a poor job of managing its online reputation and provided poor customer outreach, their chief failing was poor user experience on their website.
As Mr. Curtis notes:
Customer experience is the new brand
I’m not referring to a brand as a logo and a typeface. I’m referring to the new kind of brand, the one is formed by the entire experience of a customer’s interaction. That experience gets branded into his or her memory and leaks into the buzz of modern culture. If you can’t make a good customer experience from start to finish, you’ve failed to generate brand value that will attract customers to come back for repeat business and tell their friends to come back, too. That’s how good customer experience directly affects the bottom line.
Exceptional companies deliver exceptional customer experiences, even when things go wrong. Just look at Virgin America. They recently had their Australian computer system crash for 21 hours. 50,000 passengers were left stranded amid the chaos. Virgin quickly worked to remedy the situation.
The airline offered stranded passengers with free accommodation, traveling to airports (to and fro), re booking on Virgin or any other airline and a free flight ticket that can be used in the coming twelve months.
The company has a history of putting customer needs first. Last year a man wrote a letter to Sir Richard Branson complaining about the food on Virgin Air. Was he ignored like Drew Curtis and American? Hardly. Branson invited the troubled diner to the Virgin headquarters and had him help select future food offerings for flights. The airline turned a negative into a positive through responsive, thoughtful action.
Creating a great experience for customers translates to increased customer retention and greater brand affinity. It is not only the right thing to do, it makes business sense. If a company or brand that people love makes a mistake, the consumer is quick to forgive and forget. Building goodwill through proper customer care is key to navigating the ups and downs of business today.
At Stage Two we interweave marketing strategy with product experience work because we believe they are highly related. When your customers love your products, they’ll love your company, and when they love your company, they’ll tell people, they’ll forgive your mistakes, and they’ll stay your customers for a much longer time than if they just buy stuff from you.
$30 Film Rentals? What a Bargain!
Bloomberg is reporting that Disney, Warner and Sony are planning a $30 premium home video on demand service that will target newly released films that are not yet on DVD.
The studios are talking with In Demand, a partnership of Cox Communications Inc., Comcast
Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc., Bob Benya, chief executive officer of In Demand, said in an interview. Disney is also discussing streaming films on Web- linked devices such as Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox console and Sony’s Corp.’s PlayStation 3, people with knowledge of the talks said.
Hollywood studios have been looking for ways to generate additional sales from movies as DVD purchases continue to decline. A so-called “premium” service would let consumers see movies on TV without waiting the typical three or four months for DVDs or cable companies’ $4 or so on-demand showings.
The technology blogs were quick to jump on the $30 film rental story. CrunchGear, GigaOm, Electronista and CNET all covered the breaking news.
Shinyhat sums up the arguments against this proposal in the comments at CrunchGear:
Whoever thought of this should be given a medal for creativity, then blindfolded, tied to a tree and shot at point blank range. Honestly, just who is going to pay $30 to watch a movie at home ONCE?! is there any family that needs to see an out of theaters but not quite yet on DVD movie that badly? If they didn’t go to the theater, can they even afford it? This idea’s so stupid it hurts.
Stage Two was shocked when we heard the $30 price point and believes that this is an example of the corporations looking at the technology/pricing first and the consumer experience second (or later, we’re not quite sure).
Current consumers looking to acquire media have many options available to them, and the big content creators must keep this in mind when crafting delivery mechanisms for their programming. Anyone who wants to watch a movie today can go out and buy a DVD; download it on iTunes; rent or stream it on Netflix; purchase it on VUDU; or download the content on BitTorrent. Or cable-based VOD. Or using a DVR. etc.
Here’s our analysis comparing several existing video delivery platforms to the new proposed $30 instant one-time rental.
DVD/Blu-Ray:
Pro: Cheaper (avg DVD price ~$20). Proven format. Consumer owns the media for unlimited playback (this makes the most sense for kid’s shows where repeat viewings are de rigeur).
Con: Optical media can be lost, broken or stolen. Have to actually get the physical media into your house.
Outlook: It doesn’t seem like the average DVD purchaser would be wooed by the $30 rental in comparison with a cheaper purchase that has near-instant (one-day wait max) gratification.
iTunes:
Pro: Buy (possibly rent) the content you desire instantly.
Con: Can not purchase a film until it is released on optical media.
Outlook: Cheaper than $30, and Apple is likely to get even more content down the road. No impact.
Netflix:
Pro: Unlimited (ish) content for a monthly fee.
Con: High volume users get throttled. Currently poor content library (seriously, and we love us some Netflix, but what is the deal with Iron Man being the single stand-out title??)
Outlook: Netflix is the ebola of movie delivery platforms, and likely an unstoppable force in digital distribution for the next few years.
Blockbuster:
VUDU (and Amazon unbox and others):
Pro: Large (and growing) library of digital content to access. Instant gratification.
Con: Can’t get films until they are released on DVD.
Outlook: These platforms are actually the ideal method for these companies to distribute content. They’re increasingly built-into devices, and are building their customer base slow and steady.
BitTorrent, MegaUpload, etc:
Pro: Unlimited, free content. Seriously, everything is there. In fact, whatever is airing on TV right now live as you read our blog post is actually being uploaded to the Internet for someone else to download. Pretty crazy, eh?
Con: Most (read: all) of this content breaks copyright laws.
Outlook: Lets face it, despite all the warnings and lawsuits that can be thrown at file-sharers, it’s not going to stop. In fact, trying to push consumers into overpriced yet legal models is likely to exacerbate the problem.
Stage Two Conclusion:
In order to succeed, the proposed Disney, Warner, Sony model must outperform all of these in some way (or at least a few of them). The current value proposition – thirty bucks for one rental – does not meet many consumer expectations, especially when they live in a wired world full of media. Granted, the pitch is for unreleased movies, but we have a hard time believing people will pony up so much more cash just to get something a little early. That said, the suspicious sneaky side of us seems to think the $30 price point was thrown out as a bit of a media stunt.
The message from the consumers to Hollywood is simple: play fair. Consumers have shown (per above) they are more than happy to pay for content, when the price seems reasonably in line with existing price points. Could the studios charge a premium for instantly available content? Sure. But if you want next generation consumers to look to you as a trusted source of content, you must meet them half way.
ps – early Eddie Murphy fans, this headline was just for you!
The First (and Only) Law of Social Media
Not a day goes by without someone on the internet publishing a top XX list of social media “rules” (as high as 42 as far as we’ve found!). We at Stage Two think that these lists contain quite a few rules too many.
The first and only rule for social media is that the internet will air your dirty laundry in a very public way.
Instead of a million monkeys with a million typewriters, we have a couple of billion Internet users with connected phones, scanners, cameras, using social networks, anonymous posting boards, discussion forums, twitter, blogs and more. Layer the above with incredibly powerful search tools and you have the ultimate crowdsourced distributed whistleblower facility mankind has ever seen. It doesn’t matter if you are a potential employee (remember the Cisco Fatty debacle?) or a major brand. If you have a skeleton in your closet, it will be found.
This impacts corporations…
Take a minute to Google Social Media blunders. Go ahead. We’ll wait. It doesn’t matter what industry your company does business in. It doesn’t matter if you are a Fortune 500 company or a scrappy start up. The internet doesn’t care what country you live in. Any business, anywhere will have it’s secrets spread across the series of tubes. 
Look at Nestle’s infamous Facebook debacle. In this case a snippy, arrogant tone on a facebook page and overly aggressive legal team destroyed brand loyalty in an instant.
Sony caught flak for an aggressive DRM that was inserted into digital media. Splenda purchased hundreds of negative domain names and had to face the music when the internet found out. Comcast tried to influence an FCC meeting on net neutrality. The internet found out about it. Toyota faced a global PR disaster after a controversial Yaris spot went viral for all the wrong reasons. Rosie Chickens are “free range” poultry from a Petaluma farm. If you google them you will find that many of their practices are deceptive and misleading. All of these companies had their worst practices exposed thanks to social media.
Even brands with amazing reputations are subject to the digital airing of grievances. Apple, Google and other major firms are susceptible to major social media misfires. It only takes one disgruntled employee; one dissatisfied customer or one person with a camera phone to spread digital dirt all over the interwebs.
And individuals too…
- In the 80’s, David Hasslehoff could eat as many cheeseburgers as he wanted off the bathroom floor and no one would be the wiser. In the digital age, his drunken meal is now the stuff of internet legend.
- How about the anonymous cat torturing teenager who posted his awful deeds on youtube, was hunted down by 4Chan users and revealed to be Kenny Glenn.
- And that woman who posted video of tossing dogs into an icy river? Also identified by 4Chan.
Executives, celebrities, products and services must come to terms with end of 20th century privacy and embrace a new era of digital transparency. Of the many changes ushered in by the social media revolution, the most significant is the end of secrets.
So what are the implications of this?
This increased transparency must be embraced in order to thrive in a wired world. Products must perform perfectly or risk instant ridicule from dissatisfied users. One possible upside for this new paradigm is increased authenticity. A new level of truth from brands, products, marketers and individuals. If everyone conducts business in a digital panopticon, then hopefully people and products hold themselves to higher standards.
How on Earth can we possibly cope!?!
Remember that in the social space the only law is truth. Complete, absolute truth. Which is basically a biblical type of thing, and impossible to attain. Seriously, there is no way any company can possibly be expected to be utterly perfect and that every employee act utterly perfectly. But at least understanding how high that bar is set is something that should be universally communicated within any organization.
Next week we’ll add a follow-up post with some more specific guidelines on how to prudently run a business, yet operate as transparently as possible.
The Real Secret of Apple’s Product Philosophy
CNET has a great article up that details the secrets of Apple’s customer service. Erica Ogg highlights the recent findings of the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index, a sort of Michelin guide for customer service and appreciation. Apple not only earned its highest score to date in this survey, it established a monster lead over other PC makers.
The real secret to Apple’s success is that there are no secrets.
Apple is dominating its competition in customer service because the company cares about creating a quality customer experience at every brand touchpoint. And they do this for a reason – it’s called “profit”. Apple has built an immensely successful business model around the depth of caring about product experience, and it’s translating all the way from customer sentiment to Wall Street. From corporate leadership and the vision of Steve Jobs to customized retail environments showcasing flawless product design, Apple is invested in delivering amazing experiences to their customers.
We often hear that Apple “plays the game” better than Sony, HP, Dell, etc – that’s not quite right. Apple is playing an entirely different game. What’s most amazing about this? Nobody else seems to want to play with them, they just keep playing the “other” game, and poorly.
Apple is committed to creating fun, functional products that perform flawlessly for consumers. The iPhone changed the way people engaged telephony and internet everyday. iPad introduced tablet computing to the masses. From their take on music to a rock solid operating system, every product design choice Apple makes is governed by simplicity, ease of use and functionality. Apple deliberately kept the user experience in mind at every stage of product development and has benefited greatly from it.
The other guys? They either license existing devices from miscellaneous unnamed overseas manufacturers, or “innovate” through tiny incremental feature design – aka copy others. They certainly talk a good game about product experience, but it’s not even in the picture at anywhere near the same level. And we don’t understand why. It’s easy to see how they all got here, but surprising to see them not trying to change, especially if you bring the dollars into it.
The Cupertino company’s market cap is through the roof. They make boatloads of money on hardware, software, apps, services, content, etc. The company has built a following of brand evangelists and is attracting consumer goodwill by the truckload. People love the Apple experience so much that they are willing to forgive recent mis-steps by the Mac maker. From antenna-gate to a camera-free iPad, to a little bit of Chinese child labor, consumers are choosing to remain with Apple (or wait around hoping for them to come their way).
The investment that Apple made several years ago in superlative product design and user experience has resulted in not only brand loyalty but brand growth. At Stage Two, we help companies of all sizes create exceptional user experiences and polished products, because we believe this is an investment utterly worth making. It’s a tough thing for any internal product or engineering team to face – the thought of an external group nitpicking apart their gem, but it’s worth it. While there’s certainly religion at Apple, the religion is about the product being exceptional, and that’s the right kind of focus any consumer-facing product company should have as well.
UPDATE: We want to thank everyone for contributing to the discussion here. Special props go out to Cult of Mac for publishing our post to their audience!
The 10 Essentials Of Making a Great Boxee Box App
Yesterday Stage Two blogged about Google TV and how developers can best deliver quality interactive content to the living room. Today we continue that theme by examining potential best practices for developing a killer Boxee Box by D-Link App (full disclosure: Stage Two has a professional relationship with Boxee/D-Link). Our goal is to help developers deliver exceptional content that performs flawlessly in the home theater setting, and when it comes to the Boxee Box, the rules are slightly different than they are for the Boxee app on a PC. This post is to help developers see some of the different nuances involved as the Boxee Box has a remote (no mouse), no PC involve, and will likely be used in a different manner than the computer-based version. Google has a great list of guidelines for smarTV developers and we think all “ten foot experience” developers should embrace their suggestions as a jumping off point. We’re adding beyond that, hope these help.
10 – Avoid Input Fields At All Costs
The Boxee Box comes with a clever remote that includes a full QWERTY keyboard on its reverse. That is awesome. Scratch that, it’s super-awesome. Hopefully you only use it when you should – specifically when you are searching for something, logging into something, or some other highly meaningful purpose. Content for the interactive television is not the same as content for a computer or mobile device. Smart couch surfing should feel like analogue couch surfing- not in the content delivered, but in the manner in which it is accessed. If your App asks the user to “type” every 2 minutes, you might as well be thinking of a computer experience, not a TV one.
9 – Create Consistent Remote Interaction
Even though Boxee’s glorious 2-sided remote is…well, glorious, do not build your App in such a way that the user is asked to use the front, then the back, then the front again, now flip it just once more…ok, now watch your TV. We got tired just writing that, so don’t ask a user to do it. Design interactions that are conscientious of how the user will interact, and make it as congruous as possible with the way they are holding that remote.
8 – There is no Back Button
Boxee’s remote operates (primarily) via directional arrows, a menu key and a play/pause button. From the start, developers should anticipate that users will use the left arrow as the back button (like TiVo and other similar devices work). Users may also expect that “menu” will bring them back to the main screen of your App, which is not correct. Instead, the menu key will bring up the Boxee quick interchange menu. Make sure that the navigation of your App is intuitive and well defined.
7 – Make it Move!
As we wrote in our post yesterday, motion is critical to the TV App experience. Making backgrounds that shimmy and shake will engage and retain users. Playstation 3 has an elegant and dynamic menu background that keeps users entertained.
6 – Redirect for Account Creation
If your app requires a login, give the user two options: either they can sign up via the laptop next to them or they can enter their account information right on-screen. Too many current Boxee apps direct the user to a web address to create an account, which works fine when Boxee is installed on your laptop, but much less so in the living room. While we assume that the average Boxee user has other internet enabled devices near them, it still is a frustration to HAVE to go grab your laptop or iPad to start using an app on your television. Don’t believe us? We’ll summarize with this way of crystalizing the point, ask yourself this question: “do you believe you will get more or less signups by telling the user to drop their remote, pick up their laptop, enter in some info, confirm via email, go back to the website, then return to their TV experience?” Yeah, we agree.
5 – Include a “Sit Back and Watch” Mode
Remember that this is TV we’re talking about so computer rules do not apply. Even if you App is text heavy and social, you should consider including some kind of a “chill out and watch” mode. Tumblr has incorporated a passive consumption mode for both pictures and music with great results. Redux (another Stage Two client, for the record – but it’s super-relevant so we included it here) is another good example of proper execution in this vein.
4 – Your Boxee Box App CANNOT Be “Your Website Only Way Bigger”
Just because it’s a 50″ screen doesn’t mean people are sitting a foot away from it. Furthermore, websites are meant for a specific type of “lean forward” interaction, and even the Boxee remote in the living room doesn’t change that. Design your features accordingly. Yep, we said this yesterday too, but it’s just so important to consider that we brought it back around again.
3 – Keep Your Menus Visible When Needed!
Don’t hide menus until the user is watching content, period. Many current Boxee apps have a slick interface similar to Boxee’s that hides the menu in a tray that can be reached by mousing over a portion of the screen. But wait a sec, there’s no mouse to move around anymore!
For a specific suggestion: The user should be able to use the left arrow on the remote to pull the last nav menu back up, but not lose what they are currently watching. When you expose a menu, make sure the content the user was watching is still active and easily visible/reachable. You can riff off this theme as much as you want, but if your users can’t figure out how to control the features, they’ll soon leave it behind.
2 – Your App Needs a Social Life
When a user “loves” something on Boxee, the Boxee universe knows about it. But what about Facebook and Twitter? The Boxee Box experience is designed to include social features from the start. Developers should give users an easy way to share media preferences across multiple channels in real time. If your app already has a social aspect like comments or user ratings, display this information on-screen during playback (just be sure to give users the ability to turn that element off easily).
The Justin.tv app does a good job of showing users that 300 other people are currently watching exactly what they are. It reinforces this new thing called “social tv” and begs for user interaction. If you let users know that they are not watching in a vacuum, they are more likely to comment, share, and participate.
1 – HD is Pretty
The Boxee Box supports HD, so if your app does as well, make sure you push that HARD. As Mr. Jobs recently said, “users don’t care about amateur hour” (that is, right before announcing YouTube would appear in their box). Most homes that have a Boxee Box will hook it up to a nice, big HD TV. If you have HD content, don’t hide it, promote it as the best way to watch what you’ve got.
We at Stage Two are extremely excited about watching the TV app ecosystem flourish in 2011. Boxee already has a huge developer base, and we hope they all consider how to make their apps just as engaging on the Boxee Box as they have on Macs and PCs around the world. Let’s face it, there’s a tiny tiny handful of folks like us who have ever considered true ten-foot experiences, so this is virgin territory for a lot of people. But for those of us who have the experience, we think it’s important to share, and help see our industry grow and flourish.
Ten Essential Tips For Making a Great Google TV Site
Google TV is nearly upon us and with it comes the “promise” of enhanced, interactive television.
The convergence of TV and the world wide web will create rich, new media experiences for a variety of users. It also demands a new design aesthetic for making the web work in concert with the television. Having spent more than 10 years building over a dozen different types of Internet/TV convergence products, I’ve probably seen more failed attempts at convergence than the sum total of all industry successes. In order to help prevent as much future fail, and to help Google TV developers deliver engaging content in beautiful ways, here are the Top Ten Tips For Making a Great Google TV “Site” (which shouldn’t be the way it works to begin with, but we’ll talk more about that some other time).
10 Avoid Input Fields
Asking users to input text or other information in designated fields makes sense for traditional or mobile websites. Inputting information through a QWERTY device does not translate well to a living room environment (despite Google insisting on a keyboard). Although Google TV will include the ability to enter text via a keyboard, the average user doesn’t want to sit in her living room and feel like she is using a computer with a giant TV for a monitor. Accordingly, only display fields when utterly necessary for input, use buttons and controls whenever possible.
9 Incorporate Animated/Moving Backgrounds
We don’t think much about static backgrounds on the web, but they will look cold and alien when displayed on your television. When was the last time your TV stopped moving (hint: never)? Bingo – consumers’ eyes are inherently expecting motion on their TV – all the time. Google TV developers should incorporate motion as much as possible in their designs. The animated backgrounds of TiVo and the XBOX 360 should serve as examples of what to do correctly here.
8 No Tiny Fonts
Trying to read 10 point Garamond from fourteen feet away seems like a recipe for disaster. Keep the text large, clear and legible. Tip: Google’s specs are pretty good here, pls follow.
7 Use The Entire Screen
Websites and smart phones give us grids and galleries of granular information. Televisions use the entire viewing area. Photos, videos and other GTV content should be big and bold. Information and content needs to fill the entire screen as much as possible.
6 Site Navigation Should Be Via Remote
I’ve seen a few Google TV (and other TV Apps) that have on-screen “Next” or other buttons which imply the user clicks on them to proceed – instead the user should simply click the “right arrow” on their remote (as an example). For a more detailed example, if you are making a photo-viewing app, the click of a right arrow on the remote should scroll through photos on Google TV. Developers should not make users click on tiny on screen buttons or NEXT icons with a mouse or pointer. If the site navigation is difficult or unintuitive, users will abandon the site, no matter how rich the content. Users will be seeking out the apps that “feel” most natural in their TV environment.
5 Google TV CANNOT Be Your Website Only Way Bigger
Just because it’s a 50″ screen doesn’t mean people are sitting a foot away from it. Furthermore, websites are meant for a specific type of “lean forward” interaction, and even a keyboard + Google TV in the living room doesn’t change that.
4 Performance is Critical
TV is instant. It is on demand. It is media made to order right now. Users will have little patience for loading screens or lagging content. Keeping content delivery fast will keep couch potatoes happy.
3 Colors
The use of color is critical when designing for television. Google makes some smart recommendations for Google TV Developers below:
TV screens have higher contrast and saturation levels than computer monitors. Follow these guidelines when working with solid colors:
- Use pure white (#FFFFFF) sparingly. Pure whites cause vibrancy or image ghosting in TV displays. Instead use #F1F1F1 or 240/240/240 (RGB).
- Bright whites, reds, and oranges cause particularly bad distortion.
- Be conscious of various display modes that TVs may have. These include Standard, Vivid, Cinema/Theater, Game, etc. Be sure to test your webpages in all these modes.
- Be conscious of using large spanning gradients, it may result in banding if not properly tested.
- Test your website on lower quality displays which may have poor gamma and color settings.
2 Assume the User Has a Computer
And a laptop and an iPhone and a netbook and an android and an iPad. With them. At all times. Users will incorporate Google TV into their media consumption habits and make the service coexist with other devices and habits they have developed. GTV is not meant to replace computers and smart phones, it is meant to compliment them. The best apps will incorporate off-screen interactions via other environments. Think about how to embrace and extend, not replace, as you’ll likely just make a worse experience that was unnecessary to begin with.
1 KISS: Keep it Social, Stupid
In North America, watching television is typically a communal activity with many different people watching the same screen. Whether it is the big game or family movie night, the living room attracts different ages and genders to the same space. Google TV usage models should be geared for groups gathered around the interactive screen. Apps that don’t consider a multi-user experience will be surpassed by those who figure this out.
As many of our readers know, I’m very bearish on Google TV 1.0 (but they will probably do well enough by 3.0, right Microsoft?). But the thing that’ll truly sink the ship is a series of terrible, PC-like experiences blown up onto plasmas in the living rooms. Techies might enjoy, but the masses will reject, and go to simpler solutions. Google TV users want to engage interactive content in new ways but have the experience still feel like the television they know and love. The challenge for Google TV developers is to present a new media experience to the masses and have it feel as familiar as the barcalounger.
Client News: TuneUp Announces New Funding, Rocks DEMO 2010
Today was a big day for TuneUp Media! This morning TuneUp announced a Series C funding led by IDG Ventures, with participation by KPG Ventures.
TuneUp has grown to over 1.5 million registered users internationally and cleaned over 1.2 billion “messy” tracks to date. The iTunes and Windows Media Player plug-in corrects music metadata and offers very cool “infotainment” features for your music collection – concert notifications, Facebook and Twitter and Tuniverse™. Read more about the funding here.
Also today, CEO and Founder Gabriel Adiv presented at DEMO 2010 showing off the latest features and sharing capabilities within Tuniverse™, including two upcoming features: Lyrics and DeDuper. Watch the 6 minute DEMO here and read more about the upcoming features here.
Below are a few great hits from today!
Client News: WorldMate Flying on Android
We announced sign-ups for WorldMate’s Android closed Beta this past June and today WorldMate for Android is available for all 
users! Following tens of thousands of requests from loyal travelers looking for Android support, WorldMate is happy to extend its service to the platform. WorldMate personal travel assistant focuses on keeping users up-to-date with rich travel alerts and notifications on the Android platform.
On this new Android app travelers can:
- Receive travel alerts for flights, meetings and more
- View full itinerary
- Link to flight status via Flightstats.com
- Link to Google Maps
- Smart Hotel Search and booking through Hotels.com
- Flight reminder notifications
- Currency, Weather and more!
Read more about WorldMate Android app at http://blog.worldmate.com and download the app at www.worldmate.com/android.
Also, we’ll list some of the coverage here, updated throughout the day:
Meme of the Month: Antoine Dodson
If you follow the Stage Two blog regularly (and we know you all do), you know that we introduced a new feature last month called “Meme of the Month” with our first inductee: Double Rainbow Guy. This month, we’re proud to bestow this prestigious award on Antoine Dodson, America’s newest sweetheart, thrust into fame for his incredible interview skills and recipient of the much sought after Auto-Tune the News treatment. Check out the videos below and prepare to have your mind blown and the words “You are so dumb. You are really dumb, for real” stuck in your head for the rest of the day.
