At a minimum, a mobile website ensures seamless visibility between the desktop and mobile experience.

But a mobile website alone can’t ensure a successful engagement. Mobile website development is a tool, just like any other, and the success of it’s use is dependent solely on the team wielding it. Continue reading over at Responsive Web Design is a starting point, the user experience is the solution for more about the different mobile optimized development techniques that are out there.

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The barriers between our everyday analog world and our digital world are becoming more porous and we are finding new and exciting ways to enhance the analog  with the sheer power and potential of the digital.

Coined by UX pioneer Don Norman in the mid ’90′s, the term user experience has been become synonymous with other industry terms such as: web design, user-centered design, graphic design, human factors engineering, user interface (UI) design, Information architecture (IA), interaction design (IxD), usability testing, customer satisfaction, and the ever ubiquitous and cryptic ‘marketing’.

But it is really so much more than any one of those titles or descriptors. As described by Norman himself, user experience is a term that, ” cover all aspects of the person’s experience with the system including industrial design, graphics, the interface, the physical interaction, and the manual. Since then the term has spread widely, so much so that it is starting to lose it’s meaning… user experience, human centered design, usability; all those things, even affordances. They just sort of entered the vocabulary and no longer have any special meaning. People use them often without having any idea why, what the word means, its origin, history, or what it’s about.

>Whereas the terms listed above are for the most part individual and isolated, user experience (UX Design) is the whole enchilada. It is taking everything, and I mean everything, in the strategic process of design and development into consideration in order to create a holistic product.  To borrow a theme from the Petrula Vrontikis’ quote, Practice safe experiential design, start with a strategy.

Today, we are going to take a look at some examples of exceptional life engagement, or how the user experience and interaction design are expanding our human experience and leading the charge into a rich and engaged future. Enhancing the Experience – Gallery One @ The Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art has recently opened Gallery One, a first-of-its-kind interactive gallery that bridges the gap between our analog world and our digital world.

Enhancing the Experience – Gallery One @ The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art has recently opened Gallery One, a first-of-its-kind interactive gallery that closes the gap between our analog world and our digital world with a number of interactive initiatives.

The Collection Wall

• 5″x40″ Interactive Wall Containing 150 Christie MicroTiles (equal to 23 720p HD Televisions) Multiple users – up to 20 simultaneous interfaces
• Access to 3500 works of art from the permanent collection. Works can be displayed by theme and type, such as time period, materials and techniques, as well as 32 curated views of the collection. 
• Visitors can connect with Art in a playful and original way, making their visit a more powerful personal experience.

Studio Play

• Bright and Colorful Interactions for the enjoyment of young and old alike.
• Ability to create personal Interpretations of modern art and sculputure through the touch screen interface.
• Engages users experientially and informationally

Strike a Pose

• Challenges Visitors to Match postures of collection sculptures.
• Users have the ability to try multiple poses,  share their poses, and view others’ poses.

Make a Face 

• Facial Recognition Software matches visitors faces with  over 189 works from the musuems collection.
• Matched faces are displayed photobooth style, can be shared, and are displayed near the gallery’s entrance.

Art Lens

Creatres personalized museum experience through image recognition software and indoor wayfinding technology to enhance the visitors experience.

Creating a lasting Impression – Lexus IS Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition Ad

Going beyond the page, this print ad utilized qr codes to engage the audience to interact with the ad. By placing their smartphone at different locations on the page, models who were strategically hidden in the ad come to life in video on the phone.

Making life more convenient – Tesco’s Home Plus (Korea) and Jumbo (Chile) bring grocery shopping to their customers

Pioneered by Korean supermarket Tesco and now being offered by Jumbo, both grocery chains rolled out virtual supermarkets in commuter dense subway stations last year. Now, commuters can shop on their way home from a busy day via QR Code and have their shopping delivered directly to their home the same day.

Making Commuting Easier – New York City “On the Go!” MTA interactive Kiosks

The 46″ touch screen kiosks being unveiled this summer will replace the MTA maps at 19 subway stations. Riders will have instant access to maps, service status, trip planning and other services all at their fingertips.

Changing the way we look at the world – Google Glass

With the $1,500 beta/explorer version of the product shipping this month, we are closer than ever to finding out if now is the future of technological life engagement, or if  the early adopters are further out in front of the majority than google hopes.

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While a responsive or adaptive approach to digital design and development can be a successful aspect of a digital strategy, they are by no means a silver bullet interactive solution in and of themselves. The keys to any successful digital experience are strategy, insight, research, and analysis. However, before we dive into the solution, lets take a look at the form factors of  the existing mobile development options.

For those that have been busy playing Frogger on your Atari 2600 (…actually I would totally still be playing it if I still had it, bad example…how about for those that are saving files on 3.5” floppy disk? ) Responsive Web Design (RWD) is simply an elastic html/css framework that allows a website or application to scale and fit the dimensions of the device it is being viewed on (smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop). Adaptive Web Design (AWD), on the other hand,  usually refers to a separate, mobile-specific environment that is developed parallel to the desktop version of an online presence. A third option, which is a blend of RWD and AWD, is something that we call Tailored Web Design

Tailored Web Design is taking the best of both worlds, adding a health dose of progressive development practices and creating unique, tailored experiences whose goals are to fulfill both the user’s needs as well as the business goals within the context of the viewing medium, rather than simply fitting content into different sized containers.

Not to go too far against the responsive movement grain, but both the Adaptive and Responsive Web Design approaches to mobile compatibility are just tools (albeit dynamic, beneficial, and functional tools), and, like any tool, the success of using them depends on making sure whoever is wielding the tool is using the right tool for the right job. The most important factor in order to get the most benefit out of these tools of digital development is to asses the specific business requirements, site objectives, and unique aspects of the project. By taking the time to look at the uniqueness of your business, we can strategically recommend which tools will most benefit your specific needs, and that is where user experience comes in.

Focus on the strategy, then use the proper tools.

In order to truly transform an online presence into an optimized, cross-platform digital experience, here are some factors that need to be taken into consideration.

1. Strategy, Strategy, Strategy – We begin every project with this mantra (usually in our heads, sometimes in a pre-project huddle). Examine the reasons for addressing an existing website or creating a new one. Define what goals are to be achieved.  Consider how a new digital presence can better engage your audience and what can be created to make an indelible connection with viewers. The technical  tools and development strategy that will be the foundation for a successful project will begin to emerge once strategic definitions have been established.
2. Know Thy Audience – The bottom line is by defining who the target audience is, we can create better, more specific solutions to enhance an engaging online presence. Starting with a foundational understanding of the audience, a content strategy that incorporates an audiences usage habits (desktop?, mobile?, tablet?, at home?, at work?, during the day?, during the evening?) can be defined and tailored to engage the audience across the spectrum of usage variables.
3. Optimize the Content to the Context– In order to create a solution that truly responds to the user, the content of the website or application needs to be optimized for the context in which it is being accessed. Tailoring the digital interaction to specific environments (by accounting for how information is accessed through different devices, and how content and actions that are relevant to the audience is optimized) allows for a more customized and engaging experience.

Responsive or Adaptive frameworks are a good start, but a framework without forethought is like a car without an engine; looks good from the outside, but probably won’t take you very far.

Inherently, different device experiences require different considerations  with content architecture and interactivity. The ultimate goal is to use the strategy, research, and analysis as the engine to optimize an experience. If the focus is on optimization for the experience across platform and device and you have the right digital  team in place, the best tools for the job will ultimately be utilized.

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From the industrial design in the cup you drink your coffee out of to the ad design of the billboard on the side of the road to the design of the page and device you are reading this on; each and every thing in our man made world has been designed with an experience in mind.

Better design leads to an enhanced user experience, regardless of the medium. Slingshot Tea Cup, Designer: Samir Sufi

As technology evolves, products evolve, design evolves and inherently how we experience design evolves. In my opinion, the evolution of the experience of design is a constant and should be considered on par with the laws of nature. It is a requirement, a mandate that cannot be changed. Now the genesis of that mandate, much like origins of our understanding of the laws of nature, begins with questions:

In our designed world, opportunity for improvement of a user experience is everywhere. The Ketchup King, Designers: Hwandong Lee, Myung Gyu Kim, Nari Lee & Taeno Yoon

• How can we change our perspective and attack a problem from a different angle?
• How can we benefit people more?
• How can we make a better product for people and for our planet?
• How can design affect change in the world?
• How can we make the user experience better?
• And, more practically, how can creating user experiences achieve our client’s business goals (which, ideally, would answer at least one of the other questions too)?

The Experience is the Product

Executing goal-oriented strategies that are focused on creating successful user experiences is our product. And, ultimately, our goal as experience designers is to create a better product.

A better web experience, a more effective product interface, an easier checkout process, a more impactful real world experience, and a more efficient mobile application can all be products that are the result of  goal-oriented digital strategies.

The Experience achieves the Goal

Creating effective and successful user experiences achieve business goals. A user-centered approach (to any engagement really, not just digital interactions) creates an atmosphere where the focus can shift from the bottom line business goal, to creating an indelible experience. The experience, in turn, creates a cyclical base of support whereby user (customer) engagement becomes the engine that drives the achievement of the business goals.

The Adidas Shoebox Instillation concept was a special build by Jack Agency (UK).

The ultimate goal of Adidas is most likely to increase sales. And a recent strategy to achieve that goal was limited engagement  pop up stores that create an indelible user experience. A new product line was pushed out in limited release to a core audience at strategic locations and venues that corresponded with a new global ad campaign and larger product line release.

Scarcity of the Engagement + Exposure to Core Brand Audience lead to Increased Overall Consumer Awareness that equal Increased Sales of an in demand product. The user experience achieves the business goals.

User Experience in the Digital Space

Following a user-first approach, we crafted the site architecture and user interface of firefightermedic.com to focus on achieving organizational goals through user engagement.

Our strategy included creating defined user experiences based on levels of information access, creating an environment of scarcity within the user experience to drive membership growth, and developing strategic information architecture to allow the most efficient content acquisition by users.

The Results

The site and application have just recently been released, but early data and user response has been unanimously positive. Search exposure has increased overall site traffic, time on site has increased for both members and non-members, and membership conversions are steadily increasing month over month.

Three birds with one user-centered creative approach

Regardless of an experience’s medium, either digital or analog, crafting an indelible experience and taking a user-first approach to the creative process is one of the most effective methods to achieve meaningful user/customer engagement, improve the overall experience of the user and, by proxy, achieve the goals of business.

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That is why I did a triple take when I saw this street art on the side of a semi trailer:

It is always interesting when something seemingly juxtaposed to the user experience (in this case, the personal expression of an artist) ends up perfectly embodying a personal ideal that I keep close when designing for the user experience.

Practicality First
At first blush, the idea of a revolt entering into an otherwise business-centered conversation may be off putting, but bear with me. We take a user centered approach to all or our projects and designing for the user experience is, at its core, a business conversation. It is our (and many other’s) belief, that if a creative, user-first strategy to business problems is followed, dynamic user experiences will be the result that achieve business objectives.

Now, digital experiences have inherent limitations. Certain constants exist that must be acknowledged and accounted for when crafting a user experience. The way the brain works and how the eye access information, cultural norms that dictate how information is most effectively absorbed, habits and behaviors of different demographics, and more all must be considered in order to create a successful experiential engagement.

Regardless of limitations, the goal of any engagement is to create a solution that solves a problem. And more and more, the dimensions of the device that the experience is being accessed on are becoming a limitation of limited importance.

User Experience in the Digital Space
The digital experience used to be much more controlled by device, and in the beginning it was easy.

Limited screen sizes, limited screen resolutions, limited processing speed, limited access options (remember Netscape?), and code development that was still in its infancy all contributed to a more homogenized experience. Plus, for the most part you were tethered to a box on a desk. There was no such thing as a user experience let alone device specific parameters!

Fast forward to now…massive screen parameter and resolution options, mobile devices and tablets with different screen densities, computers that act as phones, streamlined code that has the functionality and dynamic interactive capabilities once reserved for dedicated programs (I’m looking at you Flash) and a more digitally connected world that ever before (unfortunately browser options and version requirements still exist…damn you IE7!)

As the idea of user experience has come into existence, terms like cross device compatibility and mobile optimized content strategy have entered the zeitgeist. But, a strategy can only be as strong as the parameters that a given medium allows. So what do we do when the parameters of a medium are constantly changing and evolving? Our answer: move the user experience beyond the restrictions of device parameters and focus on situational optimization rather than the device restrictions.

Beyond the Device: Rebuild and Revolt
Evolution, especially in the digital space, is a constant. Technology evolves, products evolve, design evolves, and the experience of everything evolves along with it.

Constants (like the real world, human-specific aspects previously mentioned) will always remain. We can create better experiences that achieve better results and ultimately better ROI when we use those human constants as the basis for user centered strategy in a fluid, dynamic, and ever changing medium. Limiting content on a ‘lite’ or ‘mobile’ version of a website or application is inherently limiting the user’s experience. Which, in turn, can limit the user’s perception of a company.

Content and information, not the device, is king. And an important aspect of designing content for the user experience is to tailor it to be best used across situations, not devices. Shifting the focus from a device specific experience, to a holistic, user-based, goal-oriented one allows for the entirety of an online experience to evolve into seamless digital communication, rather than segmented, device-specific access to information.

By questioning existing structural paradigms and challenging usability conventions that are on their way to becoming eclipsed we can create better solutions, better experiences, and better products.

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A quick review of our nfl power rankings formula from Part I of our infographic series:

Now please keep in mind, the NFL power rankings  score doesn’t calculate who was the best team, or which team found ways to win when it counted most (I’m talking to you 2007 Giants [82.5] and 2011 Giants [-20.268]). This is simply a way to calculate the overall dominance of a seasons performance. Take a look at the NFL power rankings for the top 15 most dominant NFL teams between 1980 and 2012 and decide for yourself:

We also charted each team, all 985 of them…

So, what does this teach us. Well we know the most dominant season doesn’t guarantee a Super Bowl win (obviously), but it does increase the odds. We know that the intangibles of finding a way to win (Again, talking to you ’07 and ’11 Giants)  can mean more than a high dominance score. And, we confirmed that you can win a Super Bowl after scoring less points than your opponents over a season (Geez, ’11 Giants, -6 point differential and still found a way to win it all??!)

Ultimately, does a NFL team’s power rankings dominance of a season matter? In the big picture, probably not. History remembers the winners, regardless (or because) of what it took to get there. But, to the fans of the other 31 teams that play every year, a season that was more dominant than a friend’s rival team’s season could be just the thing to get through the long cold off-season.

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A lot of the time, popularity in the national zeitgeist is due to factors of inclusivity.

M*A*S*H (Novel,1968; Movie, 1970 (One of the top grossing movies of the early 1970s and the #56 movie of AFI’s top 100 movies; TV Show 1972-1983, the finale of which is now the 4th most watched domestic US telecast of all time) had smart writing, great casts, and spoke to multiple generations that had been impacted by the Korean and Viet Nam wars. American Idol (2002- present) emerged at the event horizon of easy access to internet mass exposure and embodied the American dream that “anyone can make it, if you try”.

However, at least at a regional level, the Super Bowl is one of the most exclusive events there is.

When you boil it down, over to 1/3 of the entire population of the U.S. is tuned in to watch a competition between 2 cities. In the case of Super Bowl XLVII, (most likely) over 112 million people will watch a game in which really only ~8.3  million people (populations of San Francisco, Baltimore and surrounding counties give or take) have a vested interest in the outcome.

But what about the rest of us? What about the other 30 markets and surrounding regions that don’t have a dog in this fight, other than “Well, I hope my conference wins”?

That line of questioning, and the fact that San Diego is a decidedly mediocre football town as of late, led us to create the NFL Power Rankings team dominance score to find the most dominant nfl teams of 2012.

What if you could rate a team not by their wins or losses, or the distance they traveled in the playoffs, but by their dominance of a season? Does that change the perception of a season? What if you could meet your buddy who is a fan of a rival team and, even though they might have won more games, your team had the more dominant season? That would give you bragging rights for and entire off season! It might not be a whole lot, but for the rest of us whose teams aren’t in the big game, sometimes its all we’ve got.

First the NFL Power Rankings dominance score formula:

Now let’s see who the NFL Power Rankings most dominant NFL teams 2012 are:

So what do you think? Based on the NFL Power Rankings Dominance formula, the #5 and #11 most dominant teams of the season are playing for all the glory…which, based on our research is not all that uncommon (the ’07 Giants were #12 in the dominance chart going into the Super Bowl against the #1 ranked Patriots).

The outcome of the Super Bowl won’t unseat the Patriots and Broncos as this years most dominant teams. But with only Baltimore or San Francisco getting a feather in their cap, this NFL Power Ranking dominance formula can maybe give some of  the rest of us a little solace during the long, cold off season.

*Update* Final 2012 post Superbowl rankings:

Now, a single season is pretty straight forward, most of the results are simply the season average multiplied by the aggregate point differential, but things start to get a little more interesting when you take a look at a longer time line.

Check out the most dominant NFL teams since 1980.

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Based in Southern California, but with national offices operating in 47 markets, Green House proudly represents such brands as Brown Forman Beverages, CobraPUMA Golf, Disney Imagineering, and the YMCA. In addition to providing cutting edge interactive solutions, Idiom will be helping to position Green House Agency within their digital space.

We are excited about our new interactive design partnership with GHA. The creative pots are already boiling away on the stove, cooking up an amazing interactive design and development solution for GHA’s digital needs. Stay tuned for updates!

UPDATE 12.28.12
Get some more insight into our interactive design and development solutions for Greenhouse Agency in our Case study.

Or head on over to Greenhouse Agency’s new website and check out our interactive design solutions here.

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In addition to the customized content management system and digital responsive design solution, we created a custom branding system, marketing collateral solution, and responsive website to position and market the solution that will revolutionize the mortgage industry.

Learn more about the comprehensive solutions we created for Quantum here

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