Wannabe developers on Codecademy are getting even more opportunities to build virtual tools. Last month, the New York-based learn-to-code startup launched a new track of lessons on using APIs (application programming interfaces) with partners like YouTube (s GOOG), NPR, SoundCloud and others. On Tuesday, Codecademy said that it had added another set of lessons through partnerships with 14 companies, including Twitter, Gilt Groupe and Box.
Below is the WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. The most interesting part about this is that I can recall this personal touch product in Seductive Interaction Design: Creating Playful, Fun, and Effective User Experiences (Voices That Matter). Really nice tough, WordPress!
Here’s an excerpt:
The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,200 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.
I opened up an enticing message from ThinkGeek a couple days ago that seduced me over to their site because they were having a clearance sale. I went on all loaded up all the items and found myself opening tab after tab of items that I was going to add to my cart.
Once I couldn’t see what my tabs were anymore I started going through the items to add the to my cart. Low and behold… *cue dramatic dum-dum-dum* there was no “add to cart.” A little stricken, I figured I’d just play along and clicked “Buy Now.”
Which led me to my entire cart. So I closed that tab and continued on. But item after item, I was sent back to view my cart. Making what should be a one step process, two or three, depending on how you get back to shopping.
After that, I couldn’t help but notice this serious flaw in their customer workflow. Why would you keep reminding your customer how much money they are spending? It should be a painless one step process: shop to your heart’s content, edit cart once, and checkout. This way you internalize the total once, not after every item.
What’s even more painful, is when I decided to finally checkout, the checkout process seemed to take forever despite my having an account, that should make the process speedier… Point is, I got so frustrated I decided to go without that sweet doormat with welcome in binary. *sigh*
One last thing, it might be a good idea to take down items once they are out of stock, since you don’t show it until you open the product detail page, it’s only adds to frustration.
A screen shot of the Any.DO chrome plugin integration in Gmail.
There where you need it. Minimalist design with more information where needed (my mouse was hovering over “Today” which brought up the reminder options). #beautiful.
Now if only Asana and Any.DO were collaborating… #wish #inaperfectworld
Amazon is taking Apple head-on with a very clear side by side comparison of the Kindle Fire HD and the iPad mini.
Bold and clever. Nice, Amazon.
I am an avid Google products user between my Android phone, work Gmail, and personal Gmail. Most of my photo sharing happens through Google+ because of Instant Upload. I even prefer the Google Music experience, for the most part, compared to the alternatives (Spotify, Pandora, etc.). With all that and my dependence on Google Maps, Google knows more about me than my mom!
Which brings me to my account of a mindless bunch of click-throughs to concert tickets via Google. There are some music experiences you can only get on YouTube. One of these experiences is acoustic performances from particular artists like Marina and the Diamonds.
Here is how subtle this is.
Today, I was on an acoustic Marina and the Diamonds kick when I glanced at the page (shown above) and my eyes landed on this link to an upcoming concert (below).
Here is a close up so you can see how clever this is.
Of course, the minute I saw it, I clicked all the way through until I had tickets to the show, essentially 2 clicks to ticket purchasing (not including the personal info stuff). Although useful, there are some things that needs to be considered from this experience…
Is this creepy?
Yes, although I am very happy that I now have tickets to see one of my favorite artists that I likely would have missed otherwise, it is a little creepy how I fell right into their purchasing trap!
Is this a gold mine?
YES!!! So much better than random product ads! This felt more like a nudge into “useful” and “helpful” territory rather than the “here-let-me-shove-this-random-product-in-your-face” ad experience typically used in the web.
Why was this so convincing?
This is the second time I’ve fallen into a mindless state of click-throughs to exactly what the presenter wanted. Both times, the presentation was subtle. It was not an outright ad in its presentation – it was presented like any other informative link. The only other click-through experience I can compare this to is the usual internet or Wikipedia rabbit-hole kind where you see something of interest and you jump on the virtual roller-coaster ride to see where it takes you. This time, Google cleverly took me to concert tickets I hadn’t realized were available and that I actually wanted!
So hats off to you, YouTube ad genius. You’ve created a veritable masterpiece and for that I salute you. Also, thank you for letting me know my favorite band was going to be in town 
Picture this scenario: you enter a mall to pick up the new iPad Mini, a warm winter coat and some groceries and you pull out a mobile app that guides you to exactly where you want to go and maybe even offers some coupons, too. A startup called ByteLight is working to create this scenario using LED lights and smart phones to create a communication network that tracks and guides shoppers, locates items and offers deals.
