Games that lay across our established social platforms is a new and budding industry.  Games may be a little misleading as new platforms like groupon or whrrl can be considered  social games.  These platform require ‘players’ to work together to win.  It is this underlying theme I think is particularly interesting.  Problems or situations that Read More...

Fellow surrogate, Jeff Johnson (@lovebugdad) and myself attended the 11:00 panel – “People as Peripherals: The Future of Gesture Interface.” The discussion was led by an actual, trained “Futurist,” Lee Shupp – that’s really his job title. It was definitely a panel worth attending and brought to mind a lot of interesting things to think Read More...

Brands are at the top and then drop off the face of the earth but the question is why and how can you stop it? Well, first, brands need to change it up. We can’t keep doing the same thing – it gets old and boring. We need to change it up and keep up Read More...

Behavioral research, focus groups and customer feedback are all ways to hear from your customers on what they want and how they feel your product offering could be better. But, is this the best information to take action on?   Microsoft’s research and focus groups testing lead them to the development of “Clippy”, the office assistant Read More...

For our GSD&M SXSW analysis, I’m filing this post under the banner of Reinvention because, for brands to get and stay relevant in the new world order, the marketing and advertising folks in charge of their care + feeding may have to fundamentally re-visit some basic communications principles they grew up on. In his inspiring Read More...

Here are a few tips from How To Get a Breakthrough Idea Approved by Decision Makers. 1. Idea MUST tie back to the business rationale. 2. Provide customer-not personal insight when presenting. 3. Be consistent in the design guiding principles and speak about them often. 4. Be creative in the way that you present new Read More...

Today was a great day at SXSW for me. I saw four great panels, and learned many great insights. But out of the four panels, the one titled: “Banks: Innovate or Die!” was by far the one which left me thinking. In my eyes, its purpose lies in the reinvention of banking as consumers know Read More...

I am classifying this panel as Reinvention in our SXSW analysis because I feel we have to be open to rethinking common user interface conventions to reach the unique market commonly known as ‘tomorrow’s future.’ I attended the Designing for Kids session today hosted by a slew of uber-talented folks from PBS for a discussion Read More...

If you haven’t had them sit still enough to catch their QR code on the back of their shirts, those feisty fifty SXSurrogates running around the Austin Convention Center are from all of the different departments from within GSD&M. While they are there to learn, of course, their primary focus is to relay great information Read More...

Well, SXSWi is shaping up to be exactly what I expected.  I’ve hit four sessions so far, but will only give myself credit for attending 3, as I was buzzed in one and walked out early in another.  Technically, I’m sitting in my fifth: Seth Priebatsch’s simulcast keynote on gaming, which I wasn’t even planning Read More...