Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Your users are your brand’s most important asset

Ericon October 3, 2011 : Leave a Comment

Over the past year I have been involved in many different discussions and meetings with the purpose of determining a company’s or product’s customer. I quickly realized that there isn’t a simple answer that can be applied across the board. However, I sometimes like to propose a different question: Who is your brand’s most important asset? More often than not the answer is simple. The users.

How does this help?

If you are asking this question then you are missing something vital to your business’ success. Without users you have no advertisers and typically no content. This also usually means you have no revenue. Basically, you have no business.

Building for the user and thinking about pie

Keep this principle in mind as you build out your web service or product. With every decision you make ask yourself “Is this good for the user? Why?”. User-centric design is indeed on the rise but you’d be surprised how many UX and product designers are still slaves to aesthetics. Looks are nice but they are not everything. If your web app was a pie, aesthetics would be a single slice while user experience would be half the pie.

Conclusion

We truly are entering an era where the user is king. Customer service, customer interaction and user experience are becoming increasingly important in our society. This is because users, at their core, are the primary link to revenue. Users are the ones who add true value to your platform, product or service. Without them you don’t even have a business.

I also want to note that I realize this principle doesn’t apply to all products everywhere but most modern services and products would truly benefit from this user-centric mentality. So what do you think? Is the user really that important or are there other factors? Let me know in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!

The REAL way to Increase your follower count and gain exposure on Twitter

Ericon July 27, 2011 : Leave a Comment

Give it a search on google and you will find a million and one articles that share their own step by step guide to success on Twitter. You will also find a ton of adverts for auto adders and spam programs >:/ If you are looking for this kind of “get followers quick” scheme then you’ve come to the wrong place. If you’re looking to actually increase your exposure and influence and actually use Twitter the way it’s mean to be used, then you’re in luck because I’m going to give you the REAL secret to increasing your follower count and gaining exposure!

Twitter is meant to build relationships

The minute we start looking at Twitter as a “marketing tool” we lose sight of what the service really is. If you use Twitter purely for marketing your product, then, I can tell you with confidence you will do nothing but piss people off and drive them away.

One very important thing to understand is that you should never close too early. What do I mean by that? Well, whether you are looking to gain more exposure for your product, brand, or even your own name, you are trying to close someone. You are trying to sell them on something. Even if “closing” simply means converting them in to a unique visit to your blog. Here’s an example of closing too early:

“@whoever hah that’s true, say if your in to cars then you should check out my auto blog over at www.whatever.com! I bet you’d love it!”

Most twitter users will go running for the hills at the site of this tweet. Can you guess what the first thing that runs through the user’s mind is? “SPAM!”. That’s right. The same feeling they get when they think they’ve gotten a comment on their blog but it’s actually just some joker faking interest, hoping to farm links to his own site. So, please don’t do this.. you will only hurt yourself.

Want to know more about this? Talk to Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) on Twitter or grab his book the Thank You Economy. Gary started out with 0 followers on Twitter, just like everyone else. The way he amassed his faithful following was by building a relationship with his potential customers instead of just trying to stuff wine specials down their throats.

So, instead of responding immediately with a link to your product or website, try to help the user. Or, at the very least, engage in conversation and learn something about them! If they like what you say then chances are they will checkout your profile and find your website all by themselves!

Engage!

Engaging with others is key. No one wants to follow an empty stream that gets updated once a week. So join the conversation! There are a ton of Twitter clients that can help you stay connected to the conversation. Here a few good programs to check out: HootSuite (my favorite!), TweetDeck, Seesmic.

Find some keywords that interest you and monitor them. If someone says something that you are interested in then engage with them! Get in the discussion and make friends! For those of you who care about the numbers, this alone will increase your follow count drastically.

HootSuite is my weapon of choice and is a great way to keep tabs on my different Twitter feeds:

Follow the people who interest you the most and engage!

Head over to wefollow and find the greatest influencers who align with your interests and follow them. Many of them will openly interact with other Twitter users so get in the conversation and talk to them! Every time they mention your name in an @ reply you are gaining exposure and, not to mention, making friends!

Lists are a great way to keep all of your follows organized. Most of the Twitter clients can turn these lists in to a separate stream so you can easily monitor them.

Follow Friday

Follow Friday is a fun way to recommend people for other Twitter users to follow! It’s a great way to establish connections and to make your followers very happy!

The problem, though, is that most users don’t understand the proper way to use Follow Friday. Here is an example of what not to do: “#FF @ericbieller @mattboyd @davidcc @driklyn @garyvee Thanks guys!”. This doesn’t give anyone a reason to follow these users. It really has become equivocal to spam and is currently running wild on Twitter.

So what’s the proper way to execute a Follow Friday? Simple. The point is to give your followers a reason to follow a specific person. So just do that!: “#FF @davidcc because he is a great artist and has some really strong opinions!”.

Conclusion

For those of you looking for the secret technique to gaining thousands of followers over night, keep searching. Besides, followers gained through those techniques are low quality followers who are only looking for followers themselves! Not to mention most of them are spam bots!

The key here is simple: engage. If you create value to for other people then they will follow you. The simplest way is to just put out meaningful content. If you remember to do that and you stay engaged and become part of the conversation then you will see you numbers and exposure rise very quickly!

I’ll leave you with some proof. I employed the techniques mentioned above for the last few months and here is my follower graph:

The bottom line is, it works. So what are you waiting for? Get in to the conversation! And if you have anything at all to add please let me know in the comments below. Is there anything I’m missing? Do you have a secret of your own? Let me know!

What makes iOS user experience so much better than Android?

Ericon April 5, 2011 : 14 Comments

Since starting my position as UI/UX Designer at Tapjoy I have had the opportunity to become more familiar with some of the latest Android Devices. Though I have been an iPhone user since the first iteration of the device, I consider myself open to new devices and experiences. I had heard a lot of hype about the Android phones (mainly the HTC) being a comparable alternative to the iPhone so I was excited about the opportunity to check them out. However, the point of this article is to tell you that, despite 4g, kickstands, larger screens, higher-res cameras, Android phones still can’t compete with the iPhone.

For the sake of clarity, I want to disclose that I will be looking at the phone from a user experience perspective. Typical reviews are quick to compare specs and features but don’t usually focus on the overall experience and aesthetic of the device. This aesthetic appeal is what makes the iPhone the top consumer handheld, despite any lacking features. So if you care more about features and specs than user experience, you might completely disagree with what I have to say. That being said, here are my thoughts on the two different experiences:

The Device

While both the HTC and the iPhone have a sexy factor (which I understand is completely subjective) I think the iPhone wins out on look and feel. The device is more solid and has less seams around the body. The HTC has a larger screen but it is nearly the same resolution as the iPhone. This makes the iPhone screen more crisp overall. Other than that the devices are pretty much aesthetically comparable.

The HTC has 4 physical buttons below the screen while the iPhone only has one. This, in my opinion, highlights the ease of use of the iPhone UI. They built it without the need for more than a single physical button. Also, depending on how and when you click this button, it executes multiple functions such as pulling up your music player, showing the multi-task pane, closing the current open program, waking up the device, accessing voice control. You have to hand it to Apple for this. They creatively and intuitively made a single physical button which accesses a wealth of functionality on the iPhone.

Home Screen

The HTC home screen is by no means ugly and it offers a wealth of information like date, weather, time, etc. The problem I have with the HTC home screen is the complexity. A 5 year old kid would have more trouble finding and launching a game on the HTC than they would on the iPhone. The reason the iPhone wins out is because everything is represented by an icon. Likewise on the HTC you have some icons, an arrow button to the bottom left and an art palette icon to the right, not to mention the physical buttons like home, menu, back and search which are on the device itself.

Some may see this as a trivial difference but I happen to think that this is a huge difference. It represents both brands as a whole. Apple has a reputation for creating increasingly simple interfaces, especially on iOS and that is what gives the device mass appeal despite the closed nature of the system.

Scrolling & Transitions

iPhone is the first device (and the only one that I have seen) to have fluid scrolling that doesn’t suffer from constant lag, over-sensitive touch sensors or unrealistic physics. When comparing the devices side by side it is clear that scrolling in general on the iPhone is much more realistic and lag-free than on the HTC. The iPhone is obviously trying to mimic reality by providing realistic flicking and easing.

I’ll give the HTC points for having respectable and usable scroll functionality, better than most of it’s fellow Android devices but it is still beat out by even a first-generation iPhone.

Windows Mobile / Blackberry Syndrome

I find the HTC interface to be a cross between Windows Mobile and iPhone. While it is a huge improvement over Windows Mobile, it is not as polished or refined as the iPhone. This is highlighted when interacting with many of the more mundane features and settings. Give both an iPhone and an HTC to a first-timer and give them a few tasks like changing brightness, connecting to wifi, managing contacts and adding a mail account and see what they say. More often than not the tasks will be accomplished more quickly on the iPhone and the user will prefer that device over the HTC. This is because you first have to click the bottom left arrow icon to access the real phone features and you are immediately presented with a huge Blackberry-style list of programs. Combine that with laggy scrolling and you have an overall bad experience.

Conclusion

My goal with this article was to explain why, regardless of bells and whistles, the overall experience of the iPhone beats out all Android phones I have used. This is due to crisp and lag-free scrolling, a basic child-like interface and usability standard, and intuitive controls, buttons, and layouts.

Though I have yet to use Windows Phone 7, I will likely be doing a comparison in the near future. I am excited about the platform and think it is great that Microsoft is finally taking a risk with their mobile platform and trying out some unique UI.

As always, thanks for reading!

The Future of Augmented Reality

Ericon October 26, 2010 : Leave a Comment

There is no doubt that Augmented Reality is hot right now and only getting hotter. In case you are unfamiliar with the term, Augmented Reality is live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery. Basically, digital elements are overlaid on top of a viewport, such as a camera/phone display.

Over the last couple of years, Augmented Reality has been on the rise. It’s almost as if a new experimental Augmented Reality platform is released monthly. Companies are finally catching on to the idea and realizing that this will inevitably be a part of our world in the near future and they want to get in on it. However, most Augmented Reality platforms currently available are rather crude in my opinion. It will still take a good bit of research and at least a little market adoption and traction for Augmented Reality to actually become commonplace in our society, which we haven’t really seen yet.

So what’s so useful about Augmented Reality?

It really comes down to the fact that for years we have interacted with our data through simulated images on a screen. With the proliferation of smart phones and other devices, this has become a huge part of our physical lives. Augmented Reality is a way for us to go even further and merge the physical and virtual worlds together for a deeper level of media interaction. Imagine a plain old advertisement in the Mall. View it through your iPhone camera and it instantly comes alive! Visit the products website, add it on twitter, enter a contest, or even purchase the product all from a plain old physical advertisement. Or when you’re watching your favorite TV show, you view it through your camera and media instantly surrounds your TV. Engage in an interactive tweet stream, visit the shows website, view behind the scenes extras during the commercial break or become a fan on Facebook.

The possibilities really are endless and these examples are just the tip of the Augmented Reality iceberg.

Merging of Physical and Virtual

If the TV and Ad overlay seems too obvious, how about we go even further into the our new reality? Recently Facebook launched their new “Places” feature which ads your basic check-in functionality to the Facebook mobile platform. The initial phase of the places feature might not grab your eye given the wealth of competition from products like Gowalla, Foursquare and Bright Kite but let’s look look to the future and add Augmented Reality into the mix. Imagine that you’re walking through a crowded mall. You pop up the Augmented Reality application on your iPhone and are immediately presented with a small icon floating above the head of the passers by. Click one of these icons and you have instant access to that users public Facebook & Twitter profiles. If the “icon above the head” approach is too gimmicky then why not pull up the map application which overlays an icon for each Facebook or twitter friend that’s nearby? Interact with their profile, chat, share media or just agree on a meet-up spot!

This type of approach is already being implemented in a basic form. Yelp’s Monocle let’s you view nearby businesses through your phone’s camera, allowing you to easily see what’s nearby and giving you easy access to reviews and ratings. Layar has created the “Layar Reality Browser” which renders a UI over any scene which gives you access to nearby Wikipedia information, YouTube videos, web sites and more. Wikitude (pictured above) offers multiple Augmented Reality platforms and gives you the ability to create your own world..

Privacy Issues

It’s obvious that there are some key privacy issues with Augmented Reality. At the moment, most people might not want their public profile accessible by any passer by. However, you might have heard the same argument in the early days of cell phones. I can imagine that the “I don’t want people to be able to contact me whenever they like” stance was brought up and debated often. But we slowly adapted to the idea and became more open as a society in terms of communication. The same type of adaptation may be required for the successful integration of Augmented Reality platforms into our lives.

Conclusion

In the future, our reality will inevitably become more and more entwined with digital media. Much like the innovation of the cell phone or the Internet, with it will come new legislation, best practices and consequences and some amazing benefits. We just have to be ready for it. What do you think? Is augmented reality a good thing? Do you think it is inevitably going to become mixed into our culture like the cell phone? Please leave your thoughts in the comments section. Thanks for reading!

The Perfect Development Environment

Ericon August 9, 2010 : Leave a Comment

Developers will argue all day that a particular development setup is better than the next but we can all agree that having a development environment that is both comfortable and efficient is crucial for creating great software and meeting deadlines.

Here I will be covering, in detail, my ideal development environment. Some of it you will agree with, some of it you will disagree with, but hopefully this can help you refine your own development environment and question your current setup.

Read the full article on Think Vitamin

Why the Windows 7 Task Bar is better than the Mac OSX Dock

Ericon June 16, 2010 : 7 Comments

The Windows 7 Task Bar

The Task Bar in Windows 7 is broken up into 2 parts by default. You have your pinned program shortcuts and open programs in the middle (much like the OSX Dock) and to the right you see the Task Tray which shows individual running programs as well as programs running in the background.

Now let’s break this down and take a look at each segment:

Quick Launch

The Quick Launch bar isn’t included in the Task Bar by default (unlike WinXP) but, since Windows 7 allows you to pin program shortcuts to the Task Bar, I feel like it is confusing to have open programs mixed with unopened programs. So I like to keep them separated by having program shortcuts in the Quick Launch and open windows in the main area of the Task Bar. If you would like to enable the Quick Launch bar then you can follow this guide.

Open Programs

The middle section of the Task Bar shows your open programs. This is the biggest change from the WinXP days and I think it’s a change for the better. It basically functions like the OSX Dock with a couple of differences:

To indicate that the particular program has more than one window open, it shows a stack behind the icon while the OSX Dock only shows a dot underneath the icon indicating that it is open.

Clicking a stack will display a small thumbnail and textual representation of the open window while OSX requires you to right-click the icon and will only display a textual representation of the window.

And for those of you who think Windows always copies OSX, it is obvious that they both take ideas from eachother, though some are more blatant than others. Either way, I’m not going to hold it against Microsoft for taking what Apple did and making it better and vice-versa.

Conclusion

Although I can give OSX points for their Dock being a bit prettier than the Windows 7 Task Bar, I do think that the Task Bar is a little more realistic and productivity oriented. When I have 8 programs open, each with a window or two open within them, I would take the Windows 7 Task Bar over the OSX Dock any day of the week. To me, it’s just easier. What are your thoughts?

How to get freelance work on the internet

Ericon June 13, 2010 : Leave a Comment

When I took the plunge and quit my day job to work at home, my worst fear was being unable to find steady freelance work on the internet. What I quickly discovered was if you put yourself out there and learn to take advantage of the avenues available on the web today, looking for new clients can actually be a simple and fun process! So here is what I have learned so far. I hope this can help some new freelancers out there.

Personality is 70% of the gig

This may be the single most important aspect of freelance. Never interact with a potential client via a bland copy-and-pasted script asking for their business. Most people can see right through this and they figure, if you don’t take the time to address them personally, they will keep looking for someone who will.

So, if you are sending an email or proposal to a potential client, always hand write it. I have went up against 30 other freelancers and been chosen simply because my proposal letter stood out. Seriously, this is important.

Use Craigslist

Craigslist is the first place I would recommend looking for new freelance gigs. I generally stay under the gigs >> computer or gigs >> creative section. I don’t recommend searching for specific types of gigs. Just start browsing by date and you’ll eventually find a gig that seems like it was made for you. When that happens, write an email with that personal touch that tells the potential client that you are excited about the project and can’t wait to work with them. Be sure to link to a personal website or online portfolio if you’ve got one. If not, pasting a list of links to recent projects into the email is fine.

Freelance websites

Using a freelance website like Elance.com, Freelancer.com, oDesk.com, etc can be a great way to find new projects and clients but can seem intimidating at first.

I would recommend starting with Elance.com. Of all the freelance websites I have used, I have had the best luck with this one. What makes Elance work so well, in my opinion, is the fee structure. Every account level allots a freelancer a certain amount of “Connects”. Every job you submit a proposal to costs you a given amount of these Connects. This helps keep the market from being saturated by low-ballers who will do an entire website for $75 because you providers have to pick and choose which jobs to use their Connects on.

Here are a couple points that I believe will help you find success on Elance:

1. If you are new to Elance, let the provider know that you understand the risks of hiring someone new and that you are just looking for that first job so you can prove yourself and start building a reputation. Providers can usually sympathize with this.

2. If you reside in the U.S. and you notice that most of the proposals submitted have been from offshore providers, don’t be afraid to let them know that you understand how difficult it can be working with an offshore provider and that you speak English as your native language.

3. Write each and every proposal by hand. Include some remarks about the specifics of the job. This helps the potential client feel like you have read through the post and are not simply copy-pasting a reply.

Put yourself out there

If you want to get noticed and start making a name for yourself online, you have to get out there and interact with people. Use sites like Digg, stumbleupon and delicious and comment on any interesting articles you find. If they are good enough you might even subscribe to their RSS feed or retweet it. Generally, if you show interest in others, they will show interest in you.

Another good way to get your name out there is to build a blog and write about the tech topics you think are important. If the article has decent content, you will notice an increase in traffic from Google searches alone. Be sure and include your personal info on every blog post so readers can subscribe to your blog or follow you on Twitter.

Build a brand

While there are many out there who prefer to work with a single freelancer, there are also many who do not, which may lead some freelancers to operate under a company name. This can help if you are trying to portray a certain type of professionalism to your potential clients and in my opinion will will likely attract larger companies, which may be the goal for some freelancers.

Another option is to keep your entire team virtual. If some work comes in that isn’t in your area of expertise, send it to a friend who can take care of it for a cut of the price.

Overall, it comes down to being proactive and making an effort daily to become a part of different communities online and interact with others who you feel are creating great content!

That’s all I have for now. If you have any questions or criticisms feel free to leave them in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!

How can I gain interest in my project from Venture Capitalists?

Ericon June 7, 2010 : Leave a Comment

Are you sure you need startup cash?

First off, are you 100% sure that you cannot bootstrap your startup into at least the initial launch? Have you looked at all options? Most ideas can get off the ground with only a few extra hours of work a night. Maybe you need to search for a more technical co-founder who can help you get it started? For some of us it’s difficult to work from home. If that’s the problem then hop on Craigslist and search for a cheap office space. I once rented a 90 sq ft office for $240/mo. For some people this is necessary but if you can handle the distractions of the home office, that it generally the best option.

Represent your product or idea in a creative way

So you’ve analyzed all the options and you have decided that venture capital is the way to go. The first thing you need to do is create a digital representation of your product or idea. Before contacting venture capitalists, create some kind of video demonstration that gives a nice overview of the project, even if it’s just a short windows movie maker slide-show. This is where it helps to have a designer as a co-founder. I think production value is very important in showing the VC that you are capable but you need to create the video as cheap as possible. Maybe you have a friend with video editing skills that owes you a favor? Maybe you can trade some work? Whatever the case, this is an easy way to get your idea across to potential investors.

Why would a VC ever respond to my email when he gets 100 a day?

Many venture capitalists will read every email that comes their way. Emails are important to them because they are always looking for great ideas. Every unread email is possibly a missed investment opportunity. That being said, a good way to stand out in the crowd is to show some personality in the email and be very thankful. Having a VC even read your email is worth a lot so make sure you portray your appreciation at both the beginning and the end of the email. Let them know that you understand that they are on a busy schedule and you don’t want to take up more than a couple minutes. Keep the email short and sweet and don’t forget to link to your video and any other digital pieces you have created, be it graphics, design concepts, 3d renderings etc..

Here is an excerpt from an email of mine that got a response from a Silicon Valley investor. This email got us in the door and we have been talking with this investor a while now. He has became a valuable asset and mentor to us all from this one email:

“Hi ——, My name is —- —-and I’m the co-founder of a site called ———. I know you’re super busy but if I could have a couple minutes of your time it would be very humbling and I would be forever grateful. I have a presentation video and would absolutely love it if you would give it a look see. If the presentation sparks your interest, I’m sending the executive summary as well. I’m a 24 year old entrepreneur and would love to hear any criticism you might have. I’m in it learn! Thanks again for even reading this, that means so much to me. Keep up the great work at ——- and ———–! I hope to hear from you soon.”

Venture Capitalists don’t have a lot of time to spend reading your email so keeping it short is very important. This particular VC specifically commented on how this email stood out from the others. It is also important to let them know that you are passionate and you want to learn from them. After all, they likely have a ton of experience so every sentence they write to you is important.

If you have any questions or would like me to expand on any of this just leave me a comment. Thanks for reading!

ftpmailer.com – Accessing your ftp server via email

Ericon May 27, 2010 : Leave a Comment

A month or so ago I stumbled upon a problem that needs fixing. A Twitter friend of mine was searching for a solution that would allow him to grant controlled access to his FTP server without having to setup a temporary account and teach someone how to use an FTP program.

Once I became aware of this problem, I immediately began searching the internet for some piece of software or service that could make this happen. I was unable to find a single solution so I decided to create the solution myself.

So how does ftpmailer.com work? Basically you can add an FTP account in the administration area which creates a temporary email addresses that grants access to a particular directory on your server. The email format is username-driectoryalias@ftpmailer.com. A Directory Alias is a short term that represents a directory on your server. It sort of works like a password so don’t give it out to strangers! Ex: You might setup the alias “sitepics728″ for your “/images” directory. Then you simply hand out the email address “ericbieller-sitepics728@ftpmailer.net” and every attachment (excluding potentially harmful files like .exe) is uploaded the the corresponding directory!

Once an email is sent to “ericbieller-sitepics728@ftpmailer.net”, the sender receives a bounce back letting them know how everything went. If the file was uploaded successfully, a link to that file (in long and short form!) is shared back to the sender. This also creates a super easy way to share small files with your friends. Just send a file to your custom email and share the link that’s sent back to you!

So head over to ftpmailer.com and sign-up for the beta! The launch date is tentative but we are shooting for about 2 or 3 months from now. You can also follow ftpmailer on Twitter at twitter.com/ftpmailer

Tweets

Archive for the ‘General’ Category

How does this help?

Building for the user and thinking about pie

Conclusion

Twitter is meant to build relationships

Engage!

Follow the people who interest you the most and engage!

Follow Friday

Conclusion

The Device

Home Screen

Scrolling & Transitions

Windows Mobile / Blackberry Syndrome

Conclusion

So what’s so useful about Augmented Reality?

Merging of Physical and Virtual

Privacy Issues

Conclusion

Personality is 70% of the gig

Use Craigslist

Freelance websites

Put yourself out there

Build a brand