iOS Ad Blockers: Why Advertisers Are Suddenly Going Diarrhea In Their Pants
Apple recently released ad blocking capabilities in iOS, and the ad and publishing industries began frothing at the mouth. Every emotion from spitting panic to disdain have been hurled into the webversphere over the capability. And as a consumer, and an ex-advertising shill, I love it. I am particularly fond of the most vicious ad blockers, the so-called ‘blunt instruments'. The ones that leave gaping, blank maws between thin slices of actual content. The ones that so severely disable Forbes ’welcome page’ (an interruptive page of ads feigning value with some irrelevant ‘quote of the day’) that you are required to close the resulting blank window and click the article's original link again to see the content.
Yes, I even revel in the extra effort it requires to get past all the newly broken, well-blocked bits. It's harder in some ways. But you know what? It's payback time. And that extra effort? It's a pleasure. I know that each tap and empty window is sending a message.With every whiny press release and industry insider wailing about the "end of content as we know it" a delightfully warm, glowing feeling washes over my insides.
I admit it, it's an unhealthy pleasure in general. And in any other context I wouldn't celebrate it. But here? I'm gonna party like its 1999, because for all the ad industry has learned since then, it might as well still be.
An Open Letter to the Creators of the New Muppet Show
Dear Disney and ABC,
HOLY CRAP, HOW COULD YOU ASSHOLES SO MONUMENTALLY BLOW IT ?!!!
Whoa… I’m… I’m so sorry, that just came out. I totally meant to intelligently build up to that point. Sorry, let me start over:
Dear Disney and ABC,
There is precious little joy in our world. …
Messages From The Future: What Happened to Apple Watch
As some of you know by now, I am from the future. And slightly annoyed to be here. But anyway, this is what became of Apple Watch. Truth is, being back in 2015 is such a trip. All this talk about “wearables”. I have to laugh, I remember that! Ugh, It’s so quaint to hear that again. “Wearables”. For the record, in the future no one talks about “wearables” like it’s some classification of device. That’s just you guys coming to grips with the fact that technology is everywhere. It’s in everything, it’s networked, and no, you have no privacy. But that’s a different post.Today I wanted to let you in on Apple Watch since I guess you’re only now about to see it launch. Weird.
A lot of you are asking “Why would I use it?”, “What’s the killer app?”, “Why would I pay so much for it?”. Yeah, yeah. You do that every time Apple launches a new device, did you realize that? Android users are staring at it dismissively thinking they would never want one since it probably doesn’t do that much.
Admittedly what the first Apple Watch did was only a glimpse at it’s value.
Apple Watch is NOT Replacing the Mechanical Watch
My little voice is nothing in the breathless rush of chatter about the Apple Watch. But I keep hearing the same set of sentiments from my friends and I think they have it all wrong.In various ways, friends are lamenting the loss of the mechanical watch. Others are asking “Why do I need this accessory? What’s the killer app”?
Back in the day people had pocket watches. You’d dig in your pocket, and pull out your pocket watch to tell the time.
Then the wristwatch came along. It was smaller - but so much more convenient. The time was right there at a glance.
The thing people have wrong is that Apple Watch is not replacing the watch. It’s replacing your phone. Or it will rather. Apple is just hoping it can provide sufficient value through the form-factor in the meantime.
Die Hard and the Meaning of Life: The Undeniable Attraction of Loyalty
I was watching a movie with my wife when I had an epiphany. I don't want to tell you which movie because it doesn't matter, and I would really rather not reveal the ham-fisted taste I have in movies anyway. But I was watching this movie and there came a point in the story that you will recognize because it's part of every movie ever made - where the hero, who was obviously so committed... alright, I'm not going to be able to explain this without telling you which movie, it was Die Hard....Ok see? Now you're going "oh, one of those guys". Fine. Yes, I am. I am totally one of those guys. And so is my wife.
Anyway there came a point where I found myself delighting in the fact that John McClane was not going to stop trying to save the hostages, one of whom is his estranged wife, no matter what happens to him. No matter what challenges and risks are placed in his way - he is going to try to save them despite impossible odds. And I realized that it's really his unshakable, defiant loyalty to the innocent people he cares about that makes you cheer for this guy; his belligerent loyalty - in the face of possible death - to protect and honor the people he loves, that is so positive and attractive. I realized that in one way or another some display of loyalty is at the root of every moment I've ever cheered during a film - or conversely a lack thereof when I've been angry at a character. And as the thought rolled over me, quickly becoming more complex and patterned, I had this epiphany: that loyalty, in all its positive flavors, is maybe the most impressive, attractive, beautiful and powerful behavior humans can display to one another.
The Art of Conquering Problems at Work
All workplaces are rife with challenge and friction. Competitiveness and politics abound. Simply existing in a company that does what companies tend to do to their employees can weigh one down and demoralize. Although there are aspects of our jobs that we enjoy it's more likely that what we take home and talk about is the worry and obsession about the things that we wish were different.
There are all sorts of conditions in a company that at various times and in many ways make most of us feel demoralized, under appreciated, and generally poorly managed. And these can bring us so much stress, disappointment and pressure.
But I can say with certainty that there is something you can do that will meaningfully solve those problems. I don't mean mask them or bypass them, I mean actually, genuinely solve them to your great benefit.
It's a two-part process, neither part works without the other. But executed together you cannot fail.
The Social Network 2: Social Guesswork
The Interactivist has obtained the following pages from the upcoming sequel to The Social Network.
Title: The Social Network 2: Social Guesswork
Scene 27b INT. FACEBOOK HQ CONFERENCE ROOM, DAY.
We see a pair of bloodshot eyes. We ZOOM OUT to reveal Mark Zuckerberg staring into space. ZUCK sits at huge black conference table surrounded by middle-aged people who probably used to be cool.
On the table in front of him sits an Oculus Rift developer's kit. ...Right behind 37 lines of cocaine.
ZUCK chews his lip nervously. Finally he speaks in short quick clip...
ZUCK: That's cool.
The room nods.
MIDDLE-AGED PERSON WHO PROBABLY USED TO BE COOL #1: Very cool.
ZUCK does a quick line of coke - grimaces - and pounds the table. Everyone jumps.
ZUCK: Whooo! Yeah - THIS... (he points at Rift) THIS - is totally awesome.
His eyes dart across the room in spastic jerks.
ZUCK: It's awesome, right?
People nod.
ZUCK: I mean, and I'm just doing my magic here, could you imagine... just imagine... if THIS... was Facebook's "iPhone".
Inhales heard around the room.
RANDOM PERSON: Wow.
ZUCK: Right?
CTO, MIKE SCHROEPFER, sitting across table, squints disconcertedly.
ZUCK: What!? Shit, seriously? What, Mike? Fuck you're such a downer!
CTO MIKE: I didn't even say anything...
ZUCK: I see your eyes! You don't think I see your eyes getting all squinty and judgmental??
WhatsApp: One More Turn of Facebook's Very Expensive Treadmill
19 Billion is a big number. Dr.Evil big. And like Instagram before it, the WhatsApp acquisition belies Facebook's utter desperation for relevance, and in contrast to pundits' breathless projections, signals a likely end to Facebook's mobile survival.
If you don't work for Facebook, and you're not invested in it, you are probably comfortable considering the obvious signs that the Facebook social network has been revealing a lack of relevance.
As Facebook's users age, and become associatively uncool, the network has become less a place where young, influential, upwardly-mobile users go to "hang out", and more a place where they "reconnect", get updates on high school reunions, and share the occasional cute cat picture with grandparents.
Facebook made sense in a web-browser universe, back when digital social connections were still new, few, and cumbersome. But users don't live in that world anymore, and have increasingly numerous and convenient options for connecting. This has forced Facebook scrambling to find relevance. Literally breaking itself into digestible mobile parts only to find themselves competing with a million other apps with similar attributes.
And it's exactly this desperate scramble that has Facebook blowing 20 billion dollars on 2 mobile apps.
Becoming a Director: The Undisclosed Challenge of Creation in a Straightjacket
As professional creatives, as designers, and artists in any medium, staff or freelance, we tend to share a common career goal. After entering the workforce and working in our chosen field for a number of years, we imagine naturally progressing to directing, where we will be inspiring teams of people in doing what we have done. We may further imagine rather loftier goals than that, but surely directing is part of our journey.
Although often eager for this promotion, few creatives understand the implications of directing, and therefor fail to prepare themselves adequately for the role. Let me state emphatically - the hardest thing any talented creative person will ever have to do in his/her career - and truly nothing is fraught with more hidden challenge - is face the moment of transitioning from being a person who makes things, to a person who directs people who make things.
Crank My Projector: The Embarrassing Overuse of Scroll
If you want to identify an embarrassing trend that will iconify outdated, wrong-headed web design circa 2012 - 2014, you need look no further than this.
Though probably not in the way you expect.
For the better part of 2 years, and largely ushered to popularity on the back of scroll friendly platforms like iPad, scrolling has become one of the most useful but sorely abused and overused interfacing tools available to web developers today.
Why I Prefer Closed to Open
The best work starts with an idea, a visionary seed, one that must be defended and guided through the myriad of decisions a project meets along its growth.
I often think of creative ideas like trees in a forest. In a forest, the trees that stand out, those that get your attention, that make you stop and marvel, those are the trees that are unusual in some way. The ones that defy the average vertical pattern. The tree that is bent and twisted against the norm. A tree that quite literally goes out on a limb.
Google Glass Is Not About Hardware - The Solution Rests on Software Alone
There is a reason the word "face" is found in "interface". Your face (and its senses) is the primary conduit through which you receive information. And when we talk I tend not to look at your elbows, but at your face, since most of the information I receive comes from it. In addition to verbal responses, your face communicates non-verbally - where your elbows for example, tend not to. And this is why Google Glass, as conceived today in hardware, is doomed.
Your App Should Not Look Like iOS7
In reading the frenzy of reactions from bloggers across the web to the design changes in iOS7, I have come across a sentiment that I believe is misguided.
Basically the message goes: "iOS7's UI is flat (etc.) to focus on content (etc.), and if you don't make your app flat (etc.) to focus on content (etc.) too, it won't look 'at home' in iOS7, it will look old and nobody will want it".
I'm paraphrasing but that's basically it. And I refer only to the belief that the aesthetics need to conform, that it needs to look more like the OS. I am not referring to functional adaptation.
Some of you might take issue with my use of the word "flat" (Vs deep or whatever). I know, that's incomplete because iOS7 is layered with its illusion of depth, light and materials. That's an important point - and I'll get to that. But for now I'm talking about the general practice of removing everything from the UI that doesn't communicate functionality, and of the focus on graphic minimalism.
Google Glass Vs Recon Jet - The Difference is Context
Those of you who read this blog know I reflexively roll my eyes and exhale heavily any time the topic of Google Glass comes up.
And yet here I am today pointing to a similar product that I think, in principle, stands a chance. At the very least, if too niche to change the world, it makes functional and practical sense to me. Which is a lot more than I can say for Glass.
In fact when I saw Recon Jet (and Recon HUD) for the first time I didn't cringe in sympathetic embarrassment for the person wearing it, as I do when I see some bozo wearing Google Glass. It's not because I am particularly drawn to the design, or any particular feature. Rather, it's because the person who wears Recon Jet, as designed and marketed, arguably has a rational reason to wear it. The same reason he might also wear a helmet and shoes with clips.
Google Glass? I'd Rather Get Laid
I was catching up with my super smart friend, Pär, who reminded me of a study that showed how iPhone users get laid more often than Android users. I currently use an iPhone and you know, on some level I think I can anecdotally corroborate that.
Ok well maybe you didn't buy that study.
But what if the reverse were true, that say - being outed for owning a specific device actually resulted in getting laid measurably less? Lets say that was demonstrable. This hypothetical device will cause a woman or man, who might otherwise have found you attractive, to actively avoid you.I mean, guys, seriously, would you use that device in public? Be honest. Use this device and chances are, you will get laid less. Do you reach for it on your way out for drinks with friends? After all that time in the gym? Really.
"Well that depends. What does this device do?" you ask.
You think that matters? Well, what would it have to do? That's a better question. To make up for the likelihood that all the beautiful people across the club will see you with your Googly-eyed face brace, roll their eyes and laugh to their friends. It would obviously have to make up for a period of forced unogamy. That's a tall order.
Native Advertising: Ad Agencies Dip Their Little Toes In The Deep End
Native Advertising as popularly defined (pick one) is nowhere near "the big idea", and further underscores a dark truth concerning the fate of every ad agency in the business.
As is often the case in the one-upsman world of advertising Native's definition is still in the land-grab phase. But in short:
In other words, theoretically without employing traditional interruptive tactics, advertisers would deliver brand messages in the form of - gasp - honest to goodness desirable content, products or services that users might be willing to seek out and pay money for, except that it's probably free.
In yet other words the same old ham-fisted, ad industry bozos are trying (still) to clod their way through yet another little bit of age-old interactive media obviousness as though it's some big new idea.
In truth, the underlying observations that have inspired today's "Native Advertising" breathlessness have been openly in place for over 15 years.
Messages From the Future: The Fate of Google Glass
Man, time travel sucks. I mean think about it, you know all this stuff- and I mean you really know this stuff, but of course you can't say, "You're wrong, and I know, because I’m from the future."
So you pretend like its just your opinion and then sit there grinding your teeth while everyone else bloviates their opinions without actually knowing anything. Of course my old friends hate me. I mean I was always a know-it-all, but I really do know it all this time, which must make me seem even worse.
Anyway I was catching up on current events and was surprised to realize that I had arrived here smack dab before Google started selling Glass.
Truth is, I'd actually forgotten about Google Glass until I read that they are about to launch it again. Which itself should tell you something about its impact on the future.
So here's the deal on Google Glass. At least as far as I know - what with my being from the future and all.
It flopped.
Nobody bought it.
My First Message From the Future: How Facebook Died
It was a hot, sunny Boston morning in July, 2033 - and suddenly - it was a freezing London evening in Feb 2013, and I had an excruciating headache.
I have no clue what happened. No flash, no tunnel, no lights. It's like the last 20 years of my life just never happened. Except that I remember them.
Not knowing what else to do I went to the house I used to live in then. I was surprised that my family was there, and everyone was young again. I seemed to be the only one who remembers anything. At some point I dropped the subject because my wife thought I'd gone crazy. And it was easier to let her think I was joking.
It's hard to keep all this to myself though, so, maybe as therapy, I've decided to write it here. Hardly anyone reads this so I guess I can't do too much damage. I didn't write this stuff the first time around, and I'm a little worried that the things I share might change events to the point that I no longer recognize them, so forgive me if I keep some aspects to myself.
As it is I already screwed things up by promptly forgetting my wife's birthday. Jesus Christ, I was slightly preoccupied, I mean, I'm sorry, ok? I traveled in time and forgot to pick up the ring that I ordered 20 years ago… and picked up once already. All sorts of stuff changed after that for a while. But then somehow it all started falling back into place.
Anyway - that's why I'm not telling you everything. Just enough to save the few of you who read this some pain.
Today I'll talk about Facebook.
Ok, in the future Facebook, the social network, dies. Well, ok, not "dies" exactly, but "shrivels into irrelevance", which was maybe just as bad.
Why Apple's Interfaces Will Be Skeuomorphic Forever, And Why Yours Will Be Too
"Skeuomorph..." What?? I have been designing interfaces for 25 years and that word triggers nothing resembling understanding in my mind on its linguistic merit alone. Indeed, like some cosmic self-referential joke the word skeuomorph lacks the linguistic reference points I need to understand it.
So actually yes, it would be really nice if the word ornamentally looked a little more like what it meant, you know?
So Scott Forstall got the boot - and designers the world over are celebrating the likely death of Apple's "skeuomorphic" interface trend. Actually I am quite looking forward to an Ive-centric interface, but not so much because I hate so-called skeuomorphic interfaces, but because Ive is a (the) kick ass designer and I want to see his design sensibility in software. That will be exciting.
And yet, I'm not celebrating the death of skeuomorphic interfaces at Apple because - and I can already hear the panties bunching up - there is no such a thing as an off-state of skeuomorphism. That's an irrelevant concept. And even if there was such a thing, the result would be ugly and unusable.
Essentially, every user interface on Earth is ornamentally referencing and representing other unrelated materials, interfaces and elements. The only questions are: what's it representing, and by how much?
Advertisers Whine: "Do Not Track" Makes Our Job Really Super Hard
So the Association of National Advertisers got it's panties all twisted in a knot because Microsoft was planning to build a "Do Not Track" feature into the next version of Internet Explorer - as a default setting. Theoretically this should allow users who use Explorer 10 to instruct marketers not to track the sites you visit, the things you search for, and links you click. A letter was written to Steve Ballmer and other senior executives at Microsoft demanding that the feature be cut because, and get this, it, "will undercut the effectiveness of our members’ advertising and, as a result, drastically damage the online experience by reducing the Internet content and offerings that such advertising supports. This result will harm consumers, hurt competition, and undermine American innovation and leadership in the Internet economy.” This is about a feature which allows you to choose not to have your internet behavior tracked by marketers. I'll wait till you're done laughing. Oh God my cheeks are sore.