Choose-O-Tron-O-Matic

Just a little update; the Choose-O-Tron, otherwise known as Choose-O-Matic, is now the Car Range Explorer.

There is no promise that this will stick, especially if consumers get to do some testing.

The blogger's dilemma

Easy Peasy

If any of you are looking at this blog thinking "Doesn't Cardus have anything better to do with her time?" I'd just like to point out a few things.

1. It's a nice easy way to communicate and doesn't clog the Outlook inbox
2. It's opt in communication - you know it's here, you're interested and that's why you're reading. It's not SPAM
3. It really is easy for me to do and actually takes less time than an e-mail
4. Even the stuff that looks difficult, like the widgety things on the left hand side, took minutes to set up
5. It's more chatty and personal than a formal e-mail, which suits my style and hopefully makes it more engaging
6. It's prettier than e-mail
7. Are you still reading...?

If you want to set up your own blog (personal or work related) and you're not quite sure where or how to start - I'm happy to help.

Terminology

I'm in a no win situation. I sit betwixt the 'Business' and IT and I'm expected to have an understanding of the language used by all sorts of groups within these various organisations.

I sometimes forget that I'm the conduit for information transfer. And it occurred to me today I use phrases from one side of the organisation without thinking too much about whether my audience knows what 'full image bleed' or 'EPMO' means.

To the uninitiated 'full image bleed' could be quite gory. I also wonder whether I invent phrases or terms just because it's easier for me to understand.

Perhaps someone should invent a Babelfish assistant. I envisage a device that might sit on a desk in front of a presenter and it provides a simple, easy to understand translation of business or technical phrases that aren't in every day use. Or maybe we need the true Babelfish from Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy that sits in the ear of the listener.

Mr Creosote eats a wafer thin mint

Yesterday we saw templates, and templates, and templates and variations on templates.

You know the feeling when you've eaten so much cake you couldn't possibly eat another piece without being sick? No? That's just me then.

Well I feel I've gorged on templates and couldn't possible see another one. Which is a shame because we have a second level review tomorrow. Maybe I'll be feeling better by then.

We also gained a better insight into the way Choose-O-Tron (an alternative name for Choose-O-Matic) could work.

There have been discussions and arguments and I think we're close to finding the right way for Choose-O-Tron to work. Getting there has been, what seems like, a long road.

For those of you wondering about the title of this post:

Nothing ventured, nothing gained

This project is on the tightest schedule imaginable and we are constantly looking for ways to remove time because, as we all know, time is money.

Time is also a big fat delay between you using Firefly and having a brand new shiny ENGInE tool.

One of the things we thought we could do, which is outside the normal process, is deliver bits and pieces from a large package delivery, and deliver them early.

The original plan was to deliver one large User Experience (UXP) package on June 30th. This would contain things like navigation, templates and associated template philosophy, content philosophy and accessibility.

Our revised 'clever' plan took elements from this large package and tried to deliver them one at a time ahead of the June 30th deadline.

This gave IT early sight of things which meant they could start work early.

This has sort of worked. Things have been accelerated and IT have had early sight of material they wouldn't have seen until the end of the month. But it's not been a perfect process.

Maybe we should have forseen problems but I am an eternal optimist and when somebody shows me the possibility of doing something quicker or smarter or with better quality, I jump on it and want to make it happen.

What we didn't realise was that if you tie down one template before you've worked on some of the associated templates, you hit issues that mean changes are necessary to the template that's already been agreed and packed up in its box.

So we thought we had the first template defined, but it's now undefined, or at least in flux. The changes might be minor but any change, even a minor one, can be significant when it means a change to specification.

I don't think we're worse off for trying to do things more quickly. I think we're better off than we could have been. But it means things aren't quite going to plan.

Being the eternal optimist I can see the benefits of going through a bit of pain now. We're learning about how to work together and I think that will make us a more effective team moving forward.

Choose-O-Matic and fluffy stuff

Last week I saw the latest thinking behind the Choose-O-Matic, and the Vortex of Doom has gone.

Whilst this is disappointing because I quite liked referring to the Vortex of Doom, it is good news for the project and the end user. The user experience we are considering now is much simpler and intuitive. I'm an advocate of keeping things simple.

I'm very conscious that everyone involved on this project is what I'd called an expert user. We need to accommodate the internet novice. Keeping things simple will help the novice and expert users.

I also saw a million different creative executions. OK, I'm exaggerating a little but there were a lot of executions. You could have played spot the difference with some of the ideas because the variation was very subtle. I can't remember all of the ideas but I know I liked a lot of what I saw.

This brings me to another problem. What I like isn't necessarily what the majority of users will like. Which is why it needs testing, with real people. Not that I'm not real - I'm not an avatar honestly. It's just that I'm probably not average. :)

Choose-O-Matic and Vortex of Doom

Last week I presented the project to date, to Brendan's team.

I mentioned and showed early thoughts on Choose-O-Matic and the Vortex of Doom. Now you and I both know that Choose-O-Matic and Vortex of Doom are just working titles. (Vortex of Doom is merely an element of Choose-O-Matic.)

After the presentation on the train Tracey pointed out to me that I can appear rather serious when I present, and she thinks that some of those in my audience might have taken me at face value. So if anyone from Brendan's team talk seriously about a Vortex of Doom or Choose-O-Matic then don't blame them, blame me.

They are working titles, and in fact the Vortex of Doom no longer exists....

Health warning

Facebook can take over your life.

Is there such a group as Facebook Anonymous for the poor souls who get addicted?

I also know people who are addicted to MySpace and World of Warcraft.

I think that good old fashioned conversation could well be a thing of the past, very soon.

What do you think? Msg me, e-mail me, leave a comment. :)

Search Engines

Try this:

Open Google.

Type failure into the search box.

Hit "I'm feeling lucky".

Mood board and Territory

At the same time as a look at the first template wireframes we also got a sneak peek at the mood board for our creative direction. Did I tell You about the Territory - if I didn't I should have. Sorry.

The territory that we have for the project is perfect. It addresses exactly what we need from the site. This is a public blog, so I can't go into too much detail, but you can feel comfortable that we have a territory and it's the right territory.

Anyway - we saw the draft mood board and it was spot on for our target consumer Paul but I'm not sure it worked for Antonella and we need something that will work for everyone.

I think it just needs a few tweaks but it goes back to gender differences and the fact that men and women want different things from a web experience.

First template

Yesterday we took a look at the wireframes for the first template.

It's looks good, I think.

I discovered that it's really difficult for my brain to work with wireframes. I need pictures to make it come alive. To be honest, I need moving pictures.

We have a plan for something that's dynamic and interactive and static wireframes displayed in PowerPoint just don't do the plans justice.

Choose-O-Matic

Now over my dead body will we actually call this application Choose-O-Matic, but at the same time as we saw the Navigation we saw the thinking behind the Choose-O-Matic (a working title only - honestly).

The Choose-O-Matic will help users who are new to us, and unfamilar with the range.

It's interesting. It's definitely different. And secretly...I would like to call it Choose-O-Matic. But don't tell anyone I said that.

We have a winner!

We have a name: ENGInE – European Next Generation Interactive Experience

Congratulations to Inga Nordby at Wunderman. A prize will be winging its way to you.

Gender research presentation