Islamic Experience Designer
It’s been a while since I’ve done much with my website. The last few years have been intense, career changes, multiple location changes, 2 new babies since my last blog post.
I think there was a parenting name for this stage in life, something to do with just surviving.
SO, I’ve managed to muster up enough energy and time gaps to get back on this horse. I have a very different perspective of life, business & design to share.
…
I just found the following letter I wrote while working as a “new media” designer at Ogilvy Interactive Cape Town back in 2001. It was sent out to the entire company, I know scary, but got me a meeting with the guy on top back then and an entry into the Ogilvy Africa 360 Brand Development Program.
The Interactive Division back then served as a mere means of extension of the ATL agencies campaigns. It drove us crazy that the ATL guys just had no clue what to do online. a few months later the entire agency crashed along with waves caused by the dot com bubble bursting and Ogilvy Interactive was almost non-existant.
PS: My name was Nicky Furlong back then, I’ve changed it since. Also read and enjoy the mind of my 23 year old young designer self!
Below the letter unedited.
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 09:31:10 +0200
To: omctn@oi.co.za
From: Nicky Furlong <nicky@furlong.za.net>
Subject: :: Where are we going with Cyber Space ::
::This email contains my personal opinions on issue affecting what I set out to do every day… it by no means speaks for OgilvyInteractive as a whole or any other part of our agency :: I do feel however that I need to express my opinion openly and to as many people as possible ::
::I’m writing this email with the hope that the issues highlighted herein will be given the full attention of the people in positions of enough calibre to make some kind of change::
:: HERE GOES NOTHING ::
Our 360 degree agency is a place filled with such diversity in every aspect of the word that to fit every single mind set/skill set/professional background into the same box seems to take away that individual value that each person has to offer. In essence what makes this place special is that it’s filled with people who have totally different views and perspectives on what it is that we actually do. If we we’re all like minded and believed in exactly the same things , it would very quickly be echoed in the work we put out and sooner or later clients would question our ability to deliver personalized solutions to the diverse business problems we are expected to solve.
Speaking from an interactive point of view, and having spent hours of research and study on the internet, I’ve realized that what the web world has to offer from a communications point of view goes beyond what 360 degrees as it stand today is offering it’s clients. The web operates on a totally different set of principles. If we go into case studies and take an in depth look into successes on the web we see that those successes come from a deep understanding of these principles.
Advertising and “Traditional Branding” fills a very important part of the communications mix… but in my opinion is by no means an end in itself. If we apply all our thinking from an advertising point of view our business solutions can be no more than ads which may venture out of there traditional vehicles.
There is great value in understanding how people interact with each other on the internet. Companies are searching for new ways to speak to each other, new means of getting there messages and products to their desired audiences, and in many ways some of the problems encountered are born out of a lack of understanding on the part of our clients of what each medium has to offer.
Another milestone to cross is the perception that after 25 years of doing what Ogilvy does, Ogilvy knows how. I think we all agree that markets/society/business is changing so rapidly that we constantly need to be reinventing how we do what we do.
Having said that I’d like to take this point further focussing on the internet and what it has to offer.
Branding takes on a whole new meaning when it ventures out of it’s traditional avenues, and there needs to be a whole new set of rules invented to successfully leverage the inherent value that lies within the cyber world.
It’s not just about personalization, or one to one communication. The internet allows us to meet with people on their turf, to speak to and interact with people in their own environments and to convey messages instantaneously. We can deliver experiences to individuals unlike any other medium, and I think we all agree… a good experience goes a long way in influencing peoples habits and behaviours.
Valuable reading on this matter :
http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Thesis/
www.cluetrain.com
The web is a place where functionality and content rule, and people will only commit to surfing any web site if it has something valuable to offer them. That something valuable has to present itself quickly and easily. This is a place where we have to give people what they want, or they’ll never give us a second glance.Trying to dazzle on line communities with visual stimulation and useless bits of advertising and branding information which takes up valuable “cyber” space makes any web site more of an on line advertisement or brochure than anything else… and in certain cases these types of executions can be justified, but at the end of the day… the cyber world is just as much a place where “survival of the fittest” stands strong.
It takes a “user” If i can refer to the individual as a user a couple of moments to totally reject whatever appears in front of him/her, and move onto something that will instantaneously replace the memory of the previous on line venue. With many other forms of communication the message displays itself in an open field and awareness can be achieved by mere default, but on line people more often than not choose to be where they want to be, and the messages found are rarely original and can easily be found elsewhere at the click of a button.
It is our task to make the “on line venues” we develope as compelling as possible, from a cyber space point of view so as to capture the individuals attention long enough to keep them in one place. Once people settle and explore .. the messages presented will be tolerated alot longer and will be given alot more attention.
Think of it this way… when you go to a coffee shop, depending on one of many reasons for going there, you expect a couple of basics… : Coffee… good coffee… good service, and a sense of being comfortable in your surroundings… based on that experience you might make a decision to return to that specific coffee shop some time in the future.
This is fundamentally what i mean when i speak of on line venues. The web is a place, an environment where people are still going about the motions of being people… socializing, interacting, making decisions, making purchases based on emotions, needs, moods, service, … and for us to make a success of any given on line solution we need to make people feel like the environment was designed for them, for their comfort and convenience.
This is how an ad, any ad or piece of communication is totally different to any on line venue.
We cannot continue to perpetuate the traditional methods of communication which we use to speak to people… people are people and would appreciate being treated as such, and until we respect the person on the other side, we can never make any step in getting closer to the people we are speaking to.
In essence what I am saying is this… we need to start looking at our on line venues as real places where people interact, look for information, find entertainment and pretty much carry out all the functions of daily life… If we can see our website as our business premises… and treat the people that venture into our little shop as valuable customers… we’ll take a GIANT leap in developing “Cyber space in South Africa” as a vialble member of society.
:: I would appreciate any comment on this issue and would like to encourage a continuous dialogue… which would reinforce my point about connecting people using technology.
We need to use the tools at our disposal, and maybe even invent some in order to solve the problems we face every day :: I also feel that we have not spent nearly enough time researching the behaviours and psychologies of the people who inhabit the WWW ::
:: attached are a few documents which discuss some of the specific points that influence my discussion ::
:: Also check out some of the articles and discussions hosted on mediatoolbox.co.za & www.brandera.com ::
– :: -:: – :: -:: – :: -:: – :: -:: – :: -:: – :: -:: – :: -:: – :: -:: –
:: Nicky Furlong :: New Media Designer ::
:: OgilvyInteractive :: Cape Town :: South Africa :
:: nicky@oi.co.za :: nicky@furlong.za.net ::
– :: -:: – :: -:: – :: -:: – :: -:: – :: -:: – :: -:: – :: -:: – :: -:: –
PS: Working very closely with MWEB we can learn alot more about this unchartered territory which is Cyber space.
The following Digital Strategist Cape Town Job ad has been following me around linkedin for the last week or 2 now. It’s everywhere I go on Linkedin. I assume the fact that I’m restructuring my career towards a more Strategic UX role makes it stand out for me as well as the Yellow Dot Logo which is a constant visual nag. I’ve been spending alot of time on linkedin lately, building my network, interacting with people in certain industries and discussing UX related topics on forums. This ad hounded me so much I eventually applied for the position regardless of the fact that it required someone more experienced in strategy than I am.
I’d be interested in knowing what Urbian have spent on this Ad and what kind of response it resulted in.
Have you had a similar ad stalking experience? What was it?
PS: Can someone please grab this Digital Strategist role and get it out of the way now! I can’t take it any more! Apply Here!
I haven’t posted anything to any of my sites for absolutely ages but the following project is just so inspiring and “necessary” that I thought it’s a definite must share. I know more than anyone else the problem we have with our “smart device” becoming unusable because one small little part broke. In many cases the cost of repairs are so high we end up tossing the device and just getting another, which is an extremely wasteful practice. My daughter just washed my iPhone and destroyed the screen. Even though all the other parts work perfectly fine the phone is useless and I’m struggling to find someone to repair it at a decent rate. I wouldn’t have a problem if I was using a Phonebloks Modular Smart Phone.
THE PROBLEM
A phone only lasts a couple of years before it breaks or becomes obsolete. Although it’s often just one part that killed it, we throw everything away because it’s almost impossible to repair or upgrade.
DESIGNED TO LAST
Phonebloks is made of detachable bloks. The bloks are connected to the base which locks everything together into a solid phone. If a blok breaks you can easily replace it; if it’s getting old just upgrade.
I’m absolutely stunned that we’ve come so far without solutions like these becoming mainstream. Of course we know that’s driven by the consumerism being shoved down our throats by the corporations merely interested in profits and not sustainability. If we can use collaboration and networking to create mass movements we can surely get 1 simple and very necessary product developed.
I think The Phonebloks project is more of a movement that a 1 off product and deserves our energies to see it realized. These types of solutions are what improve people’s lives drastically while not completely destroying the environment. It’s a matter of changing our mindsets and looking further than the status of the latest and most flashy device.
I highly recommend giving this project your support, getting the word out there and adding your voice to the Thunderclap.
I’m working with another like minded designer to create a community directory of dwelling modules along a similar lines. It’s called Wikidwell, the brainchild of Irina Papuc. It will contain fully modular items, free of toxins and completely recyclable
Clear, concise, and a great ability to get a class of complete novices up to speed in very little time. Nur’s course was a launchpad for my learning and I still refer back to notes I took from him even though it’s already a couple of years ago.
October 26, 2012
Livio was Nur Ahmad’s client
I’m just about to leave for WordCamp Cape Town 2012, my favourite tech event of the year and it looks like this one’s set to be bigger and better than any of the previous WP related events I’ve attended. I’m also loving the fact that it’s being hosted at one of my favourite places in Cape Town Kirstenbosch Gardens. I’m planning on updating this post as the day progresses with my experiences. That’s the plan at least. Stay tuned!
Here’s a quick wrapup of the talks I managed to catch.
Eric Clements discusses Using WP to setup a Live Mxit Based Journal of Olympics Info. Using mxPress a small team setup a live Olympic Journal Mxit App fed with updates through WordPress. The setup took around 5 hrs and within a couple of weeks they had 10 000 followers.
A suggestion from the floor was to make use of a setup like this for monitoring crime and crime reporting through a crowdsourced type setup where non-smartphone users can easily access and update the system.
Eric also mentioned that monitizing on Mxit is much easier than on platforms like facebook.
Riaan Knoetze started creating WordPress themes out of necessity. He says he loves making money in his sleep and was looking for ways to establish passive streams of income. Riaan explains how difficult it is to break into the Theme sales market due to the sheer amount of players. His talk discusses how to leverage existing theme markets and develop extended products based on their products, eg. Developing WooThemes child themes.
Riaan says he’s not a PHP developer, marketing guru or Graphic design super star.
Enter – Premium Child Themes
Eg. Riaan Converted App Theme’s Classipress Classified theme to his own styled version Headline.
RT @jaysun_walter: AtPlay @tinygiantstudio was very interesting, spoke my language. I am amongst my people - geek central. #WCCT Word!
— Sergio Dreyer (@sergleo) October 4, 2012
Imma get myself hijacking!
Fred’s intro was a little unconventional discussing the story of the Apaches but boiling down to the issue of Having a serious and meaningful Cause.
Quick Stat – 95% of Brands in South Africa Use Social Media
Fred impressing on the Social Media Stats but reminding us that Trust is so important in the bombardment from multiple channels. People are still interested in trusted communities and connections.
3 Verticals They Focus on at WWC
At the centre of it is Cause, something meaningful, something you want to fight for and are passionate about, something you feel for.
Citing the example of Apple, determined to develop Beautiful, Functional Technology. Something which resonates with the users. Fred goes on to cite a wide range of Causes from Virgin taking on the big guys, to Hitler to Steve Hofmeyer.
"No community is sustainable without a cause." Fascinating examples of brands that know this: Apple. Virgin. Wikipedia. Vespa. #WCCT
— memeburn (@memeburn) October 4, 2012
Neil Starts off comparing statistics – correlation & causation data based on high ranking sites. The Data suggests certain important social functions seem to have some effect on Search Engine Rankings.
Neil Mentions an SEO Moz experiment asking his community to +1 a Post Ranked 16 which then Ranked 6th after many +1’s. He mentions Google Plus profiles linked on Google Webmaster Tools to blogging author page which should allow your author profile to appear on search listings, also shared his recommendation of the AuthorSure plugin to assist with this. He also showed how Google is starting to feature Social activities into analytics tools and reports. Many of the points mentioned are covered by Yoast in his latest SEO outline.
Neil Persey @webgrowthsa #wcct top expert on SEO & social media analytics. Important to understand correlation vs causation data
— Annabel Yeaman (@annabelyeaman) October 4, 2012
At this stage myself and a few of the guys rushed off to grab some food elsewhere and to stretch our legs, Catering wasn’t Halaal so we grabbed a steak gatsby or 2 down the road, because of which we missed the first session which focused on performance.
Basically the performance/speed related sessions cover using CDNs (Content Delivery Networks), Caching using built in and Plugins, Controlling which resources get served from your site and which get served from external servers and which versions get served. This includes being wary of the amount and type of plugins used, minifying and compressing some of your sites reosurces and lastly the server you host with. All of these elements work together to drastically improving your site’s performance, user experience and nowadays your site’s rankings based on Google’s new inclusion of major speed factors in their ranking system.
Implementing these enhancements help cut down on the cost of running high traffic sites as well.
The crucial aspects to consider when optimising your WordPress site: optimise your database, cache your content. Think APC, CDN, W3TC. #WCCT
— memeburn (@memeburn) October 4, 2012
Byron Rode tackles the subject of performance from the front end side of things after the previous discussions centred around what can be done on the admin and server side. For those who are not able to spend the money needed to have dedicated servers or enhanced server side optimisations and are running on shared hosting there’s alot that can be done as to speed up your site’s load time as well.
Some suggested Plugins
Discussing WordPress Transient API – WordPress way of caching Database Queries for serving cached queries later saving on reloading repeated queries.
Byrone makes no apologies for saying that he seriously dislikes plugins due to the various aspects of site performance they negatively affect.
One of the interesting features of this year’s WordCamp are the 3 minute elevator pitches delivered by some of the microsponsors. The most interest of them so far for me was Blink Tower, who assist entrepreneurs in getting their messages out there by developing short video messages to help them articular and illustrate what they offer. Most of us could do with some improved articulation of what we do.
Other Pitches centred around raising funds for DARG, animal welfare organisation
https://twitter.com/Ane_vJaarsveld/status/253847381811027968
a mobile testing platform and I forget some of the others.
A Group of 5 Tech Entrepreneurs Discuss how they Succeeded and how others could take their startup ideas forward.
As you can see I’m getting very tired and most likely won’t make it through the last of the presentations. In general it was a good day, some of the content was a little disappointing as compared to last year’s WordCamp. The networking was the best part of the event getting back in touch with some of the familiar faces in the community and meeting a few new ones.
MemeBurn has a writeup of the event to fill in some fo the gaps I’ve left and you can search #wcct on twitter for tweets form the event.
@Walkyriewolf we will be releasing professionally edited videos within the next two weeks of the #WCCT evebt
— WordPress Cape Town (@WPCapeTown) October 5, 2012
I Must Be getting Old
I was unable to see the entire event through to the end due in part, to some tight deadlines and lack of sleep over the last few weeks.
I’m super disappointed I missed Matt Cohen’s Presentation about Shifting the WordPress Mindset. See his slides below. From what I hear it was great and took the audience on a trip down memory lane from the early days through to where we currently are and into what lies ahead for WP.
Coming soon!
All in all it was a very well organised event, though I feel presentations may have not been relevant enough for everyone attending. Last Year’s split focus, publisher vs developer seemed a better configuration and I think this would be the best way to go going forward considering the split focus on the WP community. Those who attended seem to have benefitted in general, I couldn’t find a negative comment apart from one or 2 newbies being baffled by some of the tech talk.
Loved @WordCampCT today, paid R165 for the ticket and walked out with priceless new knowledge #wcct
— Jero (@aljaydavids) October 4, 2012
Ashley Shaw & the Lightspeed team have done a fab job this year, thanks a ton again to them!