Technology and Holiday Shopping

I finally arrived back in North Carolina last night. After not having any Internet for four days, of course one of the first things I did was boot up my computer and get online. I have made it my personal mission to get all of my holiday shopping done before I go home in three weeks for Christmas break! Sounds almost impossible I know. I never go shopping on Black Friday…I usually split my purchases between online, and in-store finds! But once I had Internet, and caught up on my daily dose of nerdy reads…I was surprised to see how much of a part technology is playing today in the Black Friday extravaganza.

I came across an article on CNN Tech talking about how stores are “re-vamping” their mobile applications in order to appeal to customers during the holiday season, especially on Black Friday. Stores such as Target and Wal-Mart offer maps of your local store to show the shopper where the items they are looking for are located, short cuts, and what some of the best deals in the store are. The article failed to mention though how many shoppers are actually using these applications. Personally, if I was out on Black Friday, about to be trampled my hundreds of crazy shoppers hyped up on a turkey fueled dinner, my first thought would not be, “Hey! Let me pull out my phone and see where I need to go!” I imagine though that shoppers are using this application, before they even enter the store, in order to “strategize” their purchases.

Of course, today, Black Friday cannot be mentioned without the conversation of Cyber Monday following soon after. It seems like this year, everyone forgot what day Thanksgiving was on, and that Cyber Monday is technically the Monday after the holiday, because almost every online store I came across was pushing holiday specials, sales, free shipping…whatever it is..before our Thanksgiving turkey was even in the oven! It’s almost like the feeling you get when your neighbors start putting up Christmas decorations before Halloween..like, “Hey can we just slow down here a second! I’m not ready for this yet.” But I guess when it comes to the holidays, and everyones shopping lists, the sooner it is done, the better! I imagine this is why mobile apps are being re-vamped for the holidays, and Christmas specials have started before Thanksgiving is even over with.

It will be interesting to see what the ‘numbers’ from this week say. Did all of this new technology, and the rush to get specials to the consumers early really pay off? Or are people put off by it and want a break? I doubt the later is the case. I may have been out in the middle of no where during my Thanksgiving Break, but from the pictures I have seen, and the articles I have read in just the last few hours…the customers is taking to this holiday technology bate just how little kids go sled ridding…very fast…and without any control!….Let’s just hope there isn’t any crazy crash at the bottom.

Hope You’re Good At K.I.S.S.-ing

One of the phrases used pretty often in the computer world, is K.I.S.S….translation…Keep It Simple Stupid! When it comes to designing a user interface..or almost anything for that matter…these four simple words are usually thrown out the window, along with even the best designers common knowledge. It is safe to say that when it comes to technology in general, Apple is way ahead of the game. Not only are their products clean with sleek lines and a unique look, but their interfaces across all platforms are easy to use, understand and give the user what they need right away without any chaos and confusion.

I think the Edward Tufte Video: iPhone Interace Design said it best when he said, “Clutter and overload are not attributes in design..they are failures of design. If the information is in chaos, don’t start throwing out more information…instead fix the design.” The user interfaces Apple produces with their products, are simple, to the point, sophisticated and classic. Unlike some interfaces where you are constantly needing to search for the most simple thing, the iPhone interface places all of your applications on a simple slider, making it easy for the user to slide back and forth to find what application they are looking for. The user can also organize their applications into folders such as ‘social media’, ‘games’, ‘school’ etc. that way there are not pages upon pages of applications on the users phone, they would only need to find a folder, then the application within each folder.

With the increase in mobile application development, there are several applications out there today that are simply, bad. However, with the applications developed by Apple, the user can see a simple theme and continuity between the information presented and the manner in which it is displayed. During the video, when a simple weather application was shown along side a more robust and information heavy application, I was immediately turned off by the busy application because there was too much information being shown at once and I did not know where to look. By displaying the most important information first, such as temperature and weather conditions, the user is receiving the information they want as quickly as possible, with the option to view additional information such as maps if they would like.

Sometimes, during the development phase, designers under estimate the user. We think, because someone is not tech savy, they will never be able to understand how an application works, or how understand a certain interface. Because of this theory, designers usually throw everything they have at someone thinking, that by doing this, the user will not have to search for anything. However, we are quickly learning that it is just the opposite. Speaking from a personal view, I rarely have to help my parents understand their iPhone or iPad…but I can usually expect a weekly call about the WiFi going out or they don’t understand how something works on their PC. When you throw a ton of information at the user all at once, they become overwhelmed and do not understand where to look, what information to process first, or where to go next. The designers who can understand and master this skill quickly will be the ones to succeed down the road as mobile technologies, or technologies in general, keep evolving and becoming more popular. By keeping interfaces clean and simple, every user can understand it and be more confident when using the device.

The iPhone5 Is Almost Here…How Long Will You (or someone else) Wait For It?

There has been a lot of hype lately around Apple and the release of the new iPhone5.  The new version of the iPhone has gone above and beyond once again making it taller, faster, lighter and slimmer.  The phone is not released until September 28th but even with that customers have pre-ordered almost 2 million new phones. Some analysts estimate that by Monday morning roughly 10 million phones could be sold….worse case scenario is 6 million…..in PHONES! Days, even weeks before the iPhone5 goes on sale lines are forming outside of stores with customers who want to be the first to purchase the product.  Now you can use a service called TaskRabbit where you can find people who are willing to stand in line for you, for days and purchase the iPhone5 on your behalf. These “jobs” usually run around $40 – $150, which in my opinion is not enough!  You can find ads on Craigslist looking for people to do the exact same thing, even willing to throw in breakfast. What is worse is that waiting in line, or pre-ordering your phones doesn’t even guarantee you one on the release date! Many stores will sell out of them while pre-orders might not ship for over a month due to demand.

What fascinates me is the hype! Yes, Apple has a huge following and the majority of the consumers want the latest and greatest toys.  Some want them to look cool and classy while others are in it for the technology and the art behind creating such a device.  Either way Apple is on the right track when it comes to developing a product, realeasing it, and gaining a following to go purchase the product on release day.  It will be interesting to see what the customer feedback is after this weekends sales. Many were disappointed with the release of the iPhone4S claiming that there were not many changes.  Hopefully with the iPhone5 consumers will be satisfied with their purchases that they, (or people they hire) will wait for days for in line.