VIA Interaction

Monday, February 27, 2006

Samsung bets on UI design to compete with iPod

Samsung understands that the experience, not the feature list, is the way to compete with iPod:

He Helped Build the iPod; Now He Has Built a Rival - New York Times:

"Samsung executives said they had engaged Mr. Mercer and Iventor to design a user interface for the Z5 because they were hoping to offer an ease of use that matched that of the iPod, which has a simple screen and a distinctive touch-sensitive scroll wheel for making selections.

"'Paul helped us to design and develop a user interface for the Z5 from the beginning,' said Phillip Chung, vice president for the digital audiovisual division at Samsung Electronics.

"Samsung's choice of Mr. Mercer also shows how much consumer electronics now rely on the powerful computing capabilities that defined personal computers two decades ago. Samsung is betting that it can win a share of the music market dominated by Apple by using new software that mimics what is found in powerful PC's...."

posted by Tim Beidel at 2/27/2006 06:59:00 AM

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Monday, February 20, 2006

Disney drops its catalog

Disney is going online only and dropping its catalog. Forrester and others have extolled the multi-channel approach, but Disney thinks its time to go online only.

From By Sacrificing Its Catalog, Will Disney Spoil Its Internet Business? in The New York Times:

"MICKEY MOUSE'S next big role: e-commerce renegade.

The Walt Disney Company, an icon of mainstream America, will move against the grain of conventional business strategy this spring when it stops distributing a catalog that has filled the mailboxes of tens of millions of households for the last decade, and instead embarks on a Web-only initiative.

'Customers almost dictated this to us,' said Paul Gainer, vice president of Disney Shopping, a division of Disney Consumer Products. 'Once they go online we just don't see them going back to the phone.'

The move bucks a trend that has practically become gospel in online commerce in the past several years — namely, that retailers who sell through the combined channels of catalogs, Web sites and physical stores engender more customer loyalty and bigger profits than those that do not."

posted by Tim Beidel at 2/20/2006 01:01:00 AM

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Monday, February 13, 2006

Using brain science to determine the Super Bowl advertising winners

I love this kind of stuff... the UCLA Brain Mapping Center studied people's reactions to the Super Bowl ads.

WHO REALLY WON THE SUPER BOWL? By Marco Iacoboni:

"The main idea behind this project is that there is often a disconnect between what people say about what they like — and the real, underlying deeper motives that make us want and like some things and some people, but not others. With fMRI, it is possible to look at unfiltered brain responses, to measure how the ads shown today elicit emotions, induce empathy, and inspire liking and wanting. So, to put it bluntly:

"Who really won the Super Bowl? ..."

You can see the full results at the Center's Web site.

posted by Tim Beidel at 2/13/2006 10:10:00 AM

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