At Springbox we spend a lot of time thinking about the many ways brands can interact with their communities in the digital space. A brand's communication network can span everything from email to Twitter to corporate blogs to AdWords and beyond. Some brands we meet are too narrowly focused and missing out on opportunities to engage. Others have become overwhelmed trying to maintain too many properties, or worse, the wrong properties. Many brands with good intentions jump into interactive mediums without clear goals or support structures in place only to find they've created more work for themselves and less than favorable outcomes.

Here are some ways to avoid such pitfalls and find your right engagement mix:

Assess your communication network.
Make sure that every channel has a clear mission and criteria for success, and then make sure each channel is meeting its goals. If it isn't performing, look for tweaks that can be made, or find the right way to phase it out.

Know your audience.
Make sure you define your audience and that your definition is up-to-date. We like personas, but there are other methods.

Critically investigate the market, your competitors, and digital trends.
Don't invest in a medium just because your competitor has or because the blogosphere is proclaiming it the next big thing. Get the data you need to decide if something makes sense for your needs.

Don’t get locked into a formula.
Campaigns and initiatives vary from one to the next. Focus on the goals of each effort to determine the best approach.

Measure, review, refine.
The digital landscape is entirely too transient for brands to rest on their laurels. As marketers and communicators we must always be evaluating the performance of our efforts and looking for new and better ways to connect.

 

They say SXSW is what you make of it, so I'll take some responsibility for my general feeling of dissatisfaction with the past couple days of panels. Overall, the majority of the panels I've seen have been somewhere between acceptable and pretty good, but not great. I want to be wowed, I want to see and hear things I've never seen and heard. Am I asking too much? Here are some quick thoughts on ways we might improve the selection for next year:

Video panel submissions
Not every subject matter expert is a good speaker, so what if the panel picker included short video pitches for panels so you could get a sense for the presenter?

Extended panels
In talk after talk I felt that the hour provided didn't really give the presenter enough time to get to the good stuff. Lots of topics can can be covered in that time, but how about mixing in some longer form sessions for more complex subjects?

Truly expert-level panels
Sessions at SXSW are rated from beginner to advanced but so far they've consistently felt like they were trying too hard to accommodate all levels of experience. I'd like to see some really advanced, really challenging sessions that provided a couple of qualifying questions that could help attendees know if they'll be able to keep up.

No more sales pitches
I'm completely fed up with panels that amount to sales pitches. Yes, I've seen your website, I know your work is good, that's why I'm here. Same goes for attendees, if you are going to ask a question, we really don't need to hear about your entire business model first.

This probably reads like I'm totally anti-SXSW, but that is not at all the case. I've really had a blast over the past couple of days and it is always great to hear from the community and confirm that you are on the right track. I'm looking for strategies to help SXSW continue to evolve and mature into something that I'm excited to return to every year. If you have ideas of how to improve the fest or think I've got it completely wrong I'd love to hear from you.

 

Over the past year, we saw Apple's iPad define the consumer tablet market, selling between 8 and 10 million units and proving that customers want a web-enabled device that's not quite their computer and not their smart phone. While we have already seen a few competitors begin to creep into the market, 2011 is positioned to be the year of the tablet as HP, Samsung, Google, Microsoft and many more roll out their offerings. Love 'em or hate 'em, if you produce content and experiences for the web, you need start planing for ways to accommodate these devices. Here are some things to keep in mind as you begin to start actively supporting tablets:

• Screen size: While nowhere near as small as a smart phone, tablet screen real estate is significantly smaller than the average desktop or laptop. Most tablets feature 7- to 10-inch screens and resolutions around 1024 x 768 (with pixel densities generally higher than standard computer screens).
• Touch interface: Aside from a very few stylist-driven offerings, almost all slate tablets entering the market next year will utilize touch interfaces. While this creates some limits around buttons size, it also opens up some new gestural interface opportunities.
• Orientations and proportions: As in the realm of the modern LCD or laptop screen, we are seeing a wide range of proportions, from the more common 4/3 to the more cinematic 16/10. Like most smart phones, almost all tablets allow users to quickly change proportions by tilting the device.
• Mixed support: As new devices hit the scene sporting various operating systems and browsers, an entirely new compatibility headache is born. Additionally, we are looking at a whole new set of app specs and capabilities to contend with.
  

So what does it mean
At a high level, the growing popularity of tablets means we need to continue to push ourselves to be more flexible and accommodating in our approach. From a design and UX perspective, we need to consider incorporating more fluidity into our work, building smarter and more adaptable creations. As developers, we will be challenged to support the variety of devices and platforms. Content strategists and creators must also begin to think more contextually about their output. The lines between platforms are getting blurrier every day.

Where once we had laptops and desktops we now have smartphones, web TVs, tablets, netbooks and more. The longer we try contain and define these platforms, the more blind we become to the overarching trend of platform proliferation. We need strategies and tactics that support a complex and divergent set of devices so that our audience can connect with our content and experiences in the way that fits them best.

The tablets are coming
While CES 2011 is sure to be the launchpad for many of the tablets that will shape the market, here are a few that you can already get your hands on:

• Samsung Galaxy Tab: One of the most anticipated Android tablets, the Tab fits all the bells and whistles (camera, GPS, WiFi, 3G, Flash 10.1 support, etc.) into a 7" tablet.
• HP Slate 500: Running Windows 7 and sporting two cameras, a USB port, pen and touch support and a 1.86 GHz processor with 2GB of RAM, the Slate is laptop power in a tablet body.
• And offerings from Dell, ViewSonic, BlackBerry, NortonInk and Archos (just to name a few).

Springbox is sending a dozen employees to this year's SXSW Interactive festival. So we asked them: "What topics are you interested in learning more about at SXSW Interactive?" Here are Group Creative Director Adrian Taylor's topics of interest.

While there are plenty of exciting topics to look forward to at SXSWi, the subjects I'm most eager to engage with focus on the rapidly advancing world of mobile. Over the past few years we have seen an explosion of feature-rich smart phones completely transform how we engage with the internet when away from our computers. Our ability to access information, connect with each other and have powerful experiences through pocket-sized portables is shifting the way we think about how we integrate technology into our lives. Obviously the topic is wide reaching so here are a few specific areas of interest:

Touch Interface
As small-form-factor, touch-screen phones and tablets flood the market, a new world of user interface opportunities and challenges is emerging. Whether it's groups naturally collaborating on tablets or kids attempting to apply learning from their mom's iPhone to the household laptop, it's clear the UX designers will need to take a fresh look at their approach.

Mobile Commerce
Having an always-on computer always on you is going to impact your shopping and buying habits, but the open question is: exactly how? Early growth areas like deal hunting or time-based offers, mobile ticketing and money management were pretty easy to anticipate, but where do we go from here? Consumers are projected to spend as much a billion dollars on mobile transaction in North America next year. Will these transactions simply be evolution of current online shopping or completely new shopping paradigms?

Completely Contextual
One of the things that I love about having a GPS-enabled smart phone with a compass and connectivity to the internet is the ability for information and experiences to be properly contextualized for my situation. This type of information has the power to help us create experiences that are focused and rewarding for users. I'm eager to hear stories and see examples of how people are taking advantage of these new tools.

Last week I was asked to share some high-level insights about user experience considerations for the mobile touch environment. This is obviously a large and nuanced topic, but at a broad level there are some basic things to keep in mind as you delve into the world of mobile interface design.

I've created a presentation that is not focused on apps or the web specifically, but is targeted at touch-enabled smartphones instead. This post is a synopsis of the presentation.  

The Basics

Some of what follows may seem obvious, but you would be surprised at how many sites and apps in the market seem to disregard these basic factors:

• Screen size and proportions: moving from desktop to mobile means a lot less screen real estate and much more variety in screen proportions
• Direct interaction with display: unlike the desktop environment, users interact directly with the screen rather then using a separate mouse and keyboard for input, which sets up an immediate conflict of screen use
• Variable orientation: small handheld devices allow for quick orientation switching
• Single-screen environment: even with smartphones that allow users to run multiple apps or maintain several browsers windows simultaneously, the small screen size results in an established convention to interact with one state at a time, which suggests that we need to focus the experiences we create on contained tasks
• Limited discovery: there are no roll-overs or tool-tips, so make sure actions are obvious and enable users to recover from mistakes easily
• Established device standards: as the market matures, consistent UI patterns are forming (back button in the upper left), if you choose to brake the standards make sure you are doing so for the right reasons
• Limited resources: while smartphones are advancing by leaps and bounds, they are still limited by connection quality, battery life, processing power, and onboard memory

Inputs & Outputs

Today's smartphones offer a sophisticated set of inputs that provide UX designers a plethora of options. Touchscreen inputs include:

• Single tap: used in place of a standard mouse click
• Drag: scrolling or panning
• Flick: scroll of pan quickly
• Swipe: make selection, evoke a contextual menu, or as part of a two step process like delete
• Pinch (open & close): zooming in/out
• Press and hold: make a selection or evoke a contextual menu

We are also seeing a set of emerging touch controls like multiple sincereness touch and gestures that have the ability to communicate more specific inputs to the device. But inputs don't stop there. These advanced devices offer additional controls in the form of:

• Physical buttons: home, menu, back, volume up/down, etc.
• Physical keyboards: short cuts, text input
• Accelerometers: track motion and orientation
• GPS: location, location, location
• Ambient light: suggest environment or time of day
• Microphone: voice commands, ambient audio, music
• Camera: photos and visual codes

These devices possess excellent communication skills: 

• Visual: superb high resolution screen
• Audible: often on speakers or headphones
• Physical: many phone posses the ability to vibrate for alerts or haptic feedback

Layout

Design often begins with layout. Defining the fundamental organizing structures for a mobile project is crucial for creating a consistent and usable experience. One of the major differences to keep in mind when developing layout for mobile is that users need to not only view the screen but also interact with it. In mobile as in desktop, western audiences move top left for bottom right. With the majority of users being right handed (70% to 90% worldwide according to a variety of surveys) the mid- to lower-right area of the screen become more ideal for touch and less ideal for information consumption. 

When it comes to multiple page (or state) projects, the most common pattern at this point is to consume top to bottom, and paginate left to right. This might be realized as a swipe from page to page, next and previous buttons, or a back button in the upper left.

Due to the often-vertical format of mobile devices, the majority of layout elements are realized as horizontal strips. These strips can serve as navigation hubs, content containers, section breaks, or buttons.

Turning our attention to functional anatomy of a mobile web page or app, some common trends become evident:

• Status bar: iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices have an almost omnipresent strip at the top of the screen that keeps users posted on critical info like time, connection quality, and battery life. These bars can be skinned or hidden to varying degrees
• Navigation bar: usually at the top of the screen the navigation bar's function is to let user move between sections, pages, or states
• Tab bar: a secondary navigation tool located at the bottom of the screen
  

Touch Controls

Here again we see a set of patterns emerging that take advantage of the input method. Common interface elements include:

• Single tap buttons
• Toggles: switches (on/off), check boxes
• Sliders: horizontal (volume or brightness), vertical, dials and knobs
• Tabs
• Draggable items: moving or sorting
• System supported: input fields, drop-downs

While many mobile UI metaphors come are leveraged directly from desktop experiences, a noteworthy trend is the influence of consumer electronics. Several exciting development groups are responding to the handheld nature of mobile devices, seeking inspiration from physical devices like remote controls, radios, vintage phones and other traditional tactile devices.

Navigation Menus

As in the world of desktop, users commonly need to navigate from one area of the experience to another, and back. Due to the limited screen real estate, a variety of solutions rise to the forefront. Common approaches include:

• Home screen as a menu: users land on a screen that offers a set of option and return to it to navigate to other areas
• Tabs: selected content focused into a limited number of tabs
• Fly-outs: tapping a button or link offers a familiar overlaid menu
• Takeover: tapping a button or link reveals a large menu that either lays on top, covering the content, or pushes it down and off the screen
• Previous and next buttons: some designers are opting for a more linear forward-and-back style of navigation

Contextual Menus

Compact localized menus that are presented when needed are a great technique to help users accomplish simple tasks without monopolizing screen real estate. While most mobile operating systems include several built-in contextual tools we are starting to see an increase of their use in apps and mobile sites.

The Best of the Rest

Lastly, here’s a collection of points to keep in mind as you make your way through your mobile project:

• Keep it simple and focused (above all). As you’re developing your app or site, define the users’ tasks and support them with clean and tightly edited experiences.
• Be consistent both with established standards and those standards that existing within your own project.
• Keep the user's context in mind. Where are they? What is appropriate for that environment?
• Provide visual feedback, always. Slow connection speeds, tiny processors, tiny hit areas, disabled speakers… there are lots of reasons why the user may be left wondering if their button press worked. Always confirm their action with some immediate visual feedback.
• Try to limit scrolling to one direction.
• Prioritize content. Put the most important stuff first.
• Leverage styling over images to build up your aesthetic.
• Review and test your project on the actual target device.
• Identify clearly where links point and what buttons do. It can be extra frustrating to recover in the mobile environment.
• Include a button to clear contents of input fields if the user wants to start over.
• Define your input field types to help the OS provide the right keyboard configuration or input mechanism.
• Provide a link to your full site — always.
• Avoid pop-ups, redirects and auto refresh.

I encourage everyone that's digging into mobile to leverage the fundamentals of UX design while granting yourself the freedom to try new things and explore this exciting and quickly developing medium.