Outsight Interactive Blog

Happy Holidays from Outsight!

Denise — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:31:16 -0500

Happy Holidays from Outsight Interactive

Outsight Looking for Quality Assurance Assistance

Denise — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:46:19 -0400

Outsight is currently seeking a short-term contractor (3 months) or potentially a summer intern to work with our Senior QA Analyst. Potential for full-time employment for the right individual. See our Jobs posting for more information

Maybe Amazon doesn't have it ALL figured out, yet...

Denise — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 10:17:14 -0500

I received a funny email today from Amazon. The subject of the email was "Amazon.com: Work Gloves" and the body stated that "Customers who showed an interest in work gloves mike like to know about our bestsellers". Ok, I'll bite... (click open the email).

Wow, the products offered were definitely "interesting" -- highlights included "Mechanix Wear" gloves pictured with screwdriver in hand, "US Forge" welding gloves, and perhaps my favorite, "BladeX5" Classic Cut & Slash Resistant Gloves (with a Cut Resistant level of '5' no less). Impressive.

BladeX5 : Classic Cut & Slash Resistant Gloves

I have to confess, I had never before realized that there was such a thing as a "Cut Resistance Level". I will never look at work glove "candidates" quite the same again.

Now, with many things -- that might work very well. I know, from experience as a bookseller, that people who buy a book from the New York Times bestseller list are VERY likely to come in and buy more books from the New York Times bestseller list. I also suspect strongly that people shopping for baby gear are very interested in learning what the best sellers are.

A Brief Rant on Flash and iPhone

Brandon — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:57:33 -0400

Last week, Steve Jobs posted a "Thoughts on Flash" article to Apple's website discussing Apple's decision to not pursue Flash on iPhone.

Google VP Andy Rubin responded to this by saying, "sometimes being open means not being militant about the things consumer are actually enjoying." Jobs wants us all to use HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript, but despite the growing capabilities and support of those standards, Flash is still the right tool for some jobs, and despite Jobs' complaint that most Flash sites weren't designed for touch interfaces and will probably be broken, a lot of them will probably still be usable, or easily fixed by developers who care.

While I'm a happy Mac user — happy about everything, that is, except Flash video performance — Jobs' fourth point, on battery life, "The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained," and the implied conclusion "therefore you should not be allowed to watch software-decoded videos on the 45 minute bus ride between your charging station at home and your charging station at work" typifies what really irks me about Apple, why I tend to disagree with Apple's so many of Apple's technological policies, and why I'm happy there's a Droid in my pocket and not an iPhone.

Remember the dumb phones

Denise — Fri, 07 May 2010 11:54:32 -0400

In the industry, with all the excitement surrounding smart phones, I think we lose sight on just how many "dumb" phones there are out there. Yesterday, comScore released the results of a survey that is a stark reminder of the mobile landscape as a whole where nary an iPhone, iPad or Android is mentioned.

On the need for good data visualization (and an anecdote on the evils of powerpoint)

Denise — Thu, 06 May 2010 09:15:50 -0400

I came across an article today in the NY Times, titled -- We have met the enemy and he is powerpoint.

In it, they present this image:

Plan for Afghanistan: A failure in data visualization
which was meant to convey the complexity of the military strategy in Afghanistan. Complexity was conveyed, but to what end? The key to effective data visualization is not to "convey complexity" but is instead to wrest clarity, order, or at the very least, some insight.

The General's reaction to this slide? “When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war.”

Highlights from the NY Times article:

“PowerPoint makes us stupid,” Gen. James N. Mattis of the Marine Corps

“It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control. Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.” General McMaster read more...

Frankenstein's Monster

Denise — Wed, 05 May 2010 00:28:20 -0400

Today, I have a greater appreciation for what Victor Frankenstein felt as he fled from his creation in Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. Victor Frankenstein had taken the act of creation too far and thus created a monster.

Today, our creation, the MyJoys Customizer, resulted in this:

Frankenstein's Monster: Green Base, Red Hibiscus Saddle, Yellow Toe and heel shoe Noonan, out in Truckee, California. All of us here at Outsight are deeply sorry. read more...

Links 5/4/2010

Denise — Tue, 04 May 2010 22:16:51 -0400

Lots of interesting links today:

Nice, simple presentation about experience design
The UX Driven Startup: Crafting an Experience

Google creates an application to teach developers how to prevent hacking
Google: Please Hack this Buggy Microblogging App

Wondering where Gowalla, Brightkite and Foursquare are leading?
Geomarketing: Ten Foursquare marketing campaigns

Ever wonder what the touch target size should be on a mobile? LukeW summarizes the current "standards"
LukeW on Touch Target Sizes read more...

Links for Apr 21, 2010

Denise — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:52:09 -0400

Announcement that Adobe is giving up on its "Packager for iPhone" that would have allowed Flash Developers to leverage their flash skills to output applications for the iPhone.

Links for Apr 20, 2010

Denise — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:35:45 -0400

Helpful starting point to separate the wheat from the chaff in social media marketing groups.