Fast Forward

On April 3rd 2010, the iPad was unleashed on the world and our first iPad app was ready to download on day one. Fast forward to April 24th 2015 and our first Apple Watch app is available on the day the Cupertino giant’s smartwatch hits the streets. Brandwidth’s bloody good at this stuff, but we don’t like to shout about it.

It’s easy to claim innovation and futurology are all about predicting trends and second-guessing the market. What’s more useful for clients is to take control of the path for their products, services and delivery based on facts. To achieve this, businesses need to get better at shaping their own futures. 

In 2010 the iPad-related headlines were for our incredible Guinness World Records app, now we’ve developed an extension to our existing Vodafone Porsche Car Connect app for Apple Watch. Neither of these apps were knee-jerk reactions to product announcements, they were carefully planned, developed and crafted titles, targeted to maximise user experience for new audiences.

We didn’t wait for an official announcement for either tablet or watch. I hinted at the possibility of Apple’s tablet back in 2009 (and referenced the ‘iPad’) and we’ve been planning for an Apple Watch for nearly three years. The Porsche Car Connect app wouldn’t have been possible without a visionary client, willing to take a few risks for a well-deserved halo effect. The same can be said for Guinness World Records and both clients shared in the roller-coaster ride towards launch day. It was worth every minute!

By creating bespoke products for new technology we’ve added value rather than noise. Unfortunately, for the next few months there will be a lot of white noise surrounding the Apple Watch. The temptation for existing app publishers will be to develop smartwatch extensions just for the sake of it. To make something just because they can and because their audience is demanding content for their new toys.

Stop. if you merely add clutter to what is already a small piece of digital real estate, you’ll run the risk of consumers wanting the app off their watch AND their smartphone.

We’re entering a challenging phase in UI design. Just when you thought screens were getting bigger, along comes a new era of tiny wrist-worn technology requiring effective and intelligent design, not merely smaller text and images.

Here’s the smartwatch rule to apply, as a designer, developer or client: “If there is value added by delivering information or functionality more conveniently on the wrist than any other screen, do it. It’s the future and your audience will expect it.”

We’re not afraid of firsts but they’re carefully researched, meticulously planned and expertly produced. They’re not punts based on guesswork, dressed up as analysis. We don’t bet it all on red unless we’ve been instrumental in designing a red thing.

Top L-R: Guinness World Records: At Your Fingertips, Early Apple Watch connected concept, Oculus Rift Light Saber battle. Bottom L-R: Toyota Auris 3D filming, Lexus Symphony Orchestra, Holiday Inn Green Room.

It’s not all about Apple and apps either, demonstrated by our award-winning Lexus Symphony Orchestra, 3D screens, gestural interaction and a gold medal won at the Hampton Court Flower Show for our Holiday Inn Green Room… and a bunch of things you haven’t seen yet.

The future’s bright, because we’re busy designing bright things.

The Art of NOW

First Meerkat showed its face. Now Twitter has mounted an offensive in the live streaming wars and Periscopes have been popping up all over the place! We all have something to say at some time, but what’s the future hold for the risky ‘always-on’ culture?

We store thousands of photos and hours of video on our mobile devices and an unlimited extension to this in the cloud. Social trends are highlighting how we’re moving on from a world of storage to a society of streamers.

Snapchat conversations flash by in the blink of the eye, Spotify and Jay Z's relaunched Tidal encourage us to own the subscription rather than the music and most relevant channels attempt to capture the moment and the audience to be truly effective.

We live in an increasingly time-poor society, not because we have less time, but because we have more demands on every waking moment from many areas. It’s one of the reasons the world of ‘traditional’ advertising is now a lumbering dinosaur. We have a seemingly endless array of options to distract us from the ad break and billboard or the ability to fast forward almost any digital channel, so why stop to absorb something that doesn’t deliver immediate gratification?

It’s not hard to imagine how coverage of world events is likely to evolve now live video streaming sits at our fingertips. Incredible opportunities for live reportage have opened up for those equipped simply with a smartphone and a selfie stick. Last week’s collapsed building in New York’s East Village (on the very day Periscope launched) handed us the perfect case study.

News organisations have struggled for a number of years to reach ‘breaking news’ situations as quickly as the people on the ground armed with Twitter and a smartphone. Previous criticism levelled at Twitter reportage has focused on misleading conversations and the lack of facts. Professional channels wouldn’t push such unsubstantiated punditry on an audience for fear of legal ramifications and a loss of professional credibility, although not something that appears to bother Fox News.

Now the man and woman on the street can present the situation as it unfolds – the still camera does in fact lie but video is less malleable.

A whole world of opportunity lies beyond news of course. This is evident in most of the content generated on Periscope and Meerkat to date. I have just live streamed my home office, generating followers and likes with something as mundane as an untidy desk, a collection of tech kit and some books. Last week, I attempted simultaneous streams from Meerkat and Periscope on my iPhone and iPad Mini live from Apple’s HQ in Cupertino. Slightly more exciting, resulting in a few extra followers.

Periscope currently has the jump on Meerkat with the ability to point an audience at previously streamed video, whereas Meerkat simply saves the footage to your camera roll.

The marketing and promotional opportunities lie in live events of all shapes and sizes – from movie premieres to emerging music acts to car launches to product reveals to political debates to celebrity interviews. The list goes on and on…

Frames from my Meerkat stream of Meerkat Founder Gary Vaynerchuk and Rory Cellan-Jones at the Guardian Changing Media Summit.

The next step? VR live streams. Why settle for a small screen image of someone’s life when we have the power to experience events as they unfold as if we were actually there! Once the realm of science fiction, now science fact. Facebook bought Oculus Rift for many reasons, but the addition of Meerkat to their folio would bring the two digital stars into perfect alignment. 

In the future we’ll all be able to see anything we want, be anyone we want to be, any time we want. There have never been so many broadcast channels available to designers, marketers and the ad industry. The greatest challenge lies in capturing attention… then monetising the moment.

Oh, and we’re going to need a bigger battery!

You can follow me on Meerkat and Periscope by searching for @activrightbrain or Dean Johnson

Self Aware, Self Controlled

We yearn for independence, yet struggle to manage increasing levels of communication and distraction. So where do we draw the line and what lies in store for our connected future?

At LeWeb in Paris last December, the term ‘Enchanted Objects’ was used to describe Wearable Technology. It’s a nice phrase and covers the interaction and solution as well as the hardware.

Others stated that wearables were all about data, its delivery and the results. However, that's like saying everyone bases their smartphone, tablet or laptop buying decision on the operating system alone. The smartwatch market has to deliver on all counts: to look and feel special AND tell the time for at least 24 hours.

Not a great start for the Apple Watch with a maximum of 18 hours then? Not perfect by any means but Apple’s new device (and the consumer/media scrum surrounding it) is likely to light the blue touch paper under the wearable tech industry.

To make the point, Wearables and Jeremy Clarkson captured a lot of the headlines last week, with Apple’s Spring keynote revealing the features, price and launch date of the Apple Watch plus the Wearable Technology Show bringing the great and the good of the industry together at ExCeL in London, where I was fortunate enough to speak on the opening panel and host the second day of the Augmented and Virtual Reality track.

So what can we expect from our Enchanted Objects in the not-too-distant future? CES and MWC offered a raft of products and platforms, so I’ve highlighted four key areas where devices, sensors and data need to play nice to deliver a seamless (and often invisible) experience. We don’t want to do more things, we need things to do more.

The Car

The temptation is to use the screens we carry as extensions of the dashboard. Don’t. Automotive designers spend years training and honing their skills. They design and build an ergonomically sound environment, with information displayed at the right size in the right place. As soon as you add a randomly-placed small phone screen or attempt to glance at your wrist, all the good work is undone.

Leave the screen, continue the journey – that’s the message to drive home (no pun intended). Our connected devices should talk to each other without our prompting, be aware of their surroundings and our habits. Mid-track streamed music and telephone conversations are already transferrable when we sit in some manufacturers’ vehicles. Social channel conversation and navigation on foot then on wheels are the next step. Take a half-written Twitter message, finish and send it via voice instructions and have the responses fed back through audio rather than visual channels.

The autonomous cars of the ‘future’ are with us already, they’re just not available to buy yet. The issues over screen distraction will take a back seat (again, no pun, etc) so we’ll find more to keep us occupied, but that won’t be car-specific – it will be the same interaction and distractions we experience outside the vehicle! I’m not saying anything about Apple Car, yet…

The Mall

Location, location, location. The infrastructure still has some way to go but our devices need to talk to retailers before we even leave the house, then the location-specific content kicks in via GPS or iBeacon. Find our parking space, log our arrival time and reimburse our fees if we’ve spent the right amount in the right places.

When we’re in, direct us to offers we’ll find attractive from brands we follow, guide us to the right in-store concession, then allow us to pay for it or order it if there’s no stock available. Also offer alternative local stores to continue the experience.

This should be a brand-agnostic experience. We need to see everything relevant as no one wants to fill their phone or watch with apps for each brand or service.

The House

“Why is the fridge empty?” “because it forgot to reorder groceries”. How long before we’re blaming our devices for the things we used to take responsibility for? This is an important section to cover in the ‘Internet of Things (IoT)’ but manufacturers have made a lot of progress here, we just haven’t adopted it all yet. Our phones can tell our thermostats we’re nearly home ensuring optimal temperature upon our arrival, saving energy and avoiding discomfort. We can control all the lights with an app and the full entertainment system can deliver playlisted content from dusk till dawn.

I have a wifi-enabled kettle controlled by an app. Do I need it? No. Do I want it? Yes, but I’m not normal. The challenge ahead is the same faced by auto manufacturers – what to leave out. We can automate almost anything but some things just don’t need to be connected.

The Event

Let’s talk music. You buy an album, or maybe you don’t. You stream the album without paying for it, you follow your favourite band but where’s the depth? Well, there’s the concert but this is hardly a regular occurrence so the future for connecting artists with their audiences lies in the ability of devices to extend the main event throughout our daily routines.

Audio watermarking offers an incredible opportunity to not only deliver stunning live light shows at venues and through second screen interaction, but also monitor listening habits and reward fans based on music played and ‘collected’.

Connected devices should steer us to the music we want, help us buy, build or consume, then lead us to performances with specific ‘money-can’t-buy’ rewards to keep us coming back for more.

Voice activation is one input method that spans all the above. In a perfect world, this form of interaction could offer the best solution for hands-free, platform and device agnostic progress. In reality, we have social boundaries to cross and habits to break before verbal outbursts on train platforms or in the office are acceptable. It’s less of an issue in the home or car, but we’re not happy to shout at our devices in public. I give it five years, but let’s avoid innovation for innovation’s sake.

2015 Shorty Awards: A Year of Living Dangerously

It’s been a whole year since my last Shorty Awards campaign. Here I am again, but everything has changed! The Apps category is no more so I’m championing an entirely new category… #Innovation.

Last year I reached the final and headed to New York only to miss out on the night. You think the Oscars are competitive, the Shorties are even more cutthroat!

This time, I’d love your votes in a category that will only exist if we work together. There isn’t currently an Innovation category but if I receive enough votes, it’s possible the Real-Time Academy will make it official.

There's no 'I' in Shorty Awards but it is all about the individual. Having said that, the cutting-edge innovation only happens thanks to the brilliant Brandwidth team.

Here’s the link to take you directly to the voting screen, just double check the drop-down box shows ‘Other’ and the text contains the hashtag #Innovation (plus your reason for voting for me of course). We can do this! 

Add your vote! < THIS IS THE REALLY IMPORTANT LINK TO VOTE

If you need more convincing, here’s the campaign video featuring Brandwidth’s Star Wars Scene Maker app for Lucasfilm, the incredible Maleficent multi-touch book for Disney, the Bernhoft Islander HD music app, my TEDx Athens 4D app experience and my Oculus Rift Light Saber battle with Apptain America at Silicon Beach.

Oh, and Olivia and Hattie in their own virtual worlds…

To add even more depth, here’s the summary of my Shorty Awards Interview and my thoughts following defeat in New York last year.

Thanks!