03 September 2002

Paid: The Economics of Content Silicon Alley writer Rafat Ali write about paid-for content online, on phones etc. Ie: everywhere the "paid for" in paid-for content isn't baked in (newspapers etc) [via Werblog] 5:31:44 PM     comments

The grammar of the graphical interface Matthew Thomas sees GUIs as dialects of a language, itself modelled on speech*. In this language, different kinds of windows take the place of parts of speech. For instance: (Graphical interface / Spoken language) alert / interjection dialog / adjective or adverb utility window / noun document window / proper noun progress window / verb floating window / parenthesis and so on. * Obviously Derrideans start cracking their knuckles at this point. 5:03:54 PM     comments

Ten lessons learned from Netscape's flirtation with Open Source UI development Number one is "Don't skip the design stage". Many of Peter Trudelle's lessons are basics that apply to any project. And Matthew Thomas' reply to Peter shows that there was a lot of process-related pain in that project as well. Joel Spolsky comments that geographic distance does not permit good design: It's very frustrating doing any kind of design work, architectural or UI, with a dispersed group of volunteers. Things which Matthew could have persuaded someone in person at a whiteboard in five minutes took hours of typing into Bugzilla. [...] There just isn't enough bandwidth to do good design when a team is geographically dispersed. I'm not saying it can't be done at all, but the results are vastly better when the entire team is physically in the same location. I'm convinced of this, and will never agree to do software development with a dispersed team. but Mathew isn't so sure, citing incompetence, the interface being munged by commercial requirements, and interesting notes on why free software usability tends to suck (and why it sucks, redux) instead. There's no doubt though that geographic distance can make product development more complicated (and nb geography may also introduce language or even cultural distance), but even within the office, there's a kind of motivational "distance" at work between the different disciplines of engineering, design, marketing... [via magnus] 5:02:51 PM     comments

WSJ: Building brand names using sound Linguists say that in your brand name, b is a relaxing sound, z is daring. Etc. Naming consultants have traditionally focused on semantic associations -- that is, names whose parts evoke some desirable association. That approach gave us everything from Qualcomm ("quality" and "communications") and Verizon ("horizon," as in forward-looking) to Intel ("intelligent" and "electronics") and PeopleSoft. But as winning hybrids of real words become scarcer than a telecom firm with a rising stock price, some naming consultants are advising brand managers to tap different synapses in their customers' brains: those linking the raw sounds of vowels and consonants -- known as phonemes -- to specific meanings and even emotions. [...] What naming consultants are finding is that sound has power. Semantically, for instance, the name "BlackBerry" suggests accessibility; "berry" also connotes smallness compared with other hand-helds. But phonologically, according to Lexicon's research, respondents rate the b sound as most strongly suggesting relaxation. In other words, the two b's say that using this hand-held won't require a 200-page manual. The short vowels in the first two syllables lend crispness: pushing a few buttons will quickly accomplish your goal. The alliteration conveys light-heartedness, much as Kit Kat does. The final y, says Dr. [Cynthia] Whissell, who has no connection to any naming company, "is very pleasant and friendly, which is why you often find it in nicknames." See also the UK's Radio Advertising Bureau promoting use of sonic brand triggers or "Ear-worms". RAB says that SBTs are important because they allow unmistakable branding, operate at the emotional level, and can sneak in under the awareness radar (they cite "Ohrwurm", a German word meaning "ear-worm", which refers to the way in which sounds can enter the brain via the ear, and is also suggestive of how invasive this can be and how difficult such sounds are to get back out again!). Relevant for: brands that are advertise on radio and tv (think of Intel's four-note ba-bing-ba-bing audio brand), but even more so for brands whose key interface with their customers is on the phone. Eg: phone companies, telephony services, call-centres... 8:42:21 AM     comments

3G might actually happen then: EC to allow 3G license cost-sharing MMO2 and T-Mobile are expected to save up to £3bn in rolling out their German and UK networks by cost-sharing one network. Although nb monopoly concerns, etc. 8:39:57 AM     comments

Ericsson will nix SonyEricsson JV if it doesn't show results by 2003 Ericsson is to pull out of handset making and end its co-operation with Sony if the pair's mobile phone joint venture does not achieve good results in a year. SonyEricsson was created in October last year to salvage the loss making handset units of both firms, but an $86m loss in April-June puts the whole party in doubt. In the underground bunker in Finland they laughed, and turned back to their plans to destroy the PDA/mobile combo upstarts. 8:38:37 AM     comments

BBC: Vodafone buys out Vivendi from their Vizzavi JV Voda will pay E142.7m, Viv will get to keep Vizz France, and VodaVizz will be down to 450 heads - does it even need that many?. Vodafone Live (ie picture messaging?, due October 2002) will apparently be the revenue engine that allows Vizzavi to break even this year. Winding up mobile-content-portal JVs must be the theme of the day, as Carphone is buying AOL out of their JV, Mviva. Meanwhile, back in Newbury, Vodafone may be preparing a hostile bid for SFR. It's all very complicated because a whole load o' telcos own various percentages of each other but it boils down to: Voda may want to buy SFR, Vivendi would probably resist. 8:28:26 AM     comments