After weeks of hoop-jumping with the YouTube API, the new Fridge Raiders site, aka ‘Carnivorous World’ went live quietly at the end of last week. I say quietly as there was a TV ad going out at the same time but, alas, despite pleading with the client, the URL failed to make it into the final frame of the ad. This was disappointing and has forced us to spam all our friends; getting them to join the Facebook group or befriend the star of the ad on MySpace in order to spread the word about the accompanying competition.
The new TV ad
Back to the site. We devised a competition to ask users to view the new TV ad, film their own alternative ending and upload it to the site. When you watch the shortened ad, it throws up all sorts of possibilities for video shenanigans. The winners (as voted for by the public) will receive one of four DVD Camcorders.
We used the YouTube API as it allowed us to upload videos and video responses to YouTube direct from our own site and add/edit user and video metadata (titles, descriptions, ratings, comments, favorites, contacts). This saved a load of time and the pain of building out own software.
There’s the other usual stuff on the site, nutritional information and past competition winners.
We’re just waiting for the hordes of users to get their video phones out.
Yesterday, I attended the Future of Web Design conference here in London. Organised by Carsonified (formerly Carson Systems), it was the usual blend of speakers; from one-man-band designer/developers to agency creatives and in-house staff. And no, no one said what the future would be!
The presentations ranged in interest (for me) but on the whole they were very good. There were some great snippets of wit and wisdom to take away, reuse, repurpose and deploy in my own presentations.
Prize for best visual presentation goes to Steve Pearce of Poke - a place I’ve always secretly wanted to work. I loved his approach to crafting his presentation. Basically, he drew (or had drawn) a bunch of characters and icons on bits of paper and post-it notes, stuck them to the wall, photographed them and inserted them into Keynote. The presentation then just looked like a pan around the wall which told a lovely narrative with wit. As someone who hates PowerPoint with a passion and all the associated bulleted lists, this was a breath of fresh air for me.
Andy Budd’s talk on designing the user experience curve gave some great examples of real-world examples of great customer service and linked them well to fit in an online environment.
Elliot Jay Stocks exclaimed that Print is the new web! As a print designer in a previous life I really clicked with this. With the help of some Khoi Vinh quotes he made some good points about the need for more narrative in web design, pointing out Shaun Inman’s site where the older blog posts fade over time so that their importance is diminished.
One of the most entertaining talks of the day was Jon Hicks’s talk about transitioning from design into development. Made what could be a very dry subject both funny and informative. A rare thing indeed. Who’d have thought that cheese could be so interesting?
Lastly, Daniel Burka of Digg and Pownce gave some great insight into evolving the user experience. He made reference to Stewart Brand’s book ‘How Building Learn‘, in particular his reference to hi- and low-road architecture. Hi-road involving lots of planning and design, long evolution and the end result feels like a monument. Low-road is more about being modular, rapid, light-weight, dare I say it Agile. I’m definitely more of a low-road guy. Thankfully, that was his advocation for approaching web design and build. Again, some great tips to take away and reuse.
There were some talks that weren’t so relevant or interesting. Having practiced this stuff for nearly a decade, there are some things that I’m pretty well versed in. Not that I’m saying I have no more to learn. I’m sure I do. In many areas. But I just felt that some of it was a little ‘Getting started in web design’. But I suppose it’s quite difficult to pitch these things right, there was a wide cross-section of people there and this may have given sections of the audience some great ammunition to use in fighting their own battles.
All in all, a very good conference. My second time of attending, I’m sure to book up again next year. Perhaps by then we’ll know what the future is!
On arriving home last Friday we were greeted by a part open front window, footprints on the windowsill and gouge marks to the bottom of the window frame.
Suffice to say, we’d had a visit from some uninvited… [insert derogatory expletive]. They’d wrenched the front sash window, which had pulled the lock screws out of their holes. They must have used some force.
The list of missing items was small, but none the less distressing and, thank God, nothing of important or deeply sentimental value. However, as any Mac lover / user will say, losing your machine is a big thing. Especially if that machine is your 6 week old MacBook Air!
Yep, it’s gone. But thankfully my ‘main’ machine (MacBook Pro) was locked up at work and on which resides all my music, photos, apps and general clutter that you amass over time. The Air was pretty clean, standard install stuff, but I was still prompted to spend and hour in an internet cafe on Saturday morning changing passwords to things like flickr, jaiku, del.icio.us, pownce, WordPress, YouTube, facebook, linkedIn, the list went on. Anything else was backed up on my Lacie pocket drive.
Anyway, what’s done is done. I’m severely hacked off but thankfully, safe and well…
This has prompted me, however, to make a purchase of Orbicule’s, Undercover software. This will now sit on my Pro and new Air - when the insurance finally cough up. There would be nothing better that to track the thieving scumbags down with a bit of cyber investigation.
For what it’s worth, I will be publishing the serial number of the stolen machine when I hunt down the receipt. Just on the off chance…
The much anticipated web-based version of Photoshop has launched. It’s a public beta. Initial reports say it is vastly cut down from the original. Surely not? You mean you thought they were going to do an entire online version in Flex and Flash and do themselves out of $[insert, large, number] of revenue each year? They even need to be careful not to overlap with Photoshop Elements. They’re also offering 2GB of free web space - which is nice.
Photoshop Express Home Page
I haven’t used it yet, but will no doubt give it a whirl in the next few days. Even though I have a fully CS3′d up machine, I’ll look on this in the same way I treat my MacBook Air. A lightweight nut cracker to crack a nut home-based tool. An iPhoto retouching replacement rather than a Photoshop replacement - if that makes sense.
