Solving mysteries at 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius).
October 21, 2013 Leave a comment
Here’s the presentation that Tim Parcell and I gave at Big D 2013, October 19th, 2013 in Addison, Texas.
In it we discuss various cognitive biases that affect how your customers act, along with ways to design around those biases.
Most of the content was voiced over, so just reviewing the slides may not be awesome. But if/when I get the video/audio of the presentation, I’ll post that too.
October 19, 2013 Leave a comment
If you have to present last, and you are the only thing between them and the bar, being beers.
June 5, 2012 Leave a comment
I recently had the privilege of presenting at the Big Design Conference in Addison, Texas with my colleague Tim Parcell. Since it was a design/UX focused event we decided to present on the way that we partner together to make the work better. We showed our different POVs on user wants/needs – mine, as a planner/strategist, tends to focus more on emotional needs, attitudes, and feelings. Tim, as an experience designer, tends to concentrate more on rational and functional needs and tasks to be completed.
We talked about the need to build better experiences for our customers and the crowded marketplace full of distractions and commodity products that makes the job of the advertiser considerably more difficult than it was in Don Draper‘s day.
And we talked about ways that designers can bring a strategic point of view to their work, whether it’s at an agency, or in-house on the client side.
Here’s the presentation we gave, I hope you enjoy it:
And for those of you who don’t like slide decks, one of the attendees live-sketched the presentation and shared her sketch with us:
February 9, 2012 Leave a comment
BlueTrain Mobile asked me to “pen” a guest blog about mobile at CES. You can read the post on their blog.
The post covers a couple of topics, what’s new in the world of mobile and how mobile devices were being used by attendees as CES.
Enjoy!
February 8, 2012 Leave a comment
If you love what you read here and on Twitter, and want to see me speak live, I’ll be presenting at the Big (D)esign conference in Addison, Texas with my colleague Tim Parcell. We hope to see you there!
Session: Defining the New Partnership
Speaker: Ezra Englebardt
Speaker: Timothy ParcellTrack: Strategy
Day: Friday, June 1st, 2012
Time: 3:00pm
Length: 1 hour
For years, Art and Copy ruled the roost in the worlds of advertising and design. But as brand interactions shift from passive to active experiences, the way we connect to customers requires a new partnership. Sapientnitro believes that Brand Strategists and Experience Designers play an integral role in delivering the work that breaks through the noise.
This new partnership is critical during the initial stages of client engagement (discovery, defining) through completion (designing, developing, deploying). Whether we’re redesigning lenscrafters.com or building interactive menu boards for Dunkin’ Donuts, a strong partnership between strategy and experience design is at the foundation of all our work.
What You Will Learn:
- How these two disciplines can partner together to deliver a better end result
- How to get involved in the process/concepting sooner
- How to stay involved longer and actually build things
- How to position yourself, and this new partnership, within your company/agency
January 23, 2012 4 Comments
Here’s a video recap of my trip to CES 2012. Enjoy!
And for more from my trip check out these other posts:
January 13, 2012 5 Comments
My third (and final) day at CES was definitely not as inspiring as the first two, as I had already been through most of the booths. But I still managed to get find a few new and exciting things.
The most interesting thing I saw yesterday was Microsoft Windows 8. I saw a little of it on day 2 but didn’t really linger too long. A colleague suggested that I go watch a demo and I was really impressed. The demo began with on a tablet, with their “metro” interface. It’s gorgeous, seamless, and seems to have a great UI. The demonstrator then moved to a laptop with keyboard and mouse and the experience continued just as seamlessly. Combined with the new Windows Mobile phones I saw here this week, I have to say that I’m very impressed. Very impressed.
If you know me, you know that I am a pretty diehard Apple loyalist. Until today I wouldn’t have even considered a non-Apple computer for my next laptop. But now, I’m open to the idea. I’m still not sold, the good people up in Redmond still have ways to go to sell me, but they’ve gotten through my initial defenses and I’d consider switching, even to their phone.
But the big issue I have with switching is how entrenched I am with Apple. All the apps I bought would be money down the drain if I leave. And that’s a big deal. Plus the “cost” of learning a new OS. It’s a lot to think about, but like I said, I’m open to the idea. I can’t wait until these devices and Windows 8 are out in the wild so I can play with them.
And as always, here are some pics from today:
SapientNitro's own Freddie Laker testing out a tricked out Smart Car
The Nokia Lumia 900 won "best phone" from CNET and runs new Windows Mobile OS. Really nice looking.
I was so excited to meet the team from Nest, unfortunately they weren't in their suite when I stopped by.
An awesome concept car from Mercedes.
Day 3. Brings the total to around 25K, or 12 miles. Not bad for three days of work (especially since I didn't count all the steps I took when I was out at night).
And once again, I shot some video. Bringing the total number of clips to over 300. My editor should have fun with that (Sorry Brittany!). As soon as the video’s done, you can be sure I’ll post it here.
Also, today was another banner day Hot Tub Crime Machine. At 1,566 views, today was my new best day ever! Thanks everyone!
Update: Here are my highlights from CES Day 1 and Day 2 (and if you prefer video format, click here)
January 12, 2012 5 Comments
On my first day at CES I saw these Recon Instruments MOD Live goggles and was instantly smitten. My buddy Ian thought so too and shot a quick video about them for the Weber Shandwick Social Studies blog. Check it out here:
And if you want some more of the MOD Live, here’s their official video:
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January 12, 2012 11 Comments
Another amazing day at CES. Although I have to say, the exhibits we saw yesterday weren’t quite as new/exciting/interesting as the first day, but still some great new tech.
The big hit of the day for me was LG. Having recently bought an LG LED TV I am a little biased. But they have so many great products coming out. From the world’s largest OLED TV, to amazing Cinema 3D displays, to innovative home appliances, like these vacuums and a cool fridge.
Similar to a Roomba, this robot vacuum keeps your house cleaning and doubles as a surveillance system you can monitor on the web or on your mobile device.
This LG canister vacuum has "follow along" technology that self-propels the base to keep up with you as you clean. No pulling the base with you, it drives itself!
The blast chiller cabinet in this LG fridge sucks cold area from the freezer into a small box to rapidly chill a bottle of beer to 41 degrees (f) in just 4 minutes.
The Emperor 200 chair/workstation has three screens that can raise and lower, creating a "cocoon" of productivity
Victorinox just released this thumb sized one terabyte solid-state drive today at CES. It has an e-ink display and biometric security. I have to disclose that they are a SapinetNitro client, but this is still awesome.
The all new electric DeLorean. So cool. Not loving the decals they stuck all over it, but it's still awesome.
Matt and I riding the double-decker bus home from the convention center
8876 steps today, not bad. But not as good as yesterday.
That’s it for day two (actually there is a lot more, but you’ll have to wait for the video and/or accompanying presentation).
Also, I have to give a huge shoutout to the WordPress.com team for featuring Hot Tub Crime Machine on their “Freshly Pressed” section. I received almost 1000 visits to yesterday’s review of CES, setting a new record for the site. If you want to see that post, it’s here.
Update: Here are my highlights from CES Day 3 (and if you prefer video format, click here)
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