This over-the-top, educational Flash piece should win an award. It's funny, accurate and informational.

2e Creative created a cute little Flash piece to showcase their creativeness for the Holiday Season. Nice work, but to be in tune with the times they should have made a video and put it on YouTube.

It's difficult to be creative.

Every agency is trying to reach their client’s audience in a new way. One way is tapping into the organic communication that evolves from web communities and Zipatoni is no different.

Zipatoni tried and failed with their latest “viral” escapade, “All I want for Xmas is a PSP.” I credit them for trying to do something new. The risk was high and I hope they realized that, but the effort fell short.

Any agency experimenting with new marketing will fail more than succeed. However, one thing that is sure to fail, is being a fake. Honesty rules and advertising agencies must realize this is the only way to get through to today’s over-exposed, anti-ad culture. One has to give to get and a shill will be exposed and ostracized immediately from the sensitive, but powerful websphere and subsequent marketplace.

The rath of gamers and proponents of new marketing has been ugly. Just Google or search Technorati for countless rants against Zip and Sony.

Some say any publicity is good publicity, but if it costs Zip their client and Sony thousands of dollars in damage control this may not be the case. I guess the proof is PSP sales figures.

The PSP fake blog offline as of writing this, but here’s one example of the response from the public. Merry Christmas Mr. Creative Director.

Although I have not thoroughly explored it yet, MailChimp seems to be a promising email distribution service worth a look.

The concept of Barely Sufficient in web development and project management was first introduced to me as part of Agile methodologies. When learning about Agile, a practitioner of waterfall methodologies, like myself, often thinks Agile means reckless development without planning and documentation – do,do,do; redo; then do some more. But the real message Agile preaches is not to do too much planning or documenting because things change rapidly during the lifecycle of a project. Only do what is Barely Sufficient regarding planning and documenting and the real progress is made by actually writing code.

Time spent on documentation is essential regardless of the methodology. It requires careful thought to write something that others will read and use as information for development. This exercise exposes gaps in requirements and can help uncover problems ahead. It is also used to communicate to stakeholders their needs will be addressed. The amount of time spent on documentation is directly proportional to the type of audience for which it is intended and the size of the project. Technical folks probably require more details than management. Marketing folks are probably more interested in content and design than the technical under-workings of a site. Write only what is needed to move the project to the next step. Then at a later time add more as needed. It will probably be more accurate than if it was written when less was known.

Barely sufficient can also be applied to how much programming is required. It is wise to write only enough code to meet the requirements. Then, if there are changes, less rework is needed. The trick is knowing the exact requirements and goals, making sure they’re correct by effectively communicating with the stakeholders and communicating them properly to the team for execution - easier said than done.

The bottom line: efficiency is time and money. Barely Sufficient goes a long way in keeping unnecessary work out of the project saving resources for things that matter.

Web 2.0 logos from TechCrunch. See any similarlities?

While at STLUX06 last week Nathan Verrill gave a thought provoking presentation on intuitive vs. learned behavior. Intuitive behavior is the natural ability to accomplish tasks without any training or prior experience, while learned behavior is the ability to accomplish tasks with training or prior experience.

Most folks think for something to have a high degree of usability, it must be intuitive. Cars that operate similarly and application interface menus that all begin with File, Edit, View… are easiliy understood, but can they be called intuitive? They're learned. Simple, but still learned. The practice of providing a predictable user experience is considered intuitive, perhaps wrongly, and is suited for certain situations where practicality is desired, but it’s boring.

Some web design projects call for good usability plus something extra that provides a memorable user experience - some excitement. In order to provide this type of experience standards must be pushed. This is fine as long as what is designed is easily learned. Whether it’s navigation menus, forms or rich media interaction, people are intrigued by a challenge -- as long as it isn’t too difficult. Once the “secret” is grasped, the user is off and running -- again, a learned behavior.

Not relying on user intuition and counting on learned behavior expands boundaries and keeps web sites interesting and evolving. If we did just the same ol’ thing all the time, sites would surely be usable, but the web wouldn’t be nearly as interesting.

I like the St. Louis RCGA. They make a huge effort to do a lot of positive things for the City, but they have issues, especially with marketing. Their new campaign to promote St. Louis on a national level comes with a new identity.

This is weak. I hope it was cheap, but it doesn't sound like it...

From archcitypundit.com

The St. Louis ads will begin running in mid-April.marking the first time the slogan and logo will appear before a large national audience. The local marketing campaign is part of a larger, $20 million economic development program that’s being led by the St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association.The five-year program was crafted amid concerns that St. Louis has trailed the nation in job growth over the last 30 years. The plan is being funded with public and private dollars…

The RCGA also has a new web site. It's better than the old one, but what's with the site search at the bottom of the page - that's real handy.

Yesterday was the St. Louis User Experience Conference 2006 held on the campus of Monsanto. The venue was outstanding. Overall it was a good event for a crazy low price of $30. St. Louis doesn’t have many events like this to attend, so hat's off to the organizers.

The day was divided into six sessions with two topic options for each slot, ending with a keynote on The Future of Digital Product Design by Dirk Knemeyer. The brevity of each session kept the day moving, but having only 45 minutes per presentation allowed only the surface to be scratched. More than anything, the speakers provided food for thought and resources for additional research.

Many of the presenters outlined case studies of past UX projects. Although they didn’t talk numbers, they did elaborate on work hours and durations to accomplish certain activities. I found this particularly interesting. Mostly for me it will provide fodder for a few blog posts and some concepts I can use in my business. What more could I ask? Don’t miss next year’s event.

Also, November 14, 2006 is World Usability Day. The St. Louis Science Center is having special exhibits all day.

The Viral Garden is a blog about marketing by Mark Collier. He lists the top 25 marketing blogs each week. I'm not sure how he gets his data, but it's a nice resource.

Most children's entertainment sites feature primary color layouts, cute characters, simplistic animations and obnoxious sound bites. Leave it up to the Japanese with their own style of children’s media to lead these sites to the next level.

Toonami, a cartoon on The Cartoon Network, has come up with their own streaming media site, Toonami Jet Stream

Awesome design, cutting-edge Flash work, really cool.

The creator’s parent company, Vis Media, although newly formed, is poised to bring other Japanese media to the Net. Hopefully the days of the animated GIF and lame Flash game are soon over.

I guess my interest in this site lies in the fact it's a kid's site, but it isn't designed as such; yet the site is appealing to kids. They are sophisticated enough to understand "adult" design.

Taken further, the general adult public is often considered not sophisticated enough to appreciate and understand good contemporary design and are often handed the same old crap.

The moral of this story: don't underestimate your audience and don't be afraid to push the limits. If the work is done well, they'll get it.

BJC HealthCare, headquartered in St. Louis, MO, recently won a Silver Award for its web site, http://www.bjc.org.

The Aster Awards Program provides national-level recognition for healthcare organizations and advertising agencies who strive for excellence in medical marketing.

As part of the team responisible for the design, I am happy to see BJC and our work get this distinction. BJC puts a lot of effort in creating great health and wellness content for BJC and all their member facilities.

Congratulations BJC.

Because of Amazon.com and other mega ecommerce sites, online shopping has hit the mainstream and consumers expect their experience to be easy and flawless.

Shopping carts come in a wide variety of configurations and the basic functions of allowing a user to save items in a basket, create an order and process a transaction are common to every one. That is just the tip of the iceberg. Regardless of choosing an ASP solution, pre-built app, or custom development, the details require careful analysis to ensure the cart will meet all business requirements. Here are some things to think about and questions to ask.

Inventory

The meat and potatoes of a store are the products. Map out fully how products are categorized and make sure the shopping cart accommodates this structure. Document all the attributes a product can have: name, description, photos, size, color, options, SKUs, and special customer part numbers to name a few. Is it necessary to show a sample or excerpt like a sound clip of music, or table of contents of a book? Does the store inventory need to be tied to in-stock product availability?

Orders

Are orders taken individually or as part of a user account? Do partial orders need to be shipped seperately? How long do orders need to be stored?

Accounts

Another important part of an e-store is how user accounts are handled. Are customers required to log in at some point during the shopping process thus creating an account? At what point? Is this optional?

An account may take a user some extra time to initially complete, but the benefits are worth it: saved personal info expedites the next purchase, orders are grouped under an account providing a history, and preferences such as saved products, and special pricing can be established.

Accounting

How is the store tied to the brick and mortar business accounting software? Is there an easy way to get order and customer info in and out of the store? Some have APIs or modules that make the downloading orders a one click effort.

Shipping

Businesses handle shipping an infinite number of ways. Which carrier? (UPS, USPS, FedEx, other) Is there a separate handling charge? If so, is it a flat rate, percent of shipping cost or order total? Again, are partial orders shipped? Does everything get shipped from the same location and to the same address?

Payment

Credit cards, which ones? Checks? PO numbers? Split payment? When is the transaction processed, at time of purchase, when shipped or when received?

Security

Use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology with at least 128 bit encryption. Also encrypt any stored Social Security numbers and financial account numbers. Make sure the handling of any Personally Identifiable Information (PII) meets Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security standards. Security is paramount and regulations are getting stricter every day.

Sales Tax

Collecting sales tax? In which states? Some states have rates by county. Will the cart calculate these? Perhaps some products will be taxed and other not. Some customers may be tax exempt. Can the cart handle this?

International

Are orders going to be accepted from countries other than the US? Which ones? Other currencies accepted? Can the shipping address be in another country than the billing address?

Promotions

Are promotions important? Some merchants like to provide a promotional code to select customers for discounts. What other types of promotion does the business require?

Pricing

Most shopping carts can accommodate one price per products, but what else is needed? Many businesses have different prices for different customers (wholesale, retail, VIP). Do products need to be priced “on sale” for a specific timeframe?

Reviews

Some retailers like to allow customers to write reviews for products. Is this important?

Wish List

Much like a basket, the wish list allows customers to save items outside of the cart.

Email to a Friend

This can be for any items or just those in the wish list.

Related Products

Up-selling can be a powerful marketing tool. By relating product to each other, customers maybe introduced to items they didn’t know existed or are needed with a particular product.

Statistics and Reporting

In addition to typical site visitor statistics, e-stores often supply data that helps companies cater their inventory or improve the store: Most or least frequently ordered item, customer with the most orders, average order amount, state with highest number of orders…

There are many more things to consider when gatheing the requirements for e-commerce. Selling online has become easier and less expensive, but not simpler. Make sure to ask the right questions and make the best decision based on the requirements. Customers will not tolerate a sloppy and risky ecommerce experience.