tagged: observations

January 5, 2012

Screens abroad

I took this photograph at Da Nang Airport, in Vietnam. The girl’s parents were both on their phones about 20 yards away.

Although it shouldn’t surprise me, I was struck by the number of iPads and laptops I saw on our recent travels. Especially the former. Even in remote places, being ferried by minibus to other remote places, the iPads were out; our need for entertainment is not to be suppressed by the risk of loss or theft, or even the view out of the window.

I think this photograph captures things perfectly: the little girl’s YouTube trance; the opportune use of an airport power socket; the role of laptop as temporary guardian; the prioritisation of stimulus over comfort – and the illusory sense of privacy created by hiding behind a metal post.

Seems the whole world is destined to become a ‘second screen’.

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September 6, 2011

Posters with benefits

Friends With Benefits looks like the sort of film I would never watch. Ever. The title, the poster, the actors… everything about it says “Andy, this is NOT for you”.

Then, last night I noticed an amusing detail in the poster. It might not look like a ‘detail’ here (as I type, I realise how blatant it is) but on the buses I’ve seen it flash past on, I didn’t notice it the first six or seven times.

I appreciate gestures like this. It reminds me of the adult touches that appear in children’s programmes like Sesame Street. It says: OK, this is a bit lame and probably not your thing, BUT it’s made by people who are more like you than you think and who want to sprinkle in some less lame stuff.

Just to be clear: I will still NEVER watch this movie. But still.

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March 9, 2011

Being greyed out

I caught a bit of The Apprentice last night. (Normally something I try to avoid catching) A guy was inevitably fired and during his eviction interview, he shared his biggest frustration:

“Now I’m going to be greyed out on the NBC site. I hate being greyed out!”

I like it when web vernacular enters casual conversation. And this concludes my light point. Hello Wednesday.

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March 8, 2011

Misery Bear, master of the Universe

If you haven’t watched any Misery Bear videos I highly recommend them. They are very funny/charming/sad/lovely. The below example is a recent one, supporting Comic Relief in the UK. (I recommend watching the others though, which are more brilliant)

My wife and I are big fans. And in fact, she just wrote this in an email to me:

“I love misery bear. I like how he can’t just close a book. he always has to karate chop/swipe it off the table.”

This sums up the charm of Misery Bear beautifully. I think a fair bit about ‘dramatised doing’ in my work. If traditional advertising is about dramatising messages, I think digital can often be about dramatising doing; giving people richer, more caricaturised ways of doing things they love. Becoming a Foursquare Mayor is just one example.

Anyway, we love Misery Bear because somehow when he karate chops a book shut, it contains more emotion and meaning that even a human being doing it more realistically, even though the human action is technically more ‘relevant’.

The world needs more karate chopping, when simply ‘closing’ would have done.

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March 7, 2011

Forced serendipity

I just downloaded Benrik‘s Situationist app, which “alerts members to each other’s proximity and gets them to interact in random situations.”

So I can create ‘situations’ like “wave to me” or “buy me a sandwich” and other members of Situationist who are nearby will be shown a picture of my face and asked to play along. Hence this.

Anyway, the app starts up with this opening sentence:

“Serendipity doesn’t happen by itself.”

I love this sentence. It sums up so much about our obsession with control, new tools and new social opportunities. Of course, serendipity does happen by itself – just not enough, apparently. We therefore want to engineer it, whilst clinging to the romanticism of what we’re leaving behind. Forced serendipity is an oxymoron. Maybe we need a new word for this kind of thing.

For associated reading, see Matt Jones’ words about “maximising serendipity” and “coincidences with fuzzy edges” in the design of the Dopplr ecosystem.

HT to Dom

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February 27, 2011

The old blog post

Went to the Cotswolds last week – and then Canterbury. Lots of old stuff there.

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January 21, 2011

Six more forgotten observations

I posted some ‘forgotten observations’ ages ago. By which I mean I posted photos from my phone and tried to remember why I found them interesting. Here goes again:

1. Life imitates web
This is the bit of paper that came with my Brabantia bin. I was fascinated to see this visual guide to registering the product online. Although it’s ugly in design, it’s also quite smart. (Amusing that the URL wasn’t shown though)

2. Bad, bad copy writing – hate, hate
This was the last straw for me, regarding the unnaturally-friendly-copy epidemic. BANKS SHOULD NOT TALK LIKE THIS. It’s try-hard, it’s not credible and basically a bullshitty attempt at being cute. It completely undermines the apparently professional service its customers have complimented them for.

3. Computer chess flashback!
I found this in my dad’s house. It was a prized possession of mine in about 1991. Nice to remember that ‘computer chess’ once meant a plastic box like this. On difficulty setting four (of eight) it took the computer 25 minutes to make each move. I did not bother with setting five.

4. Browsers hit the big time
We’ve all seen Chrome ads covering the streets. I thought this billboard told a particularly potent story. It was the only ad in eyesight and loomed across the motorway like Big Brother’s watchful eye. It was not long ago that the idea of a browser looming over anything would have been farfetched.

5.  Protection Master
What a title. I wonder how much protection he’s the master of.  Or maybe he had the uniform made especially for his role in whatever video game he’s playing.

6. Warning – things may EXPLODE
Saw this safety/theft warning in a clothes store and enjoyed the visual approach. Who needs words when you can illustrate someone’s potential shame. Would be even better with the word BOOM superimposed on it and a person crying.

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October 4, 2010

Ram raided by a pigeon

A pigeon flew into our bedroom window yesterday. Look at the mark it left. You can see the head, body and wings perfectly – like a cartoon. If you look close (which my iPhone camera was incapable of) you can also see its eye(!)


Sad and hilarious. Happy Monday everyone. Except for the pigeon of course.

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September 26, 2010

Point-and-click reality

The first time I ‘reached’ for the <undo> button in real life was in 2000. I was drawing something, made a bad mark and – just for a second – went to click the button that would reverse things. We’ve all done that. I think.

Back to the present. Last Friday, actually. I had been playing Beneath A Steel Sky on my iPhone, a point-and-click adventure game. I – or rather, my character -  needed to find a radiation suit, so he/I/we could go into a nuclear reactor. Like this:


I was playing on the bus and hadn’t managed to find the suit by the time I reached my stop. Minutes later, I saw these outside a hardware store:


For just a moment, I felt a pang of excitement. Not those-are-my-lottery-numbers excitement. Just a modest rush of chemicals associated with the pleasure at moving forward in the  game. It didn’t last long, of course. I didn’t put the jacket on and scream ‘which way to the reactor?’ But it happened. And I felt a bit weird about it.

I don’t play video games much. Does this kind of thing happen a lot to gamers?

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September 24, 2010

Cartoon button in real life

I’ve always loved it in cartoons when a broken button/knob pops from its unit and hangs on a spring. It’s one of those things you wish happened in real life when buttons stop working. Well, finally it has happened. I saw this last night. Happy days.

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