Popular NY grocery delivery service, FreshDirect, recently launched their long-anticipated iPhone app with the help of Schematic. Alex Rainert shared some great insights about the design process on his blog, everydayUX. Chris Bray, Director of Technology at Schematic, has a great summary of the project as well. There is also a Wall Street Journal’s article on the app in the Digits blog.
If you are as excited about the FreshDirect iPhone app as we are then you should celebrate the release by entering for a chance to win a gift card worth $500 in FreshDirect food, plus a $500 gift card to the Apple Store. Nine lucky second-place prizes will win a $200 Apple gift card, plus $100 in FreshDirect food.
As I reviewed this debut of HP’s “wall of touch” I felt conflicted, a mix of happy and sad emotions. On one hand, I’m glad to see a large technology company investing in the development of publically available DOOH interactive walls because I feel they are an excellent medium for collaborative interactions. That is the end of my happiness…
Sadly…. the technology shown is simply a video wall with a camera based touch layer that appears to only supports up to 2 touches. For such as large display this feels counter intuitive. At first I thought that maybe it was a large TouchSmart display, which is how they positioned the release but it’s far from it. This is basically is a single user experience designed for people to watch an operator “play” with visually rich content on a large display. The technology needed to develop multi-user, multi-touch experiences is complicated, Schematic knows all too well how difficult this is since we created one in 2009, so I thought HP was breaking new ground towards a similar solution. Here is a video showing it in use.
This seems like a technology searching for a purpose. The stated use case for the wall of touch is primarily about calling up any content on the large display and having users interact with it as they would a website or TV channel. For HP it seems to be all about simple navigation to launch an application with no real consideration for why or how this unique form factor can improve upon the experience. The lack of UI design and multi-user collaboration proves to me that this is a technology project not a well thought through interactive platform.
Lets hope that once a few of these are deployed that interactive agencies like Schematic can begin to create custom content and experiences for the wall of touch that can harness its true potential.
Granted this is just conceptual right now, but MIT’s SENSEable City and ARES Labs have begun a project called Flyfire that “aims to transform any ordinary space into a highly immersive and interactive display environment.” The idea is that by programming large quantities of micro helicopters with LEDs, you have a swarm of pixels that can create a digital display anywhere. Right now the team is at the initial steps of exploring the possibilities of such a display, but the project provides an interesting leap that is sure to inspire more innovations around the idea of digital fireflies. via Popular Science
It has never been a better time to be a nerd getting into shape. Over a year ago, the Core Performance Center opened in Santa Monica, CA, which captures users’ biofeedback (heart rate, power output, VO2 Max) to generate future workouts through a complex rules engine. With so much data to play with and learn from, the Core Performance Center is a nerds’ paradise.
Since then products like the Fit Bit have been released that track things like how restful your sleep is and how active you are during the day. Fit Bit and Nike+ also come along with endless data graphing opportunities to help users to visualize their progress. With smart phones, even casual runners can track all of their running routes/pace with apps like RunKeeper. Once a workout is trackable, untrackable workouts barely seem worth the effort.
The latest product development in this trend was announced in January. The WIN Human Recorder system was launched in Japan. It is a device that “continuously tracks the wearer’s biometric state, including heart rate, brain waves, accelerated velocity, body temperature, and respiration. With a battery lasting three to four days the device is meant to be worn on the body at all times, transmitting data wirelessly to PC or mobile device” (via PSFK). The purpose of the device is for monitoring elderly people who live remotely and can measure everything including stress level and detect fluctuations in heart rate. With so much data potential, I am sure us fitness nerds will figure out a way to co-opt it soon.
I was in a meeting the other day and I found myself talking about my local grocery store’s shopping experience as one of the most innovative digital out of home examples related to food shopping. Scan It! is an in store shopping revolution that has changed how you find, select, bag and pay for your groceries. Available through a company called Modiv this simple scan and bag technology is used by approximately 40% of the customers at my Stop & Shop and has shown to have NO age barriers to adoption. Scan It is primary a shopping utility to help save time but that is just the beginning. Once you shop this way you will wonder how you survived without it. This 2 minute video gives you a good sense of how it works.
I LOVE this experience for the following:
1) Its super easy to do, NO technology hurdles to overcome. Scan your loyalty card and pickup your scanner takes less than 30 seconds. The scanners are constantly charging and secure within their slots, once a card is scanned the light blinks on the one with the most battery life. (Brilliant)
2) The handheld device can sit in a holster within your shopping cart, no electronics need to be permanently installed to the carts or carried around all the time in your hands.
3) The scan and bag as you shop is an approach that speeds up the process immensely. It is a no brainer for the ecco bagging audience of today who already have their bags in cart at the start of their shopping. I’m sure the risk of shrinkage is higher from inadvertent or intentional non-scans but I can’t image it’s a large %. Don’t forget these are only your best customers.
4) The fun factor in store goes from a 2 to like an 8. Kids love to hold this Star Trek like device, sometimes you wish you had two of them. The 2-inch screen on the scanner shows coupons and related offers but it could start to open up a whole new conversation with customers. Think about incorporating fun and educational content into scanned product. Once you scan an item (ala Cheerios) you can unlock a new digital experience that can be more about entertainment and inspiration vs. utility. This could manifest itself as nutrition-based games, eating healthy tips, even curated videos on recipes from your favorite chefs.
5) Scan a bar code and swipe your credit card at the self-checkout and you are done, this is an amazing feeling. All of the annoying self-checkout issues of weighting items as you scan and bag in front of a judging audience of bystanders grading you on your grocery clerk skills is gone. Instead this feels like the RFID enabled future where you just push your cart out the store and to your car, it’s magically paid for as you leave.
Stop & Shop has been a long pioneer in digital technology in store, I’m happy to see that they have a clear winner on their hands. Look for this in your store and be sure to try it.
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