When talking with my marketing clients, homepage conversion optimization strategy is always a hot topic. Kiss Metrics provides this handy infographic to breakdown some of the critical elements of a homepage. Importantly, they highlight the importance of a clear call to action.
I’ll take three, please. Construction has already started on a pair pf buildings in Milan, Italy that incorporate massive planters on the outside of the building which will give homes to about 900 trees and shrubs. This vertical forrest is supposed to help air quality in Milan.
Interesting to see such a lofty, concepty project enter the actual building stage. However, I think the real trick will be to actually correctly cultivate the plants when the building is completed. In my experience working with Friend of the Highline on the NYC Highline project, I noticed that the final element that was the hardest to fully realize was getting the mix of plants just right to fulfill the architects vision, and to actually work in a sustainable manner.
The Worlds First Vertical Forest Is Growing Sky High | The Creators Project.
This takes the cake for user interface of the day.. week… Just a concept, but by levitating orbs, Jinha Lee allows users to intuitively manipulate a hybrid physical/virtual interface:
Jinha Lee, from the Tangible Media Group of the MIT Media Lab, in collaboration with Rehmi Post, has been playing with the idea of manipulating real floating objects in 3-D space to create a truly tactile user interface. His prototype is called the ZeroN, and it will drop your jaw when you see it working for the first (and second and third) time.
MIT Creates Amazing UI From Levitating Orbs | Co.Design: business + innovation + design.
Check out the video…
ZeroN – Levitated Interaction Element from Jinha Lee on Vimeo.
Thanks to colleague Diana Kole for the link!
By far the coolest example of automated scrolling and parallax in HTML by our friends at Google. Here’s their explanation of the site, but the real magic for me comes in how they implemented the concept in code.
We’re answering those questions with Story of Send, a new site that gives you a behind-the-scenes look into how all that virtual information makes its journey through the real world—from your Internet service provider to our data centers and beyond. Along the way, you’ll discover everything from where we filter for spam and scan for viruses to how we’re minimizing our impact on the environment through energy efficiency and renewable power.
On Saturday I completed the Tough Mudder Challenge in Pennsylvania with a kickass group of friends. A bit of background on the challenge:
Tough Mudder events are hardcore 10-12 mile obstacle courses designed by British Special Forces to test your all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie. With the most innovative courses, half a million inspiring participants, and more than $2 million dollars raised for the Wounded Warrior Project, Tough Mudder is the premier adventure challenge series in the world.
A few pics from the day, expertly shot by Paul Greenwood and Rachel Pennycuick, and edited by me. SLIDESHOW
Pre-mud, we were all squeaky clean and fresh. Gal brought the Fort Kickass underwear from last summer’s PEX Festival for us to wear for “team unity and kicking ass”.
After being sick for the entire previous week, it felt great to get the blood flowing!
Teamwork was essential for many of the obstacles.
That’s a pan of muddy water, with ELECTRIC FENCE WIRES dangling down. Yes they were on, yes they shocked, YES it hurt! A total psych out.
Rings, one of the many water hazards we had to swing ourselves over. Kevin was a pro.
The final obstacle was simply a mass of shocking electric fence wires, which we had to run through while stepping in pools of water. Yeah.
We were pumped and muddy at the end!
FLickr slideshow embed…
Previously, I went to the Tough Mudder in November 2011 and shot pictures of my friends running it: Shooting the 2011 Tri State Tough Mudder
As far as visualizing personal data goes, Liz Fosslien’s site is one of the better ones I’ve seen lately, second only to Nicholas Feltron. The intro to her “Portrait of the Young Grad as an Analyst”, and associated content is great:
So you’re an analyst. This means three things. One, your family and friends have no idea what you do at work. Two, no matter how “cool” you were/are, you geek out over things like updated program releases. Three, you already do or will be seriously impressed by how much you learn and the people you work with. Now that I’ve made some generalizations, let’s do what an analyst does best and take a more granular approach.
Today, Xigo published this interesting graphic on the “Bring Your Own Desktop” office scheme. Your company provides you the office space and desk space, and you’re free to bring whatever tech you need to get your job done.
This rings true for my current work setup. At my current job, I use my own Macbook Air, my own phone and Skype account, and more or less have complete control over my setup. My employer generally picks up any incedental charges – account credit, etc. I love working this way, because I have things setup just the way I want them. On the flip side, the companys overhead is a lot lower, at the slight cost of trusting their employees with having more personal access to more data. And speaking of data – since our file server is currently Dropbox, our mail, calendaring, and document creation handled by Google Apps, and our billing handled online, there’s actually no local data kept at the office – so we don’t need to have any specially configured hardware to access our company “in the cloud” – just an internet connection.
Here’s the infographic:
Three in four companies support BYOD schemes [infographic] | TabTimes.
Today I spent the morning and most of the afternoon biking up to Bear Mountain with the New York Cycle Club. The ride was about 65 miles overal, and we started out in Central Park, NYC. I rode my Cannondale Super Six road bike, which I love more and more each time I ride. With the addition of a small “bento box” to my top tube, I was able to conveniently store and access my camera, allowing me to shoot relatively safely and conveniently while riding. A few pics and video clips from the ride…
Pics:
Starting out in central park…
Pit stop for coffee in New Jersey, right next to the George Washington Bridge
Absolutely required pie stop in Nyack
Final climb to the top
Top of Bear Mountain!
Our biking group at the top of Bear Mountain
Cool drinks after a great ride
Relaxing West Village cafes are great. Cafe Minerva, just down the street from my apartment provides a great hideout on rainy days – with free Wifi and free flowing espresso!
See this image in my Flickr Photostream.
Wrapping up Friday afternoon in the Fueled office, marketing intern Diana helps stock up the snack bar. Our new office is great!
See this image in my Flickr Photostream.
Lately at Fueled, we’ve been having deep discussions about content strategy and content creation. Both for internal use, as well as for client work. In our research, we’ve found this site, HARO.
Tap into the largest source repository in the world with over 80,000 mainstreet and expert sources who will respond directly to your query on your terms. No more flipping through your rolodex; searching out-of-date databases, or being bothered by unsolicited sources with off-topic pitches. Submit your query and let HARO deliver the perfect sources right to your inbox.
Better than just a content repository, I can use HARO with custom content strategies to source my own, one of a kind content from industry experts. I’m just beginning to test this out myself, to look for a blog post or two sourced from HARO.
Tiny, networked, open source gadgets are the future. I love the concept of the Twine – a self contained mini computer designed to integrate into a custom created sensor network. Able to work with its own built in sensors, external sensors built for it, or hacked to work with whatever else you can imagine. I wish the current generation of workout tracking gear was built like this – currently there are competing products from Nike, Polar, Garmin, Fitbit, and a range of other devices – and all of them are relatively closed off. Use open standards, get all the devices talking to eachother.
Twine : Listen to your world, talk to the Internet from Supermechanical on Vimeo.
TWINE, A PUCK FILLED WITH SENSORS, DETECTS ANYTHING FROM MOISTURE TO MAGNETISM: STICK IT ANYWHERE, AND IT’LL TWEET STATUS UPDATES AT YOUR COMMAND. AND THERE’S NO CODING SKILLS REQUIRED. … Here’s the basic idea behind Twine: Software and physical stuff should be friends. You can program webpages, data, all kinds of apps to do whatever you want them to–and even use awesome tools like IFTTT.com to hack them together without knowing how to code. But making that software talk to stuff in the real world–especially stuff that’s just laying around your house, and not pre-designed to be a “smart product”–takes PhD-level skills. And that, according to Twine creators David Carr and John Kestner, is just plain wrong.
Twine, A Tiny Gizmo That Holds The Internets Future | Co.Design: business + innovation + design.
Looks awesome! A simple accessory allows endless possibilities of motion control photography. Would love to take this out on my next northern or southern latitude road trip… The Genie. Let’s fund this and make it happen!
The Genie is an all-in-one device used to combine image capture with motion control, capable of either panning or linear movement that’s commonly used in Time Lapse Photography. Simply attach your camera to the top of the Genie, plug it in, and program it to move and shoot to your desired needs.
Insert Coin: Genie turns any camera into a world-class time lapse rig — Engadget.
Direct from Norway’s tourism board, check out this mega 360 degree photo taken hovering in the air above Geirangerfjorden. Click through to check out interactive features, including maps and other views. Created by Making View.
Getting interesting camera angles is always on my mind, but often times I just dont have the resources for all of the gear I need. Additionally, I don’t professionally produce videos – I mainly shoot clips of my travels and string them together in iMovie, so investing in major equipment is not something I’m into right now.
This new tutorial posted on Vimeo goes over the basics of jib photography, and includes some excellent resources on building a jib on the cheap. It’s amazing to see the results you can get out of just a bit of controlled motion in your videos.
A jib — also called a crane — is a device that enables cinematographers to get smooth moving shots. With a jib you can tilt and pan horizontally and vertically, or even a full 360 degrees. There are many reasons why you’d want to use a jib, which we’ll explore in depth later.