Our PhizzPop Design Challenge Finale in Austin is rooted in a real world scenario. Namely, how Howard Tullman made FlashPoint Academy the first LEED certified educational institution in Chicago.
Video courtesy of FlashPoint. Yes, you’ll need Silverlight to see it.
See more about FlashPoint Academy at their site or on YouTube.
Sustainable Living in Austin
Overview
Your agency has been selected by the partnership of Glen and Howard Tullman, with assistance from Microsoft, to deliver a digital experience or experiences that will engage the Austin, TX community to adopt a sustainable lifestyle.
Brothers, Glen and Howard Tullman, are Chicago based entrepreneurs that share a passion for environmental stewardship. Howard, President and CEO of FlashPoint Academy, ensured the institution was the first LEED certified school built in Chicago. Glen, recently founded a company called SoCore, committed to making solar energy affordable to small businesses. The Tullman’s are firm believers in the power of innovation and commerce to effect powerful cultural change. To test their ideas, they’ve recently set their eyes on Austin, TX as a community ripe with potential and opportunity.
Specifically, they’ve recently been inspired by the following:
The Tullman brothers will fund a city-wide sustainability program that impacts commuters, consumers, students and business in Austin. Its focuses helping Austin citizens understand how their daily activities and choices impact the environment and provide guidance on how to lessen their impact. The catch? The program isn’t about the future or what could be, but about what’s doable now. Using off the shelf technology and services that people already have and are available today.
The Tullmans have partnered with Microsoft to make a US $500,000 investment in this program to show how small individual changes, coupled with grass roots and community organized efforts can substantially improve the environment where we live and work.
More on Glen and Howard Tullman, recently featured in BusinessWeek…
Two of Chicago's leading entrepreneurs happen to be brothers. But it's a good thing they didn't actually grow up together. Howard Tullman, 14 years older, already had left the nest when Glen, the baby of the family, persuaded their mother to let him cut a hole in the roof of the family's New Providence (N.J.) home to test his ideas on solar energy. Mom never said no. But Howard, born bossy, wouldn't have let Glen experiment on his own. "He would have wanted a bigger hole," says Glen. Admits Howard: "I was an overpowering presence."
Assignment
Your firm has been selected to create the platform that helps the citizens of Austin live more sustainably using current technology and social media principles. To enable this program, your team is tasked with the following:
1. Develop the public space presence for this program. Our goals are to inform, recruit, excite and motivate the citizens of Austin. The city of Austin is installing digital signage throughout the community to support this effort. It’s expected that viral marketing and traditional media campaigns will drive most of the awareness of these efforts and that those awareness efforts are not in the scope of your proposal.
Focus on the following three areas with your solution
a. Travel and transportation and shared miles
i. Such as how to help Austin inhabitants take advanced of mass transit where possible or share.
ii. How to take advantage of the concepts of ride sharing and car pooling
iii. How to travel and commute using efficient miles
iv. How to take advantage of information services for current traffic conditions and road information.
b. Commerce
i. Help business and consumers let each other know about their commitment or interest in sustainability.
ii. Businesses that use or create alternative energy
iii. Identify consumers that are interested in patronizing sustainable businesses
iv. Help businesses and consumers be more aware of energy usage and power management tools.
v. Show how using existing data services and new automation techniques, energy efficiency can be increased without impact to comfort or usage patterns.
c. Innovation in LEED with technology in the Innovation and Design Process Category
i. Demonstrate innovative thinking and design process around LEED using technology in a community, many to many, or installation fashion—such as making feedback about the environment and our impact in it a part of the community via sculpture, digital billboard, large format device other means.
Reputation
a. We believe that publically visible reputation will be a critical component to foster adoption and change of behavior. Our goal is to foster a “keeping up with the Jones” aspect to lessening environmental impact
b. Your proposed solution should weave reputation and reputation impact into the choices each individual makes
Channels & Touch Points
To increase effectiveness and efficacy of this program, it is imperative that the citizens of Austin can engage with this program across multiple channels & touch points. Your solution is expected to deliver an interactive experience across the following devices and environments:
· Web
· Desktop
· Mobile
· Public Space or Kiosk
Inspiration
· GreeNet
· EcoDrive
· Sparx
· Edison PC Power Management Software
· Solutions created at a student design event last year conducted by Microsoft called Imagine Cup and the 2008 Challenge that was focused on technology and sustainability.
Considerations
The following are considerations, not guidelines that should be evaluated when designing a solution:
Audience Personas
Persona 1: The New Urbanist
Name: Dr. Thomas Reece
Age: 44
Dr. Thomas Reece is a professor of international human rights law and a self-proclaimed new urbanist. He and his wife have 3 kids and live in a modest 1500ft home in central Austin. Thomas brags about his ‘small footprint’ to friends and encourages everyone to do more with less. The one and only family car is a 2001 Volvo (By his calculations it was better for the environment for him to keep the car versus buy a new one—even an energy efficient one, based on his cradle to grave calculations). Thomas prides himself on riding his bike to work. However, when weather doesn’t permit, he is forced to commute the 3 miles to work by car. Thomas and his wife both have laptops and there is one desktop computer for the children which they share. The Reece’s have traveled to India, South Africa, Switzerland and Thailand in the past few years and have made choices to live as simple and local as possible, deeply impacted by the trips. Taking advantage of his summers off, Thomas plans several home improvement projects to add ‘green equity’ to his home and reduce the family’s use of vital resources, energy and water. He also uses each project as a lesson for his kids, taking them though the costs savings and environmental cause and effect. Thomas wife, Naomi, owns a franchise of Fruitful Yield, a local vitamin store that has its roots in Chicago. The business is profitable, but the recent economic crisis has resulted in a year over year decline in sales of 7%. The Reece’s also attend every educational course or class in town on solar panels and installations, in hopes of someday going ‘off the grid’, doing the work themselves for their business first, and eventually, their home. Both of the Reeces are active cellphone users and Thomas recently traded his aging Nokia phone in for an HTC Touch, while his wife uses a Motorola Q.
Persona 2: Government Idealist
Name: Regina Wilkinson
Age: 25
Regina Wilkinson is a recent Berkley graduate with big ideas and stars in her eyes. She is tireless, earning a menial salary as the city council’s senior assistant. She would like to make major policy decisions someday that help the city expand and grow in a way that benefits everyone. She lives a bit north of town where apartments are larger and much more affordable. In order to take her dog ‘Major’ to an open field or dog park she has to drive at least 4 miles. Regina has one laptop that serves for personal and work. She must carry it everywhere, never knowing when an eleventh hour emergency proposal edit will come through. Her car is a 12 year old Ford Focus, which has good gas mileage for a small car, but with the wear and tear of her 15 mile commute, it’s not going to last much longer. Since she lives in the suburbs, she doesn’t have a viable public transportation option. Taking the bus involves 3 route changes and 2.5 hours. Regina often wonders why the commuter rail prop doesn’t get approved. Regina is concerned for the future, she would like to do more but with her monthly take-home, ‘buying green’ always seems just out of grasp. Recently, Regina started a graduate program at The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture. She suspects she’ll be paying the loans off for years but is excited about the program. Addicted to email, Regina can’t leave the house without her Blackberry.
Persona 3: The Business Owner
Name: Michael McCormick
Age: 65
Michael McCormick has owned his own moving company for 37 years. He has seen the ups and downs of business and gas prices. The company has 13 diesel moving trucks of varying sizes. Most of the fleet is aging and are not as efficient as the new models on the market. He knows his employees don’t always plan their routes resulting in wasted time and money. Last summers’ hike in gas prices really hurt Michael’s bottom line. He is 65 and doesn’t ever plan on retiring. He loves his Chevy pickup and his old Mercedes. Michael has never really concerned himself with technology or computers but uses his work laptop—a Dell that his account recommended he purchase to write emails and conduct business and his wife has a computer they both use at their home—another Dell. Mr. McCormick drives 23 miles to work 7 days a week. If something goes wrong he has to be there, he doesn’t trust his drivers to handle customers. So he often finds himself making his commute twice a day. In the past few years he has watched his gas costs soar but is too stubborn to purchase an economical car. However, he and his wife talk often about downsizing to a smaller home now that the kids have left the nest. They would like to buy a condominium to pare down the cost of maintaining a large home. Michael uses his mobile phone extensively during these drives, an aging Motorola Razor with a piece of duct tape that keeps the battery from falling out.
Persona 4: Social Activist
Name: Dusty California
Age: 37
Dusty California has done it all, protested logging by living in the redwood trees of southern Oregon, ran for mayor of Austin (unsuccessfully) by climbing the city buildings to speak about the ineffectiveness of the government and subsequently getting arrested countless times, he has gotten by on 18,000 dollars or less a year for his entire adult life. Even though he has a Phd. from Columbia (Or at least would have, had he bothered to present his thesis), he happily lives as simply as possible. Dusty only wears organic hemp clothing and walks or rides his bike. If he is forced to ride public transportation he goes online and donates money to ensure that his carbon footprint remains at zero. He owns a Macbook (bought used) laptop so he can interact with his activist friends online and run several environmental message boards. He also writes and submits a constant stream of ‘green’ literature and research to state and government sympathizers. He lives just across the river from downtown, renting a bedroom from one of the other activists. Dusty speaks with his dollar; everything he purchases is researched beforehand, to ensure that he is buying from companies that have the same or similar philosophies as his own. Nothing crosses his lips that isn’t local and organic. He wishes more people understood how important sustainability is for the future of our planet but doesn’t see much that solves the big environmental issues. He works for Naiomi at the Fruitful Yield as an assistant manager. Dusty has fought owning a phone but Naomi insisted that he get one once he started working at Fruitful Yield—which she even offered to pay for. Dusty opted for a refurbished 8GB iPhone 3G.
Presentation
Your team will have 7 minutes to present your Microsoft Silverlight and/or WPF prototype to a panel of 5 judges and an audience at the PhizzPop Finale at SXSW 2009 in Austin, TX. Presentation of your team’s design prototype will be at the following date and venue:
Monday, March 16, 2009
7:00 - 11:00 PM EST
PhizzPop Design Challenge Finale at SXSW 2009
Pangaea
Austin, TX 12345
Support
Dedicated support will be provided to all teams upon the delivery of this Design Challenge brief. All conversations between individual agency teams and Microsoft support contacts will be confidential and all communications will not be disclosed to other competing agency teams.
Register at www.phizzpop.com
It goes without saying that most of us are doing a bit less traveling today. Those of us that get to go to conferences probably have to do a lot more dancing with the corporate bean counters than ever before and, truly, the value proposition of conferences are changing.
I’ve had to make some hard choices myself this year. Such as not going to Interactions 09—but please stop by the Cafe and say hi to Manifest Digital as I’ll be living vicariously through them (If you say something nice about me they might even give you a treat).
But there are two conferences that are pretty important to me personally this year. One is SxSW. I’m a relative virgin to SxSW and this will only be my third year attending, but this is the conference that energized me and restores my spirit. I’m excited that Microsoft has been able to play a part in it for the past few years and I’m excited that the PhizzPop finale will occur here.
SxSW is a great place to have a beer, reconnect with old friends and be stimulated by the diversity of discourse and get some of that special energy and mojo that I only seem to get when I’m in Austin.
But MIX is different. It’s certainly a more serious event—and there’s far more depth to the content that is delivered there. Like SxSW, it’s also a conference with serious, sometimes exhausting, fun.
But what makes MIX special is that it’s about things that are new and things that MIicrosoft has never talked about publically before. This year, if your passions fall to design, or you’re on the fence, or even past the tipping point, on stuff like Expression Studio and Silverlight, you’re going to want to be there. Not just for the content (which, let’s be honest, you can see online later) but because you get a chance to meet, talk, argue and a give feedback to the people that invent and build this stuff at Microsoft.
You also get the opportunity for outstanding networking with your peers, and let’s face it, your competitors—sort of like when James Bond has to partner up with the Russians to foil Spectre, stuff you just can’t do when watching a keynote from a Web Browser or even when you’re at the local pub eyeing your competitors suspiciously. In this economy it’s probably safe to assume that we’ve all got lots to talk about—and what better place to that than Las Vegas.
But in truth, the most important reason to GO to MIX is that your going to learn important exciting things about Silverlight and Expression Studio that are going to impact greatly the way we all work and the expectations that folks have around the classic iron triangle and what’s possible and expected within the constraints of time, money and quality.
You’re also going to see folks that you probably won’t see speaking at other events in 2009. This includes a keynote by Microsoft’s very own Bill Buxton and design standbys like Molly, Luke W., Dan Roam, Lou Carbone and Bill Scott.
See a smattering of the speakers here.
If you’re still reading I’m gonna suspect your interesting so in the spirit of the Sham Wow guy I’m also going to offer up a special that we’re running at MIX. Register by February 13 and you can save over $400 bucks on registration.
Are you still here?
One more thing, if you can’t get to any PhizzPop events and you won’t be at SxSW you can still see videos of PhizzPop events at MIX and actually meet and interact with many of the PhizzPop teams in our PhizzPop booth. We’ll have teams and solutions from our 08 and 09 events.
So this is the ‘official’ press release from the event. But be sure to check out what Zeus Jones and Sierra Bravo had to say about the event as well...
Almost 300 attendees packed Solera in downtown Minneapolis to see the latest in interactive innovations
MICROSOFT (Minneapolis) – January 19, 2009 – On the coldest day of the year, Zeus Jones and Sierra Bravo teamed up to heat things up by stealing the show at the PhizzPop Design Challenge event in Minneapolis, the third stop on the nationwide tour to find the best digital talent in the country.
Teams from Colle+McVoy, Hanson, MOOV Worldwide, space150 and Zeus Jones/Sierra Bravo competed against each other to win the grand prize, roundtrip airfare to Austin, Texas, hotel accommodations and interactive passes to attend SXSW for a chance to compete against other regional winners on March 16, 2009.
The Minneapolis PhizzPop Design Challenge focused on developing strategies for a fictional retailer that would help product managers extend their brands and experiences and develop more meaningful and impactful relationships with consumers through the application of great ideas, social media and technology.
“The challenges for online and physical retailers have never been more vexing than they are today” said Chris Bernard, Microsoft User Experience Evangelist. “Zeus Jones and Sierra Bravo’s solution turned our design challenge on its ear by suggesting that our fictional and nascent brand serve as a scalable platform for the existing brands their customers already use, and strengthened that relationship by combining the strong affinity that consumers have for brands with the authentic connections and dialog allowed by social media.”
How did Zeus Jones and Sierra Bravo accomplish a vision for this in five days? By using the building blocks of Microsoft’s UX and services platform, which allowed the team to focus a majority of their effort on the experience versus building from scratch all of the necessary infrastructure required for today’s leading edge consumer experiences.
Mark Hines, Vice President, Strategic Services, Ratchet and one of the Minneapolis judges had this to say about the winning team, “Zeus Jones and Sierra Bravo won because they distilled a complicated problem down to its essence, developed an effective, results driven strategy to solve it and then executed it extremely well with the right functionality and amazing design.”
Additional members of the judging panel were comprised of industry experts including David Reynolds-Gooch, Group Manager, Marketing Development Services, 3M; Craig Yolitz, Vice President, Customer Operations, Findlaw, a Thomson Reuters business; Jen Klise, Innovation and Strategy, Target; Andrew Banas, Director of User Experience, Allianz Life; Mike Gibbs, Group Creative Director, Fallon Minneapolis and Kathy Swanson, VP Marketing, Piper Jaffray.
The remaining tour stops include Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami, and the finalist competition in Austin, Texas. In addition to Minneapolis, stops have already occurred in New York and Chicago.
About PhizzPop Design Challenge
Each year, the PhizzPop Design Challenge tours the country to discover the best design talent from top agencies. PhizzPop was created by Microsoft to bring together designers and developers in a collaborative environment focused on creating solutions to today’s marketing challenges.
During each PhizzPop Design Challenge event, creative teams from local agencies go head-to-head in a competition of design, development, and creativity to solve a unique design challenge during a three-day event held in a major city. Visit www.PhizzPop.com for more details and to request tickets.
A serious cold means this is a bit of a belated post about PhizzPop Minneapolis. If you’re not in the reading mood check the video above or look at deep dive videos with a number of players from the event.
PhizzPop Minneapolis occurred on one of the coldest days of the year in Minneapolis. Despite the minus 20 degree temperatures (and this is before we even start with that wind-chill crap) close to 300 folks came out to watch five digital agencies compete for a chance to go to SxSW.
The teams:
MOOV Worldwide (formerly Gestalt www.gestalt.tv/)
Hanson (www.hansoninc.com/)
Zeus Jones (http://www.zeusjones.com/)
space150 (http://www.space150.com/)
Colle+McVoy (www.collemcvoy.com/)
The Minneapolis design challenge was to develop a proof of concept for a new retail concept entering the U.S. in two test markets. The assignment is to demonstrate how technology can be used both in a store environment, in physical branding and promotions both in the store and out of the store, and via experiences on the store’s web site and third-party online web properties.
Zues Jones, paired up with Sierra Bravo won the event, sweeping both the popular audience vote and by wowing our panels of judges, which included:
David Reynolds-Gooch, Group Manager, 3M
Craig Yolitz, Vice President, Findlaw
Mark Hines, VP Strategic Services, Ratchet
Jen Klise, Innovation & Strategy, Target
Andrew Banas, Director of UXE, Alliance Life
Mike Gibbs, Group Creative Director, Fallon
Kathy Swanson, VP Marketing, Piper Jaffrey
So, what’s next for Zeus Jones and Sierra Bravo? They get the privilege of doing it all over again at SxSW with the winners of the other regional PhizzPop Design Challenge events.
Here’s the challenge that the PhizzPop Minneapolis teams got on Friday, January 9 at 4pm CST.
If you haven’t registered to see PhizzPop in Minneapolis there may still be seats available. Go to www.phizzpop.com and register right away we’ll do our best to accommodate but are literally with in a dozen seats or so of being full.
Touching consumers:
Overview
2009 represents one of the most challenging environments that retailers in the US have experienced since the Great Depression, these challenges extend to the entities that also distribute their products through retail channels—including content creators, consumer electronics, clothing, consumer and packaged goods, etc.
Online revenue for traditional online retailers has dropped 2% this year after 5 years of 20% growth. Revenues during the November to December season for traditional physical retailers (which represents 30% of the retailer’s business is down 7%) making for one of the worst performing years for traditional retailers since records were kept.
However, austere environments often create optimal opportunities for new business models and consumer experiences. You’ve recently been retained by a private Dutch-based company that currently owns and operates a variety of pharmacies and supermarkets in the Southeast United States and a number of big box retail chains in Western Europe, they’ve hired you to help them with a new physical and online shopping venture they’ve launched in 5 physical locations in each of two test markets, the Minneapolis metro area and Denver/Boulder metro area and across the US via an online channel that is tightly coupled to their physical operations.
Your client’s enthusiasm has been bolstered by the recent and continued retail success and resurgence of stores like Wal-Mart and Target that cater to different spectrums of the big-box retail market and on the high-end with retail stores like the Apple Store in the brick and mortal world.
They’ve also watched with enthusiasm as Amazon has quickly become ascendant in the online retail space and become even more interested in how nimble and adaptive competitors such as Netflix have rapidly evolved their business models.
There are a few pieces of information that they’ve asked you to ponder closely as you work with them.
One is a recent report by a trusted market research firm that found that brands are critically important to socially connected consumers, to the degree that socially connected consumers valued content created by their favorite brands more than peer generated content. Your client is very interested in how technology and social media can leverage their own brand and the brands they sell. They want to take that have social currency to increase relevance, affinity and loyalty consumers.
The second item is that your client is struggling with the success Amazon is having with programs like Amazon Prime and they are eager to explore experience strategies that can engage an audience that doesn’t always require instant gratification or can leverage any unique characteristics from a technology or services perspective that can enable new, disruptive experiences that increase relevance, affinity and loyalty with your client’s venture.
The new CEO of this consortium spent the previous three years in Europe in managing the firm’s retail expansion in big box stores. After much thought and how to best leverage the consortiums resources he chose to play on the firm’s strengths. In an effort to enter the US market they’ve focused on the concept for a new type of retail store that merges the mass market success of big box retail like Costco, Wal-Mart and Target with some of the brand affinity of stores that aspire towards the mastige like success of alternative groceries and coops such as Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and REI.
As a consultant and trusted advisor to this CEO you’ve been asked to develop a proof of concept that can be given at the firm’s board of directors meeting that can demonstrate how technology can be used both in a store environment, in physical branding and promotions both in the store and out of the store and via experiences on the store’s Web site and third-party online Web properties.
Although the primary objective of this exercise is to demonstrate that this retailer has a ‘plan’ to its increasingly fidgety board of directors, there are also critical secondary audiences whose objectives must ultimately be met, and include:
1. Price conscious consumers that must be inspired or incented to begin a relationship with the retailer with repeat purchases of consumer packaged goods, house wares, clothing, toys, consumer electronics and media.
2. Consumer packaged goods and consumer electronics manufacturers that are eager to determine new ways to position their products and (increasingly) services to consumers in physical and virtual channels that provide differentiation and value
3. Media companies that distribute books, magazines, audio and video content in both physical and (increasingly) digital formats
4. Other emerging next generation service models that can generate revenue and brand affinity around these repeat purchase behaviors with consumer packaged goods, consumer electronics and content.
Assignment
Your assignment is to demonstrate next generation scenarios that can enhance physical shopping scenarios, brand awareness and improve online promotion and traditional online browsing, selection and cross-sell scenarios.
How can social media, services, digital distribution and enhanced experience design differentiate customer purchasing scenarios? The CEO has asked you to focus on the following areas:
1. Encouraging repeat purchases of consumer packaged goods, or the key drivers of the retailers revenue “beer and diapers” and more mundane goods like laundry detergent and clothing.
2. Offer compelling alternatives to secondary competitors that are eroding physical media sales, such as the Apple iTunes store, Netflix and Blockbuster.
3. Determine how an over arching strategy of web-based services and advertising models could or should be a part of this firms strategy for the above category or a more traditional category such as consumer electronics, pharmacy services, registry, etc.
Your client is adamant that you focus your thinking on both the attract and engage modes of the consumer experience and is less concerned with the specific purchase and sustainment phases of a consumer lifecycle. This means your solution should focus on.
A. In-store or out of store promotion scenario using technology (mobile, digital signage, kiosks, other) that utilize unique Windows mobile, touch or services-based solutions.
B. An online interaction via the client site or a third-party site that leverages Microsoft technologies such as WPF, Silverlight or Live Services technology that demonstrates a promo, configuration, acquisition, usage or services scenario.
Assumptions
The name of this venture is Indigo. When asked to define the style and tone of Indigo one industry pundit said that Indigo is… “What would happen if big box retailers married the customer experience of Nike’s marketing with Nike.com and the user enthusiasm of friend feed to sell you zit cream, movies, iPods and IKEA furniture.” In bus stops and transportation hubs in Minneapolis and Denver they experimented with the following campaign.
Considerations
The following are considerations, not guidelines that should be evaluated when designing a solution:
Personas
Sandra Ladd, Mom
Sandra is a 51 year old homemaker in Littleton, CO. She’s just getting settled into a new townhome that she purchased with her husband after sending their youngest child off to college at the University of Texas. Her husband recently took a voluntary ‘retirement’ package from his employer and is now consulting part time—for a fraction of his previous income. Because the Ladd’s were planning on a retirement in a few years they are taking advantage of this opportunity to move into a new phase of their lives.
The have less money to spend, but they also have less expenses. Their son’s college is paid for with previous funds and their retirement savings is relatively intact. Sandra’s most recent splurge? Trading in the mammoth family Suburban for a Toyota Prius. Sandra is determined to put her family on a path towards simplicity, she’s exhausted from raising three children in a mammoth house, driving massive cars and just doing everything…well big. The Ladd’s would be considered middle-upper class by most standards and as Sandra sees what’s going on around her with the economy and even a few friends that are experiencing financial difficulties she feels a bit guilty about some of her families more conspicuous past consumption. But…she’s still got a new town house to decorate and now is the time for her and her husband to enjoy some of the simple pleasures and fruits of both of their labors. She’s using some of new found time with her husband to volunteer at a few local non-profits that they are both respective board members of and get more active in their local school district—which served their own children so well.
Sandra goals are to continue doing the simple things she enjoys, but she’d like to simplify what she does and minimize her impact on the world. She’ll still continue to by the cosmetics and brands that she loves and she’s also got a home to decorate, but she’d like to be a bit more intelligent about how she goes about decorating this time. She’s mostly looking for simply accessories to accent what she already has and isn’t in a particular hurry to get things done. She’s begun shipping care packages to her son at the University of Texas but has become a bit a frustrated when her youngest son complained about the Guns and Roses Chinese Democracy CD she sent him.
“Mom, nobody listens to CDs!” he told her on a recent phone call.
“You’ve been waiting for that one to come out for years.” She replied.
“That’s true he said, but not in this format, I’ve moved on.”
Sandra promised no more CDs but privately thought “I raised that kid for 18 years and I’ll be damned if I’m not going to continue to mother him.” But…the next time she sent him a gift card to download music on Amazon.com.
Philip Mendoza, Business owner
Philip mad a frantic call to his wife as he drives to work on Monday morning and takes an exit ramp on the expressway and prepares to return home. His wife answers the phone.
“I’ve got it.” She said. “I’ll be waiting for you. Can you still make your meeting?”
“Yea, it will be close but I’ll make it. You’re the best; I’ll see you in five minutes.”
With his video projector now safely in his trunk and ready for his meeting as he drives into downtown Minneapolis Philip starts running through a list of what he needs for his office. Post it notes, coffee, tea and small TV for the reception area. He’s certain he’ll forget most of this. What was he thinking when he left his cushy job to start his new business? He missed being able to dump a pile of receipts on his assistant’s desk and have her reconcile his expenses as he focused on what was ‘important’. Right now, everything seemed important as a business owner. Already locked into a lease because he didn’t negotiate favorable terms he’s determined to be smart about every decision he needs to make. But…”I’ve got to focus on what’s important too, growing this business and landing deals that pay us.”
Philip is the type of guy that starts a project at home and spends about as much time running to a Home Depot or a Lowes as he does doing the actually project. About 25% of the time he winds up hiring a professional to redo much of what he simply didn’t do well.
As a small business that consists of only himself and a part time receptionist he needs a simple way to keep on top of the little things he needs for his modest office. He looks at his calendar on his smart phone and notices that he’s got 6 meetings scheduled over the next 8 days at his office. “I use Skype for my offshore team, Trip It for travel, Mint for my finances. Why can’t I find an easy way to keep note pads in the office, staples in my stapler and Red Bull in the fridge?”
Philip’s not going to enter into any long term agreement or relationship with the multitude of companies and partners that can help him with his business. He’s too cheap and too unorganized to want a long term commitment. He goes to Office Max when he needs to and the grocery store when he needs to, he loves serendipity but realizes he needs more discipline and structure too. He needs someone that can help him keep the office coffers stocked with supplies and food and handle the last minute fire drill. What he really needs is someone that can tell him what he needs before he needs it.
Manuel Rob, College student
Manuel glances down at his cell phone and sees that it’s his local video store calling. He looks over at the dresser in his bedroom and knows immediately that they are inquiring about the DVDs that he checked out—4 weeks ago. “I need to get another NetFlix subscription”. He thinks, but then he remembers he had one, one that got cancelled after his credit card expired. He never bothered to update it and still has a movie on his shelf, “The Wages of Fear” that he checked out for a cinema writing class he had last semester. He sighs as his roommate comes in his room and asks if he’d like to go grab lunch.
“Not with you! I take care of myself and I know you’re just going to the Italian Beef place, it will screw up my work out this afternoon if I go there with you and all that salt will mess up my skin.” He states.
“Suit yourself you metrosexual prima donna.” Says his roommate as he grabs his cellphone and heads out the door, but before he leaves, he stops, “Hey, I forgot, you’re Mom called. She wants to know what you want for your birthday. I suggested a new attitude and she agreed but you should let her know if there is anything else. Oh, and I ate all your beef jerky and those dried cranberries you had laying around for breakfast, you should get some more.” The shoe Manuel threw at his roommate landed with thud against the door as his roommate sprinted out of the apartment.
Manuel flopped down on the couch and grabbed his laptop. “I should write that summary on Revolutionary Road for my lit. class now.” He thinks. Instead he watches Futurama and South Park on You Tube for a half hour and engages is a lively debate on Friend Feed about the pluses and minuses of various herbal supplements and facial moisturizers.
Finally he writes his short summary paper and hits print. As he surfs afternoon television for a few moments before departing for class he hears his printer beeping in his room. He walks into the room and discovers his printer is out of ink. He grabs his jacket, book, laptop, phone and MP3 player and heads out the door towards the library to print out his paper before his class thinking that perhaps he’ll pick up that new Robert Downey Jr. movie after class. “I just need to see if I can chase someone down to watch it with me.” He thinks but then remembers that he’ll actually have to buy it if he wants to watch it too as he’s persona non grata at all of his usual rental outlets. He ponders this as he walks to class thinking if he was a bit more together he could be having his family getting him some of this stuff for his birthday. He also remembers that his sister’s birthday is coming up quickly too. He knows he needs to get her something nice (but inexpensive as he is a college student after all) after she had been very generous and purchased an Xbox for him over the holidays. “I better show I care.” He thinks.
Ruth Cho, Global Product Manager, Consumer Packaged Goods Company
Ruth looked at her computer screen and cringes as she reads how Wal-Mart has missed its earning guidance. What is most troubling is that in a dismal year Wal-Mart is the highlight, outperforming all of the other retailers and grocers that carried the brand of frozen and refrigerated baking products and meals that she was the global product manager for. As she stepped out of her office and into her ‘war-room’ it was hard to fanthom how it would be possible to successfully launch the four new products from their portfolio in the coming year.
“What are we going to do?” She thinks. Recently negotiations and agreements with retailers and distributors had become even more painful coming out of a holiday season where every retailer had tried to out Wal-Mart Wal-Mart and, in effect, hurting everyone. But the year was not without highlights. Brand satisfaction and awareness was at an all time high for almost her entire portfolio. This was largely credited to Mrs. Cho’s efforts in conjunction with the CMO and CTO to overhaul the infrastructure for all of their Web properties and consolidate the agency vendor list that produced the myriad of branded sites for her portfolio.
The results were impressive on two fronts. The master brand site had been live for only 18 months but already had 1o million members. A recent affinity campaign done with a third-party portal and social networking site had brought over 600k new members to the site. “But how can I capitalize on this?” She wonders. She looks at her calendar and notices that she’s got a board meeting with the retailer Indigo, a position she was asked to take because of the industry recognition of Mrs. Cho’s success with using communities to increase affinity and loyalty with her brands. “I sure wish some of our partners could demonstrate how we could extend and leverage this.” She thinks.
A more detailed post is coming but check out The video hightlights for last Thursday's Chicago PhizzPop tour.
Those of us that went to design school or have worked at a traditional or digital agency have all learned to respect the design review. All design challenge contestants for the Chicago PhizzPop Design Challenge have to present to a panel of industry experts and peers that will pick a winner. Our Chicago judges represent a collection of some of Chicaogo’s best design talent and includes folks that work closely with Chicago 2016.
The judges (subject to change) are:
David Armano, VP and Creative Director of Critical Mass, creating of blog Logic + Emotion
www.criticalmass.com/ and http://darmano.typepad.com/ 
Prior to Critical Mass, David spent time as a creative lead at notable firms such as Digitas and Agency.com—putting in a combined tenure of 8 years in the large digital agency environment. He led multiple initiatives for clients such as HP, Allstate, Fifth Third Bank, Miller Brewing, Grainger, and Bally Total Fitness. Previously, David earned his interactive stripes working with The Chicago Tribune on their site initiatives. David helped launch and upgrade site features, functionality and content for the Tribune’s flagship site. David also accumulated broadcast and direct marketing experience while working for companies such as Fox and Columbia House.
David holds a BFA cum laude in Computer Graphics from Pratt Institute. He minored in Visual Communications and was fortunate enough to study under some of the most creative minds in the industry. He currently resides in a near-northern suburb of Chicago, not far from Lake Michigan. When David isn't working, surfing the net, or riding his motorbike—he can be found spending quality time with his wife and two boys.
Blagica Bottigliero, Founder of Bsolutions
www.bsolutions.com
Blagica (blah-gee-tsa) Bottigliero is an Emmy award winning online marketing consultant, blogger and web entrepreneur.
Blagica worked in some of Chicago's most established interactive companies. She started her career at Giant Step (now ARC Worldwide), where she assisted Maytag and Purina with their initial Internet strategies. Blagica moved to the marketing side of the Internet when she joined Orbitz.com. At Orbitz, Blagica negotiated and managed multi-million dollar marketing campaigns, in addition to launching the Orbitz Affiliate Program. After a 'dot com' break in France and sailing home across the Atlantic, she returned to Chicago and managed Q Interactive's search and affiliate marketing efforts.
In the fall of 2005, Blagica formed her Internet marketing consulting company, Bsolutions where she and her network continue to assist small to large sized businesses navigate the Internet. She also launched CondoPerks.com, a loyalty program for condominium associations.
Blagica holds a BBA degree from Western Michigan University and is passionate about mentoring young women through her blog, Gals' Guide. Blagica sits on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Interactive Marketing Association, is also a member of the NBC5 Street Team and is the Managing Editor of the Chicago 2016 Channel.
Bill Bulman, User Experience Director at Ogilvy One
www.ogilvy.com and www.twitter.com/bbulman As User Experience Director at OgilvyOne, Bill leads Ogilvy's user experience team of User Experience Architects and Content Strategists for a variety of clients, including Chicago2016, American Medical Association, Oscar Mayer, and Allstate, among others. With over 13 years experience in the interactive field and a focus on usability, user research and most recently social media, Bill has lead user experience teams at several interactive agencies and boutique research and design firms, including imc2. Most recently, he was a partner at Messagefirst, a boutique research firm in Philadelphia.
During his career, Bill has had the pleasure of working with some of the world's leading brands, including Comcast, Polo/Ralph Lauren, Palm, La Times, Timberland, PBS, Eli Lilly, Kmart, Reebok, MLB, NASCAR, Pepsi, GlaxoSmithKline, Ace Hardware, Adidas, and General Mills.
Bill is active in the user experience community, including serving as vice chair within the PhiChi organization, Philadelphia's chapter of ACM's Computer Human Interaction special interest group. Bill has spoken at various events, on user experience, information architecture and social media including The Chicago Convergence Summit, UPA2007, and CHI2002, among others.
Kevin Flatt, Executive Creative Director of Tribal DDB
www.tribalddb.com/ Kevin’s mission is to harness powerful, creative thinkubg form the diverse talent at Tribal DDB to create the most compelling brand experiences through digital media. Collaborating with brand strategists, art directors, writers, designers and producers, Kevin products ideas that integrate the innovative with industry standards.
Over his career, Kevin has created work for clients such as Alamo Car Rental, Amazon.com, Archipelago, BMW of North America, The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, EDS, Gatorade, JCPenney, Miller Brewing Company, Nike, Nordstrom, International Trucks, Lee Jeans, Propel, McDonalds, Radio Shack, RJReynolds, Microsoft, Office Max, Sony, State Farm, Timberland, TIME Magazine, United Airlines, and Virgin Mobil.
His work has received recognition from may respected competitions and publications, including Communication Arts, Graphic, TIME Magazine, Adweek, The Type Directors Club, the Super Reggie, The Art Directions Cub, Clio, the Show Best of Show, Cannes Grand Prix and first ever Titanium Cyber Lion, Kevin is actively involved in the interactive community, speaking at industry conferences and judging notable industry competitions, including The one show, The Art Directors Club and Cannes.
Prior to joining Tribal DDB, Kevin was the Executive Creative Director of Interactive at Fallon in Minneapolis. He was responsible for building an integrating digital creative offering that resulting in a number of notable solutions such as BMW Films. Before focusing on the digital side of communications, Kevin was a Senior Designer with Duffy and worked for Nike.
Bryan Jones, Technology Director at Ogilvy One
www.ogilvy.com/ Bryan has over ten years of technology experience leading cross-disciplinary teams, working with clients to define business/marketing objectives and managing the execution of development strategies for clients such as BP, Chicago 2016, CBOE, AMA, Unilever, Allstate, CDW and Kraft.
His experience ranges from large-scale website development to on-line advertising management and campaign optimization. He has extensive knowledge of web development processes, rich media and emerging technologies and consults clients on web implementation best practices across multiple platforms, applications and programming languages.
Jeff Smith, CEO of Clarity Consulting
www.claritycon.com/
With over ten years experience in information technology and sciences, Jeff sets Clarity's long-range business goals, and works with the executive team to ensure the goals are met. During his career at Clarity, Jeff has used technology to solve the business problems of corporations in dozens of industries, including construction, financial services, food services, healthcare, insurance, management consulting, nuclear power, retail, software and telecommunications. He serves as Engagement Director on many client projects, playing an active role in the design and implementation of Clarity's software solutions.
Jeff speaks regularly at professional developer conferences throughout the world. He has spoken at VBITS, VSLive, TechEd and Microsoft's Developer Days, and several Chicago-area user group conferences. He has co-authored several books on n-tier client-server application design, and written several articles and white papers on topics ranging from ASP.NET to cryptographic security.
Prior to becoming Clarity's second employee in 1995, Jeff was employed with Lante Corporation where he worked on software projects for dozens of Fortune 500 clients across a wide range of markets, including computer software, healthcare, manufacturing and telecommunications. Jeff also held technology positions with Ottosensors, Inc. where he and a team of ten biologists worked on the development of the world's first real-time blood-gas monitoring system.
Jeff holds a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University. Upon graduating from college, Jeff also co-founded a real estate redevelopment firm in Cleveland, Ohio.
Jaclyn Valrose, Communications Manager, Chicago 2016
www.chicago2016.org
Jaclyn Valrose is a communications manager at Chicago 2016 responsible for educating the community on Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games through media relations and communications activities.
Prior to Chicago 2016, Jaclyn worked at Edelman and was responsible for strategic public relations activities on behalf of international, national and local clients, including Expedia Corporate Travel and CEMUSA, Inc. In addition to media relations, she managed speakers’ bureaus, award submissions, social media programs and tradeshow activities for client programs.
Jaclyn joined Edelman from TravelCLICK, Inc., where she worked in marketing and communications. Jaclyn was responsible for internal and external communications, including media relations materials, company marketing materials and employee communications. She was also responsible for global customer relations and the implementation of product promotions and launches. Jaclyn earned a bachelors degree in speech communication from Miami University in Oxford, OH.
PhizzPop is a huge undertaking for invited teams and it’s not something that all companies can do. What’s involved?
First teams need to pick three dedicated team members that can go through three-days of intensive training. Then teams need to dedicate 3 to 5 days to solving the challenge. Finally, these teams must prepare and give their presentations to a panel of 7 judges and in front of hundreds of spectators.
This is a big personal investment to team members and their employers that can’t use these talented resources for billable work.
Every team realizes this before they get involved in a design challenge and it’s special for us in Chicago because our challenge is focused on Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid.
Come watch what these teams come up with by registering to attend the PhizzPop Design Challenge at www.phizzpop.com and cheer on Manifest Digital, Quilogy, Roundarch and Tanagram.
Who are these guys? Learn about them below.
Agencies competing in 2008 PhizzPop Design Challenge in Chicago represent some of the most capable and powerful collections of designers and developers in the region. Each participant makes a huge investment in time and talent to compete in the challenge and showcase how design and innovation can have a profound effect at the intersection of design, business and technology. 2008 firms competing include:
Manifest Digital
www.manifestdigital.com/
Manifest Digital is a uniquely integrated next-generation agency. Founded in the principles of customer-centered design, we have evolved our heritage to incorporate the right mix of strategy, creativity, delivery, and accountability. We communicate with each other and our clients in a build-to-think process that ties these disciplines together, applying user-centered methods in new ways.
The result is innovative--from evolutionary to revolutionary--depending on your market need.
Build a better website, create vibrant online communities, or tightly integrate multi-channel marketing. Use our custom content management and marketing platform, uxCast, or the technical foundations you already have.
Regardless of the tactics, Manifest Digital applies its proven approach to close the distance between you and your customer.
Quilogy
www.quilogy.com/
Quilogy’s Interactive National Practice, a member of the prestigious Microsoft Metro Early Adopter Program, is a full service digital marketing agency that combines high impact creative designs with robust technologies to deliver compelling and cost-effective online marketing solutions.
Quilogy’s award-winning team of creative designers, writers, usability experts, multi-media specialists and technologists mix and match digital marketing techniques such as web site design and strategy, search engine optimization, e-mail campaigns, banner advertising, streaming video, e-learning and more to help clients win and keep customers, launch new products, penetrate new markets and educate sales teams.
Clients of all industries and sizes engage Quilogy to assist with complete marketing campaign development including out-of-the-box strategy, planning, creative concepts, content, production and deployment along with performance analytics to achieve desired results.
Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, Quilogy operates offices in 17 cities across the United States and is a leading Microsoft National Managed Partner providing solutions for Business Intelligence, Custom .NET, SharePoint, Microsoft Dynamics, Web Design and Interactive Marketing.
Roundarch
www.roundarch.com/
At Roundarch, we believe it is better to do a few things very well rather than try to be everything to everyone. We focus exclusively on the Web channel for the world's largest organizations. Doing so requires three key elements:
· Deep expertise in the channel to translate a company's overall goals into a compelling online strategy
· Strong design skills to translate user needs into a Web experience that is both intuitive and a joy to use
· Deep architecture and implementation expertise in Web technologies to assure that Web-based systems are both highly scalable and flexible
Roundarch has spent the past six years honing our skills in each of these disciplines and optimizing the synergy between them. The result is a company that has the depth to take on some of the channel's most complex problems for some of the world's largest organizations.
Tanagram
www.tanagrampartners.com/
Tanagram Partners designs human computer interactions with products you use at home, at the office, or mobile. This includes web and software applications ranging from interfaces for a single interaction to complex product ecologies. We are a hybrid company that is comfortable to be on the edges of traditional categories. We look at all opportunities through four lenses:
Business - Business goals and models drive client decisions. Tanagram understands and has experience with many different types of business models and processes.
Markets - Companies tap into markets, or an aggregated group of users that are defined by certain characteristics and attributes. Tanagram is user focused.
Brand – We live in a world of brands and markets that expect unified branded experiences to create greater affinities with products and services. Tanagram has deep experience in brand strategy and brand building.
Technology – The enabler for experiences and transactions of all types. Developing compelling digital experiences is what drives Tanagram to innovate and create solutions that people want to use.
Our inspired approach is rooted in creativity. By architecting engaging and relevant user experiences, we create measurable solutions that bridge our client’s need for transforming their business, market, and brand futures.
Here’s the challenge that the PhizzPop Chicago teams got on Friday, November 14th at 4pm.
Chicago 2016 Olympics Bid Awareness
Overview
You’ve been selected by the Chicago 2016 Committee to help provide digital strategies to help Chicago be selected at the site of the 2016 Olympics. Chicago 2016 has less than a year before the International Olympic Committee votes on which of the four competing cities wins the bid. The four competing cities are Chicago, Madrid, Rio, and Tokyo.
One of the key elements to winning the bid for Chicago is getting the city’s youth behind the bid. Teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18 will be in their late 20’s to early 30’s if/when the Olympic come to Chicago in 2016. This is the audience that in 2016 will be going to events, and taking their kids to cheer on the next Shawn Johnson or Michael Phelps.
The committee is looking for ways to actively engage and ultimately generate support with the city’s youth in a demonstrable way. It is very important to not just get the youth involved but somehow show their impact/support in a visual/meaningful way. It is also important to somehow find ways to activate those that influence youth, like teachers, coaches, and parents.
Assignment
Your challenge is to determine how and what the mechanisms are used to engage and create interest in the bid with Chicago’s youth (ages 13-18). We are looking for unique, out of the box experiences that can empower the youth to feel this is their bid.
How can next generation devices, games, social media, mobility and new technologies for sharing and collaboration position Chicago in a genuine, relevant and engaging fashion to youth?
While we have not exhaustively discussed all the possibilities, a few of the following ideas have been discussed, and may give you some food for thought for your projects focus:
• Is there a way to leverage casual gaming to bring kids closer to sport? Games like Line Rider and Desktop Tower Defense have become viral and are very successful across demographics. Is there a way Chicago2016 can leverage casual gaming around sports to raise youth awareness in the Olympics? Are there collaborative and competitive components to the solutions?
• Is there a way to connect the youth with local sports groups? How can we leverage the web to help create/enhance local group activities?
• How do we utilize the concept of becoming a “celebrity” to help drive awareness and interest in the bid. In a time where all it takes is a video with thousands of hits to because a “Web Celebrity”, are there ways to allow the youth to promote the bid that also promotes themselves, through the use of cyber status and popularity?
This is not the end all list of possibilities, so feel free to design something completely different as long as it meets the requirements listed below and also focuses on engaging the city’s youth.
Requirements
• A focus on getting youth audiences is involved in the bid.
• The primary interface for this effort will be Web based and use/leverage services to provide maximum reach and utility for visitors to engage at chicago2016.org or some related URL.
• Variations or parts of the experience can be delivered to desktop, laptop, tablet, mobile device, Surface, etc…
• There are multiple audiences for this interface with different degrees of importance. Youth and awareness around the importance of sports is our primary audience. Secondary audiences include potential donors and visitors to the site that are curious about Chicago’s ambition and enthusiasm for the 2016 Olympic bid and have a desire to know why Chicago is a great venue to host the 2016 games.
• Solutions should make use of technologies and services that provide rich, interactive, unique and collaborative experiences that leverage the best of Web 2.0 and social media, but it should also extend the capabilities and effectiveness of these services. (Including use of audio, video, etc.).
• A safe and controlled environment where students (13-18) will feel safe in collaborating. Consider reviewing COPPA rules at www.coppa.org.
• Abilities to close or manage the network to prevent commercial, distracting or offensive content.
• The ability to provide standardization and interoperability of data and content to other networks and platforms to amplify the impact of the Chicago 2016 committee’s efforts at chicago2016.org.
• Interface(s) must be delivered as Microsoft WPF and/or Silverlight 1 or 2 experience as a core enabling feature.
Considerations
The following are considerations, not guidelines that should be evaluated when designing a solution:
• Extending the experience outside of the Chicago 2016 site to other services or properties (including but not limited to Windows Live Services).
• Use of data visualization for both site visitors and Chicago2016 stakeholders to dynamically represent the enthusiasm of Chicago for hosting the Chicago 2016 Olympics.
• Systems and tools that capture and engage audiences consistently between Olympic events versus just during Olympics events. Ideas and strategies that make Chicago2016 a permanent destination for people.
• Looking at how advances in imaging, casual gaming, advocate networks, offline applications or academic engagement can be utilized for this effort.
• Integration of Microsoft Live Services
User Personas
Persona 1: Junior High Student
Name: Alex
Age: 13
Alex lives in Barlett, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. If asked to describe himself he would most likely state that he is ‘normal’ compared to his peers, he’s not the most popular guy in school but he’s got his own group of friends and in his words “Gets along with everyone more or less”. He’s played football since third-grade but due to his diminutive size he’s thinking of giving it up for something else, but he’s not even sure if he really wants to engage in sports much anymore. He spend quite a bit of time with friends play ingvideo games (mostly Xbox) at their respective houses (He recently received an X-Box Live account and uses the online handle ‘Iron Monk’ when he plays games with his friends online, although he’s anxiously awaiting Gears of War II he spends most of time simply handing out online in Halo 3 with his friends or playing Rock Band II with his band called ‘DeathEater.’
Alex has an older brother, David, who is a Junior in Computer Science at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Recently David has gotten Alex into casual computing games and into DJing, something David has started doing part time. Increasing Alex is spending time online playing games like Line Rider (www.linerider.com). He’s recently set up a My Space page by has only just started using it and plays with his brother’s electronic keyboard which is hooked up to a Sony VAIO running Virtual DJ Pro.
Alex has been lobbying his parents for some time for an iPhone saying it’s essential he has a cell phone for ‘safety’. Finally his parents relent, but to his disappointment he is given his Father’s old Motorola Razor handset after his Father upgrades to a new Motorola phone. “You just need a phone for emergencies, an iPhone is too expensive,” says his Father. Alex grumbles a bit but is using the phone often for text messaging.
Persona 2: College Student
Name: Jocelyn
Age: 17
Jocelyn lives in Hyde Park, IL. She’s just started taking classes at Loyola University in downtown Chicago, majoring in pre-med. Jocelyn takes her college life very seriously, with the exception of her older cousin she is the first in extended family to be going to college. Between work and school she doesn’t have time for much else.
Currently Jocelyn’s life revolves around three groups of friends, those people she works with at the East Bank Club, where she’s got a job greeting and checking in guests that are members of the club and with many of her new friends she’s made at Loyola. Finally, Jocelyn has a very tight group of friends she’s known since she’s been a small child, although still close to all of them she finds less and less time to interact with them, one of them has moved to Lexington to take a job in a family business, one has joined the Army, and one has moved to Iowa on a track scholarship at Iowa State University.
Jocelyn spends a great deal of time keeping in touch with her groups of friends using her Sidekick mobile phone, mostly through SMS and twitter but more recently she has started using Facebook and Friendfeed to keep in touch as well. She’s not quite sure how she could live without her Sidekick or Macbook that she bought this summer with money earned from part-time jobs.
Sharing student housing with three other roommates and being so immersed in school and her new job still has Jocelyn excited but she wonders if she’s missing something and losing perspective. In high-school she volunteered for many activities and ran cross-country and she’s starting to feel a bit guilty that she no longer makes time for those activities. She’s also become a bit more aware and sensitive about how women are treating in the workplace and, most concerning to her, in the medical workplace, after doing a summer internship. Jocelyn wonders if there are some things she should start thinking about in terms of empowerment but she’s not sure where to start.
Persona 3: Youth
Name: Darryl
Age: 19
Darryl graduated 18 months ago from high-school. An outstanding athlete, he eventually went to play basketball for a Division III school in Texas with an interest in studying criminal science. As is true with many students Darryl found that this initial independence and being far away from home proved to be a bit too much. After his first year in School he returned home, in considerable debt.
Over the Summer Darryl has been working a variety of jobs to pay down some of his student debt. His parents have been letting him live at home and recently he just got a job driving a delivery truck for a shipping company. It’s a job Darryl appreciates for the pay and that fact that they offer college reimbursement. He’s committed to giving college another go again after he pays down his debts. His biggest passion outside of work is playing basketball whenever he can with his high-school friends. He lives for the pick-up game.
Darryl has never been a huge fan of technology or even video games. He recently picked up a new mobile phone and got a Windows smart phone because his employer was able to get him a great deal on it and he thought it might be a good substitute for buying a computer. He’s using it mostly for texting with his friends and new girlfriend but has recently been turning to Web sites like Yelp.com that help him determine what to do socially during his free time.
Persona 4: The Suburban Dad
Name: Ben
Age: 44
Ben is a working father of two (Jim, 12 and Jennifer, 14), and lives in Arlington Heights, but commutes into the Loop every weekday for work on Metra. He tries to make the most of his time on the train to and from work, so he has time at home with the family. On Tuesday nights he coaches Jim’s soccer team and on Thursdays he helps coach Jennifer’s softball teams. Sometimes it is difficult to keep up with the entire goings on with each of the kid’s teams, but he makes it a priority.
Since he commutes into the city, his time during the week with them is short, so he spends some of his time on his commute looking for things for the family to do the next weekend. Sometimes he finds things in the The Chicago Tribune, but a lot of time he uses his laptop with a wi-max card to scour the local websites like Metromix, Citysearch and others to find things the family can do on the weekend.
Last weekend he and his wife took the kids to see the new Earth Revealed exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. He was amazed on how interactive it was and how engaging it was to the entire family. The kids loved it and he felt it was an educational experience for them and that’s what he looks for.
Persona 5: Undergraduate Media Studies Teacher
Name: James
Age: 29
James is an associate professor at a four year college located in Chicago. He’s new to the school and the job and was hired with a mandate to ‘break some eggs’. James’ first teaching assignment is in a class focused on video production and distribution. Rather than go the traditional approach of teaching just the concepts and aspects of script writing, production and editing James wants to teach his students about using the medium and social media to make connections with audiences.
He’s particularly inspired by work that Nike has done in this space and the concept of ‘fan media’ that pervades You Tube. He’s even been mildly impressed by some of the online ‘I’m a PC campaigns.’ He’s looking for a subject and social platform that he can use to inspire his students and engage the messiness of user generated video and online media.
James is a bit of social media nut and he’s currently addicted to his favorite tool, Friendfeed. Recently he purchased an iPhone solely because he liked how FriendFeed displayed on his phone and the access it offered to his large music collection.
Although many of his students have Macs the lab he teaches in is a hybrid where Macs are used for editing and PCs are used for Web and online media design and encoding.
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