In these challenging economic times the best companies stay their course with their commitment to innovate. I never thought that I’d count Kmart among them. This past holiday season Kmart re-introduced a concept that many thought past its time: Layaway. The move proved to be hugely successful for them.
When asked about the 25th anniversary of the Apple Macintosh, Steve Jobs replied “If you look backward in this business, you’ll be crushed. You have to look forward.”
Last week the news media and the blogosphere were all abuzz about Skittles new “website”. The quotations are around “website” because it really isn’t a website, it’s a widget that sits on top of a series of non-Skittles sites - a siteless site. The widget points you to various social sites around the web, most notably Twitter, where you can see the communities comments about Skittles in real, unedited -time. Critics have declared this everything from “breakthrough” to “idiotic”. But all seem to agree that this won’t sell more Skittles.
What interested me through this whole affair was the headlines and abstracts that were popping up in Google News as I searched for “Skittles” last week. A large majority of the stories mentioned the name of the agency “Moderista!”. Modernista! was not however the agency that created this experience, it was Agency.com. Modernista! was mentioned because they used this same siteless approach to their very own website which launched a year earlier.
While most of the chatter focused on this brave move by Skittles, all of the subtext felt like the creative wind was knocked out of Agency.com’s sails in “adapting” this concept. Maybe the Agency.com folks felt that enough time had past or that the Modernista! audience was too industry-inside for anyone to care. In any case I wonder if Modernista’s phones might be ringing more than Agency.com’s this week.
Typically Apple’s reputation for innovative design is associated with industrial designer Jonathan Ive. Oft overlooked however is the design of the Mac’s operating system. Cordell Ratzlaff led the team at Apple that developed the design and interaction model for OS X. He’s interviewed in the book Designing Interactions about this and his other exploits at Apple. You can view an excerpt of a video that’s included on a DVD here.
Last week Microsoft premiered a vision of the future titled “2019”, and it’s pretty cool.
Not surprisingly surface computing plays a big role — but doesn’t it always in these future stories? It’s typically pretty easy to find flaws in the interaction design of these explorations, but that’s not the point. They provide great inspiration to get the gears fired up and the imagination cooking.
There’s a longer version of the video and some screen shots of the interfaces here — the commenters on this site are a bit skeptical of Microsoft’s ability to deliver on this future.
I am just wondering of they seem to be so good at predicting the future yet always under deliver…
… there seems to be a serious communications breakdown somewhere between innovation and realization…
Let’s cut them a little slack. They delivered Surface - so hey, there’s a shred of proof that good ideas can ... um, surface.
A few weeks ago Fast Company released their annual Fast Company 50, The World’s Most Innovative Companies. I’ve always liked how they included agencies in their list — this year The Barbarian Group, TBWA\Worldwide, and Crispin Porter + Bogusky. IDEO of course is always a staple.
They also include top 10 lists by industry. I was surprised to see Pentagram on the design list. There’s no question that they’re an amazing design firm, but I’ve never thought of them as innovative, nor have I ever heard any other design professional classify them as that as well.
Which brings me to the one thing that about the Fast Company 50 that irks me: they don’t reveal their methodology — if in fact there even is one. But I guess that would only really matter if anyone really cared. Do they? Does the Fast Company 50 carry any clout? Are there any other innovation lists out there that matter?
At any rate, as humans we love our lists ... so enjoy.
Last week the news media and the blogosphere were all abuzz about 
A few weeks ago Fast Company released their annual