Ideas

Steve Jobs: The Core of Apple’s Product Development Strategy

Apple has never simply followed the crowd or created products that fit the norm. Instead, they’ve always focused on creating innovative products that change the market. Even as early as the first Macintosh computer, Apple wanted something different. They didn’t want to make just another computer—they wanted to change how people interacted and used their computers. Much of this innovation was due to Steve Jobs, and it became apparent just how much of Apple was Jobs and his imagination during the twelve years he was away from the company.

In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple. With the help of Mike Markkula, Jr., and his business capital, Apple debuted their first computer, the Apple II, in 1978. This radically different machine became very popular, and even after IBM launched their line of PCs, Apple still held a good share of the market. Their proprietary operating system, which was designed from the ground up, was matched by unique hardware that couldn’t as easily be cloned, but Apple’s simplicity and unique products made them more than a match for IBM at first. However, even after the Macintosh computer was introduced in 1984, Apple was on a downward slope, and it didn’t help matters when Jobs was forced out of the company by the Board of Directors in 1985.

October 13, 2015 / Comments Off / Category: Business

iBeacons In Retail

iBeacon is a technology by Apple that lets a small Bluetooth device be integrated in the real world so that people’s smartphones can catch its signal to provide relevant functions. This makes iBeacon a great technology in retail and holds the potential to change the way customers and retailers interact.

Previously, it was common enough for people to download apps of their favorite stores and use it to find deals and coupons. Now they no longer have to search. Think about it, a customer walks in their favorite store, and before they even have the chance to take out their phone and search for deals, the store’s app on their store picks up a signal because of the iBeacon technology and automatically provides deals and coupons. This is how iBeacon works and retail is advancing because of it.

October 13, 2015 / Comments Off / Category: Retail

Sales Personas Provide a Better Picture of Your Target Audience

Who is your ideal customer? Do you understand his or her needs? Do you know their personal history, what motivates them, or the concerns they may have about the products or services you have to offer?

A buyer persona, also known as a sales persona, is basically a made up representation of the typical customer whom you would target. In order to effectively create a buyer or sales persona, you need to understand what motivates them, the demographic or your target market, and purchasing behavior. In today’s business climate, that also means you need to understand their online behaviour.

Why Would You Need a Buyer Persona?

When sales and marketing teams within an organization don’t have a clear picture, a unified understanding of the target audience, the people whom they will be targeting, then how can the organization develop a message that will create the deepest impact?

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October 13, 2015 / Comments Off / Category: Design Thinking, UX

Google Fit vs Apple HealthKit: What’s the difference?

The tech world has seen many competitions and battles amongst brands and Apple especially seems to get a extra share. Not only Android but Google too is a regular rival of Apple and with the Google Fit going up against Apple’s HealthKit, we have another competition on our hands. While both these health apps are similar, let’s look at their differences to compare.

Data

Google’s data categories include activity times, calories, pedal rate, distance, heart-rate, height, weight, produced power, steps, and elevation and what seems to be missing is sleep tracking – however, the custom data type option should be good enough to cover anything left out.

However, Apple decided to go a little ahead for HealthKit’s data types. Categories include gender, blood type, sleep routine, activity times, workout intensity, body temp., heart-rate, blood sugar and alcohol levels, pedal rate, walking, etc.

October 13, 2015 / Comments Off / Category: Mobile App, UX

An Overview of Gamification

Gamification is the term to describe the integration of game mentalities and game mechanics in order to engage users (usually potential customers) and create a competitive feel to the process. Companies across the world have begun using gamification techniques more frequently as a means to engage their customers and keep them coming back to their website (or using mobile apps) more readily.

People tend to have a natural desire for competition. They also have a desire for achievement, being recognized for those achievements, and reward. The main goal of gamification strategies is to reward players for their ability to accomplish certain tasks. For many games that companies are using today, players (customers and prospective customers) can earn points, badges (for achievements), or different levels. Some other rewards can include virtual currency that can be redeemed for coupons or discounts in the future.

October 13, 2015 / Comments Off / Category: Gamification

How Feedback Innovation can Improve Product Development

Do you know the true value of customer feedback when it comes to product innovation? When a company begins to develop new products or services, the end user is the target market for it, but sometimes when you invest a great deal of time and resources into research and development, it can be a frightening concept to them rely on feedback from that target audience.

Yet it’s the feedback that you can, and should, receive from your potential customers that can improve overall product development, pushing your business ahead of the competition. You should acknowledge that feedback is something that can be feared, but only if you view it through the wrong type of lens.

October 13, 2015 / Comments Off / Category: Design Thinking, UX

Examples of Great App Description

An app description is crucial in promoting your app. It’s the first point of contact with potential users. As such, it should give them a quick overview of what the app can do and what value it can add to the user experience.

There are no hard and fast rules in writing a great app description, but there are things that can be done to make the app stand out from a crowded app marketplace. The best way to learn how to write an effective description is to look at some examples that deliver a compelling pitch.

Look at the app description for Plants vs. Zombies (PvZ). You might think that something as insanely popular as PvZ would not bother with a description. On the contrary, it is a shining example of a great app description:

October 13, 2015 / Comments Off / Category: Mobile App

Design Thinking at Virgin Atlantic

Design is often thought of as a means to create beautiful products and provide simple and easy to use access to specific services. However, at Virgin Atlantic, design is much more than that. It’s about problem solving and in order to be effective at proper design, one needs to become an expert in human behaviour.

This does not imply that every individual within a company structure must be an expert in human behaviour, but that the design team must be able and willing to think creatively and focus on the broader picture.

For Virgin Atlantic, service design begins with the understanding of basic customer needs. They don’t just look at emotional connections, but also the functional and practical aspects of their needs as well. They connect with their customer base through a wide range of tools, including feedback, customer satisfaction surveys, observing specific behaviours and tendencies, and other methods.

October 13, 2015 / Comments Off / Category: Design Thinking

Design Thinking at O2

In order to create the ‘best possible customer experience,’ design is one of the keystones to the process. At O2, an innovative leader of mobile services based in the UK, they have brought design thinking into the core basis of their business model. This company has built success around the notion that a good service design is essential to success for this type of business.

As a result, they developed a Customer Centred Design model, or process, which they label as CCD. What they have discovered through their processes at O2 is that connecting different departments through design, they are able to be more effective at new service development. For them, according to their Chief Marketing Officer, this is not about the ‘look and feel’ of design, but about “being deliberate” in their approach.

October 13, 2015 / Comments Off / Category: Design Thinking

Barclays Bank Uses Design to Deliver Innovation

When one considers the use of design, they might not often associate this with the banking industry. The banking industry has long been revered as an entity unto its own, which would answer to only regulators and not customers. However, in light of the financial collapse that forced a major recession, and with the crumbling of some major financial institutions around the world, customer service and the brand of banks became something to consider.

Barclays has been involved in the banking industry for more than 300 years and has been responsible for some of the most popular innovations in use today, such as the credit card and ATMs (they designed and put into use the first ATM).

October 13, 2015 / Comments Off / Category: Business, Design, UX

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