Imitation is the highest form of flattery...

...or so they say. In that case, we can't stop blushing from the immense compliment phones.com paid us. Their phone selector is a near one-on-one copy of the work MediaCatalyst has done for Sony Ericsson's product catalogue. The flattery stretches from the navigation to the structure of the underlying information architecture, to lay-out, to icons, to copy and even to the general look and feel. Note the bold use of gradient green;)! Our version for Sony Ericsson is on the left, phones.com's take on it on the right:

Way back in the day when the first version of Sony Ericsson product catalogue went live (November 2006!), it was hailed as an exemplary use of Adobe Flex 2 to enhance a user experience (do follow that link to see a mention of our work on Wikipedia! And no, we didn't put it there ourselves...). Additionally, the site was duly honoured for 'best navigation/structure' by the 2007 Webby Awards. Just recently, Saskia Idzerda, one of our information architects who was closely involved with the project, gave a talk about it at the IxDA conference in Savannah. You can read about it and see it here.

A sign of postmodern times (excusez le mot!), 'borrowing' or 'sampling' or 'stealing' or 'plagiarising' is something any industry has to face, whether it be the music industry, the arts, academics, and indeed all things online. The internet seems especially prone. Olly Wright, who concerns himself with MediaCatalyst strategy, comments:

"Your initial reaction might be to hit the red alarm button and use
words like theft, copyright infringement. In this case you may be
right. Or perhaps not. The web makes this kind of activity incredibly
simple to do, and almost impossible to stop. Perhaps the best way to
approach this is to go in the opposite direction... to encourage
everyone to copy and use your stuff as much as possible? To spread the
good word both by helping others do their thing. Perhaps a phone (or
product) comparison tool could be provided as a mash-up-able
application usable by anyone wanting to create a phone site?"

And yes, after all, phones.com contributes to selling Sony Ericsson phones in the end. So you could say we share that objective... Though the image above gives you the general idea of the extent of phones.com's tribute to our work, do continue reading after the jump for a closer look, and some very striking 'similarities'....

Keywords: Sony,Ericsson,product,selector,product,catalogue,phones.com,copy,flex,2,webby,award,saskia,idzerda,olly,wright,sample,mash-up,plagiarism,copy,right

Planet Earth’s a playground

That’s how Locomatrix sees the world of gaming these days. From the bedroom back into the real world.

Locomatrix is a UK-based company that develops location-based games. If you’ve got a GPS-enabled phone or a compatible phone with a GPS receiver, you can download the Locomatrix application. Add some friends and a wide, open space to start playing. From their video, it seems that the wider the space, the more fun you’re bound to have.

Locomatrix creators, Richard Vahrman and Moira Nangle, who described themselves as ‘keen walkers’, wanted to make game that would encourage kids to play oudoors. They already used GPS in their walks and so they devised their idea around this technology.

The company also believes in keeping Locomatrix an open platform and want to encourage other developers to create their own games. They’re looking into expanding their game offerings to include role-playing, strategy, games of cooperation, team competitions and a lot more.

This development in gaming appeals to me a lot since it goes back to the basics. It brings back memories of play experienced as children: the exploration, thrill and shared adventures. This trend comes as no surprise as this fervent childhood memory of play, discovery and imagination has given birth to classics like the Legend of Zelda and has been the foundation of Dungeon and Dragons.

Keywords: location-based,games,games,play,GPS,Waag,Society,Locomatrix

MediaCatalyst presents Canon EOS400D at the Spinawards

Fresh of the press. The Spinawards, the yearly awards for creativity in interactive communications, are hosting what they call the 'Inspiration Days' at 'Pakhuis Willem de Zwijger'. Today and tomorrow, the nominees get one last chance to convince the jury of the award-worthiness of their work. The format is interesting to say the least: 5 minutes to present, 5 minutes to answer jury questions. Besides a last chance to sway the jury in our favour, it is an excellent opportunity to scope out the competition. Now, we're not about to toot their horns, but you can see what we're up against here, and what we already left behind here.

MediaCatalyst is nominated for the Canon EOS400D campaign site in the category 'Best Website Concept'. We're honoured already by receiving this prestigious nomination, but we'd like to think we have a shot at the big prize! Earlier, this site won the FWA Site Of The Day award, as well as a Website of the Month notch from Webdesigner magazine in January. Additionally, it kicked up quite a storm in the blogosphere due to its innovative use of Papervision. On this blog, our head of interactive media, Manuel Dahm, gave a rare peek behind the scenes. Do check back after Easter for more, the 3rd of May is the big day... Meanwhile, fingers crossed!

Is gaming addictive or not?

This subject has been in the news on a weekly basis for at least the last 2 years. Every one has to say something about it. Addiction experts and gaming experts, Social workers, psychology professors etc etc. Once in a while there's an article that appears to be written by someone who knows what he/she is writing about. Unfortunately those articles aren't very interesting as well, since they too, involve the experts from all kinds of professions. The thing with most of those experts is this: they are all at least older than 40 and have been doing their profession for at least 20 years.

Sure, there were games in the seventies and eighties. But let's be honest here: although some games were extremely good and could be played for hours and hours, they looked like crap and except for being rewarded with infinate glory and fame by achieving the highest score ever, there was not much to it. What made it fun was that you'd go out, meet your friends in an arcade, spent your guilders on the games and have an evening of fun. Sounds different from the consoles and networked games that kids are playing today isn't it?

Saskia Idzerda speaks on the Sony Ericsson Phone catalogue at the IxDA conference

Saskia Idzerda, Information Architect at MediaCatalyst, had the honour of speaking at the IxDA Interaction08 conference in Savannah. She offers a rare look behind the scenes of the redesign of Sony Ericsson's Phone catalogue, an interface created by MediaCatalyst and honoured by the Webby Awards in 2007.

How did MediaCatalyst handle the challenges of this agile process? What does it mean to implement a global website, taking into account the - at times surprising - local preferences? What are the benefits and often fascinating results of extensive usability testing? Below, you can see Saskia in action.

Keywords: IxDA,Saskia,Idzerda,MediaCatalyst,Interaction08,Sony,Ericsson,product,catalogue,phone,catalogue