Amazon's New Layout, New Merchandising

Amazon's redesign is much cleaner... and grayer than before. It also is more focused on promoting their new categories. I noted this before with their revamped navigation bar: "Amazon's Navigation bar is Revealing."

But Amazon has gone a step further here: not only does the left navigation panel promote their digital efforts ahead of physical (Instant Videos, Cloud Player, Cloud Drive, Kindle, Appstore, Games, Audiobooks, etc)... they then duplicate those categories in the center panel. Each category has it's own visual and merchandising unit.

Below the top panel is another promotional box that promotes other efforts (Amazon Mom) or curated experiences (Clothing Trends).

For what it's worth: I find the nesting of the two units a bit strange. And the units do not auto-scroll - so it's both overwhelming (and confusing) to have 10+ potential links to click.

Facebook Now Clustering by Posted From Shared Applications

We have seen three product moves from Facebook: 1. clustering of posts by topic 2. clustering of posts by type 3. promotion of applications (rather than just content) Here is the merging of those three: clustering content posted from shared applications. Fascinating stuff...

Flipboard: In the River Promotion, From iPad to iPhone?

I write a lot about targeted marketing - which means effecting messaging your users at the right moment and in the right place. I use the term "in the river marketing" to describe it. Here is a great example by Flipboard - a master at mobile design. Flipboard - which has huge distribution as an iPad app - is trying to promote their new iPhone app (which generally is a different experience and design). To do that, Flipboard gets as "in the river" as possible. The welcome screen generally displays a story from your network. In this case, it is a note directly from Flipboard's CEO Mike McCue and describes their new iPhone app. This ensures that all Flipboard users see the message and, at the very least, recognize that Flipboard now exists for iPhone. That's aggressive. But it's targeted: these are Flipboard users and iPad owners (so they likely have iPhones as well).

The major question that mobile publishers / developers struggle with: how do you then drive conversion? What next after this message? Driving downloads across device is difficult. Driving downloads from the web is even harder. Then layer on tracking to understand the efficacy of the campaign and it's unfortunately very difficult...

Sparrow, Mobile: In the River Promotion

I frequently write about two ongoing themes: 1. the importance of "in the river marketing" (reaching targeted users at relevant points in the product / experience) 2. the difficult of driving mobile downloads from web, advertisement, other devices, etc

Here is a good example from Sparrow. They want to promote their popular Mac mail application to iPhone users. Within the initial product walk-through (now very popular within applications), Sparrow highlights their Mac app (Got a Mac?) and, to drive conversions, offers to send a download link. That's simple but effective (it's actionable), intelligent (captures some data / funnel measuring) and relevant (iPhone users are more likely to be Mac users than Android users).

Of course - if Sparrow were promoting their mobile product, SMS is more effective than mail. Groupon and Redbox do great work here.

Sparrow Mail + Facebook Connect

I love these two screenshots from Sparrow's new iPhone app because they confirm a few threads that I routinely discuss / think about. The screenshots appear after app download and after your mail account is connected - you are prompted of course to connect the mail account with Facebook ("mail is much nicer with your friends' profile pictures!"): 1. First and foremost, Facebook should be considered an identity platform as much as it is a considered a social network. I firmly believe this.

2. Outsource to Facebook (and other major platforms) in areas where they do things better (ie identity, sharing) or where you gain advantage elsewhere (ie Facebook Connect + mail account = superior data / future functionalities).

3. Mail still needs to be rethought and Sparrow gives it an interesting twist.

4. Facebook should play a bigger role in email 2.0.

Do More Than Display Tweets, Facebook Posts - Drive Engagement.

I nitpick design... and it's certainly not because I am a designer or artistically talented; rather, it's because I often struggle with the balance of aesthetics and functionality / efficacy. Great example here from The New Inquiry. Gorgeous page header with an integrated tweet directly below. It is visually very clean and looks as though it is part of the core site / design. Even the right sidebar is good looking: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and email icons all integrated and locked into the sidebar (and a nice hover-state animation).

So my nitpick: that tweet is great, but: what's the point? It's more than displaying dynamic content... it's to build an audience and engage. Therefore, the most important part is a having a follow button - or an in-line reply / retweet function. So while this looks beautiful - it's a reminder that functionality is ultimately at least equally important... and every pixel should work for you - in this case, drive engagement.

Fandango, iPhone App & Push Notifications

This is a terrific example of how to use Push Notifications for mobile Apps. Below is a screen shot from Fandango's iPhone App - from which we bought tickets to see The Lorax. Fandango obviously knows when the movie is - and when it ends. Almost immediately after it ended, I got the following push notification. Obviously highly relevant - and because there is no better time to deliver it, I don't find it spammy or unwelcome.

Very smart. Very simple. But not commonly done!

Facebook Launches Messenger for Windows. Gorgeous Download Design.

Facebook has launched Messenger for Windows. Finally - it's great. (Although I still think it's time to launch a browser!)

What's noteworthy is the download page and flow... which is unique (to me!) and a gorgeous, effective way to convert users through the download process. It's the best design of this flow I've seen.

Here's your standard marketing page - driving users to click download ("install now"). Very Facebook in its presentation.

And here is the cool part: once clicked, the lightbox appears with instructions and is situated directly over the download section of the browser (screenshot is of Chrome). The lightbox sits atop the download and instructs users through the next three steps - including getting over the biggest hurdle of the flow: converting users from download click to application open.

Beautiful and creative.

Quirky & Cordies Demonstrates Great Packaging and the Power of Crowdsourcing

In January, I wrote a Klout-inspired piece on the impact of great packaging. I was reminded of that message when I bought this Cordies cable organizer by Quirky. Simple product that is great because of the simplicity. And while the product's design is great - the packaging is every bit as good, from the box to the booklet. It is also a testament to the why crowd sourcing efforts like KickStarter are so popular - buying products 'created' by the masses is fun and uplifting. The back of the box and the booklet describe creator (Stephen Stewart), the number of "influencers" (562 others), and their 'ownership' (it outlines how much revenue goes to each community member).

It always feels good to buy great products (strange to admit, but true). Quirky has made it feel extra special.