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Welcome to the all new Cage app.
We’ve rebuilt Cage from the ground up (all new code, all new design), so there’s a ton of new features but even more subtle enhancements you’ll pick up on. Our biggest goal in rebuilding Cage was to make it more useful, but keep it simple to use (leaving out features that are needed for the sake of simplicity leads to work-arounds…and that’s no fun for anyone). We love what we’ve built and know you will too!
QR codes with apps like Scan.me make it possible for businesses and publications to take what is in the real world or to the digital world (the Internet). In a recent episode of The Industry Radio Show, special guest Jonnie Hallman and co-founder Drew Wilson discussed the idea of QR codes.
At roughly the 20 minute mark Drew brings up the win-win situation by using QR codes to take them out of your physical store by offering them a reward to come back (into the physical world). And Jonnie mentioned how almost cheesy the QR code is, which is basically a modified, plain black and white barcode.
And this isn’t no game that might’ve been announced at E3 recently.
Thing is is publishers have been pushed to create a digital magazine to reap the benefits. But, there are benefits to a printed publication so what is another solution or fix?
The Layar creator enables publishers to integrate digital content with print media and give their readers a very dynamic reading experience. If you want to give it a try, download the Layar app and head to this page on Dough’Nut to give the cover page a try!
Layar Creator places the power of interactive print at everyone’s fingertips. Layar is the world’s easiest way to activate print media with digital content. It’s a self-service web application that lets anyone infuse static pages with interactive experiences.
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When you find something you want to view later, put it in Pocket.
The team behind Pocket is the same team that brought us Read It Later. Saving and organizing things on the internet has been something being worked on for some time now. Favoriting and bookmarking is not enough anymore nor is it what we want to do now. Twitter has turned the function of favoriting something into basically recognizing or liking that tweet. Bookmarking is still done, but the main problem is that many times you end up with a library of bookmarks that you first find out-dated over time and secondly it is just not needed when the rate of content creation and consumption is only getting higher.
Today we want something that can easily save and organize the content we want to look at later. And now there is more content that we want to look at later that isn’t strictly text. This is where Pocket has truly out done itself.
The app isn’t perfect, but what truly stood out was the entire signup process.
As the introduction to Pocket video (below) explains what this app/service is all about for the user, the whole signup process truly educates the user.
First things first, we need to get a few things set up so you can start saving items to your list.”
Next (button)
Save right to Pocket from the apps and browsers you are already using! Just choose ‘Add to Pocket’ when sharing a page.
Learn More (button)
Next (button)
Extensions and bookmarklets make it super simple to save in one click from any computer. We’ll send you instructions on how to get set up.
Email Me Instructions (button)
Next (button)
View your content on your favorite device, be it a mobile phone, tablet or computer.
Email Me Instructions (button)
Next (button)
Your Pocket account is ready to go. Now, go save things to your list!
View Your List (button)
“Your List is Empty” “It is easy to add content to Pocket.”
Learn How to Save (button)
This will start the whole process over again.
As you can see it’s a 5-step process and the most interesting thing is how they gave the option to email the user the instructions.
Learn more about this app in a review on The Verge by Thomas Houston.
A good user experience is one that explains itself and through interface design users learn. Now yes an introduction video is important for marketing processes, but you want your users to embrace your app or service as fast as possible with ease. Certainly a signup process like this is very educational but the level of push hinders the user experience.
Are signup processes good? I’m arguing that if you don’t need one your product or service is only going to be that much better in terms of design. Or is this a special case?
