Photo: MorroBayChuck (flickr)

Google made a splash with their demo launch video for Wave. The ripples flowed through the social web as some, me included, anticipated great things. It was Google after all, and when do they fail? (more often than you’d think, it turns out). Beyond the great Google stamp of awesome though, any communication product that could translate two-way conversations on the fly surely was a game-changer, right? That feature wasn’t even core to the product, in fact, it was almost mentioned as an afterthought — “… by the way,” the demonstrators seemed to say, “this Phaeton also turns into a plane. Moving on…”

Later, (though, probably not soon enough later) the Wave was unleashed to general users with “limited” invites. They joined, linked up, and tried to ride the Wave.

And, if Google Trends had been hooked up to Wave, the highest term would have been “uh… What now?”

Days later, the Wave never hit the shore.

So now that it’s gone, what can we learn?

Even the savvy users didn’t get it. (perhaps some of the savviest did, but I digress) What was the purpose? What problem is this product solving? It was undefined, or too complex.

Google seemed to go against it’s own process, so giddy on it’s own cleverness. What happened to Marissa Mayer and her crusade for simplicity? When the iPhone launched, it didn’t offer the app store or iTunes. These features were introduced later. Even when Google itself launched, it was a search bar and a results page. The value revealed itself, and seemed to work as if by magic.

So the Wave team didn’t answer the most crucial question – who is it for? Did Google understand it’s customer, or just focus on the product? As Steven Gary Blank describes in “The Four Steps To The Epiphany,” companies that are creating a product for a new market must sell simplicity. If it’s a new concept that I have to try to understand and a new set of behaviors I have to adopt, you’d better make it easier for me than whatever I’m already using (waaay easier). Moreover, did Google think past the launch – how the product would roll out socially as well as technologically? To what influencers did they roll the product out, first? As in the case of the recent Flipboard launch, where Robert Scoble tested first and was very happy to extol the virtues of Flipboard at launch. Wave could have partnered with not only individuals, but organizations to demonstrate through case studies or events just what it was for, and how it improved our lives.

Instead, the launch was pseudo-Steve-Jobsian, a tablet-on-the-mount speech that blew us away, but had no pay-off. With iPhone launches, however, there is physical social currency, whereas passionate Wave advocates and avid users were hidden. Which brings us to the most important point – one that Google of all companies should understand and execute without fail: Connection.

Connection

Ironically, this is what Google Wave set out to improve, and yet this is what it failed to provide. Modern services developed for widespread use must connect with other services. Wave didn’t even connect properly with Gmail. The most basic connection, notifications, required a hacky plug-in and a significant time investment. Of course, once one user had installed notification, there were few other users with it, so the Waves would stall anyway. Further, there was no connection to other tools and services that we use on a daily basis. If Wave activity was associated with a user’s existing social profile, on Facebook or Twitter, the product might have had a fighting chance.

Like Apple’s Newton, this could be another case of too much, too soon. As with Apple, its Newton and its iPhone, the market wasn’t ready for the technology or the change in behaviour. We knew it would happen, eventually, but there was still a long way to go. Will it be Google that reintroduces the wave concept in a few years, or will it be another provider, say Facebook with it’s unmatched engagement and depth of profile to facilitate Wave 2.0’s introduction; or an entirely new provider, with a more disruptive vision and an understanding of the future of on-demand, live, ubiquitous connection? Will it be you?

Regardless of whom starts Wave 2.0, at least we’ll always have the Pulp Fiction Wave:

Filed under: Focusing On The Customer, Unleashing Experiences by Craig Ritchie
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Tags: apple, customer development, Design, Facebook, flipboard, google, interface, iphone, launch, simplicity, Social Media, ux, wave

When a new technology comes along, or in this case, a new video effect, the first use cases are rarely contextually appropriate.

It must have just got easier to build 3D composite videos, because they’re being churned out faster than auto-tuned hip-hop songs as many creative minds are overwhelmed by the razzle-dazzle of their spot actors invoking Hogwartsish incantations of product features out of thin air. Examples are piling up and running back-to-back in some instances.

Before we look at who’s getting it right, let’s look at a few examples that didn’t quite…

Finance Canada

The Canadian Government tries to metaphorically represent their new website experience with citizens plucking grant options from the clouds, but the message – the benefits – are lost among the gimmicky visuals.

Ford

Ford goes through a similar experience, as the car buyer is building her Escape in her mind’s eye by shoving animated features one-by-one in to the SUV.

SyFy

SyFy’s recent brand announcement is more of the classic high-budget blue-screen big-CG style, but the partygoers are tossing around magic items with abandon. Each one, more awkwardly than the last.

Blackberry

Blackberry attempts to demonstrate that you can control your whole world in your Curve. The representation of the mobile digital experience though is cringe-worthy though, as the actor, as with all of these examples, just isn’t quite sure where to focus her eyes.

So, who’s doing it right?

HP

HP’s “personal” celebrity stories commercials are instantly recognizable – yes, they have star power, but it’s the execution that works so well with this creative platform. Perhaps the best decision here was to cut off their heads. Not only does it invite the viewer to try to figure out who the celebrity is, but the celebrity doesn’t have to worry about looking silly and unfocused as they stare at their waving and empty hands. These ads have earned big viewcounts on YouTube, has boast lots of user-generated videos and parodies, further proving the success of the concept. These commercials could be about anyone, and HP has seized this opportunity, expanding the platform on YouTube with the “You On You” contest (which I wrote about it on Threeminds).

Apple

iPhone ads demonstrate the apps, sell the benefits and dazzle you with the product, not computer graphics of metaphors of potential behaviours that you could maybe have at some point.

You might think using the iPhone ads as a best practice example is a cop-out – the fingers are demonstrating the product itself, you say, not flicking around post-production 3D objects… and to this I say…

“Precisely.”

Filed under: Brands, Design, Marketing by Craig Ritchie
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Tags: 3d, ads, apple, blackberry, canadian government, compositing, ford, hp, iphone, magic fingers, syfy