Why All This Fuss about Interactivity?

Very soon, those born between 1982 to 2000 will become the mainstream of  the young work force. People of this generation were raised in dramatically different times compared to their predecessors. They spent much less time with books, and correspondingly more with computers and increasingly smart phones and other gadgets. Their games have been full of multi-sensory interactive media experience. Their social activity has been increasingly through highly engaging online social networks.

In order to attract and maintain this generation's attention - as workforce, as consumers and as citizens -  companies and organizations have no option but to make their content more and more interactive. No one wants long lectures from teachers, boring presentations from bosses, nor pages after pages of insipid web content from web sites. Every kind of content provider now needs to become a dialog creator. They must learn new interactive tools.

Interactivity is not a nice-to-have add-on to content anymore. It is a necessity. It encompasses all walks of digital life, and there is no escape from it. The more we befriend it, the better we master the tools to build it, the more successful we will be in reaching out to all kinds of audiences in the future.

Interactivity for Celebrating Life - e-Greetings Go Interactive

Everyone celebrates something in their lives. Recently I came across a post about celebrateonline.net, where CEO Mike Robinson shares his vision to have people use interactive celebration cards. Celebrationonline.net is an online service that went live recently, and serves all those who want to celebrate life and its special moments. People get to celebrate events in their lives and the lives of their family and friends, wherever they might be.

Celebrateonline breaks new ground in interactivity by exploring its application to a new niche - greeting cards. An electronic card, as we know, is convenient and easy to share and distribute and environment-friendly. "An interactive greeting card improves it further by allowing to present your personal 'celebration story'", says Robinson, "in an interactive and entertaining style".

The service is designed for average users of the web, who know nothing about programming. First, you select an interactive celebration card style from the menu.: say, a 3D virtual book. Next, you assemble and upload content such as text, pictures, video and sound tracks if any. The site does all the technical work at the back end, and publishes your card. Now you can send a link to the recipients. It is that simple.

Interested? Check out celebrateonline.net and see it for yourself.

The Future of Interactivity - New Trends Emerging

Every once in a while new disruptive technology innovations appear in the market, making the future of interactivity a fascinating topic to discuss. It is particularly so now, with the current year turning out to be the year of the tablet. My earlier post on the future of interactivity appeared on this blog nearly a couple of years back. A lot of that future has already arrived. So I figure now it is time to look into the next couple of years and say what is likely to happen. So here we go.


10. User interfaces will continue to evolve
Devices of the future will employ user interfaces of the future. As an example, look at Kinect - the Xbox companion device from Microsoft that employs the new generation natural user interface (NUI). For those of you interested in the future of user interfaces such as wearable interfaces, heads-up displays, gesture interfaces and so on, there are several excellent online resources. Two such articles are to be found on UX Booth and Cameron Chapman's blog.  They discuss the various new technologies that will change the way people will interface with computers and other devices.

9. Tablets will change everything again
With industry forecasts putting tablet sales in several tens of millions of units in 2011, tablet penetration is set to grow faster than smart phones. Apple, Samsung, Motorola and several others are in the fray. The intuitive touch-screen interface and convenient form factor makes a tablet an ideal device to consume content. At the same time, support for rich apps, wi-fi  and 3G+ connectivity, geo-location sensing, motion sensing, voice input and other features make tablets a rich environment for building interactivity.

8. Advances in graphics software technology will drive better interactivity
Microsoft's PhotoSynth constructs 3D environments by intelligently stitching together regular 2D photographs. Again, Microsoft DeepZoom allows drill-down navigation into gigabit images with minimal performance penalty on low bandwidth. These and other such technologies will continue to drive better interactivity. An impressive application is the Rich Internet Narrative I have blogged about already.

7. Flash or HTML5: Who will take us there?
Both have their advantages. Flash is great for its ubiquity and cross-browser support, audio-video embedding and programming support. HTML5 is an open source technology, taxes the CPU minimally and keeps mobile devices' battery power going longer. I won't write off either. Developers will use both alternatives to build interactivity.

6. Interactivity building tools will get better
For those who are not inclined to write programs, end-user-tools for building interactivity will continue to evolve and get better. A host of licensing options will be available - SaaS (subscription / freemium), perpetual and pay-as-you-go alternatives will emerge. 

5. Applications of interactivity will expand
With better spread of interactivity building tools, the applications of interactivity will expand.  From presentations, web site enhancement and e-learning to interactive advertising, e-books, social media and other market niches, interactivity will continue to find application.

4. Interactive ebooks will change the ebook landscape
Gone will be the days of page-turning ebooks. Video, audio and animation will become integral part of content. Navigation will be non-linear. Children's books will look more interesting.   Formats such as epub and pdf will have to either evolve to support interactive elements. Purpose-built ebook readers such as Kindle, Nook and Sony ebook reader will face competition from tablets.

3. Traditional categories of social media go interactive
Be it blogging or viewing your twitter stream, traditional social media experiences will get better and better with interactivity. Services such as tumblr and flipboard are great examples of this trend.

2. App stores will promote interactive elements
Application exchanges such as the apple app store will make the distribution of applications and widgets easy. Free versions will induce users to try new interactive applications, and create demand for full-featured paid versions.

1. Content creators will become dialog creators

Interactivity is about a dialogue, a bidirectional communication between the content publisher and consumer. Every type of content creator will now have to become a dialog creator. Whether you are preparing a slide deck, designing a web page, crafting an ad copy, writing for an e-book or developing training material, the rule is the same. Think like a dialog creator and the resulting content will be interactive.

Tips for Designing Interaction Templates

Interaction models are ready-made program modules that content creators can custom-configure quickly and easily with new content. Interaction models are also known as interaction templates.

Examples
A simple interaction template for a web site could be a visitor poll. In a presentation, a drill-down pie-chart could be a useful interaction. In e-learning, a learning quiz show game can be a good interaction template, with customizable questions.

Planning your template library
Good templates result in meaningful, rather than superficial interactions. Here are some tips on designing a good interaction template library.

1. Think of  templates that add value (not just jazz) to the content
2. Consider where the interactions would play - a browser, a presentation or otherwise.
3. Consider the end-use and its impact on the selection of templates
4. Organize templates in logical categories
5. Tag templates with meaningful keywords to enable easy search
6. Considerations implications for systems integration - will the templates have to import / export data to other applications?

Designing individual templates
Each individual template needs careful design considerations. Here are a few.

1. Determine customizable parameters: What will change from one interactivity to next?
2. Clearly identify the stages of customization: Are there parameters that can be customized in a wizard pretty much using form-filling? Are there other parameters that require a graphic input while customizing?
3. Set sensible defaults
4. Allow import and export of content: An interactive graph can be built by importing Excel. An interactive discussion can be summarized in a PDF export.
5. Address multiple rendering options at run time: Depending on what device the interaction will be played on.

When are templates appropriate?
When you have a repetitive use of an interaction with changing content, templates are essential. If you are building a unique interaction that you will hardly need to modify ever, there is no point bothering with templates.

Small Enhancements to Websites for a Small Fee Make a Big Difference

Value innovation is about finding new ways to create and deliver customer value. Value innovation rarely limits itself to the product alone - often it has to do with the pricing and the revenue model that goes with the product.

Enhancing websites is one of those exercises we put off once too often, until the site starts looking like a dinosaur, several pending design changes accumulate, and before we realize what is happening, it is time to look for budget to fund another big web project. To avoid this fate, every webmaster would love to have a site-enhancement tool that enables micro-enhancements - a new widget here, a cool animation there - on an on-going basis.

Last year in fall, SiteJazzer was introduced in the market as a web site enhancement tool. SiteJazzer, presented as a SaaS subscription, generated a considerable interest among website owners who wanted to bring their sites alive with interactive elements. Soon enough, a SiteJazzer desktop license was introduced, this time allowing a one-time license fee. Further along, a pay-per-use option was also introduced, allowing micro-payments as low as $10 per enhancement to your site.

With micro-payments, webmasters have a very convenient option in their quest for site enhancement. They can try out a small enhancement to their site for free: simply sign up and customize any interactive element a.k.a. jazzer. Once they know it is useful and want to keep it, they purchase only that jazzer for a small payment. This keeps the web site up to date with enhancements, avoiding big expenses later.  Small change at a time for a small fee, making a big difference.Take a look at SiteJazzer, if you haven't already.

Playing Flash on iPad - New Solutions Based on Transcoding

There's a lot of Flash content out there, and iPad users are yearning to use it - but unfortunately, Apple won't support Flash on iPad. Is there a way out?

Consider iSWiFTER, a solution that has been around for over six months now. According to their own description, iSWiFTER is the industry's first cloud-based Flash streaming service specifically built for mobile devices including smart phones and tablets, spanning mobile platforms such as Apple's iOS and Android.

How does iSWiFTER play Flash on iPad? It seems their servers in the cloud run abstraction software that converts browser-based Flash content to a form that is optimized for individual mobile devices, complete with multi-touch gesture support for interaction, and accommodating different screen sizes.

ISWiFTER's free client app connects to their  servers in the cloud to download streaming content live to the mobile device.

When I tried it, it worked pretty well for some of the SiteJazzer, YawnBuster and Raptivity interactions that are Flash-based. Of course, the HTML versions run smoother on iPad. Little wonder, since the differences in user interactions with laptops vs tablets (think mouse drag-drop and multi-touch, for instance) make it nearly impossible to replicate the flash experience on iPad without rewriting code at some level.

So, HTML5 is here to stay if you want to replicate the interactive experiences. Other than that, ISWiFTER's Flash video transcoding is the closest thing to having real Flash software on your device.

I was also wondering if Apple would have had some issues with approving the app - it does not drain the battery for sure, but the loading time can compromise user experience, something Apple is fanatic about.

Anybody tried Skyfire?

A Hundred Ideas to Make Your Presentations Sizzle

I am preparing for a press conference scheduled for tomorrow. I'm nervous. No, it is not about what I am going to say. It is about how I am going to say it. I meet this group of journalists - mostly business reporters from local bureaus of national newspapers - quite regularly. They are familiar with my style of presentation - yet I worry about making my slide deck interesting, attention-worthy and entertaining.

All of us have had this experience of butterflies at one time or another. What do most of us do about it? Nothing much. Sometimes we stop by at a bookshop and buy a book on better presenting. Won't it be nice to take some time out and discover the latest in tools and methods of presenting?

A good starting point is a free e-book titled 100 Resources for Presenters. This e-book, brought to you by Raptivity Presenter, is nothing short of a treasure for anyone interested in better presenting. New interactive platforms are deeply impacting the ways of preparing and disseminating presentations.  You can build presentations better and faster using templates, make them interactive, present them online and leave them online for review, discussion and feedback. Leading gurus and thought leaders continue to blog and write articles about new tools and techniques that advance the art of presenting a notch every now and then. All of this is captured in this e-book.

Here is what the e-book gives you.

• 15 Great ways to share presentations online
• 15 Useful blogger websites on PowerPoint Presentations
• 15 Useful tips on effective use of Raptivity Presenter to make presentations interactive
• 15 Well known PowerPoint‐ Microsoft Valued Professionals
• 10 Highly useful presentation tools for sales & marketing
• 10 Websites for PowerPoint templates 
• 5 Great articles on how to make presentations interactive
• 5 Popular presentation conferences & events worldwide  
• 5 Reasons for webinar marketing
• 5 Well known communities & forums for presentation resources

You can download the e-book free by clicking here. Good luck for your next presentation.

Kinect - Microsoft Promises a Platform Shift from GUI to NUI

In November 2010, Microsoft unveiled Kinect, a new type of user interface device for the the Xbox gaming console. Unlike traditional graphical user interface (GUI), Kinect relies on facial expressions, voice and hand gestures of the users - thereby making it a natural user interface (NUI), according to Microsoft. Earlier this year I had seen a Kinect commercial demonstrating how users 'talk' to their Xbox using body language, if you will. It looked very impressive. At a recent meeting at its Redmond campus event, Microsoft revealed that they plan to provide a SDK API for developers to build applications using Kinect. They went on to suggest that there will be ways for developers to build and sell programs based on Kinect through some sort of an application exchange.

In the interactivity space, we see Apple taking a lead and dominating in several categories including media players (iPod product line), tablets (iPad) and smart phones (iPhone). This of course is in addition to the Apple TV and the Macintosh line of computers. Gaming consoles is one area where we don't see Apple yet, and Microsoft has its position there with XBOX.

According to Microsoft, a large number of XBOX sales included the $150 Kinect since its announcement, and the company may see the two bought together a lot in the future.

The parallels between Xbox - Kinect combination and Windows-Office juggernaut of the last century are hard to miss. Microsoft has excelled in creating platforms, building a select number of critical applications and attracting developers to build the rest.

After several forays with mixed results in the spaces dominated by others (think Zune and Kin - for example), will Kinect prove to be a game-changing new introduction for Microsoft? If that happens, we will have another innovation in interactivity to celebrate. Developers will have another platform with fundamentally new interface capabilities to build interactive applications with.

Anybody wants to share insights which way Kinect is going? What kinds of applications can you think of?

Sharing Presentations and Letting Everyone Get on a Different Page

Webinars and online meetings, where you share a screen with other users, do a great job of keeping everyone in sync, no matter which location they attend your meeting from. You flip to a slide, and the whole audience, spread in different corners of the world, sees that slide. Everyone is on the same page.

This works great for the most part. When you come to questions and answers, though, people need to refer back to earlier slides. What one person needs to refer could be different from what another person needs to. This is what brings us to the need for letting everyone get on a different page. This is an example of an asynchronous interaction.

Asynchronous interactions are slow-time, or near-real-time.

There are several tools that support asynchronous interactions of varying depths. A trivial example would be Google Sites,  where you can form a group and everyone updates content at their own convenience. Another example would be online forums where discussions span several hours or days. However, webinars and online meetings need something more structured around the presentation.

A particularly interesting example is the presentation sharing activity in TeemingPod. Here, the interaction starts when someone uploads a presentation to TeemingPod. Once a presentation is on TeemingPod, the synchronous part of a web meeting is accomplished as usual - with a online conferencing software such as GotoMeeting, GotoWebinar, Adobe Connect and so forth. The fun begins when someone has a question. Any person that is a member of that Pod simply  goes to a slide, makes a comment or texts in a question, and waits. The meeting host gets an alert, goes to the same slide, and answers the question. In the meantime, other people's questions are queued on their respective slides. The answers are also displayed on the respective slides.

Recently I used TeemingPod for an online team meeting with over a hundred members, and it worked swimmingly well.

5 Tips for Presenting Graphs and Charts Interactively

Many presentations - in-person or online, real-time or slow-time - tend to involve information that is best shown in graphs and charts. Imagine presenting financial data, sales information, survey findings, employee data, scientific correlations - the list is endless. In each case, you have the daunting task of showing all relevant information, yet focusing the audience on key highlights, findings or takeaways.

One way to make your graphs and charts really talk to the audience is to present them interactively. How on earth does one do that? Well, here are some tips.


1. Plan your content with minimal text
The big value of a graph or a chart is in its graphic content. You don't want to distract viewers with a lot of text in the surrounding areas. Yes, I know there is a lot that needs to go on the slide, but you can use your judgment and prune the content to bare essentials. This enhances the effectiveness of your graphs. For example, let's assume you want to show the negative correlation between product price and quantity sold across the company's product line.  You could do a bubble chart with quantity and price on the axes, and the bubble size would show the revenue of each product.

2. Don't show everything at once
If you can build up a chart part-by-part, do so. Rather than see it all at once, the viewer finds it easier to see what is on each axis, to get the frame of reference, to watch the first series build up and then the next, and so on. Animations are also good attention-getters. A pie chart that shows - slice-by-slice - details of each segment is more catchy than one where all labels appear at once.

3.  Relate the graph to data
If you can afford the space on your slide, show a data table next to the graph. Again, remember rule #1 and #2. Not all the data, and not all at once, but only after the graph builds up, and preferably on-demand. Imagine the rich user experience where hovering the cursor over a row of the table highlights the corresponding line graph, and  conversely, clicking a line graph highlights the corresponding data set.

4. Allow selective viewing
Even after a graph has fully built up, allow the use of filters to turn off some data-sets and view a subset of the graph. For example, in a column chart of quarterly sales in five regions over past eight quarters, there are 40  columns to see. A user might find it worthwhile to select one region at a time and study the sales pattern. Another user may be interested in selecting a recent quarter and study how the five regions contributed to sales in that quarter.

5. Provide interpretation
A graph is only useful if it points to a trend, a historical perspective, a correlation or such other insight that jumps out of a cluster of data points. Since you have prepared the graph, you presumably have such an insight and want to share it with the viewers. This is done easily by providing a hyper-linked annotation on parts of graphs. Each annotation pops up when that part is clicked, and viewers learn more. This will help you explain that dip in revenue, or that outlier in your employee productivity chart much more easily!


Sounds interesting? You can see examples of such interactive graphs built using Raptivity Presenter by clicking here.