This week, Apple launched their App store inside Facebook. It’s a nifty little system enabling Facebook users to see top apps and to search the vast app database.
But does this really provide utility for consumers? Would you prefer to search for apps within Facebook, rather than on apple.com or directly via iTunes? Personally, I would use iTunes, but is this indicative of a larger movement? Is Apple spearheading a new paradigm for commerce? Will more brands adopt Facebook as a channel to drive sales?
Below are two other examples of brands that have dabbled with Facebook as an e-commerce platform.
1-800-Flowers
Their novel Flash based system is basically a condensed version of their own website. I haven’t gone through purchasing a product, but giving it a cursory run-through, it’s pretty straightforward, although the Flash interface can be rather clunky at times. A frustrating aspect, however, is that you have to be a “fan” to be able to use the system. Why add that as a hurdle?
Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut has an ordering application, which lets you place a pizza order within Facebook. Though, before you can actually order, you first have to install the Facebook application and also create an account. That said, I think this could be the perfect application for those Facebook users who habitually get lost in time browsing friends’ profiles and wind up craving a late night pizza.
I admire these examples. These brands are testing the waters. However, if I was a brand manager, I would be cautious before jumping on the good old bandwagon. There are a few problem areas with Facebook as a sales platform, namely:
It’s limited One is inherently confined within the Facebook framework, which limits screen real estate, design and technology.
It’s a third party If Facebook changes their code base, some of your functionality might go down.
There is a potential trust issue Do users really trust completing a transaction within Facebook? With identity and credit card theft at epidemic levels, will they trust Facebook security?
This month Facebook topped Google as the #1 trafficked site in the US. In other words, it is beyond question that Facebook is a great platform for brands, but is it the perfect place to drive sales? Not at this point. Facebook is not currently set up to be an e-commerce platform. If Facebook starts tailoring their framework more for commerce, and if consumers start trusting Facebook as a reliable and user-friendly platform, there will be a seismic channel shift, but now, it’s too early to tell.
“I define simplicity as the means to achieving clarity, transparency, and empathy. Building humanity into communications.”
That quote is by Alan Siegel from a Ted presentation where he tackles the design of legal documents.
We all know how much frustration credit card statements, tax documents and contracts cause, and Alan shows how it is possible to make these documents easy to understand, by just focusing on simplicity.
This demonstration was done by Penguin’s CEO John Makinson showing the endless possibilities publishers are given with the iPad framework. It’s just jaw-dropping to see how Apple, yet again, can transform media consumption.
Genres in electronic music are interconnected. Techno influenced trance, hip hop influenced breakbeat, disco influenced house music and so on. A Brazilian project, Sync/Lost, visualize these connections and lets participants interact with the installation using Wii remotes. Brilliant.
A couple of months back CNN launched a new site design, which has turned out to be quite a game changer for news sites. The site got a much-needed facelift with emphasis on video content and imagery and a new distinctive red header was introduced among other things. However, the section that stands out the most is News Pulse, where you can instantly find out what stories have the most buzz, in real time. Digg, Reddit and other sites use a similar structure, but this is the first time I have seen a traditional media outlet embrace such technology. Well done.
There is an art to designing forms. Forms are one of the most central parts to an online business. You only have the users’ attention for some seconds and in that time you need to engage them to start the process. Usually the step process paradigm is used to explain that there are only a few steps that need to be taken. However, I have sometimes seen that showing the steps can be quite daunting to certain types of users.
To stir things up, Apple has yet again reinvented the check out process with their new redesign. It scraps the steps pattern and instead uses an accordion style structure with a lot of neat innovations in terms of input functionality.
Bonnier’s R&D department caused quite a stir on the web last week when launching a video of their new magazine prototype. Will this be how we read news in the future?
This week, Apple made big headlines when they launched their new Mighty Mouse. It is the first mouse that I have seen, which uses touch screen-like gestures to swipe through and scroll content. This is a ground-breaking improvement to the mouse, which originally shipped to consumers in 1981 with the Xerox 8010 Star Information System.
However, even Apple’s new mouse does not improve the fact that users cannot click on multiple elements at the same time. Clayton Miller, a Chicago-based designer, sees potential for improvement, and designed the 10/GUI interface, which uses all 10 fingers to interact within an interface. 10/GUI also neatly updates the way one interacts with open windows. The windows paradigm has been around for more than 20 years, and it has not significantly evolved its fundamental structure since its inception. 10 GUI uses a system named Con10uum, which puts all open windows in a linear interface, enabling users to scroll through all of them at the same time.
I applaud Miller’s efforts. Hopefully his concepts serve as food for thought when new operating systems and navigational artifacts are conceptualized. Who knows, maybe even Apple will use similar technology?
