Curious seal responses to human gesture. Beautiful human to nature interaction that no amount of technology and interaction design can beat. Shot at Ocean Park, Hong Kong.

Advertisement displayed in the right context would increase it’s effectiveness. The picture above shows a set of typical recycle bins on the street in Hong Kong. Notice that there’s a sticker on the blue one, which is an ad of fridge and air-conditioner repairing service.

When people are throwing away recyclables after house cleaning, what’s their state of mind? Do they also have some appliances at home that need to be repaired? Figuring out the correct state of mind while doing one task, and conveniently provide some related services, is really valuable in identifying business opportunities.

Now lets look at web advertisements on Gmail, Yahoo and Mixi respectively.

Although some people claim that intrusive, Gmail’s algorithmic ad is quite good at guessing what might interests me at the moment while reading the UX newsletter email.

Yahoo Mail basically just attach some random catchy news and trendy topics on the page. This strategy is pretty typical in many Chinese websites.

Mixi, one of the largest Japanese social networking site, gives me ads about cosmetic surgery, hair removal, aquarium mini game, makeup, all regardless of my gender and interest settings in my member profile. It is no better than throwing darts in the dark.