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.
Tag Archives: Hong Kong
Context Sensitive Advertisement
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.
Posted in Experience
Umbrella Vending Machines
I would like to talk about an item that is not too commonly seen in our daily routine, but can be a life saver when you are caught in an unexpected rain with no umbrella in hands – The Umbrella Vending Machine.
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- Umbrella vending machine – Hong Kong
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- Front panel – Hong Kong
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- Front panel, ad words – Hong Kong
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- Umbrella vending machine – Vancouver
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- Front panel – Vancouver
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- Dispensing mechanism – Vancouver
The above pictures show two different umbrella vending machines located in two different cities: Hong Kong, and Vancouver Canada. First, can you guess which machine was found in which city?
The Settings:
The blue vending machine was sighted at a busy shopping mall in Hong Kong. In fact, I have seen the same machine in multiple malls, meaning that it is quite common to everyday lives, just like drink and snack vending machines.
The other grey vending machine was sighted at the Vancouver International Airport. As far as I know, this is the only umbrella machine I’ve seen in the entire city of Vancouver. Judging from the dispensing mechanism (the metal coil that rotates to push items out) and the chassis, I am positive that it is modified from a snack vending machine.
Graphic Design / Communication:
Needless to say, Hong Kong beats Vancouver in terms of colour usage, attractiveness, information richness and presentation. My experience was that, it was really hard to spot the Vancouver umbrella machine before I knew about it.
The Market:
Just for the fun of it, I queried Wolfram|Alpha for the annual precipitation of Vancouver and Hong Kong, just to see how necessary umbrella is. By no mean this is a scientific research analysis, nor taking into consideration of the other thousand factors that affect umbrella sales. But well, looks like both cities rain quite a bit, so it’d be a healthy business to sell people some umbrellas.
precipitation | Vancouver, Canada vs Hong Kong - Wolfram|Alpha
Wolfram|Alpha query: “precipitation | Vancouver, Canada vs Hong Kong”
Thoughts:
- Since Vancouver rains quite a lot, it is likely that people would need to take umbrellas with them when getting outside. Therefore, placing the umbrella vending machine in high volume public places, such as Sky-train/CanadaLine station would be a good start.
- What about colour choices? Do Vancouverists not care about fashion and style? I am sure that, just like iPod and M&M’s, offering multiple colours can encourage personalization, and hence reenforcing the product brand and increasing sales. And it’s cheap to do so.
- And it’s amazing to see the Hong Kong umbrella even has 180 days of warranty!
Posted in Usability
Corporate Identity
Photo taking in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
It is not a full-colour store sign with attractive logo and exciting design. It is a mundane folding gate of an old corner store situated at an aging district in Hong Kong. The gate is made of metal with unique engraving of the store name. This kind of gate used to be very common in Hong Kong, but as technology advanced people chose to use other more attractive ways to promote their identity. To me, the engraved gate expresses the long term commitment of the business to the local market, which is no longer the key to success in a global oriented, fast-pace consumerism society. I sometimes wonder, that when we say the term “Corporate Identity / Identity Rebranding” does it always mean trashing the old, existing assets and introducing the new shiny techniques?
See also “Pepsi vs Coca-cola” logo evolution compiled by underconsideration.com for another example of the rebranding issue.
Posted in Culture