Continuing my journey into UX

Posted on by Zack Chia

It’s been a while I have updated my blog. I am currently working on multiple projects and what is worth noting is the interest in UX these days. here is a recent idea that I thought of and really wanted to share. It is a case study I worked on over a duration of 3 days. It focuses on the problems people face when it comes to food. Have a good read. It is also now featured on UX Collective. Its a great blog, please go check out other UX writers’ work too!

My UX solution for a better food experience in Singapore

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Video on the go

Posted on by Zack Chia

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Image source: Digitaltrends

By now, you should be so used to having a separate app on your mobile phone that is used solely for your conversations held in Facebook. The Facebook messaging app is certainly a very developed platform that was clearly planned ahead of its launch. I remember how it used to annoyed me when I had to download a separate app just for Facebook messaging. But the flip side of having an additional app also meant that we now can have more features within the app making it more robust in features. Not only are you now able to continue text messaging, you can also have the video loading in tandem. It also gives you customizable features like muting the video while you type. Facebook continues to embed more into our daily lives and making many subtle adjustments to accommodate our user experience. Is your brand thinking along the same direction?

Give me a FIVE!

Posted on by Zack Chia

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Car pooling is no longer a strange concept for many of us. Especially for those of us who wants to commute in the most economical and efficient manner, car pools are kind of the way to go. Now, how do we make it even easier? Here’s the good thing, New Yorkers now enjoy this service through Uber! They are implementing a flat rate of $5 for all car pools within Manhattan below the 110 Street area, but limited to peak hours between 7 to 10AM as well as 5-8PM on weekdays! However, this comes with a small price to pay. That is, you might need to walk a bit to a specific location in order to allow the pick up points to be well aligned for better travel efficiency. So the idea here is to make it more optimal to pick you up as well as drop you such that the travel route is well, ‘strategised’ for timely pick ups and well worth fare charges.

 

The interesting thing to note is that car pool has been very lucrative for Uber and based on their current fast growing ridership and the staggering amount of New Yorkers who are using UberPool are growing exponentially. Car pool might just be the way to go for Uber albeit their claims for a ‘complimentary public transportation’ provider.

Let’s see what happens next. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will pick up fast and hopefully be adopted in Asia countries like Singapore! Nonetheless, Im still an avid supporter for Uber and will continue to use their services.

Fun in the box

Posted on by Zack Chia

Another interesting way we can improve brand experience through packaging design. Prior to this execution, Pizza Hut had a movie box concept which also taps on mobile technology. This had a really fun theme to it. The use of the 50s music themed together with the individual donut flavour makes it a rather interesting combination. Somehow the formula for a successful engagement is to combine different experiences into one and to create a fresh perspective to the brand. I think its a brilliant move by Krispy Kreme. Check out this video.

 

Ad spending in China continues to drive up

Posted on by Zack Chia

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Great to hear that our friends in China are taking online advertising seriously. The shift in budget to the digital space is evident that there is strong digital demand and companies are rushing to fill that spot. In retrospect, the internet was probably a small percentage of the overall country’s consumption of advertising. Today the amount has whipped up by more than 30% from an estimate of 14% to a staggering 49%. This would place China significantly ahead of the entire world. I remembered working with several China counterparts whom I felt they are ever so keen to embrace new technologies and trends happening on the digital space.

These days in China, advertisers are serious in understanding the consumer’s appetite and analyzing how people are getting themselves comfortable with what the online world had to offer. Especially for mobile consumption, data and content are often used for streaming, shopping and chatting. With the launch of major companies like Alibaba and Taobao, the use of mobile is imperative as e-commerce becomes integral to our daily lives.

Regardless of the current economic climate, the power of digital and its possibilities gave people strong faith and continues to boost ad spending throughout China. I do find the statistics to be rather impressive, considering the regional prudence in this economical uncertainty continues to loom across the region. Definitely very exciting as digital innovation becomes more and more prolific. The opportunity to grow and create new exciting options is readily available. Im expecting to see more awesome work happening in China!

More info and details can be found here.

Hire and fire

Posted on by Zack Chia

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Two things: Never diss the employees who you fired because you never know if they would ever make a lethal comeback at you. And the next thing you probably want to consider as a CEO is to make sure you fired ONLY the right people. When asked if the employees he fired had indeed been hired by Apple, Tesla CEO, Elon Musk’s sarcastic(well, at least in my own opinion) remarks made quite a clear statement. “They hired people we’ve fired. We always jokingly call Apple the ‘Tesla Graveyard.’ If you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple. I’m not kidding.”

Ironically, it seems that this man is now hiring an ex Apple employee. Microprocessor engineer, Jim Keller has been officially hired to work on the Autopilot Hardware Engineering for Tesla. Apparently, this was a strategic decision where Tesla sees the value that Keller could bring on board for their project. Tesla officially declares Keller as a potential employee who would “bring together the best internal and external hardware technologies to develop the safest, most advanced autopilot systems in the world.” Keller was given the position as Vice President of Autopilot Hardware Engineering. Now, expect more awesome stuffs from Tesla.

 

Read for me, please.

Posted on by Zack Chia

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Undeniably technology has slowly changed the way we live. Today, it can be said that humans are starting to rely on them to the extent where we are almost living on a lackadaisical routine. As cringing as it might be, technology does have its advantages especially if it could help to benefit physically impaired patients. Amazon’s new update for its Alexa digital gadget now incorporates a new smart speaker technology. The ‘Echo’ now narrates Kindle books and it can be activated simply by instructing the gadget with words like, “Alexa, read ‘book title'”.

This function immediately triggers Alexa to start the reading program. But do not expect real human reading with emotions but rather, a more robotic approach. Atop of the reading functions, it helps to track the books you were reading and also included smart voice commands like pause, go froward or resume. The complexity of the program is still in its infancy, so don’t expect it to be able to perform operations like jumping in between chapters within your Kindle book. Still, this can be a great help for people who wishes to listen rather than read. But truly, are we over relying on technology or are we really leveraging them to our greater convenience?

The fastest click

Posted on by Zack Chia

It has been a while since we witness notable work from Singapore. This one sure has some fun to it. Kinetic Singapore recently developed a youtube commercial which reliefs viewers from pesky sponsored ads on YouTube. The idea here is to challenge viewers against the speed of the new Mini John Cooper by having them hit the skip button as fast as possible. Aligning to the message that the MINI is fast, and at the same time helping viewers to cope with repetitive ad skipping moments. Interesting way to balance between psychological time and objective time. Read more about why performance matters here. So here you go, make objective time less annoying, communicates your clients message and marry them with an interesting yet engaging execution. Nice.

Move it

Posted on by Zack Chia

From a digital perspective, we have witness quite a hand full of such ads. These ideas somehow never fail to make me smile. I actually like the effort of bringing something to live especially when it is done using simple easy approaches. A creative execution from BBR Saatchi, Israel. We see how Ford Explorer can easily communicate its innovation in 3 very interactive print to digital execution. Always good to have more of these ads around isnt it?

Gourmet burger kiosks

Posted on by Zack Chia

A rather interesting way to sell their burgers. McDonald’s have just came out with a rather innovative way to get their customers to order their signature burgers their own way. McDonald’s new create your own gourmet burger iniative in Australia is pretty interesting. It allows their customers to customise their very own burger. How cool is that? Check this guy’s burger at the end of the video!