GO APE is GREAT

The booking funnel on the Go Ape website is pretty good. I think that the parallax scroll to step customers through certain forms during the booking and checkout process is really nice, feels very slick. Also, found the clever use of AJAX widgets helpful.

Often it is the confirmation page, once the process is complete, that gets forgotten and is generally quite poor in terms of UX and engaging content. However I really liked the Go Ape confirmation page - it provides a really simple but eye catching agenda followed by lots of interesting information and handy hints about the site that you have just booked. Well done Go Ape digital team, good work.

There are some jitters on there like the error messaging could be a little more bold / helpful and the location of gift voucher redeem is hard to find... but those things are easy to fix...

IKEA and augmented catalogue

Loving the use of augmented reality in the new 2013 IKEA catalog.  Check out the experience you can get with the catalog and a mobile device. It pushes the possibilities of the content published and the different ways to communicate to a whole new level....


Some key info on how this will work:

The IKEA Catalog App will be made available on July 31st for tablets and smartphones, and users simply download the app, turn it on, and scan select pages of the catalog. Scanning will unveil interactive experiences, additional photos, stories, other inspiration, and it will unlock films that cannot be seen without the app.

“One of the catalog’s new main features is an accompanying (soon to launch) visual recognition app that will bring its pages, and the offerings within, to life in the form of inspirational videos, designer stories, ‘x-ray’ vision that peeks inside furniture, and more.”
Andreas Dahlqvist, Vice Chairman of ad agency McCann New York

Amazing! I can't wait to shop IKEA.. I guess that's the reaction that they were looking for!

online and in-store

Over the past 5-8 years the trend has been for companies to move services online in order to reduce costs streamline business processes and attract wider audiences. Is it time that online and in-store met in the middle of the road?

Moneysupermarket.com may have started this movement with their interactive shop window on Oxford Street at Christmas time. The window allowed shoppers to quickly and easily compare prices between stores whilst shopping.

With a little bit of creative thinking there could be bundles of opportunities for online services to appear on the high street:

• Design, save, share and compare your own bathroom/kitchen/living room within the furniture department of a department store
• Use mash-up technology to find products and stock counts when in-store
• Save gondola space in entertainment stores by using the online catalogue to browse music before buying the physical products
• Make more of the valuable space taken up by fitting rooms and reduce the annoying fitting room queues by using photo sharing sites to try on clothes and makeup

Both Tesco and Argos do a good job of blending their online experience with in-store due to their ‘order online and pick up in-store’ offering… but there is still the opportunity to take retail to the next ‘interactive’ level.

Blending desktop and online

Loving the way that some interactions and widgets are coming into the mainstream making the everyday use of the web much more similar to the desktop experience.

Take a look at www.macwarehouse.co.uk this site manages to provide a good experience whilst making a play upon quite a lot of features that you would expect to find on a Mac computer.

Widgets are widely available but I quite like the Yahoo library.

what is Contagious?

what is Contagious?

...a website that is definitely worth a visit if you are interested in ideas, trends and innovations in marketing.

Contagious is a multi-channel publication that focuses on how technology can revolutionise brands.