I'm a Product Designer living in California. Learn more about me here.
January 20 2012
If you’re not caught up…
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/nyregion/ringing-finally-stopped-but-concertgoers-alarm-persists.html
Here’s a simple solution that requires no additional user facing options and would solve the problem (which I’ve experienced) for the majority of cases: Leave the button behavior the same as it currently is, but vibrate the phone for 5-10 seconds before sounding the audible alarm.
January 18 2012
A year ago I set a very important goal for myself. I decided that I wanted to reach a point where I could conceive, design, and build any of my ideas independently…if only in the form of a working prototype. So I set out to teach myself to code. My front-end skills were passable at best, and while I understood the foundations of programming, I hadn’t learned a language.
On January 1, 2012 I reached that milestone. I sent out a link to very close friends to an app I’ve been working on for the last 6 months. Today I’m ready to open it up for public beta. The app is called Pictuo and it was born from a desire for a “visual feed reader”. There are more and more image-based blogs/feeds with each passing day. Text-oriented products like like Google Reader are not well suited for consuming them. Pictuo currently lets you add RSS feeds (or simply subscribe to a few pre-selected curated feeds) and view them in a clean, and elegant grid fashion.
As with any product, there is still much to be done. The design is not where I’d like it to be, the feature set is very limited, and there’s bound to be a few bugs. Being that I am only one person, I have to pick my battles accordingly. I do plan to eventually charge for the app, but I’ll be keeping the public beta period free.
So please go request an invitation, and I’ll begin letting people in at a *very* controlled rate. You can also follow Pictuo on Twitter here.
http://pictuo.com
Mike Gowen
Designer + Developer
July 1 2011
Two years ago my friend Caleb and I made a difficult decision to leave Scrapblog and move to the Bay Area. As part of that move we made an informal pact that when either of us started a company of our own, one would go work with the other. That time has come, and that company is Yobongo.
In early July I’ll be joining Caleb and team at Yobongo as their first Product Designer.
Over the last 2 years I’ve learned more than I have at any other point in my career. My assumptions were constantly challenged and I was forced to confront my core beliefs around what makes a company great, and more importantly, what makes me happy. The inevitable side effect of this process is that things which once seemed like a good fit, are no longer so, and other opportunities seem much more obvious. Such is life.
I’m eager to get started, but for now I’m going to take a few days off and enjoy a little much needed decompression time.
October 8 2009
The folks at cxpartners recently conducted a study on the tendency for visitors to scroll a web page. The article can be found here While the study is very encouraging, I can’t say I totally agree with some of the conclusions.
A quick snoop around the web will show you successful brands that are not worrying about the fold either.
I would argue that successful brands *do* care about the fold. While they do place content “below the fold”, this does not imply that they place the same value on real estate “below the fold”, as they do real estate “above the fold”. NYT.com surely won’t put their top story below the fold, or Amazon their Kindle 3 announcement. Similarly, you’re not going to see a supermarket put the healthy cereal at a child’s eye level, or Best Buy put the Playstation 4 in the back of the store.
The surprising thing we learnt was that actually having less above the fold (one large content block as opposed to 2 smaller ones) encouraged exploration below the fold.
Sure, by placing less valuable content above the fold, you’re likely to compel more people to scroll. However, I’d argue that less people *overall* would find that content than if it were “above the fold”. The experiment really only tells us that putting interesting content below the fold compelled some set of people scroll to find it. It doesn’t tell you if Bristol Airport saw the same response rate for the content in both positions. I’d be curious to know if they could clarify this.
I think the whole “above the fold” discussion is a bit futile. Content that is not in immediate view is always going to be viewed less than content in immediate view especially if an extra action is needed to view it, such as scrolling. It’s not really about the “fold”. It’s about how much effort is needed to reach the content. Nonetheless, the study is very encouraging. It’s great to see that the tendency for people to explore “below the fold” is increasing. This is great news for the long tail. However, I don’t think we’re quite ready to call it even.
August 21 2009
That’s right! After 8 years in Miami, I’ll be making my way to Palo Alto, CA to join Andrew Chen (@andrew_chen) and company. I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity and I am humbled to be welcomed into such an amazing team.
Needless to say, leaving Scrapblog was a very difficult decision for me. Scrapblog was more than just a place of employment, it was my life and my family. It’s been an absolutely amazing ride and not a day has gone by where I wasn’t truly excited come to work. The knowledge I’ve gained has been priceless, the relationships deep, and I’m continually impressed by what we’ve been able to achieve. I can’t wait to see where the team takes it from here.
When I get settled in on the West Coast, I’ll likely reflect a bit more in a longer post. But for now I’ll keep it short and bid Miami a fond farewell…see you on the other side!
May 14 2009
Here are my thoughts after reading a few discussions and adding some of my own opinions…
Jacob has been the leader of the island for a long time, and wants to bring people to the island who deserve second chances, and let them live in this utopia forever with eternal life. Forgive them of their sins, so to speak. Very biblical. He does this by physically touching them as we see with his interactions with the young Losties. None of the touched individuals have died during the show.
He also touched Ben when Alpert took Ben to the temple to be healed. But he warned he would never be the same again. He means he will live forever, on the island…like Alpert.
Alpert has been touched and lives forever (as we see by him not aging). He also says “I’m this way because of Jacob”.
The man with Jacob at the beginning is against bringing people to the island. He says it never works and they always end up corrupting the island. Jacob has faith in people and thinks that it can work, and feels he is learning more with each attempt.
Jacob and the other guy can’t kill each other because they have been “touched” and thus can not die. But the man against Jacob has found a loophole. The loophole is that somehow, by channeling dead people, he can in fact kill Jacob.
We’ve seen him channeling many times…
Alex - Told Ben to listen to Locke (who we found out is actually the guy against Jacob)
Christian - Talked to Locke at the donkey wheel
Horace - Talking to Locke in the jungle
…and more that I can’t remember.
There are still a ton of holes, but I’m happy with this general theory. I’ll add more to this as it comes to me.
March 16 2009
My girlfriend (@HeatherOT) is busy getting her own business off the ground. She specializes in a form of holistic therapy geared towards helping professional athletes recover faster and perform better overall. As such, she was in need of a few basic things to enable her to begin bringing her services to market. This included a name, a logo, a website, and a solid brand strategy. With these goals in mind, we got to work.
One of the core components of her therapy involves a light massage that clears toxins from the lymphatic system, otherwise known as Manual Lymph Drainage (MLD). Originally Heather had decided on SportsMLD as the name of the company. While straightforward, this had 3 negative aspects. First, it would be difficult to brand given it’s rather sterile and soul-less nature. Second, it effectively closes the door on any additional techniques that could be bundled with her services outside of MLD. Finally, it didn’t let her “own” her technique, as the name was already inherently tied to as existing well-known technique (MLD). That being said, the first step was the decision to package her process as a product rather than a service. If you’re familiar with The Secret, you’ve witnessed this type of approach firsthand. Its very hard to own and brand The Law of Attraction, but wrap a very appealing and compelling brand strategy around it and suddenly you have something much more palatable sell.
The next step was to come up with a name. Being that MLD is considered to be an alternative medicinal technique, we didn’t want the name to draw upon any stigmas that might be attached to that sort of topic. Alternative medicine is largely regarded as having its roots in spirituality. Professional athletes and trainers who are looking for concrete and measurable results are going to be less responsive to this type of positioning. After a solid 2 days of brainstorming we chose Kysio (pronounced “Kee-zee-oh”). This was a play on words starting with the base word, “Kinetic”, then playing off the interesting “lym” letter pairing sequence in “lymphatic”, and finally appending the “sio” letter sequence from the word “physiological”. Together, Kysio sounded fresh, high-tech and still retained a bit of the zen-like aspect of it’s core technique.
Kysio allows athletes to obtain heightened performance levels by stimulating the body’s natural recovery system. This made it important to design a logo that created a juxtaposition between biology and the kinetics. After playing around with a few ideas I stumbled upon two symbols that were visually similar, and spoke to both of the aforementioned concepts: a strand of DNA, and a spring. After a few hours of exploring their visual relationships, I had something we liked. A few rounds of refinement later and I had the basic logo complete. From there I chose a typeface that further clarified the direction, and gave the logo an overall fresh and confident look. Finally, I settled on a blue color scheme to convey a sense of rejuvenation and trust.
We’re both very happy with the finished product and I’m excited to begin working on the website. So without further ado, I present to you, Kysio…
February 2 2009
Those of you following me on Twitter have no doubt heard me referring to a “secret project”. Well today the cat is out of the proverbial bag. I present to you…
The Love Machine is a campy little game for the iPhone and iPod Touch that reveals the type of lover you are according to how *cough* dexterous *cough* you are with your finger. It’s currently “In Review” at the App Store and I’m hoping for a Valentine’s Day release (I know, wishful thinking). The Love Machine will be available for $.99. This is the first of hopefully many games to come from Bear Genius, the name of my modest little game workshop.
I plan on doing a series of posts detailing my entire journey building this app. For now, hop over to the website and drop in your email, or follow us on Twitter.
Here is the official description that will appear on the App Store…
See how you measure up, or test that special someone to see if he/she is worth your time. This is the perfect ice breaker and conversation starter. Great on dates or in a bar or club.
As soon as you touch the heart, a timer will begin. You will then have 10 seconds to tease the heart in any way you see fit. Hint: A good lover has the right pace, and knows how to keep things interesting.
November 18 2008
The winners have been announced and Scrapblog has taken not one, but two Adobe MAX awards in both the RIA category and the coveted People’s Choice Award! We could not be more excited about this. We’ve had our eye on this prize since the birth of Scrapblog and we can finally check that off our list. Kick ass!
October 12 2008
Here are my raw notes from the Virtual Goods Summit 2008. I’m presenting them to you as-is, so take it all with a grain of salt. As soon as the videos are posted, I’ll link them up. Here are the photos I took of the event.
Margaret Wallace, Rebel Monkey
Brian Balfour, Viximo
Lee Clancy, IMVU
Amy Jo Kim, Shufflebrain
Sean Ryan, Meez
Quality and appropriateness are deciding factors between balancing branded and UGC.
Use a rating system or expose stats to bring good content to the surface.
No answer to which is better (branded or UGC), depends on world and audience.
Teens expressing themselves may take more to branded items as they like to align with them.
People creating UGC are creating their OWN branded content. Others follow their brands as the would real world ones.Avatars are two inches high, so clothing and items are exaggerated, giant gold flaming wings.
It’s all about status. Choosing branded or UGC is just an aspect of that.
Make sure to define guidelines upfront as to what is acceptable, then have the users police it.
Ad model for normal players, virtual goods for hardcore. The two together is a powerful formula.
If an item doesn’t promote status the price goes lower.
How do you price an item? What are they used to buying? Comparable to ringtone $.50 - $2.50 - Meez
Create a VIP program with status and privileges - Meez
Women want multiple body types, men just want buff (80%) - Meez
Do people want to express themselves for real, or fantasy. How does it affect goods? - Amy Jo
Let users control margin so they can adapt to the economy, real and virtual. - Lee
Virtual worlds skew female, games skew male (especially with combat) - Amy Jo
At There.com, females were leading charge of UGC. Top UGC users were exclusively female. Lee agrees 60/40 split. Some females buying 1000’s of goods.
We’re moving more towards activity. Goods should extend activity. Wave of the future. - Amy Jo
Don’t just think about goods for you…think about gifting. There’s only so much you can have/wear. - Sean
Extract more money from hardcore users who are willing to pay by having them buy for others. - Sean
Easier to monetize international audience with goods versus advertising. - Sean
Not clear if branded goods will able to generate enough, when charged for given licensing fees. Only for promotion. - Sean
Promotional credits to get people into the buying process.
Three tier system: Advertising for casual, then a la carte virtual goods, then VIP packages for the hardcore.
Fraud goes up when cash out is introduced or sheer size of economy hits a certain point.
Need to keep track of ins and outs of currency. Balance to avoid inflation. Be careful about activities that generate credits? Need great reporting tools.
Share information across companies about fraud. We can all help each other.
Susan Wu, Ohai
Dan Kolkowitz, Playspan
Susan Choe, Outspark
Lee Crawford, TwoFish
Christopher Donahue, Live Gamer
Volume plus geography origins of payments determines when fraud becomes an issue. Certain locations bring more fraud. - Susan Choe
Didn’t outsource as no one had the experience yet that bested theirs. - Susan Choe
Secondary markets have to be managed outside the games by a 3rd party. - Dan
You need ~$200,000 a month of primary sales before you can get into the secondary market. - Susan Choe
Look at what the users are doing and respond to it with your secondary market. - Susan Choe
Outsourcing helps others (the 3rd party) focus on metrics and reporting while you focus on technology and content. - Lee
Collect all data from each marketing channel with all their activity and determine their worth. - Susan Choe
Gameplay itself will keep some users but not all, half come because of social interaction. - Susan Choe
Sony Online Exchange was at $40-$60, has gone up since we took it over. - Christopher
They did it by reducing fraud and improving the user experience, but did not touch the gameplay. - Christopher
Was told she could triple primary market revenue with a secondary market by one of the panelists. - Susan Choe
Secondary markets allow the trade of time and money. - Lee Crawford
When people get used to free currency they won’t want to pay. Don’t give away currency for free. - Susan Choe
You need to train them slowly to transact. - Susan Wu
Once you set the culture for your community its very hard to change it. - Susan Choe
Mark Wallace, Wello Horld
David King, Lil Green Patch
Shervin Pishervar, SGN
John Hwang, RockYou
Andrews Trader, Zynga
$30MM in revenue in 2007 - Maplestory
Direct relation between engagement and the addition of new content. - Shervin
Growth of app is directly affected by growth of social network it resides in.
Social networks make dealing with fraud more difficult. - Andrew
Standalone sites, flufffriends.com - Shervin
Need a treadmill of new content coming in to keep people engaged, always something new. - David King
Create engagement between players by allowing trading. - Andrew
Average life of a user a little less than a year. - Mark Wallace
10% users pay for currency, of those another 10% complete the transaction. - John Hwang
$20-$30, per thousand daily actives with 200,000 daily actives- John Hwang
Trying out Fluff Pets, real world toys that unlock virtual goods in-game. - Shervin
Facebook can do a better job at helping users find games they like. - Shervin
Yoville was all about self-expression. That was the key. - Andrew
Keys are a great product, community, great experience, truly social. Landscape is still accessible to new developers. - David King
Not as easy to grow like you once could, but still possible. Not going to see day to day 20x growth. - John Hwang
Barriers are rising quickly, production quality, depth of content. - Andrew
If you want to make $5k, $10k, $15k a month, you can do that as an individual developer, do it. - Shervin
Passionate community, if only 10% are passionate, and 1% pay, you can build a viable business. - David
Secondary markets haven’t emerged in Facebook only because the platform is just too new. - David
Daniel James, Three Rings
Andrew Chen
You can find the slides for this presentation, along with more photos here.
Lost 90% of users from the time they chose to play and clicked the link that spawned the download, to those who actually started playing. 0% loss if no install is needed.
Hire a company to handle payments, its too much to handle for a small shop.
Joel Brodie, Gamezebo
Anu Shukla, Offerpal Media
Adam Caplan, Super Rewards
Matt Mihaly, Sparkplay Media
David Perry, Acclaim
$1.5 - $2B market for virtual goods, but does not include secondary $500M - $1B additional. - Adam
No demand for virtual items, only demand for games, then demand within context of game. - Matt
Honest business model, you’re trusting your game. People pay when they love your game. - David
Gaming is anti-cyclical to economy…less spending, more on games, and now even better with micropayments. - Adam
Its not about the demographic for the goods, its about the demographic for the game. - Matt
30-35 monthly actives, 50% go to offers, 25% click on them, so 5% users converting to become a revenue generator. - Super Rewards
Charge a very low amount to bridge the penny gap. Time sensitive experience offers. Free gifting. - David
Let the user get engaged with the game, then spark competition. That gets them to pay. - Anu
Players have paid $1000 plus for an item in Iron Realms - Matt
Halo is a missed opportunity, they’re setting their limit at $50. There could be $25,000 Halo players if they let it. - David
Seen $500/day from a player on a slot machine with only a leaderboard, not prizes or payouts. - Adam
Some guy wanted to buy everyone in Saudi Arabia on a buy your friends game for $10,000. - Anu
Looking forward to Flash 11, with full 3D capabilities. - David
Thinking about letting cheaters out of jail for a fee. - David
Dance game where if you do bad you have to wear panda suits…have to buy slimming potions or you get fat over time. - David
$800 to get to top of Friends for Sale - Adam
Sending virtual lap dances, very expensive. - Anu
Have to pay when you get reported for baby neglect. - Anu
If you have to guess about virtual good pricing, go high. You can always go down. - David
Test different price points and see which one works. - Anu
Iron Realms ran auctions to see where the price points are. Agrees with Dave, go high. - Matt
Paul Thind, Sulake (Habbo)
Christian DeBaun, PayByCash
Gene Hoffman, Vindicia
Lex Bayer, Spare Change Payments
Tim Pechmann, GMG Entertainment
David Marcus, Zong
You’re perceived on your own price point. Don’t be afraid to try a high price point and come down. - Gene
Best payment system is the one with the least friction. - David
Size of game doesn’t necessarily equate to monetization potential. - Lex
Competition drive purchases. - Lex
Open as many avenues to pay as possible and A/B test them. Everyone has different needs.
Fraudsters will test cards, just to see if they are valid so they can go buy bigger items at Amazon. - Gene
A/B test fraud countries in 15 day cycles. - Gene
Cards in store can induce trust in parents that the site is legit. - Tim
UPDATE: The videos of the conference have been posted here.
