Blog
Ideas, news & analysis
The Super Bowl’s Biggest Loser? Facebook
The Super Bowl is an annual bellwether for how brands and traditional ad agencies think about digital marketing and multichannel customer experiences. Since 2007, I’ve been watching with one eye on the game and the other on how TV ads promote (or don’t) digital channels. Over the years, we’ve moved... (Read More...)
Nationwide’s Super Depressing Super Bowl Ad
Anyone watching Super Bowl XLIX surely experienced what I did. During a commercial break early in the game, a black cloud suddenly appeared, the air rushed out of the room, and everyone feel silent. The reason? Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company decided that this would be the perfect time to remind... (Read More...)
It’s 02015: Time to Start Thinking Long Term
When we moved back to San Francisco in 02009, my husband and I joined an organization called The Long Now Foundation. About once a month, we attend Long Now lectures to learn about topics like the world’s oldest living organisms; the coevolution of light, life, and color on earth; how... (Read More...)
Do You Think About the End of Your Customer Relationships?
Today’s marketers and customer experience professionals put a tremendous amount of focus on the beginning of the customer relationship. They focus on optimizing the steps that lead up to that all-important point of purchase, and then try to create smooth onboarding experiences. This is essential work. Companies need to make... (Read More...)
eBook: The 2015 Customer Experience Outlook
I’m thrilled to announce an exciting project with my partners at Doberman! We’re always looking for new ideas to inspire our work. So we recently reached out to some of our favorite customer experience authors, designers, and industry leaders to find out what they were thinking about at the beginning... (Read More...)
Can We Please Put An End To One-Size-Fits-All Emails?
Have you heard of CrossFit? It’s a style of workouts “comprised of constantly varied functional movements (like pushing, pulling, squatting, lifting, running) executed at high intensity.” People that do CrossFit don’t just go to the gym. They become certifiable CrossFit fanatics. I wanted to find out what all of the... (Read More...)
How To Design Your Loyalty Program Customer Experience
In a previous post, I talked about the need for loyalty program interactions to be both useful and easy. In other words, loyalty programs need to provide some utility or help someone accomplish a task (whether that’s saving money, getting a free TV, or getting exclusive access to an event).... (Read More...)
Hello, Austin! Doberman & I Will See You At SXSW 2015
Organizers for the annual SXSW interactive, film, and music festivals recently posted their 2015 programming lineup — and I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be presenting with my friend and colleague, Lisa Lindström, CEO of the experience design firm Doberman. Our session, How Kids Changed the Way We Design for Adults, will... (Read More...)
Uber Sets Great Expectations For Halloween Surge Pricing
The best part of Uber’s customer experience this Halloween isn’t the little candy corns and witches that have replaced the regular vehicle icons on the in-app map. (Though I have to admit, those are pretty damn cute.) It’s the way Uber has set expectations about the surge pricing that will... (Read More...)
Can We PLEASE Design Better Conference Nametags?
I go to a lot of conferences. A lot. And frankly, I’m sick and tired of all the bad nametag design that I see — even, or I should say especially, at DESIGN conferences. Here the major problems: Tiny type. Type sizes that are easy to read on a screen... (Read More...)
