Experiences, Conferences, and What Really Matters
This month gave me two very different marketing experiences. First, Demandbase invited me to drive a supercar at Circuit of the Americas. Spending time behind the wheel at 140 mph created an immediate, positive association with their brand, and their field marketing team struck the perfect balance by facilitating genuine conversations without pushing the sale. It was a reminder of how powerful real-world experiences can be. At about the same time, I attended a major industry conference that left much to be desired. The event felt inefficient and uninspiring. While the networking was valuable, the overall structure (multiple tracks, vague session descriptions, and a clunky mobile app that seemed like their website just delivered as an app) made it difficult to extract value. It got me thinking about what we're really asking of our audiences. When someone gives us their time, they're giving us something genuinely valuable and finite. That Demandbase experience? Worth every minute. That conference? The math didn't math as my kids say.
Pandora anti-patterns disrespect its users and ruin its experience. Shame on them…
If I was advertising on Pandora I would be very concerned that the design of their controls, the placement of those controls and the presentation of ads on their platform were designed to cost me (as an advertiser MUCH more than they should. Pandora is using anti-patterns to drive unintended interactions. Eventually this will backfire, but in the meantime we as customers, are forced to deal with very poor user experience.
Devil in the details. Label placements matter.
Which form design is better, top label or left label? It depends on what you want to achieve. For an enterprise payroll application speed, ease of use and the ability to localize the user-interface later won out.