It appears we really don’t need our desktops, but most of us with laptops knew that already. My wife and I are currently getting caught up on “LOST” by watching back episodes from our wi-fi at home while snuggling in bed… turns out we will be able to do this and many more things in the future from just about any where.

what is your company or organization doing to get ahead of the curve on developing web technology?

i’ll even ignore the fact that its for a product ad.

In the video they had this sketch.

Here they are describing the process a customer takes as a relationship.

So the M is marketing. Getting the customer to the point of purchase (P). The area after that is the Interaction Design. Most businesses and organizations focus on the M.

So here is where the illustration / video left off. Why is interaction design important? The customer already paid right, so who cares. Wrong. Great interaction design, will feed the marketing side. Look at products with good interaction design, in relation to their marketing.

Examples that come to mind for me: Apple, Nintendo WII, In-n-Out Burgers, and toyota Prius. All barely have to market at all. They have created such a great user experience or product, that word of mouth marketing is free and in abundance.

So the moral of my story (as it often is), Focus on your end product, the interaction design, the customers experience, and the marketing will be cheap(er) and easy.

Awesome.

Recently someone shared a great video from Merlin Mann speaking at Google with me. Its a long one, but great. If you are familiar with the books by David Allen Getting things Done, or Ready for Anything, you’ll understand where this is coming from.

I wanted to share the video, but also share some of my take home points, since its 50 minutes long.

• Your email is simply a medium for communication. Keep it that way
• Process all emails to zero. Sort, store and apply actions each time you check your mail
• Decide in the moment you check an email what that next action is
• checking email is not enough.
• Think of email as working at a deli, taking orders for customers. Taking the order isn’t enough, it requires an action, an order to be fulfilled. Different orders require different actions.
• Define a certain number of possible outcomes for each email. Merlin Mann’s 5 are: Delete, Delegate, Respond (in under 5 sentences), Defer for later action, and Do Now.
• Dont be afraid of junking or Deleting emails. If no action is needed, and move on
• Keep your system simple
• Your inbox is for stuff you havent read yet. thats it
• a PDA or Blackberry will not help if you dont have a system
• Make this process a habit

Quick tips for keeping the process going

• Turn off the email while working on other things
• Limit the time you check your email (like for 10 minutes each hour) and move on

Overall this is common sense. But I find it hard to keep up with.

I have been trying these things so far:

• Only checking and responding to yesterdays mail
• Set up smartFolders to sort certain types of emails
• Only checking emails once an hour for fires to be put out, If there are no fires, I move on.
• Using a to do list for action items
• I am trying to keep on my 5 actions for all emails

So what do you think? Are you trying anything on this list, or anything different?

So I must not watch too much TV, because I saw this ad for the first time last week. Apparently it has been out for over a year.

Thoughts? Anyone seen anything better? Or am I easily amused by aliens working in a drab office excited about NM, grabbing a fish taco for lunch?

I was pretty entertained. But I’m a creative geek like that.