I saw that as of today there are just over 100,000 approved iPhone apps. The obvious question is: how many apps do we really need? While the quantity vs. quality vs. usefulness questions get discussed, there’s a bigger question: wasn’t the World Wide Web going to be the device-independent user experience platform?

Apps are great – having downloaded two billion of them, users clearly love them, but I wonder what this means for the future of users’ experiences on mobile and other devices. While apps are great at maximizing the experience on a particular device, the proliferation of different smartphone platforms means that there are at least five different OSs developers need to think about (iPhone OS, Blackberry OS, Symbian, WebOS (Palm) and Android). Isn’t this just another version of the Windows, Mac OS and Linux battles? (Interestingly, Windows Mobile, while early to the party, seems to be lagging.) What you can do in the mobile world depends, more than ever, on what device you have.

 Certainly the last 15 years have seen multiple revolutions in the web experience (anyone remember html 1.0 and blinking text?). Instead of ‘there’s an app for that,’ just a couple of years ago, we might have said, ‘there’s a site for that.’ But the limitations of the web environment (or the great capabilities of the iPhone) made the opportunity for apps too good to ignore. Each opportunity brings new challenges with it; in this case, it’s finding, choosing and managing lots of apps. In a world of 100,000 apps, the killer app might just be an app navigator. The iPhone App Store today has a lot more in common with Yahoo! in 1994 than Google in 2009.

So we’re only at the beginning, and we know a lot is going to change in the app space. But the right question here is: What’s the total experience that users really want to have? And who’s going to make it happen? It’s time to take a step back and think about people.

Bench advertising is very commonly seen in bus stops and public parks. On my daily commute, they’re mostly dominated by dentists, realtors, pharmaceutical companies, and sometimes public health campaigns like HIV testing. Ever since the smart advertisers from “District 9″ flooded the city of Los Angeles with “Non-Humans seen in La Cienega exit off 10 freeway,” “Bus bench for humans only” warning signs (I actually followed the sign and called to report non-human sightings), Cougar Town is now following suit and put Courtney Cox on the typical realtor bus bench spots.  Compared to conventional posters, these attempts to make audiences feel as if they are actually living the storyline seem more effective. To those who watch Cougar Town, it adds realism and emotional connections, to those who don’t, it peaks curiosity to find out more from those www’s…

"Up In The Air"

I have a 12-mile daily commute on Venice Boulevard, and it’s very interesting to see how advertisers try to grab commuters’ attention, especially now with digital billboards. As I wait for the lights to turn green, I now get the pleasure of being advertised by up to 6 different TV shows, whereas 2 years ago, I would have seen that billboard long before I arrived, and ignored it completely as I waited for the lights. Though none has impressed me until recently when I saw the smart advertisers from “Up In The Air” truly embrace the technology by shifting two images with the same background–one with George Clooney alone facing the runway, the other with two other travelers in the picture (as shown) within the same time frame given to each advertiser. I see a not too distant future when billboards will actually work with local traffic patterns (loaded with Google traffic data), to rotate content accordingly, or even work with cars embedded with smart chips to gauge the primary audience level at each given stop light.

826 Boston is the seventh center to be modeled after 826 Valencia, the acclaimed youth writing program co-founded by writer Dave Eggers. Continuum paired up with the local writing and tutoring center to create a new brand identity, communication strategy, and print collateral.

The collateral, playing off 826 Boston’s whimsical Greater Boston Bigfoot Institute storefront, includes witty copy, colorful graphics and hand-drawn illustrations.

The new identity will launch Monday, October 5th at and advanced screening party of Where the Wild Things Are, hosted by 826 Boston and the movie’s screenwriter Dave Eggers.

Swine Flew with panel at the conference.

For those of you who were never a Boy Scout, the Pinewood Derby is a competition in which contestants build a small wooden car to race on a 40 foot track against other cars of the same approximate size and weight. The goal is to work within the parameters of the rules to build the fastest car.

Several years ago, the IDSA (Industrial Designers Society of America) decided to sponsor a derby car race for designers at their annual IDSA National Conference in Pasadena. The response was overwhelming as designers and engineers entered dozens of impressive cars that would lie, cheat and creatively steal their way to the finish line.

Since that first race in 2004, the competition has raged on, with designers from all over the country fielding extraordinary cars. For this years IBM Unlimited Derby held at the IDSA conference in Miami, Continuum approached their participation in the race in a new way. Rather than trying to create the fastest car, the team decided to create the most memorable car. To accomplish this, we started by brainstorming themes that would be relevant to what’s going on in the world.

The planet is currently going through a financial crisis that hasn’t been experienced in eighty years. We’re all being forced to pinch pennies and find creative ways to save money. At the same time, worldwide concern is high around health threats like the swine flu. Continuum took these themes and turned them into a statement of hope, a piggy bank car called Swine Flew.

The generous contribution of the IDSA audience.

Throughout the four-day conference, the attendees were encouraged to add their spare change to the piggy bank. This served two purposes. First, each coin made the car slightly heavier, and consequently, faster. Second, Continuum offered to multiply every contribution by 10 and donate the final amount to design education.

The Swine Flew pit crew members, Jung Tak, Damien Vizcarra, and Kevin Young (many thanks to the non-traveling crew of Jake Childs, Rich Ciccarelli and Bruce MacRae) have returned from the IDSA National Conference and are proud to bring home the award for Fastest Car in the Gravity Weight Class as well as the award for Most Fun.

We’re also proud to say that the generous contributions of the IDSA audience helped Swine Flew raise a total of $1,274.40 for design education.

The crew members are proud to bring back two IBM Derby awards.