We brainstormed lots of user scenarios, but the client was locked into thinking that the mobile was primarily a business tool. The video focused on scheduling, travelling to meetings and making presentations, but we managed to drop-in some mobile behaviours that we thought would be common place in the future.

So what did we get right?

The scenarios maybe humourless, but they’re not a million miles away from the Siri launch videos.

What did we get wrong?

• A Leviathan scroll wheel menu rather than multi-touch
• Applications extending functionality
• Video working well over 3G (… but sold as a key speed benefit during the spectrum auction!)

The Intelligence Assumption

Our basic assumption in the video prototype was that the phone would act like a concierge or human-like assistant.  After hearing Matt Jones talk at the “In Progress” event, (staged by ‘It’s Nice That‘ magazine) maybe that premise is a promise too far. Maybe it is wiser to aim for experiences that connect robots and autonomous services in a way that engineers simpler emotional empathy rather than human-like intelligence. Examples of these types of not-so intelligent connectors to the real world are Little Printer, the learning thermostat and Cryoscope haptic forecaster.

Siri is still in Beta

However, a voice interface does provide the seductive potential to expose and unify services. Outside of America Siri is breaks easily.

Siri is hopelessly crippled for most of the world because it cannot link to maps, directions or local search. The disappointment felt is really similar to the feeling at the first iphone launch.  Jobs said Apple would never allow third parties to develop for the iphone.  There were a few bundled apps, and many of these, particularly messaging, had many flaws. AS history played out, the iphone’s most powerful differentiator is the application ecosystem.

Siri is the ‘doing’ ecosystem

Perhaps ‘Siri’ is distined to become  a new type of ecosystem that lets you command your phone  to ‘do’. There will be an API, where  businesses and brands will have a way of directly interfacing and extending  into the underlying lexicon, actions and  language. Interflora may have an app, but it’s far more interesting to be able to act upon the verbal question “Send my Girlfriend some flowers tomorrow”. Siri could become a doorway to a mirade of actions and third party datasets. This is already appearing in a range of ‘cracked’ usefulness.

Google must see the same thing, and many observers think this is the reason for recent unification of Google privacy polices. Currently in development, Majel will make it possible to offer the whole spectrum of Google’s confusing array of services via voice on android.

Will Siri get good enough?

The real question is whether Siri will actually succeed. It’s bad enough to make you just give up. Sending the voice recording to the cloud for interpretation introduces a very annoying lag.  It has a very high error rate. Even the activation gesture of raising the phone to your ear doesn’t work reliably. On top of these usability issues, there is a human reality that, for some reason, it’s really embarrassing to dictate misunderstood commands to your phone. It took my whole walk from the British Film institute to the millennium foot bridge to successfully dictate one SMS message.

I believe these usability problems will be solved in time, and linking third party services to pet-like ‘intelligence’ in the cloud will transform the perceived usefulness beyond dictation. If I were to make another mobile ‘future’ video today, I’d focus on the ‘Internet of things‘ and how the mobile works with the cloud of semi-intelligent connected objects that will fill our future lives.

Earlier this year, the ubermore team helped The Mill kick starting a concept for a massive online game for the hi-tech cambridge-based company Redgate. With strategy, UX and engagement ideas, we helped shape and sell-in the project. A lot of workshops, game structures scams and research were part of our contribution.
Three weeks into the campaign and it already has a core player group of 10 K. Beat that!

Under the hood, the campaign is a mini-ecosystem that run itself majorly reducing the cost of this long running engagement campaign. Particularly beautiful are the series of campaign films.

OK, OK…with the price draw of winning a trip into space… still this whole campaign is aimed to an audience you probably never have heard off: DBA’s.
Well, we didn’t before started working on this campaign.
See you in space.

When Ubermore works uber-more, we create little characters playing around with our technology, exploring geo location, NFC and augmented reality in a car. Hopefully, very soon we can publish our first demo clips.

SoMoLo = Social + Mobile + Location

We’re looking at how characters triggered by environments can join fuse the digital and physical worlds to provide stories and play.

Just finished another job at Pirata, when Stinkdigital grabbed us and threw us into the pool of happening. “Can you come up with some ideas for a telecom account pitch while we are off for a shooting in Columbia and NY?…Oops, and then there are these 12 scripts from Goodby that somehow need to become interactive, any chance you have that ready by tomorrow?…”

‘Love their unconventional approach and cheeky attitude. Boundaries are fictitious!!!

Hope to work with Stink more in the future.

What a week!!! Ubermore was creatively leading a team at Imagination working on a big pitch for a client in the States.

Fun: Thinking up interactive, touch-screen based ideas with live-feed widgets.
Challenge: Printed format only (!), submitted by post, no presentation, for a non–digital client …hm … and in American English… color not colour, customize not customise!!….

With a mixture of storyboard, storytelling, UX and the right selection of key screen designs, the document ‘flows’ now like a book and already got great internal feedback.

‘Guys, this is going to be VERY good’ Paul Mackay, Director of Imagination, NY

‘…I had high expectations and even those were exceeded…’ Larson Banilower, New business Director, Imagination

We were asked to inject fresh thinking and ideas into the minds and onto the desks of Imagination, particularly under the aspect of digital integration into other disciplines and bigger concepts. We decided to invited a selected group of 10key senior players representing a range of disciplines. The Groucho Club gave us the perfect surrounding for the fun but intense one-day workshop.

We had some great feedback from Simon Chapman, Clients Services Director  “…I though it was very valuable…in my experience having an off-site with third party facilitators always generates the best ideas.”

Also Damian Ferrar, Director of Digital, said. ” It was a great day, both enjoyable and more importantly productive. Of course, all credit should go to Katie and Ubermore…”

View a selection of the stimulie we used for digital innovation.

After looking for the right stickman animator for weeks Daredigital found Kathrin who helped them bring the lines to live. And once you start drawing you start thinking ‘Stickman’ …which can be highly entertaining.

The campaign  won:

• MSN Gallery Awards 2004, Winner of Best Leisure and Entertainment Award.
• BIMA Awards ‘Most Effective Communications’ 2002, shortlisted.
• New Media Age Effectiveness Awards 2002, shortlisted.
• Revolution Awards 2001, Best brand building by online business.

See all twelve stickman films

Project: Yell.com campaign
Media: Rich media ads (eyeblaster)
Role: Planner / Creative / Animation / Sound
Agency: dare / Partners BBDH

This campaign lets you find out.

We asked random people to tell us their most unbelievable and tallest story – no matter if true or false. We then asked the online audience to judge. Users could submit their own stories to have their believability rated.  Developed as youtube launched and the US gambling restrictions kicked in, it was an idea both too early and  too late for PKR. The basic mechanic of true of false, like hot or not, would still work on youtube given the right brand context. We’re waiting to see it…

Project: ‘Taken for a fool’
Client: PKR
Media: Viral, Microsite
Role: Creative / Production
Agency: Panlogic

Project: The Axe Effect
Client: Unilever
Media: Rich media pan European campaign
Role: Art Direction, Storyboarding, Filming, Animation and Production
Agency: Dare

Bringing machismo to the next level was our brief for the series of three 45 second rich media banners, Beach, Bus and Car or view them all. And Kathrin loved it!!!

Storyboards:

View all (opens new window)

Made in 2000, ubermore envisioned for British Telecom the future of mobile phones. This helped support Cellnet’s / O2 3G spectrum bid. We imagined a device with a spiral of configurable web services that could be operated by voice. We’d just finished comping in device screens for Bond 19 ‘The World is not enough’ so found the post fairly straight forward. This let us concentrate on the design and logic of the phone interface. The typographic look and dynamically scaling type still looks futuristic.

Project: “You’re going to be…” 3G mobile concept video
Media: Video
Role: Director / Editor / Post production
Agency: Tui Interactive Media
Post in collaboration with Neil Wilson.

Promotional cards made for the launch event:

View all (opens in new window)