• Wiki of Television (and other media) Tropes & Idioms
  Stories are made up of familiar elements that we the audience recognize and engage with. This site is a growing document of these plot, character, and other elements.

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The New York Times Magazine has an interesting summary with typo in the blurb for this week’s Consumed column.
His aids were followed…
should be
His ads were followed…
but of course, this type of thing passes spellcheck, since the error is still a valid word. Just not what the author wanted to say.

Tags: ads, aids, automatic, consumed, editing, error, human, new york times magazine, rob walker, spellcheck, typo

Prairie Winds is a new development in Western Michigan, a planned community (isn’t that the term?) that offers a faux version of simpler times, a vicarious farming experience. Without, presumably, the back-breaking labor, poverty, foreclosures, livestock, etc. They’ve already put up the barn, visible from the freeway, with a sign reading “Farm Living Never Looked So Good!”

I was immediately reminded of the previously blogged Karrie Jacobs piece about loft subdivisions in Colorado, manufacturing a ridiculously inaccurate buildings that are associated with a lifestyle. Contradictions? Only if you choose to see it that way, I guess.

Tags: barn, bosgraaf, community, developer, farm, lifestyle, michigan, prairie wind, simplicity, vicarious, zeeland

• Photoblogger calls attention to surveillance camera on Crown Fountain in Chicago’s Millennium Park
  Mainstream media picks up the story and the camera goes away the next day. Hmm. The fountain features huge photos of faces, twisted irony to use that structure to take pictures of park patrons.

In California, gas stations usually show three prices: regular, mid-grade, and premium. Sometimes diesel is shown. Even if there is small text to explain what those prices refer to, we mostly go off of familiarity, knowing what each box in sequence is telling us.

This sign from a Speedway station in western Michigan uses a fourth slot to indicate price for another item: cigarettes. Gas stations and smokes seem to go together better in MI than in CA.

Tags: cigarette, display, fuel, gas station, information architecture, michigan, prices, pricing, sign, smoking

An in-store display for Pillsbury products. Press the button on Pop’n'Fresh’s belly and he emits his signature giggle. A nice and simple touch that extends the brand; links the merchandising to the ads. And is fun, of course.

Tags: audio, auditory, display, doughboy, giggle, grocery, holland, michigan, pillsbury, pop'n'fresh, retail

Our ISP, and especially this blog, is under some sort of comment spam attack, substantial enough to hamper system performance and making this site and others at the same host difficult to reach and use.

The ISP has forcibly shut down comments to this blog. I will expect this to be a very short-term measure, otherwise I’ll have to look for other hosting.

Update: despite being told they had done this, they now say they have not done this but will temporarily do so during attacks. So confusing! At least if you see things behaving weirdly here you’ll have some idea why…

Tags: akismet, attack, hosting, ISP, spam, wp

• More dictator chic: Target pulls marketing campaign featuring Che Guevara
  Haven’t seen an image yet, but reportedly this was put on CD cases, showing Guevara with “an iPod-esque set of earphones” — critic says “The stores don’t have pictures of Osama bin Laden or Adolf Hitler’
• Walmart Sells Nazi Skull Tshirt – Consumerist
  An SS image ends up on a shirt at WalMart – they apologize and claim they will remove it but it’s still on shelves

• TV ads with a slight amount of context – a technological solution
  Details seem scant, it allows a few choices, presumably human directed. Ads in a football game will vary in dialog based on the situation in the game at the time of the commercial.

Granted, the blog is called Outside Innovation but stuff like this cracks me up…

As we move towards the close of 2006, you should be asking yourself “How can we take better advantage of user-generated content in 2007?”

Tags: innovation, priorities, should, ugc

• The body politic – promotion for Ugly Betty TV series masquerading as vehicle for social change
  Oh the pop-culture re-engineering. Dove’s “Real Beauty” tries to co-opt feminism to sell soap, Ugly Betty co-opts Dove to sell a TV series. If the values are “good”, is it really co-opting, or just alignment?
• Talk the Talk: The Slang of 65 American Subcultures
  One of the tricks of effective ethnography is “natural language.” Listening for and mirroring the words is a way to make the interviews go better. Understanding *why* those words are being used is a tremendous source of insight.

Missing Letters, Holland, MI

I’m intrigued by stuff in the urban ecosystem that is deployed but untended. Consider this sign at the edge of a shopping plaza on a busy busy street. How long has it been like that? Has anyone who is accountable for the sign noticed? Is someone paying for advertising that they aren’t getting?

Compare with computer displays in airports showing a Windows error, or the piece of gum left on a realtor’s “about this property” display after the owners have moved out. Entropy, man.

(and probably some analogies with semi-smart automated systems that don’t get context 100% of the time)

Tags: accountability, advertising, errors, failure, letters, nonsense, responsibility, sign, untended, urban

• PeterMe’s “unfinished” thoughts on user research
  …with some comments adding clarity
• Dan Saffer’s unthinkable thoughts on user research
• Comments on Dan Saffer’s unthinkables
  Why does this have to be two separate URLs? Conversation hasn’t cohered, IMHO, on this posting. Anyone want to add their thoughts?

• evolution of an icon: a new look for Archie, Betty, Veronica
  sample cover image near the top of the link. will it sell?

Midnite Sun & Cruise? What the heck does this business do? It’s not a travel agent, or a place to take a cruise. It’s a tanning salon. A place you visit before you take a cruise? And what kind of sun is Midnite anyway? Very confusing.

Tags: business, holland, michigan, name, retail, tanning salon