Street Advertising that Sells
Posted on December 17, 2009I walked out of the mall today with a handful of bags. Under usual circumstances, when marketers on the side of the street hand me a pamphlet, or attempt to grab my attention to sell me a product, I just brush past, and walk away before I waste another five minutes of my day listening to why I should join Extreme Fitness. Even if I do get the occasional pamphlet, it usually goes into the next bin I see.
But today, Telus street marketers took a different approach in the busy Yonge and Dundas intersection. Instead of giving out pamphlets, or just trying to get shoppers to stop and listen to them yap about why they are better than rogers, they gave us a huge reusable shopping bag. For those who don’t know, the Province of Ontario has put into effect a charge of $0.05 used. As such, many Torontonians have indeed made the transition into using reusable bags. So why is it a good marketing technique? Firstly, it grabs our attention. Free stuff is not quite ‘free’ unless it actually has value behind it. That way, we actually ‘saved’ by obtaining the ‘free’ product. People walking past were handed the bags one after another. It really worked. Secondly, there’s a pamphlet inside. I don’t know about you, but I personally don’t like reading anything in malls, or when I’m shopping. I would much rather read things in the luxury of my own home. After arriving home today, I saw the pamphlet, and actually read and digested what Telus was marketing. Thirdly, we’ll be walking advertisements for Telus. With a huge Telus logo (and their oh-so-original use of animal as props), those who use the bag will essentially be marketing and promoting Telus as they go.
I really do think that this strategy works. Maybe more marketers should learn from this!
Procrastination
Posted on November 22, 2009Yes, I procrastinate. The fact that I’m writing this post now and not studying for my Engineering Economic Analysis & Accounting quiz is reflective of that. But I’m beginning to reflect on why I do procrastinate. It’s because of a lack of passion for what I currently do.
I want to be an Engineer. In fact, I love the idea that I can create designs that can continue to optimize processes in the world, and make our lives better in general. But the courses that i’m taking are basically, math, math and more math. Even courses that don’t say math, are essentially math. Take the Economics course for instance. Which economics course doesn’t talk about the basic theory of supply and demand? All we talk about is how to calculate current and future values of various sums, skills that really don’t reflect the subject matter as a whole. To a certain extent, I believe that many courses are extremely narrow minded. While polytechnic universities can focus on the applications of formulae and theories, top engineering schools focus on numbers, proofs, and mathematical analyses because it provokes analytical thoughts for the future researchers in the school. But I don’t want to develop the next numerical methods theorem, I just want to know how to use the skills that I learn in school, in real life! Many courses in U of T do not provide me with this opportunity.
Because the viewpoints of many of my courses are so narrow, I can’t seem to find the passion within these courses. As such, procrastination seems like a pretty common thing, just because I’m not passionate about the deep subject matter that I got myself into. I do however, love designing, and also love courses that allow me to do just that.
What Apple is doing right.
Posted on November 20, 2009Apple has long been the underdog in the software+hardware market, but in the past few years, Apple has soared to one of the most successful IT companies in the past century. Here’s a list of what I’ve observed Apple is doing right.
Innovation, Innovation, Innovation
Well paid engineers + culture of innovation + emphasis on user-centered design = Apple.
I was told at one point that engineers should be grateful to the sales department for giving them opportunities to create products for clients. However, in Apple, the sales department must be grateful to the engineers for having such amazing products to sell.
The culture that encourages innovation is widespread in Apple. For every feature that is developed within Apple products, their Engineers are required to produce 10 different mockups of the feature. After a few months, shortlist it to 3, and then eventually have the one strongest product. Furthermore, they are also known to produce high-fidelity prototypes that actually function, to remove any sort of ambiguity when it comes to testing. Even though this process takes a long time, innovation from Apple still happens at a much faster pace than it does in other of its competitors. I say, keep up this process, it’s working!
Human Factors/Ergonomics
Professor Greg. A. Jamieson recently told us in our Engineering Strategies and Practice course at the University of Toronto the importance of understanding our target users when designing products. He mentioned the fact that the older generation is currently being alienated by technology. But our current generation, seeking efficiency and productivity, have also shown signs of alienation towards cluttered and complex products.
Apple took advantage of this situation. They realized that the products from their competitors were suffering more and more from creeping featurism. Look at Microsoft Office for instance, while Office 1992 had 311 commands, office 2003 has 1500! Here’s a blog post from ZDNet that highlights this situation. More features does not mean more efficiency or more appeal. In fact, the more commands an application has, the Response Time related to choosing with button to click increases logarithmically. As such, it’s extremely inefficient to have too many features in an application. After realizing this situation, Apple continued to hire and utilize human factors/user experience specialists to understand the tasks that users need to perform, and the natural tendencies of how they naturally perform it. (iPod Touch/iPhone)
Look at the iPhone for instance, minimalistic, simple, and yet, the most popular smartphone in the market today. It continues to beat the long standing giants, Palm, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. The reason for the iPhone’s success lays on its effective and intuitive user interfaces. Pinch in with two fingers to zoom out, or swipe with your thumb to move to the next menu. It’s intuition that allows even the older generation to understand how it works.
You may be thinking, “obviously? why would any company do otherwise?” That’s a good question. In the field of technology, user experience is often neglected. Human Factors Engineers are often only consulted at the last stage of the design process. With the resources and time put into research and development of the final product, what the Human Factors Engineer says probably won’t get implemented. Apple on the other hand, realizes the importance of including Human Factors Analyses in the early stages of the iterative design process.
Conclusion
While this article took a technological standpoint to highlight the successes of Apple, it’s important to note that factors such as successful marketing to the younger population has also played a significant role in Apple’s success.
Engineering – a career of knowledge and humility
Posted on November 06, 2009The Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto – Skule (TM), has continued to make engineers feel supreme to any other faculty in the university, dubbed “artsies.” It’s one of those things that can be dangerous, if a engineer forgets his or her duty in the world. After a couple of recent events that I have witnessed, I began to see the importance of not carrying forward this sense of supremacy outside of school, or at any time outside of Orientation Week (F!rosh Week).
Case 1: Fire in my Condo
Today, a fire broke out in my condo. It was literally an apartment unit down the hall from where I live. Smoke covered the entirety of the hallway, and the victim of the unit sat outside of her apartment, deeply in shock, while the firefighters comforted her and brought her to a safe location downstairs. At that point, smoke could have been a threat to the residents of those living on my floor. However, the three doors of the elevator opened instantaneously, and an exhaust system started extracting smoke from our apartment floor, out of the building. Within a matter of minutes, the crisis was adverted.
To me, the firefighter did an amazing job in putting out the flame and bringing the victim down to safety. However, I have the civil engineer to thank for designing a structure that allows smoke to be expelled out of the building, a mechanical and an electrical engineer to thank for the design of the operation of the exhaust system, and an industrial engineer to thank for designing a system by which in an emergency, a defined protocol can be used.
Engineering is not about boasting about what we can do, or what we know. We have been taught that engineering is defined as “Applying fundamental of science to create artifacts for the improvement of lives of individuals in our society.” With that in mind, we have to realize that engineering is about humility, as the knowledge that we accumulate in the years will play a significant role in the development and advancement of our society.
Case 2: Suspension Bridge in Kampar, Malaysia
In November of 2009, a suspension bridge in Kampar, Malaysia collapsed, causing three schoolchildren to fall and drown, leading to their deaths. Current reports lay the responsibility to the lack of a supervising teacher, and the illegal construction of the bridge.
While having schoolchildren going to camp without a supervising teacher may be risky, it does not at all explain the reason why the schoolchildren drowned — The failed bridge. Thus, the only reason that is worthy of note is the fact that the construction of the bridge was done completely illegally. None of the four civic departments (Health, Fire and Rescue, Drainage and Irrigation and the Environment) received any sort of submission of plans for the bridge. Furthermore, the private consulting engineer involved did not issue a Certificate of Compliance and Completion, and as such, the district council and land office did not receive such a certificate approving the safety of the bridge. Link to The Star: here
In Canada, engineers upon graduation receive the Iron Ring. The Iron Ring is a symbol to remind engineers their duty and responsibility toward the society. It also binds engineers to a set of code of ethics that they swear upon during graduation, called the Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer. The idea of the Iron Ring was created by Professor Haultain in the University of Toronto in 1922, as a way to remind engineers about the failure in design that caused the collapse of the Quebec Bridge in 1907. Until today, accredited Engineering institutions in Canada continue this tradition to remind their graduates about the responsibilities that rest upon their shoulders.
In conclusion, Engineers should be proud, but not boastful of what they have been selected to do in the world today. Humility in our profession will remind us that we are soldiers for the society, soldiers who will continue to solve challenges of today, and make lives of individuals better. Engineering – a career of knowledge and humility.