Sonar Studios

It all starts with engagement

A few nights ago, setting down my iPad, turning off the light, and closing my eyes to sleep, I began to review and contemplate the day’s events. My first thought was, “what an extreme range of meetings I had had.” That morning I met with a health education center that was interested having us convert their auditorium into a multi-sensory 3-D theater and licensing some of our technology for creating and delivering educational content to their classrooms. Afterward, I had headed back to Indianapolis to meet with a team that was planning a gubernatorial campaign. They wanted to speak with us about assisting with their digital media strategy. Both meetings had gone very well. It would be fair to say that in both cases, the prospects were well on their way to becoming Sonar clients.

Yet, how could this be? How could a company the size of Sonar Studios have viable service offerings for both a multi-sensory theater designed to educate k12 students and a online media strategy targeted to convert audiences into supporters, volunteers, and donors—and, ultimately voters? Was Sonar simply suffering from its own internal brand confusion? Or had the economy caught up to us, and we simply were just looking for any work we could get?

In my career I have had the pleasure to speak with hundreds visual communication students at the very start of their own careers. After discussing what drove them to this field, I would ask them the following question: “What is it that you believe a visual communicator does?” In response I would get answers such as “design things,” or “create brand images,” or “make people and products look good.” All of which are good answers, but yet greatly limit the scope and purpose of what a strong visual communications professional ultimately does. Which is this: “They make intellectual property emotionally palatable.” That is, they take some intellectual message or task and wrap with enough emotion to entice the viewer to pick up the book, turn the page, click the button, watch the video, browse a little longer; to become informed, educated, inspired, sold, or engaged.

At the core of this is a fundamental principle in how people make decisions. For years, marketers, brand communicators and educators have believed that people receive information, THINK, and respond accordingly. But modern research has shown that people receive information, they FEEL, and then they respond. Compound this with the cultural shift from a society of needs to a society of wants, and the impact of an “on-demand” information and entertainment system, and you begin to understand the importance of emotional engagement.

The point is, whether we are trying to get someone to understand a concept, buy a product, learn about a cause, or vote for candidate— it all starts with engagement.

I saw yesterday that Amazon has now setup Kindle Textbook Rental.  It got me thinking about how different school is going to be for my son.

He is 6 and going into first grade this fall. He has been able to use an iPhone since he was 18 months old and is completely unfazed by technology. Nothing intimidates him. He plays the Wii, plays games on the iPhone, and uses a laptop computer. I remember introducing him to the iPad, and the first words out of his mouth were, “It’s a giant iPhone!” and he immediately knew how to use it.

And now, by the time he attends high school (in 8 years) I’m sure all of his textbooks will be purely digital.

My generation is witnessing the convergence of print and video, and my son’s generation will read about it digitally in their history class. There are digital magazines now that incorporate video and interactivity. Television shows now link back to online resources. The SYFY network has an arrangement with Shazam so that if you shazam the episode, it takes you to exclusive online content. Not to mention the fact that the presence of resources like Google have changed how our mind works.

I know my son’s mind works differently than mine or my wife’s. It is inevitable. He has grown up expecting certain things, like online access, instant answers, and immediate gratification. The other day, he was trying to figure out something on a Wii Lego Star Wars game and asked my wife to Google it for him so she could tell him how to solve the problem. (Now granted, he saw me do this the previous week, so he knew that is how I got the answer when we got stuck before). He expects people to be able to talk to their phones (he has seen me do this on my iPhone), he thinks that everything can be immediately downloaded. Just yesterday he asked, “Dad, can you download this game, I want to try it.” He was incredulous when I told him we used to have to wait until Saturday morning to watch cartoons.

Life is going to be different for my son. Just like life for me was different than for my dad. I can’t even begin to imagine what life will be like for my grandkids.

I’m excited to be living in this digital age. It is an amazing time to be alive, but occasionally I do miss the simpler times, the slower pace. The days before HDTV and iPhones, when we had hard bound books and audio cassettes and phones with cords and dial up internet. It was so…hold on a sec, I just got a text…

As developers, we’ve all been there… A client comes to you and says, “Hey, I need a website. When can I get one and how much will it cost?” If only it were that simple (and I do realize, in some cases, it is).

But the truth is, some clients, when asking for a website, really want a web application. So what’s the difference and why is it important?

You see, that phrase “I need a website” can be intimidating to web developers these days as it could mean so many different things.

It used to be simple to separate a website from a web application. However with the new mashup of technologies available including (but not limited to) jquery, formstack, content management systems, etc., that line is getting more and more faint. However there are some definite signs that can still differentiate a website from an application.

You see, a webSITE tends to be a grouping of pages that provides information. This content may be static, but it’s possible, in the case of a blog or content management, it could also be dynamic. It may have a few plug-ins or features that provide animation, feeds from Twitter and Facebook, etc. There may be a photo gallery, etc. And it may collect information by using a contact form.

A web application includes much more than plugins, well-formed XHTML/CSS and a domain name. It can be process and function intensive. It may have storage requirements, security requirements, data, reporting, and analytics requirements. It may be necessary to build out a web “front end” with a database backend and a business logic layer somewhere in between (depending on what technology you need). The levels of complexity of a web app vary, but still exist. Defining how it works goes beyond putting some pencil sketches on paper and providing content. It’s a good idea to define requirements, scope, and technology along with that front end design.

Some might say that a web app is just a website on steroids, but I think it’s an even greater difference than that. Different skill sets, different focus, different commitment, and so much more.

It’s important that clients understand this difference because they may not understand why what they expected to be a $2,000-$5,000 quick investment is really a $15,000, $50,000, $100K, on up, project that could take several weeks, months or even more.

So the next time a client asks for a website, you might want to be sure to ask if they are wanting an apple (or maybe a bushel of apples) or an orchard of oranges!

Here are some tips to help you determine if you need a web app or not…

You know you need a web app when:

• Your “site” will be created to complete a business function.
• You require specialized login/security for users to access your site.
• You want to collect, store, and analyze data.
• You want dynamic displays and reports to display the results of said data.
• You want to integrate with backend systems like warehousing, shopping carts, merchant account, banks, and even other web account.
• Your “Site” is less content driven and more task/function driven.
• Conversations about your website involve terms like platform, XML, SQL, PHP, ASP.Net, session state, etc.
• The people you need working on your site look less like fashion models and rock stars and more like Alfred E. Newman, Chuck, Kevin Smith, and Bill Gates (ok, not all of them…but come ‘on, I’ve been in the development industry for 15 years and we know that’s a fair stereotype).
• You feel your bank account starts getting a bit lighter.