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HP Slate Hype Site Falls Flat

Posted on April 7, 2010 by ronschott

When I heard that the intro video for the HP Slate was out, I had to watch it. Then, just like the video said, I went to hp.com/slate to check it out. Then, when I woke up from the coma their boring ass site put me into, I started writing this post.

Seriously though people, look at the site. SO BORING.

Yes, that giant graphic is clickable, but does anything make you WANT to click it? Nope.

The boring text tells you the boring details about how you can get more info about the HP Slate. Email submission? Really?

Now, I’m not one to get all over a company for design aesthetics, but this page just made me thoroughly not excited about this product. If this is their idea of a page that is meant to drum up excitement about what quite honestly looks like it might be a great product, I think it fails.

Something like this lends itself perfectly to a great social media campaign prior to launch with videos (which they actually have, but they show up in a pop-up player only after you figure out the riddle of where to click) and great content/interaction. Instead, HP has a boring link to their general HP Twitter feed – no icon, nothing that makes you want to click.

I never try to criticize without offering suggestions and assistance, so here it goes:

Have a more-explicit call to action in the headline. Something like “Touch here to learn more about HP’s Slate”
Have a mouseover animation on the actual Slate where something changed to let the user know to actually click. As it is now, you can’t actually tell that’s a video launcher.
I’d also have the actual video play within the border of the Slate, so make it bigger and do that with options to go full screen, etc.
Also, lose that hand in the back, it looks weird. Why would someone touch the back of the device?
Loose the boring fonts, HP uses some cool, funky fonts. Use those.
Lose the boring e-mail submission fields
Use the space on the right to link out to social media sites (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter) by using icons, not a boring URL.
Make everything shareable – videos, the page, etc.

If HP wants to know more, they can contact me. I’m always willing to help out, but for now I see a potentially great product getting off to a lackluster start.

The Success of the iPad is in the Hands of Devs, Not Apple

Posted on April 2, 2010 by ronschott

I’ve been going back and forth over whether buying an iPad is worth it or not – eventually my gadget-fiend portion of my brain took over an I just whipped out my credit card and bought one (due to ship on April 12, which is also Mariner’s opening day).

When I thought about it, I realized that the iPad could cut down on a lot of things I’ve been accumulating over the past couple years: remotes, media players, crappy netbooks from Dell, etc. I look at the iPad not as the world’s shiniest eReader, but as a device (no, Jony, not a magical one) that will allow for consolidation in the average household.

Now, granted the iPad doesn’t have a ton of out-of-the-box capabilities, but the app world is wide open for development of time/space/effort saving applications ranging from home security management to apps as simple as a remote control for your home theater PC.

I don’t see myself whipping out a PPT using Keynote on a flight from Seattle to SFO, but I do like the idea of watching a movie on that flight and having the ability to see the screen at a good angle because I’m not worried about the weirdness of a keyboard + screen on my tray table.

I think you’ll see the success or failure of the iPad in the next 5-8 months as devs scramble to get their apps on the iPad’s larger, and more easily manipulated screen. The only question is: if a developer builds a great app and no one hears about it, does it exist?

Like a Phoenix from the Ashes

Posted on March 25, 2010 by ronschott

Talking about dating and boring stuff like that can only be fun for so long. Also, I realized the joke title of my blog “therealronschott.com” might actually be thought of as “serious” to those who don’t know me.

So, with that said, I’m going to start writing on this blog again (now is where you say “yay!”).

I’ll write about the digital world as I see it, complete with my thoughts and reactions to the relevant news of the day. When (or if) I talk about a client I’ll call that out so you don’t go crucifying me on the alter of social media ethics.

Stay tuned…

I Live My Life 140 Characters at a Time: When Digital and Analog Worlds Collide

Posted on January 27, 2009 by ronschott

Real life doesn’t have friend requests. If it did it would be something like this.

What I’m trying to say, really, is there’s some sort of imaginary line between the digital lives we lead and those in the analog (real) world. The question is; where do we draw that imaginary line?

A while back, I made a mistake – a big mistake. I posted a couple tweets about a friend that weren’t exactly very awesome. It wasn’t that I was mean; it was more that I probably shouldn’t have been throwing this stuff out there. I had no idea this person would ever read them, but this person did. Needless to say, I felt like crap and apologized profusely, but it got me wondering…

In a day where Facebook statuses become motives for murder and hitting ENTER can send a message to all of Tweetdom, how are people really managing the coexistence between their digital and real lives?

I’ve hinted (pretty obviously) before about the lack of adoption by my friends of most social media and Web 2.0 (hate that term) technologies, but what I haven’t really delved into is how they are using the tools they actually do use.

A while back my roommate changed his Facebook status (on accident) to say he was in a relationship. Some of us knew, through actual human interaction, that he was hanging out with this girl. Immediately wall posts and comments on his status appeared from people who probably haven’t even talked to him in months. Eventually things got ironed out, but he had to wade through a lot of Facebook update e-mails to get things quieted down.

I’d imagine that most of my friends hold back when we’re out, worrying that the next stupid thing they do will be broadcast in my blog or caught on Qik, but I realize that part of that is my fault. Should I sit them all down and explain what my intentions are? Should all my friends sign a digital release form?

Thus far I’ve managed to keep most embarrassing things out off of the interwebs, or at least use pseudonyms, but I kind of feel like a fake doing that sometimes. Maybe it’s the journalist in me that keeps wanting to throw everything out there and let the world (wide web) decide what to make of it.
Until I find a definite guideline for how to manage the space where my digital and analog lives intersect, I guess I can only continue doing what I’m doing.

Perhaps, though, if my friends started adapting the same sort of lifestyle there’d be less to worry about. Changing their habits HAS to be easier than changing mine, right?

If you didn’t get the movie quote joke in the title, you should probably not be excited about this . As a note, I’m not into it at all… I just think it’s hilarious they’re making another.

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