Nice morning in #SiliconGorge, a set on Flickr.
Author Archive
Riots, game theory, empathy.
Andy Parkhouse - August 11th, 2011I’ve seen plenty of #ukriots tweets along the lines of “OMG, this makes no sense, how do you gain by smashing up your own community”.
And when people say “it makes no sense”, it speaks to questions of rationality – they’re saying “these actions are irrational”.
Which set me thinking about game theory and some simple maths. I suspect it misses the point, but I’ll sketch it out anyway.
It’s quite easy to show that the actions of rioters and looters are entirely rational.
By setting costs and rewards for an action, you can see whether the outcome is rational.
For example:
- expected chance of getting caught or injured
- cost of getting caught
- immediate value of reward from destruction and looting (material, emotional)
- long term value of living in a not-destroyed community
Trade those off, and it’s easy to show that rioting and looting is rational for someone with low expectation of getting caught, who favours an immediate reward over a long-term reward.
But I suspect that it’s an unsatisfying answer for those who are asking the question I opened on.
My guess is those saying “this makes no sense” mean “the way these people think is alien to me”.
They’re seeking empathy, and they’re unable to find it.
Burning Rubber – the photo story
Andy Parkhouse - August 2nd, 2011
“Winning” at Twitter
Andy Parkhouse - July 28th, 2011How to win* at Twitter Tweeter.
1. Read it on Twitter.com once a day, don’t spend all day with TweetDeck in the foreground like a foool, unless your job actually *is* monitoring social media.
2. Post something interesting about once a day. Not that you had toast. That’s not interesting. Except to people doing consumer research at Mothers Pride. And find something original. Don’t just retweet what everyone else is retweeting, like a foool. Unless it’s our stuff, in which case you have a free pass. Go. Run. Retweet us.
3. Occasionally break all the rules and splurge your day away doing @s and RTs at friends and strangers. But you’ll feel dirty later.
*win = it doesn’t take over your life and have you addicted to the next dopamine hit that an exciting RT brings you.
It’s fine to live in a constant stream of information/crap, but not if you want to get like….creative stuff done. You know, like thinking, writing code, drawing crap, writing crap, actually picking up the phone and calling clients. That kind of thing.
I don’t mean win like Charlie Sheen means win, he’s a foool.
“Tweeter: (n) like irc, minus the bits that filter out all the noise” ®
Bonus feature: this post replaces a certain naughty word with ‘foool’ to avoid offence. Wherever you see ‘foool’, simply insert your favourite choice of naughty word. But don’t tell your mum.
(Just for avoidance of doubt, I do enjoy Tweeter and won’t be asking them for my money back).
Gratuitous picture of me before I was treated for minor Tweeter addiction
VAN loads up on prize…
Andy Parkhouse - July 11th, 2011Viral Ad Network (VAN) awarded Best Innovation at Set Squared’s South West investor garden party.
Here’s a picture of me receiving a cheque. I’m the one in the shirt.
We met lots of interesting people. Thanks to all involved in organising the event, especially Nick Sturge.
cheers,
Andy
Pictures from #bristolhackday
Andy Parkhouse - December 3rd, 2010Tweets here. http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23bristolhackday
Pictures below…
Big Paper: an open data essential
Best seats, best view #1
Very South By Southwest
Arduino. Proper wires and things.
Best seats, best view #2
Processing Your Freedom data – matrix style
Generating Haiku from Your Freedom data…
Colston Hall – good location for this
Pencil – my favourite tool
Thinking up ideas
Start the day
Pitch your brand client a sharable online video – works for them and you
Andy Parkhouse - November 12th, 2010Using video online is a great idea for brands. PR and digital agencies can increase billings by working with their clients to develop an online video strategy.
We’ve put together a handy guide in four parts:
- why to commission a video
- how to do it
- how to set and manage expectations
- how to grow the idea further and create an ongoing video strategy
» Free guide: pitch your brand client a video.
Pictures #2342 – River Station, Ben got a new job
Andy Parkhouse - November 5th, 2010
Andy’s Rules #1631 – What makes “good”?
Andy Parkhouse - August 27th, 2010
This is a rule I’ve been using for a while now. Great for making web apps “good”, but can be used in other places too (product design, customer service, copywriting, advertising). Being “good” is a route to “win”.
80% practicality (“job done”); 10% glamour; 10% character.
So how does it work?
“Job done” practicality is the price of entry for your app (or product etc). You need to to give the user what they want, helping them achieve their goal easily and with minimal fuss. If you can’t deliver on this, the app or product will probably fail. It won’t be good, it won’t sell, it won’t gain users. You need to at least do what it says on the tin. That can be a lot of work, as rule of thumb, probably 80% of your effort.
Being ruthless about delivering practically is a great tactic for many reasons, including:
- can reduce your overall costs (by removing un-needed stuff that you have to make and support)
- benefits users (by decreasing the friction of using your app or product)
Practicality also has a couple of serious limitations:
- doesn’t distinguish you much from your competitors. Being better at “job done” might keep your existing customers, but it probably won’t create passionate advocacy and recommendation. Passionate advocacy and recommendation is great, it’s a route to “win”.
- practicality alone tends to lack warmth, soul, personality….the stuff that makes us human
Glamour make people feel smart, make things shiny, make people go ‘ooh’.
Emphasising glamour might sound shallow, but – take a peek – we can take glamour to mean beauty, elegance, chic, style; charisma, charm, magnetism, desirability (worth). The word ‘sprezzatura‘ might be better, but I’d be forgetting how to spell it 
In a web app, glamour comes from the appearance of effortlessness. This could be things like outstanding graphic design or providing interactions that feel just great. Using javascript drag-and-drop to make a list much easier to use is glamour. Slideshows and lightboxes can be glamour. One way to increase glamour is by showcasing the user’s stuff and keeping your app out of the way – perfectly crafted background can enhance the glamour of a foreground subject.
Be ruthless with glamour. The goal is to flatter the user, not the designer. Make the user feel smart, make them feel they’ve made great choices. Glamour done wrong = tawdry, cheap, nasty, irritating, and might give you a rash.
Character is who we are. Who we are is a factor in having users come back to us, and in creating passionate advocacy and recommendation. Be ruthless with character – you’ll be judged by it. Be ruthless, but be generous. Character comes out in tone of voice, customer service, and (worthwhile) quirks. I could write more on this, but I couldn’t think of anything useful and I’m running out of time. You probably get it, ‘cos you’re smart people 
– postscript —
This rule *is not* an 80-20 law, although it might look like one » Learn why.
This rule *is* effectively a variation of “Sell the sizzle, not the steak”
