Billboards are getting smarter

Ariella Brown, Freelance Contributor

January 26, 2017

The Future of Smart Billboards

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Want to get a smoker's attention? Try a smart billboard that coughs. That's what a responsive billboard designed to promote smoking-cessation products from a Swedish pharmacy did.  As the video of the billboard in actions shows, it looks like a static picture of a man until a smoker gets close enough to trigger the digital screen to shift to showing the same man coughing. That's followed by a picture of the promoted products.Picture a billboard, and likely you think of a static picture with a slogan or some other words on it, or maybe a sort of revolving picture in a more dynamic version. That's old school billboards. Today's technology allows billboards to pick up on essential cues that enable them to tailor responses to the people in front of them. These are smart billboards equipped with responsive  abilities. And there are more developments ahead.

Read more in 

The Future of Smart Billboards

Optimizing the mobile experience

Mindful of the increasing number of its customers who access its site through smartphones, Simplyhealth enhanced its mobile application delivery.

As a major health-cash-plan provider that serves nearly 3.5 million customers in the United Kingdom, Simplyhealth has to keep track of the pulse of its customer base in order to meet their needs effectively. Knowing that about 40 percent of its Web traffic comes through mobile devices, the organization has to ensure that its content works on a range of different units.

In the past, Simplyhealth underwent a lot of time-consuming testing that didn't accurately replicate the user experience. Determined to forestall any possible glitches in its mobile service, the organization started looking for a solution in 2013.

- See more at: http://www.baselinemag.com/mobility/testing-responsive-design-on-mobile-devices.html#sthash.qjHcgp3u.dpuf

The right words matter just as much as the right colors

I noticed that people who post interior decor shots started following me on Google+. I would guess they are doing so in response to the post in which I said this:

Anyone here connected to a paint company like Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams? I have a whole new concept for packaging and marketing colors that can truly revolutionize the consumer experience. It's the solution to information overload in which all the colors meld into a blur, and one can't remember which is which any more.

 I really do have a groundbreaking idea and another really brilliant approach that can be coupled together or used separately. It would make colors accessible, memorable, and particularly shareable on social media in a whole new way.

But to return to the matter of the people following me, here's the thing: I'm a words person. As beautiful as some of the pictures are, I get thrown off by the formulaic and clueless way the descriptions are written. Every single one of them starts with an adjective that is not really appropriate. It sounds like the person writing doesn't really speak English and merely selected words at random from some list. We have descriptions like this:

Astonishing big black tolomeo floor lamp mixed with small green living room apartment wall paint color plus brown wooden seating area set

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Appealing small brown living room apartment set with decorative table lamps also square crystal chandelier

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Amazing small living room apartment set with red cushions plus round black acrylic table under flush mounted ceiling fan

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Awesome sleek herringbone parquet floor mixed with small brown white living room apartment set plus pink floral window curtains

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Miraculous attractive undulating pendant lamps mixed with small grey living room apartment plus red sectional sofa and white coffee table

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Captivating comfy corner blue bean bag sofa with rainbow wall decal plus small white living room apartment set

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Trust me, the images don't match, and really, nothing I've ever seen in interior design deserved the term "miraculous."

A soft sell for sensors

Wearables go where no devices have gone before when designed to fit wherever one wants them on  the body.  Fitting the device to the body, rather than the body to the device: that’s what defines the technology developed by MC10.  This privately held company partners with well-known brands, like Reebok, to bring its technology into the consumer space.  I spoke with Elyse Winer, Manager of Marketing & Communications at MC10 about the company’s innovative products. Read about it in  A Soft Sell for Sensors