Graffiti - the stroke of a genius

I thought all the presentations yesterday were amazing! All the chosen applications highlighted the potential of evolving social platforms in effectively targeting and capturing different segments of the market! Thanks :)

The application I'm choosing here to critique is Graffiti. Why?

1. MishMash - our baby from Fb Assignment 1 - is nearly up there in terms of functionality, Our intent though is completely different. Studying this app and why it became such a raving success is something that would definitely help MishMash grow as well. :)
   
2. I agree with Wang Sha, who in her post says that this same application can be applied in the Xiaonei context. The success model is out there in a 'Steps to follow' format and so yes, it excites me as well!
3. I think the group that presented did extremely well :) Just like Graffiti, their presentation was simple but managed to capture our interest and imagination in a few key strokes (For me, the first being Dr. Ben's portrait and the second being the Animal Planet promotion)

Well, as I've already said what captured my attention, I also began wondering about the key question Dr. Ben asked - How many users of graffiti are really designers? Well the answer is hardly 2%. And how many of those wonderful graffiti out there -used to promote the app- are made by amateurs? Again, the answer is hardly any.

But what graffiti offers to me is possibilities. Dreams. And an inherent Challenge. When other users can use the same application - which looks so easy to use btw - and express their dreams onto their portraits, why can't I? I'm not thinking - "Archu! you've had paint, photoshop, illustrator and what not for years! And your masterpiece is still under construction?! "

So yes - the app is successfully able to rope in newbies, amateurs and professionals alike. In proving that they have a talented installed base, they are also able to lasso in the big fellas. But is Graffiti able to successfully retain their installed base?

Well, here I think that one of the suggestions made by the presenting group can come in very handy - multi-author comic! It is what will retain the remaning 98%. But I personally disagree with their suggestions of including text and multimedia content. The major selling point of grafiti is in the fact that the 'designs' are always credibly original. Adding options to embed external content would perhaps even scare away the existing sponsors!

How does all this translate to something I've learnt and can apply? Well -MishMash is a very simple to use photo collage maker. How to get people to look at it? Rope in the professional designers. Allow them to design their own stickies/backgrounds and show them off. Rope in the professional photographers. Get them to use MishMash to submit their best photographs revolving around a particular pre-designed theme. Get Olympus interested. Get National Geographic interested. And make all these available as templates that an average user can ultimately use in 2 simple steps to create the album of their dreams.

Feel like ending with a quote which is pretty much what I learnt from this session :P

"The ones who succeed, BELIEVE. And TALK"

Rant...
I loved the causes presentation as well! The video was crisp and attention-grabbing. :) I really think that it is something that must be extended beyond geographical boundaries. Rotract for example is a well established organization in Asia. Designing an app along similar lines for them would indeed be intriguing.

2 PlayFish games in this session. The power of a leadership board when used effectively is $$$!!!