Monday, February 2, 2009

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 $$$!!!

14 comments:

  1. Hello , archunz

    I totally agree with
    "But what graffiti offers to me is possibilities"

    because I feel that MIshMash is going the same route as graffiti...

    and I also think that MishMash has the potential to be another graffiti with correct planning and marketing.

    if you can rope in good designers and photographers , the app will attract users exponentially...


    and...
    Abel's comic was also very impressive to me too...the team was just so creative=)

    and...
    this quote is really the wisdom of the day
    "The ones who succeed, BELIEVE. And TALK"

    it really teaches us that we need to be fluffy
    in order to succeed=)

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  3. hey...guess we thought along the same line...mishmash and grafiti! :):)

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  4. @yuhan
    thnx so much for your encouraging words! :D

    @dhiviya
    yeah man...go MishMash!

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  5. haha so much love for mishmash, i am so touched LOL

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  6. I liked the idea of extending an app to rotary club. HAving been a member there a few years back, it is certainly very attractive to do an app for them.
    It is well established for such a long time in so many countries and continues growing. However, I found out in the past that their online means of publicity does not seem as widespread as their actual reach. Judging them by their online profile is doing them a disservice.

    Kevin

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  7. @Yu Ming
    :P :P

    @Kevin
    Exactly! I've also been a part of Rotract for 3 years now and their web-based marketing and outreach is so sad! Lots of potential for improvement means opportunity! :)

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  8. Hey,

    Cool... I think interact would benefit more from such an application as they have more students in it. the main population of rotaract does not seem to be in facebook though from what i see

    Kevin

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  9. Graffiti is an nice app because it is simple and elegant. The reason why it gain huge success does not lie in how many professionals contributes their state of arts.

    I mean, professional design is not bad to make an app more attractive and nice-looking, but how many users are such professionals? I like graffiti because I find it interesting to draw some stupid pictures and send friends. We are amazed at how beautiful the pictures some monster can produce by using such simple tools, sure, they are great, but what I really care is how simple to express my best wishes to my friends instead of making awesome pictures. Sure, your MishMash is on the right track and great possibilities are there for you guys to explore.


    Zhao Cong

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  10. @Kevin
    Ye.. kind of agree with you that not most of the very active members of Rotract over the world are >40-45 and may not really understand or appreciate the reach of such evolving social platforms

    @Zhao Cong
    Yes! Exactly what I was trying to bring out in the post as well. That though we are intrigued by the possibilities, what makes us active users is the inherent simplicity :P

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  11. Hey, I quite agree what you said about Graffiti. Its potential and art value are so attractive.

    ZhaoCong's comment is quite special and interesting. Yep, most of us cannot draw very well. However, we cannot ignore other function of Graffiti which is interchange of wishes among friends.

    Haha, am I a witness for the birth of your baby app? I saw your harding working in COM1 everynight. Cheers, try to make your baby more becautiful like graffiti.

    Yiming

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  12. @Yiming
    hehe... you were a part of a wonderful precious moment.. Congrats! :P :P
    thnx!

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  13. Hey guys!
    Nice analysis. By the way, just to add on how Graffiti can actually be very interesting and encourage more user interaction and excitement while retaining their user base:

    Have you guys heard of the game iSketch? http://www.isketch.net/

    It is a highly popular game on the Internet where players take turns to draw pictures which others in the game have a limited time to guess. THey score points along the way if they guess it right. Do try as it is much more exciting than my mundane description (especially when you're playing it with friends!).

    Su Yuen

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  14. @ Su Yuen

    woah.. can't believe I missed this comment for so long! thnx nevertheless! isketch is pretty awesome :)

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