AIAIO: Our Blog

Someone please tell the clever folks at Chase that this whole no-envelope deposit thing is a stroke of genius.

Earlier this week I went to the Chase ATM across the street from Ai HQ to deposit a check. Pen in hand, I headed for the slips-and-envelopes counter. But the slots were all empty. Almost instantly, a Chase employee welcomed me to No-Envelope ATMs and led me through the process.

Here’s how it works:

1. Start your transaction the usual way.
2. Press Deposit, and instead of preparing an envelope, the ATM prompts you to insert your check in a new slot on the upper-left-hand corner of the machine.
3. The ATM scans the check, then presents an image of it on screen. It simultaneously uses OCR to read the amount on the check, and asks for confirmation: “This check appears to be for $5.28. Is that correct?”
4. Confirm the value and the deposit is finished.
5. Ask for a receipt, and the printout now includes a miniature reprint of the check for your records.

This fulfills another piece of the theoretical promise that ATMs bring to banking: speed and simplicity. No more filling out forms; no more stuffing envelopes; no more needing to remember 12-digit account numbers or carry deposit slips. I already see the previous generation of ATMs as hopelessly obsolete.

A side note of praise, too, for Chase’s smooth rollout. The woman in the vestibule intercepted me before I could get confused, and walked me pleasantly through the deposit process without waiting for me to ask for help. She was fully briefed on the nuances of the upgrade and enjoyed the wow factor that came with it. Nice work all around.

We’re nearly two weeks removed from UX Week and the concepts and theories we explored are still permeating our company. More than just an industry conference, UX Week was a gut check: how are we approaching our craft, and how can we learn from our peers to improve our processes?

Among the ideas we’re exploring this fall is a prototyping sequence. Ai typically operates in a linear process (outside of development): great research begets great architecture begets great design begets great websites. But many of our clients are collaborative, proactive or just plain curious. For them, an iterative, rapid-prototyping model may allow us to share ideas quickly and powerfully, and save time later on. We haven’t finalized the process yet, but we’re excited to try it.

We’re also going to spend more time in whiteboard sessions than at our desks. Sharing ideas early is key to an integrated approach, and we’ve had great success in recent months bringing developers, strategists, designers and IAs into one room to hash out ideas.

But most of all, we’re still digesting the great perspective offered by some of the presenters. Zipcar: “We’re an IT and marketing company that happens to have a lot of cars.” Pixar: “Use small teams for complex problems, and fail as quickly as possible.” Solid learnings that are not soon forgotten.

So here’s the thing about going to a UX conference (and the reason Josh had me join him): with UX on the brain, everything exudes an experience.

The experience of my canceled flight and frantic rebooking. (More on that later.) The experience of the first class/Clear security line. The experience of my swanky modern hotel room. The experience of attending a forward-thinking conference in a deliberately old-world venue. The experience of eating lunch. Even the conference itself gets scrutinized–the packet, the registration booth, the timing.

Properly aligned, user experience really does impact all aspects of a consumer-driven society. It certainly makes its home online, where the experience is a heavy majority of the overall opportunity; but the general concept carries through elsewhere. Like customer service phone calls. And ecommerce home deliveries. And….

Josh and I are on our way to UX Week in San Francisco. I’m looking forward to seeing my old friends at Adaptive Path and soaking up the collective wisdom of our young industry.

Twitter doesn’t seem to have a with_friends feed anymore, so check our own feeds (Josh / me) for live updates–yes, Josh, that means you–and check this space for longer thoughts as time allows.

This morning we gave a first-round design presentation to a client. In order to accommodate all participants and scenarios, we used three computers, four screens, one projector, and a GoToMeeting remote setup, all to show a series of visuals.

Unsurprisingly, every screen looked different. The projector washed out lighter colors and gradients; the widescreen LCD’s robust color was dwarfed by the projected image; the folks watching via remote had a smaller screen area with a too-high “fold.”

All of which serves as a reminder that visual web design remains an incredibly difficult medium. Colors wash, screens change length, text rendering shifts, scripts and cookies disable: any number of challenges stand between a designer and the effective presentation of designs.

Ai’s developers pride themselves on pixel-perfect page outputs that stay true to our visual comps. But even perfect execution does not eliminate the vagaries of millions of users’ screen resolutions, color depths, and personal settings. The level of user control that we celebrate online also creates an incredible set of scenarios that, despite 15 years of advancement, still requires clever compromise and broad acceptance.

The nascent mobile revolution will only add to the complications surrounding online presentation. It’s a tough job, but fortunately a fascinating one.