Hands-on with the $949 mind-bending Meta 2 augmented reality headset

As modern virtual reality welcomes its consumer moment with the impending releases of the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, off in the distant far-less-sexy enterprise space exists a class of augmented devices that will eventually replace our smartphones.

Right now this industry is full of products that are cumbersome and ugly enough that you’d probably swipe left on Beyoncé wearing a pair, but this past week I had the chance to play with one that was, okay, still pretty unfashionable, but also really amazing.

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Microinteractions: The Secret of Great App Design

The best products do two things well: features and details. Features are what draw people to your product. Details are what keep them there. And details are what actually make our app stand out from our competition.

Microinteractions are one of the best techniques for giving delightful feedback.

All roads lead to a human-centered design approach, where the user is the prime focus. Often considered accessory or secondary, microinteractions actually create a feeling of well-being once they are discovered by users. As a designer, recognizing the invisibility of microinteractions is just as important as designing them. You have to create something that feels human and accomplishes a task.

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TV Networks Recast the Role of Commercials

Monday’s season premiere of the NBC reality singing competition “The Voice” will include a bonus interview with last season’s winner. During “Blindspot,” the hit hourlong drama about a mysterious tattooed woman, there will be interviews with the show’s creator and two of its stars. The “Today” show will feature an extended segment with Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb, and “Late Night with Seth Meyers” will have an additional comedy sketch.

The extra programming will eat into time typically occupied by commercials. But those additional segments will actually be ads in their own right, brought to you byAmerican Express.

The move by NBC may be a bit of a gimmick — after all, the extra programming on leap day, Feb. 29, will add only 11 more minutes of content over all. But it could also provide a glimpse into the future of television advertising. Long dependent on conventional commercials, television networks are now re-evaluating their advertising strategies as fears about cord-cutting and steep ratings declines intensify.

“We see a great challenge but also a great opportunity to reinvent what the advertising experience can look like in different shows and in different environments,” said Alison Tarrant, executive vice president for client partnerships at NBCUniversal.

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See That Billboard? It May See You, Too

The article is all about the latest news that Clear Channel has partnered with several other companies to gather data on people’s travel patterns and behaviors through their mobile phones and Clear Channel billboards. This partnership is one example of how old school physical advertising is merging (and improving) with digital, as expressed in this quote from the story:

"In many ways, billboards are still stuck in the old-media world... Clear Channel Outdoor’s move is yet another attempt to modernize billboards and enable the kind of audience measurements that advertisers have come to expect."

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#Ad-Blocking: Wake me up before you go go!

Supposedly, the epiphany moment for ad-blocking was when Howard Stern, theAmerican King of All Media, discovered the existence of ad-blocking software, live during one of his popular radio shows in August. That was right before Apple released its ‘content blocking’ option in September's release of iOS 9.

During that same time, PageFair and Adobe, published a report claiming that ad-blocking software will be used by something close to 200m users in 2015 and cost the industry (a greatly exaggerated) 22bn in foregone advertising revenue. 

Mayhem has followed since with arguments framing ad-blocking as the biggest catastrophe or the best thing to happen in advertising since it turned digital. Worried publishers such as Conde Nast and Axel Springer have taken commercial (i.e. paywalls) or legal measures to prevent visitors from using ad-blocking software while others have been partnering with ad-tech companies to circumvent the new devil.

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Top 5 UX Trends Every Web Designer Should Know

Top 5 UX trends every web designer should know, A web site’s success is always measured in how the user feels.

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Designing Content for Readability, Legibility and Clarity

Tools such as storytelling, memes and line breaks provide readers with a user-friendly reading experience.

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Brand site wins at UX!

Check it out: http://makesafehappen.com/

Cool interactive design!

Check it out: http://www.because-recollection.com/

Redfoo - Booty Man (Official 360° Music Video)

Here's a cool example of a 360* video:

INFOGRAPHIC: Native Advertising in Context

The term “native advertising” is getting considerable traction in the online advertising community, but its definition has been confusing until now. Native advertising is not advertorial. Instead, it contributes value to any page it graces by improving user experience and adding value for consumers. Recent data confirms that publishers, agencies, marketers, and investors believe that native advertising is the fastest growing segment in the online advertising business. We created this infographic to take a deeper look into this growing segment:

'South Park' Lampoon of Native Advertising Highlights Important Issues

"South Park"'s most recent season taught us something important: Ads are here to stay, and what's more, they are the enemy of free-thinking consumers who are waging war with covert brand messages. If you have not seen season 19, I can sum it up by saying ads have become sentient creatures, running a conspiracy to control the world, hilariously exploring what marketing has become.

Like anything "South Park" lampoons, its take on ads -- and native ads in particular -- is a satire on a much bigger theme: Content has become commerce. We have reached a perfect storm; the democratization of news providers and publishers, the record increase of ad avoidance, and the insatiable appetite for targeted content ads are working. People are clicking on native ads. Publishers are getting traffic. Companies are getting messages to their audiences.

Native advertising has become one of the most successful and profitable mediums available on the internet. Click-through rates and conversion rates through affiliate marketing surpass almost every other form of online promotion. There are several reasons for this. The machines behind native advertising are good at understanding how relevant the content is for particular visitors. By their very nature, native ads feature interesting content that audiences want to consume. Native ads are not disruptive and enhance the user experience. These factors enable brands to connect the right people with the right content.

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History of Content Marketing

The History of Content Marketing from the Content Marketing Institute. Content marketing is not new. Brands have been telling stories to attract and retain customers for hundreds of years. The difference today is that the barriers to entry (content acceptance, talent and technology) no longer exist for brands to get into the publishing arena.

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Information from across the industry, fueling water cooler conversations, deep thoughts, and Twitter posts alike. Each issue contains the latest news, noteworthy native examples, upcoming events, and an extensive list of open jobs in the native space.