Ng Chong Yang's Writing Pad

What is your business?

ChongYang — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 00:28:26 +0000

Jacques Barzun, “I grieve to see the most advanced physical and social organization of the last century go down in shabby disgrace for lack of the same comprehensive imagination that built it up. The void is the will of companies to satisfy the public by inventiveness and skill.”

Above the rest

ChongYang — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 12:47:37 +0000

What does it take to rise above the rest?

I hear this question asked so many times, but I have not heard an answer yet.

Complete Design

ChongYang — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 07:07:16 +0000

Square from a web design agency’s perspective: http://www.digitalskratch.com/blog/square-charge-cilents-with-your-iphone/

Square from a domain expert’s point of view: http://sq-skim.com/

Is “fit for purpose” more important than aesthetics and user experience?

This ad campaign points purely to fitness for purpose. A blue ocean strategy in a market filled with campaigns highlighting design and performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3V5S7NhvcA

I believe a fair amount of attention to both fitness for purpose as well as aesthetics and user experience is the way to go for web applications going forward …

Digital Agencies – who are you?

ChongYang — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:20:40 +0000

What, at the core, are you, dear digital agencies?
I know you are young, and are still trying to get your bearings right. You must know, however, your true identity and who you will ultimate grow up to be?

Well, I am certain about who you are not. You are definitely not an online extension of an advertising agency – for you are not in advertising, and should not, for even the slightest moment, think that you will grow up to inherit the advertising throne.

Advertising, as we know it today, will be gone in the near future. This everyone is sure. Many in the advertising space are packing their bags and jumping onto lifeboats – in a bid to move from the offline world to the online world. By doing this, many thought their survival is guaranteed.

Indeed, some may survive, but many will fall off the lifeboats even before they reach the destination. The reason is simple, those who fall carry with them too much baggage from the advertising world.

Buck up or be bugged out

ChongYang — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:16:17 +0000

Yesterday, I met up with a media sales rep. The burning question on my mind, and one that interests me most, is what is preventing brands from booking that medium to spread a corporate marketing message?

As a digital strategist whose main focus is to create highly successful interactive branded solutions; the answer to that question, from the horse’s mouth, would be good insight when I ultimately need to translate digital strategies from plan to execution.

This is what the media sales rep said, “Education,,,”

“Digital Agencies are not aware of our existence. And even if they are, most Digital Interactive Agencies simply brush us off. They do not give us a chance. Some of them who do also cancel the booking at the last minute.”

Wow! A word of advice, if your medium is unknown, I would guess it will have limited chances of coming into contact with most Target Audiences, let along drawing those Target Audiences to consume from, and interact with, it.

P.S. I wrote Target Audience in the article above. This term, and many others, I am sure, will soon be dropped as a common lexicon among advertising professionals. So too will the term “line”. In fact, the world of advertising, and more generally communications, is so quickly melting down that many are being thrown into states of confusion. Buck up, dear advertising industry friends and colleagues, or be prepared to be bugged out.

iPad 2 to be unveiled on 2 March 2011?

ChongYang — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 01:13:51 +0000

Is there going to be an unveiling of iPad 2 on the 2nd of March 2011?
I am excited to see, if this were true, how Apple is pushing the concept of self explaining design up another notch with the iPad 2. On every launch of a new product from Apple these days, Digital Interactive Agencies get a chance to polish and upgrade their skills in the specific domain of Interactive Digital User Experience Design. This, to be, is so cool.

Apple, as can be observed, fully embraces the concept of self explaining design. The proof – well, do you find any user manuals in your iPhone or iPad box?

Digital Interactive Experience

ChongYang — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 08:57:17 +0000

I am going to share with you a method that I personally use (and some might say I invented and refined across the years) in all my consulting assignments: Motive Action.

I always start each assignment with the Motive. If I cannot comprehend and fully internalise a client’s motive, I walk away from that assignment because no matter what actions I propose, it is not going to result in a good client experience.

So to all Digital Interactive Agencies out there – ask yourself this, do I understand the client’s motive enough to put it down in a Brief that will result in a solution that will ultimately enhance the Digital Interactive Experience?

MacBook Pro 2011

ChongYang — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 08:11:00 +0000

I use a MacBook Pro. I am glad I do. Why?
Well, the experience of using a MacBook Pro vs my previous Windows-based notebook is amazingly different – different in a good way.

I must say that Apple has moved up the correct value chain – in a bid to bring about the best Digital Interactive Experience to consumers of their products. It is the sum of the parts that they manage to pull together, in a synergistic way that enhances consumer Digital Interactive Experience, that matters. I am therefore eagerly awaiting February 24, 2011, to see if a totally revamped MacBook Pro will debut. MacBook Pro 2011, if or when it gets launched is going to dramatically move Digital Interactive Experience of users up another few notches. This, I am sure.

Digital Interactive Experience Design Agencies

ChongYang — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 08:04:02 +0000

As I observe the industry – from within – it is glaringly clear that Digital Interactive Agencies need to move up the value chain in order to remain relevant. In fact, as I speak with Interactive Digital practitioners, everyone speaks of this. Does it mean that every Digital Interactive Agency is going to be around, be relevant, and be a viable business in the near future?

No is the answer. This is because while everyone in the Digital Interactive Agency space knows, and speaks of, moving up the value chain, not every Interactive Digital Agency is gearing to move up the “right” value chain.

So what is the right value chain?
The answer is how your Digital Interactive Agency – the one you are running or working in – comes to being. In the Digital Interactive Agency that I am part of, it is clear that we need to be a Digital Interactive Experience Design Agency. Thank goodness we are gearing up for, and moving up this, value chain. I am glad.

Digital Interactive Agency Fundamentals

ChongYang — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:25:55 +0000

Digital Interactive Agencies need to keep one point firmly etched in their minds – to be remarkable, they have to be creatively innovative across all facets of a project. Digital Interactive projects (be they campaigns or platforms) are, for lack of a better analogy, chairs that the end consumer needs to sit on regularly.

Give the consumer a visually unique chair that is not only uncomfortable to sit it, but that has wobbly legs, and you can be sure that this consumer will never come back. This is such a simple concept to understand. It is therefore pretty shocking to me that so many Digital Interactive Agencies (or so they call themselves apart from other descriptors such as Digital Agencies or Interactive Digital Agencies) fail to grasp that concept. Selective comprehension on the Digital Interactive Agency’s part?