Web Experience June 2009 Archives

Remembering Billy Mays, 60-second Storyteller

The other day we posted an entry about how tricky it is to convey sophisticated ideas in a simple way (and the approach we have taken on some Cisco Eos Flash experiences along these lines).

Nobody was better at explaining things quickly than TV pitchman Billy Mays, who, sadly, was found dead today at his Florida home.

Though Mays worked in a completely different world from high technology, his little commercial gems showed how a sometimes complicated story could be boiled down to setting up a premise, giving a little technical background, and demonstrating how the product works. I often use examples of his work when describing to people how to get across a point quickly online.

Don't expect to see infomercials anything like these on Cisco.com (and I promise we will never yell like Billy), but we have been thinking a lot about how to make our online demos and Flash experiences more straightforward (like that Cisco Eos example mentioned above). There are elements of that Bill Mays spirit that we will hope inspires us to be succinct storytellers.

Here are a couple of my favorite Billy Mays ads: Some spoofs he did for ESPN that show off the master's style of demonstration and storytelling:

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Posted by Martin Hardee at 10:35AM PST

Is Your Digital Crib This Good?

There are some new Digital Cribs videos in the Consumer neighborhood of Cisco.com. Those digital lifestyles from Martha Lane Fox, Paul Van Dyk, and Graham Hill make me a little jealous!

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Posted by Martin Hardee at 04:30PM PST

Covering the Walls

In our Web design group, we spend most of our waking hours looking at things online. This is a matter of necessity, of course, since everything we do ends up online, and also because we collaborate with teams worldwide electronically, frequently via Cisco WebEx Meetings.

But sometimes I like to see a panorama of everything we're working on, and there's no better way than to cover the walls with work in progress. So, this is what my office looks like:

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Posted by Martin Hardee at 05:55AM PST

Conveying Sophisticated Concepts Online

One of the things we walk about frequently on the Web team is how to explain sometimes complex or nuanced concepts in a simple way on Cisco.com. Often, we turn to Flash and other rich media to accomplish this. One of the best examples I have seen lately is the Flash and video experience we have just posted on the Eos section of Cisco.com.

The Cisco Eos software platform was developed specifically to aid media and entertainment companies in developing and maintaining large portfolios of content-rich, community-driven web experiences. As you can imagine, there are many audiences for the product, ranging from Chief Digital Officers, to Web Administrators, to Brand Managers, to Content and Site Developers. Being able to illustrate the Eos platform to those different kinds of users was a challenge, and we chose a persona-based navigational approach:



Click on one of the people above, and a stunning movie is launched explaining Eos platform functionality from the standpoint of that user. These are a really nice combination of storytelling and demonstration, and really worth a visit:



P.S. You can embed the individual videos into your blog or Web site, if you're so inclined.

Enjoy!

Posted by Martin Hardee at 06:00AM PST

Hidden Gem: Your Own TelePresence Video

Here's a hidden gem on Cisco.com: A "bake your own" Cisco TelePresence video starring you -- or even better, a colleague you want to have fun with.

Here is the video my colleague Maureen sent me, having purloined a picture of me from the company directory:
(My wife and her friend said they didn't stop laughing for two minutes when they got it in their email.)



(View the Video)

How to Create Your Own
You can set up your own video and share it with friends (or maybe give your boss a chuckle with a video starring her or him). There's a button to create your own video on the link above, and you can also get to this from the current Cisco.com home page, by expanding the Collaboration feature item...



And then clicking on the "Who's the Expert Now - Start Now" box...



Enjoy!

Posted by Martin Hardee at 10:08AM PST