Beyond Nike+
It’s been a couple years since Nike+ launched. Despite the wild success of Nike+, few other companies have followed their lead. Fortunately over the past few months we’ve seen the release of some very interesting products in a similar vein. One of those is called Nest, billed as “The Learning Thermostat”. Essentially you “educate” the thermostat about your preferences and it builds a schedule around you. It also includes a web based application which allows you to not only gain insights into your usage but also remotely control your thermostat from a computer or phone. Another interesting product is called “UP” and is manufactured by Jawbone the same folks who make the headsets. UP is a wristband + iPhone app which tracks your activities. By tracking this information and providing it to you in an easily understandable format, you are able to make healthier lifestyle choices (it even tracks your sleep).
The Problem with Apps
Currently Brands are hyper-focused on building in three major areas: Facebook apps, Mobile app and Microsites. These three areas are engaging, quantifiable and relevant, however, they all suffer from the same issue. A standard computer/tablet/mobile device will only take you so far. To truly engage with people you need to be able to both measure (sense) and cause change in the physical environment (actuate).
Get Physical
Enter Physical computing per wikipedia: “means building interactive physical systems by the use of software and hardware that can sense and respond to the analog world.” By coupling your traditional Facebook/Mobile/Microsites with a physical computing component, you will have the ability to measure practically anything, analyze this data and cause change.
Life is Physical
Combining traditional applications with physical computing, we can affect change at a entirely new level. Brands are poised to make this transition into the Physical world. They have an enthusiastic user base, a history of creating engaging applications and the desire to further endear themselves to their users. Deep in the labs of Dachis we’ve been experimenting with Physical computing and dreaming up ways to engage in this exciting new format. Stay tuned for upcoming posts on our progress – and if you’re interested in getting physical with your users, let us know.
