It’s really nothing that new. Companies like FedEx have been connecting physical things to the web for years. Most of the examples are similar though – they involve scanning codes and updating systems to keep customers up-to-date. Another notable one is Domino’s pizza tracker. A system that lets the pizza makers scan barcodes at certain parts of the pizza making process to update their customers on the Web.
Recently we’re seeing an increase in activity here that goes beyond scanning codes, and it has me giddy with excitement to see where it goes. Poke’s Baker Tweet is a prime example of . Put simply, it’s a physical box located in the bakery that sends messages wirelessly to Twitter to let followers know what’s fresh. The guys who built it actually started a company called Breakfast who, from what I’m told, is all about creating experiences like this.
Another good example of this is Nike’s Chalkbot. A machine that took tweets and messages from real people and plotted them in chalk along a portion of the Tour de France.
I think we’re going to see some really innovative stuff this year, most of which will be connecting virtual stuff with real stuff. Last week, Andy Sandoz over at Work Club posted an interesting article that touched (sorry) on what it may be like if Facebook had a physical ‘Like’ button. I’d love to hear of more examples or thoughts on this.
Categories: Future UI, Great UX, Industry trends, Innovation, Interaction Design, Technology1CommentMay 55:44 pmCurt Brown said:The wifi scale made a lot of headlines last year. It apparently sends your weight and body fat stats to an online account when you step on the scale, and it allows you to connect it to twitter so that you keep yourself in check. Most people scoffed at it, but it’s an interesting feature. It’s optional, useful (to some), and it’s cheap.
Value added services can be so inexpensive to implement, and yet very few companies choose to. I think in the future this kind of stuff is going to be necessary for companies to include, and not just an afterthought.
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