|
|
  |
Interactive Annual 16:
self-promotion
Skimmer
“I’m surprised someone hasn’t bought this from Fallon. What a great tool.” —Mathew Ranauro
“Our world feels fragmented; Skimmer is a graceful way to bring personal media back together and prove a point about what agency services are about. A beautiful design and structure wrapped-up in an agency calling card. Smart stuff.” —Glen Sheehan
With the runaway success of social media services, the way people communicate is evolving. Fallon saw an opportunity to broaden the evolution of modern social media interaction while establishing itself as a forward-thinker in social and digital media. Skimmer is an Adobe air desktop application that works across multiple platforms to streamline, beautify and enhance the experience of participating in the most frequently used social networking activities. With an interface that’s clean, minimal and logical and a navigation so well-integrated into the experience that it feels invisible, it improves upon day-to-day interaction with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Blogger and YouTube by removing distractions and providing a rich-content experience.
- • After 8 weeks of preparation, the actual production spanned approximately 20 weeks from kickoff to launch with a small internal creative and production team that worked with a dedicated freelance designer and a software development partner; 20 to 25 people touched the product and contributed in some way.
- • The day after Skimmer launched, it was the fifth most-discussed Twitter topic.
- • Skimmer received over 10,000 unique users in less than one week, over 35 million press impressions and positive feedback and thanks from hundreds of grateful users.
Comments by Fallon
“Partly yes, partly no. These days, almost every project is at least in some measure concerned with the social Web, so we always keep that medium top of mind. But this was the first time we’ve ever inserted ourselves directly into the entire social Web experience—trying to make a useful contribution toward improving it.”
“However people use the social Web, they typically have a deep habit of doing it in one particular way or another. That presented a new layer of difficulty: finding the right balance between requiring a change in people’s behavior and offering a tool that would feel completely natural. The project involved offering up a new, more elegant way to carry out the daily, high-frequency activities we all engage in. The challenge was to find a way to do it that delighted people and felt natural enough that they’d be willing to set aside their customary routine to try it out. Sometimes users don’t know that the experience they are used to leaves a lot of room for improvement until they’re convinced to try something that is obviously better.”
Credits
Andy Gugel, lead designer
David Schwen, design director
Chris Wiggins, creative director
Albert Kelly, executive creative director
Brenda Fogg, interactive producer
Vic Palumbo, executive agency producer
Fallon (Minneapolis, MN),
project design and development/
ad agency/client
Sierra Bravo, development partner
