Brand and User Experience Recommendations For Proposed Fitzgerald Publishing Entertainment Directory Web Site Jason Morrison Online Branding 19 April 2004

Brand and User Experience Brand and User Experience RecommendationsRecommendations

For Proposed Fitzgerald Publishing Entertainment Directory Web SiteFor Proposed Fitzgerald Publishing Entertainment Directory Web Site

Jason MorrisonJason Morrison

Online BrandingOnline Branding

19 April 200419 April 2004

Brand and User Experience RecommendationsBrand and User Experience RecommendationsFor Proposed Fitzgerald Publishing Entertainment Directory Web SiteFor Proposed Fitzgerald Publishing Entertainment Directory Web Site

Brand Platform

Essence – Authentic Local Possibilities

Personality – Irreverent, A Little Grimy, Sociable, Honest

Attributes – Regional, Personal, Dependable

Promise – Cleveland isn't Manhattan, and Detroit isn't LA—they're better, and we'll show you how.

Voice – Upfront, even a little sarcastic. Somewhere between blue collar and white collar.


Brand Name System

Guidelines: short, simple, suggest the category, unique, alliterative, speakable, shocking, and personalized

Need to express:

• Gritty authenticity of the cities in the coverage area

• Feeling that this site opens new doors


Brand Name System

What does the coverage region call itself?

The Rust Belt

Used to mean closing car factories and steel mills, but the term has been reclaimed:

• Comeback cities

• Renaissance Center in Detroit

• Burning River Pale Ale in Cleveland


Additional Data for Restaurants• What's on the jukebox

• Smoking

• Reservations

• Hours

• Prices

• Noise level

• Kid-friendly?

• Senior discount?

• Handicap accessibility

• Birthday specials

• Holidays and special events

• Neighborhood / Districts

• Parking

• Menus

• User ratings

• User comments


New Features – Someplace New

Sometimes it's fun to find someplace completely new—and our user account system will make it easy.

As users add places to their plans, get maps and info about a place, or rate places, the system will maintain a list of restaurants, venues, clubs and theaters they have not been to.

The Someplace New feature will suggest new places ranked by how well they match the voluntary data in the user profile.


New Features – You Rate It

Published reviews from member newspapers is most important content, but:

• Users have come to expect interaction,

• Users have come to rely on each others ratings, and

• We want to keep users coming back.



The You Rate It feature will allow registered users to:

• Rate each business in the system on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, and

• Post a small amount of review text as well.



User-contributed content creates control issues:

• It will require some amount of human oversight, but nothing that couldn't be done by interns.

• It will be structured to discourage abuse—no threads, adding “report this message” buttons, disallowing html or images in posts, etc.

User-contributed content will not be the focus, but fits well with our local focus and personal and regional attributes.


Advanced Features – not available for all listings

Menu Downloads – Restaurants can upload PDFs or fill in a web form with items and prices;

Users can check out the menu before they even leave the house.



Parking Finder – Parking is one of biggest obstacles to getting customers to come into the city.

Since this site will not cover chains and will focus on local culture, many of the listings will be located in the city.

So we will develop a database of parking and how it relates to each restaurant, theater, or venue.



What's Playing – If the business plays music or has DJs or jukeboxes in house, we can collect artists and song titles.

Users will not only be able to see what is playing at a particular business, but what is playing in a neighborhood/district or the city as a whole.

Could even create or sponsor online radio stations so that users can really hear what the business, district or city is really about.


Broadband/Rich Media Feature

People don't necessarily think about where they want to go in terms of maps or street directions.

Cities have neighborhoods and districts with their own flavor and clustered attractions, like Greektown in Detroit or the Warehouse District in Cleveland.

This is different from taking a highway exit and going to Applebee's. Parking and walking between attractions are concerns.



Interactive maps:

• Minneapolis http://maps.mapnetwork.com/minneapolis1_5/index.asp

• Oakland http://www.oaklandexplorer.com/

• Buffalo http://66.134.71.171/Buffalo/flash/

These are more interactive, but don’t have our Planner functionality.

http://maps.mapnetwork.com/minneapolis1_5/index.asp

http://www.oaklandexplorer.com/

http://66.134.71.171/Buffalo/flash/



Pseudo-3D interface in Flash or SVG












Download the neighborhood on to a PDA


Content Collection Strategies

Four main sources of content:

• Newspapers and entertainment/dining reporters and editors

• The restaurants, venues, theaters and clubs themselves

• Site visitors – as a source of tips to follow up

• Site staff – mostly college interns


Information Product

Three valuable information sets:

• Volunteered user data – demographics

• Site usage data – especially when coupled with demographic data

• User-contributed content – not as salable, but still valuable to business owners


Information Product

• Offer limited free reports through the Small Business Bureau, minority business groups, etc.

• Full demographic, search frequency, etc. reports offered for sale.

• Location finder market research kit for new businesses.

• Branching out kit for local companies looking to expand.


Overall Experience

• Attraction

• Engagement

• Conclusion/Conversion

Documents

Brand and User Experience Recommendations For Proposed Fitzgerald Publishing Entertainment Directory Web Site Jason Morrison Online Branding 19 April 2004