The art of multitasking

Being original, when presenting and promoting technology products online, is getting harder and harder. We’ve already seen flashy websites, exciting animations and amusing video explanations, therefore coming up with concepts and presentations that impress us at first sight has become a sort of “mission impossible”. But there’s another way to “exploit” the online environment to promote, for example, mobile phones. It’s called consistency, and to me it means creating Web experiences where the features of the site, and not only the copy, deliver the message about the characteristics of product.

A good example in this direction, it’s the site for the new Palm Centro recently launched by Sprint. The agencies, Perfect Fools together with Goodby Silverstein & Partners, haven’t done anything special, simply, they have applied the idea of “multitasking”, which is the device main characteristic, to the interface as well as to the advergame featured on the site and even (but this was simple) to the URL (moreyous.com).

Look at the “silly” effect on the mouse arrow and, most of all, try playing the advergame. How many things can you do contemporaneously? Click, key in, look around, it’s fun, and it’s all about multitasking, exactly what the Palm is about.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this is the perfect site (it’s slightly too content-poor for my tastes), but I’d like to point out that even with limited budget projects you can create effective experiences if you make sure everything is consistent with the product you’re selling. Another example we’ve recently seen it’s the French Samsung site to showcase its “collection” of home electronics. The site is simple and stylish, exactly like Samsung’s products.