Summary: This iPad application is used by Tommy Hilfiger’s European sales force (250 people) as a replacement for the 10kg product catalogues that would be carried around when visiting clients. The app allows browsing, searching and filtering of the entire product range in a fluid, intuitive interface. As well as saving on printing and distribution costs, the tool has been embraced by sales staff leading to improved employee happiness, increased sales and brand image.

Role: Interaction design, visual design (2nd & 3rd releases)

Tommy Hilfiger iPad Sales Tool

Summary: Spoordeelwinkel is the new webshop from NS which offers package deals of a day-trip together with a train ticket. Deals are presented in categories: a day out, weekend away, fun & active, culture & music, and leisure.

The customer chooses an offer, purchases online and receives a voucher for entrance together with an e-ticket for their train journey.

Role: Interaction design, creative lead

Press: Marketing Tribute: NS opent Spoordeelwinkel.nl (Dutch)

Link: http://www.spoordeelwinkel.nl

Summary: NS Hispeed offers high speed train journeys to national and international destinations. Customer research showed that that users were dissatisfied with a number of aspects of the web site’s booking tool. The extensive redesign provides a quicker and clearer process by leading the user through the steps for booking their journey and making it much easier for the user to find and compare prices, routes and journey times. The checkout and payment flow is optimised to help the user complete their booking.

Role: Lead interaction design

Link: http://www.nshispeed.nl

Summary: Repudo is a mobile application that lets users drop digital multimedia objects at real physical locations, either for a specific friend or as a suprise for anyone who comes by to pick it up. For example someone drops a photo or video at central station. You have to go there to pick it up before you can view its contents. Once it’s picked up, it’s gone from the map and you can choose to keep it or pass it on at another location.

Of course, digital objects can be more than photos and videos – Sony Music and EMI have both recently used Repudo to drop songs for music fans and other possibilities could include branded games, gifts and coupons. The Repudo technology was first used for the Heineken UEFA Tour campaign. After the campaign, the focus was to launch Repudo as a standalone product in the Apple App Store.

Role: My task was to optimize the user experience and integrate additional functionality to help make it into a fun, compelling product. I developed the wireframes over several iterations and refined the interface design using interactive prototypes to test out the ergonomics and navigation. These UI designs were a basis for the art director and visual designer who created the hand-drawn artwork, bringing out the fun, personal aspects of the application. In addition to the iPhone application, I developed the interaction design for the Repudo website and branded modules which will soon be added to the app.

Number 1 in the Netherlands App store: average rating 4.5 stars.

• Top: UI is prachtig: leuk, vernieuwend, duidelijk en lekker speels, net zoals het hele concept eigenlijk!
• Weer een vernieuwende kijk op het gebied van communicatie. Deze eerste versie heeft me erg nieuwsgierig gemaakt wat er allemaal nog mogelijk is met Repudo in volgende releases. App werkt overigens erg makkelijk en soepel.
• Wow: Great design after update !!
• Werkt nu goed. Interface werkt veel sneller en intuïtiever, goed werk!

Client feedback: Awesome! Good work buddy!

Press: Adformatie: Repudo wint Accenture Innovation Awards, The Next Web: Nominaties Dutch Startup Award bekend, Marketing Facts: 1 miljoen investering voor Repudo, NU.nl: Miljoen dollar voor Nederlandse locatiedienst Repudo, iPhoneclub: Repudo: nieuwe track en concertkaartjes van Anouk liggen op straat

Link: http://www.repudo.com

Summary: Interpolis, one of the largest insurance companies in The Netherlands, approached us to develop an interactive concept to help engage their customers about the importance of risk prevention and communicate their key message “Insurance is not the only solution”.

Together with the creative director and copywriter we created a concept based around risk-prevention tips. Already existing content consisted of mostly lengthly articles of advice, clustered into the insurance policy categories such as fire, theft and water damage, etc. We took this content and broke it down into a smaller, actionable “tips”, structured into events and activities, such as going on holiday, cooking and moving house – subjects that customers can more readily relate to.

Role: As well as contributing to the creative concept, I developed the detailed interaction design and helped with the visual design. The project was developed using Agile methodology and my responsibility included itemizing user stories and maintaining the product backlog.

Link: http://www.interpolis.nl/particulier/watals/u_schade_wilt_voorkomen/

Summary: This microsite serves as a landing page for bannering and email campaigns to promote the new Audi A1.

Role: Interaction design

Link: http://www.audionlinespecial.nl/a1/

The book is extremely thorough and covers SEO in an incredible amount of detail that makes it valuable for any web design, regardless of whether they are using WordPress.

In covers how to develop a SEO strategy and goes into detail about the possible tactics. The inner workings of Googles Pagerank are clearly explained and strategies for link building, optimizing content and code, and social network techniques are all covered exhaustively.

Advice is given on avoiding potential pitfalls such as black hat techniques and how to identify dubious third-party services.

My role as technical reviewer was to check the code samples and correctness of the technical information as well advising on the scope of the content. The book is available now from Packt or from Amazon.

Summary: As a sponsor of the UEFA Champions League, Heineken approached us with a brief to engage fans by allowing them to take part in the official 2011 Trophy Tour, from the hand-over ceremony in Switzerland to the first tour event in Kuala Lumpur.

After brainstorming the concept together with the project team, I set to work with my marker pens to explore the ideas in a series of sketches which helped us present the concept to the client for their approval.

Then using Adobe Fireworks and Metaspark’s excellent iPhone UI toolkit, I was able to quickly put together a click-through prototype in which the details of the interaction could be worked out and handed over to the visual designer.

Finally, I laid out the individual steps in a flow to help communicate the final concept with the rest of the team responsible for the development of the iPhone app and branded Facebook page.

Press: Facebook Spotlight

Summary: In a pause between client work, I found some time to design and build a new website for my employer, Dynamic Zone. The most important goal was to present our creative work to potential clients so I included the portfolio immediately on the home page. Having watched how users tend to immediately start playing with their mouse scroll-wheel when coming to a site, I took advantage of this to implement a playful scrolling navigation for the portfolio.

I implemented a Twitter feed as an easy way for clients to keep up to date with what we’re busy doing. Previous attempts at news sections and blogs had failed because in the midst of client projects, we found it difficult to find time to update our own site. A simple Twitter feed that filters employee’s tweets containing a #DZ hashtag makes it quick and easy to post comments, interesting links and connect with our clients.

I built the site using pure ActionScript 3.0 using Flash Builder 4 and created a solid framework using SWFAddress and XML loaders to populate the content, again making it as easy as possible to keep the site up to date and expand on it in the future. Flash was chosen for it’s ability to realise a rich experience in a limited time and alternative content is provided in HTML for devices without Flash support.

The site is only a first step and I’m working on creating more content and experiences to demonstrate how we can help solve problems for our clients communication and branding.

Role: Concept, visual design, branding, Flash development

Tools: Adobe Fireworks, Flash Professional, Flash Builder, SWFAddress, Google Maps API

Link: http://www.dynamiczone.nl

The authors Peter Spannagle and Sarah Soward have made it easy for beginners to get started with a run-down of Flash-based plugins that can be embedded in a WordPress-driven site, and goes on to introduce how to create custom Flash components and use them to add richness and multimedia. The book also includes an introduction to Flash timeline animation and explains how to create custom themes for WordPress.

My role as technical reviewer was to check the code samples and correctness of the technical information as well advising on the scope of the content. The book is available now from Packt or from Amazon.