We the Media

Even before the first iPhone 4 left stores, and even as customers were enduring all manner of conditions while waiting in line for a chance to get their hands on Apple’s latest mobile phenomenon, the Web was already ablaze with reports about a possible design flaw in the wrap-around antenna that interferes with reception.

The story begins on the afternoon of June 23, when Fame Foundry started a discussion thread on the MacRumors community forum about a problem we encountered straight out of the box. Among the lucky 600,000 to successfully pre-order the highly sought-after device on June 15, we shot and posted this video to demonstrate the issue we had discovered:

In just over 24 hours since, the conversation in the discussion thread has continued across 46 pages, as other users have chimed in with their own theories, reviews, experiments and videos.

More significantly, the story of the apparent operating glitch has taken on a life of its own, leaping from the obscure fanboy territory of the MacRumors forum and ascending to the upper echelons of media.

The first to pick it up were tech blogs like Gizmodo, Mashable and Engadget. Soon after mainstream outlets including The Street, MSNBC and CNN followed suit. By the afternoon of June 24, Fame Foundry was fielding phone calls from reporters from national media organizations, all tracing back to the original YouTube video, which has received more than 400,000 views at the time of this posting.

The launch of the iPhone 4 has been a remarkable case study in the nature of today’s media and the ways and speed at which information spreads.

When photos and videos of a still-in-development iPhone 4 were published on Gizmodo, the story of how the device escaped the grasp of Apple’s famously impenetrable security and landed in the hands of a tech blogger became a much bigger story than the gadget’s shiny new design.

The launch of the iPhone 4 has been a remarkable case study in the nature of today’s media and the ways and speed at which information spreads.When the time arrived for the official announcement on June 7, Steve Jobs proved that the leaked photos had hardly stolen the device’s thunder, as he proudly introduced groundbreaking features such as video calling, 960-by-640 resolution display and high definition video recording. However, it is likewise worth noting that there were so many bloggers in attendance reporting live from the WWDC keynote event that a network overload brought Jobs’ product demonstration to a temporary standstill.

The hype surrounding iPhone 4 hit fever pitch on the first day of pre-orders. Apple racked up record-breaking sales, but this success story shared the headlines with the technical difficulties caused by the massive influx of traffic hitting their website, propelled largely by vocal frustrated customers who spent hours trying in vain to place their orders.

Returning to the events of the past two days, if a similar problem had occurred even just a few years ago, it would have taken much longer to come to light. In the absence of the instant connectivity of social media platforms and fan forums, users who encountered a reception issue might have assumed it was an isolated problem or that their particular device was defective, and Apple's customer service department would have been the only channel through which they could address their concerns.

By contrast, within hours of the first video being posted, there were legions of interconnected customers, bloggers and media outlets on the case, executing their own tests and drawing their own conclusions.

Interestingly, as of the time of this posting, the only response from Apple has come in an e-mail exchange between Steve Jobs and an iPhone 4 user (via MacRumors), in which Jobs describes the problem as a “Non issue. Just avoid holding it that way.”

Later, Jobs elaborated further on his position in a follow-up message:

Gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.

And so begins the next chapter in the iPhone 4 saga. Not surprisingly, this response is already showing up on blogs across the Internet, spreading just as quickly as the initial complaints.

Such is the nature of PR in today's 24-hour, on-demand information free-for-all. A single user-generated video becomes a viral sensation that far outshines the typical puff piece stories on how many people are eagerly waiting in line to buy the next great thing. Consumer backlash starts with a groundswell that becomes a tidal wave. A few brief sentences in an e-mail from one of the world’s most powerful CEOs stands in lieu of a carefully crafted press release as the company’s official statement. There is constant push and pull as corporate entities like Apple attempt to steer public sentiment in their favor – a delicate balancing act that requires juggling the mainstream press, the blogger nation and the average consumer with a Facebook or Twitter account.

As the course of events surrounding the iPhone 4 launch demonstrates, no one is safe when there is a potential reporter behind every keyboard and every camera phone – not even Apple with its notoriously loyal fan base.

More...

June 26

Test Shows iPhone Antenna Issue Impacts Voice Transmission Too [Gizmodo]

June 29

Leaked: Apple's Internal iPhone 4 Antenna Troubleshooting Procedures [Boy Genius Report]

June 30

First iPhone 4 Class Action Suit Filed Against Apple and AT&T [Gizmodo]

July 2

Letter from Apple Regarding iPhone 4 [Apple]

Apple "Stunned" to Find iPhones Show Too Many Bars [AP]

Class Action Lawyers Predictably Unimpressed with Apple's Statement [TechCrunch]

July 5

Apple Waiving 10% Restocking Fee for Returned iPhones [IntoMobile]

July 6

AppleCare: The iPhone Update Won't Solve the Antenna Problem [Gizmodo]

The iPhone is Ruining My Life! [Aol Small Business]

July 7

iPhone 4 Complaints Mounting: A Rocky Rollout [CIO]

iPhone 4: Officially a Hot Mess [Inc.]

July 12

Apple Deleting Mentions of Consumer Reports' iPhone 4 Piece on Forums, Can't Delete Your Thoughts [Engadget]

PR Experts: iPhone 4 Hardware Recall Is "Inevitable" [Cult of Mac]

July 13

iPhone Antenna Outcry Escalates with Recall Demand [MSNBC]

July 14

What Apple Must Do to Stop the Bleeding [Mashable]

Microsoft Exec Mocks iPhone 4, Dubs it Apple's Vista [Computerworld]

Video: Does iOS 4.1 Fix the iPhone 4's Death Grip Antenna Issue? [TechCrunch]

Every Week Apple Doesn't Act on iPhone 4 Antenna Could Cost $200M [AppleInsider]

Report: Apple Holding Friday Press Conference on iPhone 4 [PC Magazine]

July 15

Apple Engineer Told Jobs iPhone Antenna Might Cut Calls [Bloomberg]

New York Senator Charles Schumer Writes Open Letter to Steve Jobs [Boy Genius Report]

iPhone 4 Signal Issue Can Be Fixed With a Software Update? [MacRumors]

July 16

Live from Apple's iPhone 4 Phone Conference [Engadget]

Apple's "Antennagate" Mea Culpa – Free Case Until September 30 [ZDNet]

A Defiant Steve Jobs Confronts "Antennagate" [The Wall Street Journal]

Jobs Calls Bloomberg Antenna Article a "Total Crock" [MacNN]

July 17

Apple's Claims About Other Phones – There's a Response For That [The Wall Street Journal]

July 18

iPhone Defense Prompts New Debate [The Wall Street Journal]

July 19

"Antennagate" Reactions: RIM, Nokia, Taiwanese Animation [MacRumors]

HTC, Samsung Rebut Apple's Smartphone Claims [The Wall Street Journal]

Steve Jobs's Disastrous iPhone 4 Press Conference [Harvard Business Review]

 

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On the Right Path

When I was in college, I had a professor who spoke a lot about the importance of wayfinding. He was especially interested in how the Department of Transportation studied design elements such as typography and contrast to discover the best font and colors to use on their signs. When you drive down the interstate, those big green signs with white lettering make navigation pretty easy. Or consider the wayfinding system of a large airport. Getting from terminal A to terminal D would be a nightmare without all the signs helping us along the way. The core function of good wayfinding is to get a person from point A to point B, quickly and efficiently. In order to do that, a person navigating the system should need only to look for signs to point them in the right direction. Just as an exit sign tells an interstate driver where to get off, the visual cues on a well designed homepage should direct a visitor onto the right path.

Why It’s Important to Funnel Visitors

It is the job of the homepage to quickly funnel users to the information they need the most.We often hear the term “funneling traffic.” It is usually used in the context of getting people to visit a site from the outside via search engines, social media or a traditional marketing campaign. But it is equally important to funnel traffic once they get to your site. Your company may have several types of audiences, and you need to speak to each one in different ways. The type of information provided and the tone in which it is presented will be different depending on the audience. A site that tailors its information to specific audiences needs a way for those audiences to quickly identify which category they fit in or which area they are most interested in. It is, therefore, the job of the homepage to do that efficiently. Success in this area means getting a visitor off the homepage and deeper into the site—where you can convert them from a visitor to a customer or fan. It also means protecting them from purposeless information that gets in the way of what they’re really looking for.

Know Your Audience

Before you start funneling visitors you need to identify your audiences. By knowing your target audience, you will be more confident in knowing how to connect with them. Again, your site may have several target audiences. A healthcare site has to accommodate both patients as well as medical professionals. A nonprofit organization has to accommodate people who want to volunteer their time, those who want to donate money, and those who need to use the service the organization provides. All of these audiences have unique needs and specific requests—but before they can become more than a visitor, your site has to give them what they're looking for. The power of your site relies on your ability to focus on your audiences.

Focus Your Funneling

We’ve all been there: stopped at an intersection, not knowing which way to go. One road with two names. Two roads with one name, but going in different directions. Sometimes you just pick a road and see what happens. And sometimes you get lost and have to turn around—something you certainly don’t want a visitor to your site doing. It's natural for a business to want to accommodate every single visitor that comes to their site. Doing this, however, can quickly lead to a cluttered homepage and information overload. Or, in our transportation analogy, an intersection just like this: If your homepage looked like this, most visitors would simply hit the back button and leave your site, not only confused and turned off, but more important, with a negative opinion of your company as a whole. If your site has many types of people visiting, it is important to identify the characteristics of your core audiences in order to quickly direct your most important traffic to where they need to go. This will keep your homepage clean, simplified and actually make decision making easier for the user. Visitors given 3 choices based on core audience characteristics—as opposed to 10 choices based on characteristics for every visitor—will be able to identify their needs and navigate more quickly. Your homepage does not need to encompass every detail about your company or product. Statistically, only 30% of a visitors time is spent on the homepage. The rest is spent on deeper level pages that are better equipped to handle the needs and interests of your visitors—and move them to action.

Give Them What They Like

Once core audiences have been established, you need to determine how you want to motivate them and what actions you want them to take. It is not as simple as saying, “visitor x goes here and visitor y goes here.” You need to know what those visitors are interested in—what motivates them to delve further and eventually cause them to take action or reach a conversion point. Audiences may be influenced by statistics, testimonials, free trials or product features. By knowing what motivates your audience, you will know how to quickly grab their attention and get them to want to take action. So what kind of action do you want your visitors to take? Of course the ultimate action is often financial, whether that is buying a product or service or donating money. But there are other actions that can facilitate that final goal. You may want first-time visitors to download a demo, take a tour or request more information by filling out a form or signing up for a newsletter. Or perhaps you want to drive people to a physical store using a “find the nearest location” feature.

Bringing It All Together

Now that you know the who, how and why, it’s time to bring everything together in a killer homepage design that will not only look great, but function seamlessly as a visitor’s guide to your site. Many well-designed sites begin with a large introductory headline and a brief opening paragraph that gives the visitor a snapshot of what the company is about or what it is selling. The funneling occurs with individual modules that target a specific audience. Designs should be clean and contain good contrast to quickly identify elements. Headlines should be specific, leaving little doubt who the following information is intended for. Typically, “more” or “continue” buttons are used, prompting the visitor to explore the next level of the site. Often pictures of a product or other graphical elements are used to entice the visitor into wanting more. Here are examples of sites that do this well.

Conclusion

Your homepage is not only a first impression, but the starting point to an experience. A good homepage is a spring board that motivates people to explore more important areas of your site. It clearly direct visitors to the information they need the most to get them to a final destination. And if their journey is a pleasant one, you're one step closer to a repeat visitor, fan, and even customer. Happy trails!

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