Smart shoppers in any economy are looking for high value at low cost. Many people get a feeling of accomplishment and even victory when they find an item they need at a price far below the norm. If you are one of these people (like I am), then girl are you in for a treat if you've never been to a Sears Outlet store.

Sears approached us with a special project last Spring. They took us on our first visit to a Sears Outlet store - the big one in San Leandro - and we got a grand tour of the operation. Most of the merchandise is either overstock or has some visual defect that forces them to sell it as a damaged item. If a customer returns an item for any reason it must be sold as a refurbished item. You can save 10%, 20%, 60% and more on these items: appliances, electronics, outdoor furniture, etc.

The challenge with the design was that each item on the site will be a unique item with a unique "defect", price and location. We needed to communicate this one-of-a-kind status of the merchandise and drive the customer to the physical store where they can view and purchase the item. But the site must also be as easy to navigate as any other retailer website. The current site is only a subset of our solution, more powerful features will come later. But for now, you can shop dozens of physical outlets without leaving your chair. Have you been thinking about replacing that old washing machine? Go get your victory on.

posted by Frank

Imagine this scenario: You're at Bevmo standing in front of a wall of red wine. There are thousands of bottles from hundreds of producers you've never heard of from dozens of countries you've never visited. You'd like to get something good for tonight's dinner party, but you're just not a wine expert. Wouldn't it be nice to know what your guests would like? Maybe you have a colleague who's practically a sommalier, but you wouldn't bother her with a phone call at this time of day.

Enter Goodrec. When the founders explained the concept for Goodrec, I knew I wanted to work on it (we helped them with the UI and brand ID). The concept is simple: Create a super efficient UI that lets people quickly enter recommendations for restaurants, books, etc. So, it's fast to enter the recs and it's even faster to find them.

You can see the product at www.goodrec.com. It will be invite-only for a while, buy you can probably find an invitation if you look hard enough.

posted by Frank

Our latest interaction design hatchling is now running loose; Roost is the newest entrant in the real estate search space. When they hired us to do the interaction design, they were looking for a way to bring the Kayak and FareChase flavor (ie: powerful filters & interface) to the home buying process.

One of our biggest innovations was also the biggest challenge. Roost decided to skip the usual "build-your-own" database strategy and partner directly with the MLS data providers. This gives Roost property data that's light years ahead of their competitors. But it was accompanied by some major interface challenges due to some fairly detailed constraints on the presentation of said data.

Anyway, the end result turned out nicely in my opinion (and this guy's too). Roost's initial markets include: Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, Boston, and several others. Check it out.

posted by Frank

MediaMaster has just passed a big milestone - 10 million  21 million uploaded songs!

Actually, 10,057,527  21,000,000... and climbing quickly (according to neil). I think this product is on to something and I'm looking forward to the next major version, which is in the works.

posted by Frank