The final Q&A with Matt Carinio, Sr. Business Analyst at LEVEL, asks who and how.

Question: Apps are just one of the big trends being driven by emerging devices and new user interfaces. Technologies facilitating gesture-based navigation, 3D, location-aware context are also important pieces. Looking ahead, what should brands be doing to identify the types of experiences users will expect in the next 3 years? How should they integrate them into their current roadmap?

Matt:  Brands need to hire good agencies that have the expertise and thought leadership in these area as well as their best interests.  The value of an agency’s strategic service offering is to understand a client’s business goals, objectives, and challenges while fully understanding the trends in marketing, technology, and consumer behaviors to arrive at insights that will create an integrated experience. Ultimately, there’s no one right answer for all brands. Their roadmaps should include a user/customer centric approach to what they need and a deep understanding of the tools and technologies at the brand’s disposal.  It is not something that brands should feel they need to tackle on their own and it is something that great agency partners, like LEVEL, are always thinking about.

Part III of Q&A with Matt Carinio, Sr. Business Analyst at LEVEL, enters the realm of navigation and content engagement.

Question: How far will applications extend into the way we are accustomed to browsing for and engaging with content?

With respect to mobile, applications have already changed our browsing and engagement with content.  The question really is, how will it change the way we consume content on other devices like televisions?  We are already seeing the first real wave of mainstream televisions being marketed with application integration and internet connectivity. This concept really isn’t anything new (WebTV ‘95) and its current form still feels to be a bit ahead of its time and somewhat disparate.  After all, are consumers really saying they want this functionality or are manufactures telling them they need it?  To tell you the truth, I am more interested in who wins the war of content accessibility on televisions when the time comes.  Do television manufactures build in the technology to access applications, the Internet and drive the user experience or will the cable communication companies vie for control therefore relegating TVs back to traditional display functionality. I see this shaping up similarly to the DVR wars of the late ‘90s when the discussions were of putting DVRs in televisions and eventually the cable and satellite companies got serious and seem to have won that battle.

Earlier this month, Ed Shin of Liferay hosted a 3-day workshop on Portal Administration and Portal Development at LEVEL | SJ.  LEVEL is a Liferay Gold Service Partner and a sold out crowd of LEVEL AllStars packed tightly into conference room to soak in as much information as possible.  During the training session we covered a number of topics. I drooled over our discussion on creating portlets and new ways to integrate them with Liferay as well as how to store and report information from a source database, all while maintaining work flow and permission. Slurp. Throughout the training a few friendly debates ignited:  Mac vs. PC, themes vs. layouts for UI, Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Opera –  none solved, but all thoroughly vetted.  I was in heaven. The camaraderie between LEVEL, Liferay and our shared clients is apparent, especially at these training classes. We’re proud to be able to bring people together and solve problems unlike any other agency to date. Ed Shin capped off our training with a much-needed outing for frozen yogurt. Thanks to Ed and Liferay for furthering the education of LEVEL employees to create an even stronger partnership.

Liferay is an open source portal software platform written in Java with the flexibility to integrate with a number of platforms and technologies. My colleagues Chris Guthrie (Technology Manager) and Chris Stavros (Technology Strategist) will be presenting development and business strategies at the upcoming Liferay West Coast Symposium in September.