Inattentional blindness

Inattentional blindness, also known as perceptual blindness, is the phenomenon of not being able to perceive things that are in plain sight. It is caused by an absence of attention to the unseen object and is clear evidence of the importance of attention for perceiving. Without attention we are as if functionally blind. It is closely related to change blindness, which refers to our inability to perceive changes to features in scenes to which we are not attending. It is also related to the Attentional Blink, a phenomenon which occurs when we are searching for two particular target items in a rapidly presented list of items. We often fail to perceive the second target if it occurs between 150 and 400 msec after the first. This also is due to our failure to attend to the second target while attention is absorbed by the first one.

The term inattentional blindness was coined by Arien Mack and Irvin Rock in 1992. It was used as the title of Mack and Rock's book published by MIT Press in 1998. The book describes the discovery of Inattentional Blindness and the procedure used for revealing it.

The best-known study demonstrating inattentional blindness is the Invisible gorilla test, which was conducted by Daniel Simons of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Christopher Chabris of Harvard University. Their study, a revised version of earlier studies conducted by Ulric Neisser, Neisser and Becklen, 1975, asked subjects to watch a short video in which two groups of people (wearing black and white t-shirts) pass a basketball around. The subjects are told to either count the number of passes made by one of the teams or to keep count of bounce passes vs. aerial passes. In different versions of the video a woman walks through the scene carrying an umbrella, or wearing a full gorilla suit.^[1] After watching the video the subjects are asked if they saw anything out of the ordinary take place. In most groups, 50% of the subjects did not report seeing the gorilla. The failure to perceive the gorilla or the woman carrying an umbrella is attributed to the failure to attend to it while engaged in the difficult task of counting the number of passes of the ball. These results indicate that the relationship between what is in one's visual field and perception is based much more significantly on attention than was previously thought.

Another experiment was carried out by Steve Most, Daniel Simons, Christopher Chabris, and Brian Scholl. They had objects moving randomly on a computer screen. Participants were instructed to attend to the black objects and ignore the white, or vice versa. After several trials, a red cross unexpectedly appeared and traveled across the display, remaining on the computer screen for five seconds. The results of the experiment showed that even though the cross was distinctive from the black and white objects both in color and shape, about a third of participants missed it. They had found that people may be attentionally tuned to certain perceptual dimensions, such as brightness or shape.

The basic Simons study was re-used on British television as a public safety advert designed to point out the potential dangers to cyclists caused by inattentional blindness in motorists. In the advert the gorilla is replaced by a moonwalking bear.

NASA conducted an experiment in a flight simulator in which commercial pilots were tested to see if they would notice distractions on a runway during simulated landings.^[2] Those who were trained pilots did not notice and landed directly on top of the distraction 1/4 of the time, while untrained pilots didn't know what to expect of a typical landing and thus saw the distraction.^[2]

Banner blindness

Banner blindness is a phenomenon in web usability where visitors on a website ignore banner-like information.

The term "banner blindness" was coined by Benway and Lane^[1] as a result of website usability tests where a majority of the test subjects either consciously or unconsciously ignored information that was presented in banners. Subjects were given tasks to search information on a website.

 The information that was overlooked included both external advertisement banners and internal navigational banners, e.g. quick links. The placement of the banners on a web page had little effect on whether or not the subjects noticed them. The result of the study contradicted the popular web design guideline that larger, colourful and animated elements on a website are more likely to be seen by users.

However, in an experiment by Bayles^[2] the results showed that users generally noticed web banners. This was proven by e.g. eye-tracking tests. The experiment concentrated on how users perceived a single web page and what they could recognise and recall of it afterwards. It has been argued that experiments like this without real-world tasks have poor methodology, and produce poor results.^[3]

Pagendarm and Schaumburg^[4] argued that a possible explanation for the banner blindness phenomenon lay in the way users interacted with websites. Users tend to either search for specific information or aimlessly browse from one page to the next. Users have constructed web related cognitive schemata for different tasks on the web. This hypothesis was also suggested by Norman.^[5] When searching for specific information on a website, users focus only on the parts of the page where they would assume the relevant information could be, i.e. small text and hyperlinks. Large colourful or animated banners and other graphics are in this case ignored. Usability tests that compared the perception of banners between groups of subjects searching for specific information and subjects aimlessly browsing seem to support this theory.

It's finally here! Final Cut X

It's finally here!  Final Cut X .

 

Here at Windermere Design, we will be sequestering ourselves over the next few days to discover all the new bells and whistles in order to provide the same caliber of production on Final Cut X as we have delivered with the other versions of Final Cut for the past 10 years, http://www.youtube.com/user/bizimage1 to view some of our video production.  Stay tuned!

Ignite Your Talent

BY BETSY JORDAN OF ACCELERA CONSULTING. A WINDERMERE DESIGN CONSULTING PARTNER.

Greetings!

Successful people (meaning those who are living lives that are full, meaningful and abundant) have one significant trait in common. That trait is not intelligence, empathy or even drive. It is ownership of their lives.

They fully leverage all that they have, all that they are and all that they have been.

It is your responsibility to leverage all that you've got. Take ownership of yourself, your talents and the tasks in front of you. Be the best you can be; do the best you can.

Own your life and your career. That is how you succeed.

Ignite Your Talent How to Own Your Life, Career and Success We don't choose our gifts or talents but we can choose how well we steward them to help ourselves and others. The following are seven tips to own your life and career so that you will have the kind of success that creates value in your life and the lives of others. 1.    Do not let other people define who you are. Your sense of self and source of strength has to come from the inside so you do not experience a foundation shift each time public opinion of you changes. 2.    Do not let other people drain your lifeblood, energy and capacity. Take inventory of the people in your life. Keep those that support, encourage and challenge you and let go of those who suck the living daylights out of you. 3.    Do not let your past define you, but transform you. All of us have had dysfunctions of some kind in our past, whether from childhood hurts, marriage issues or personal failure. Instead of asking "why" these things happen, ask "to what end" so that you can grow from the pain and thus help others better. 4.    Take a hold of your gifts and talents without apology. There is no reason to feel bad if you think faster than others, sing better, or do complicated math problems in your head. Embrace what you bring to the world. 5.    Leverage your talents, passion and personal story into a way of adding dramatic value to others. Find the path between who you are and those who could benefit from your unique gifting. What you have to offer has a place and is needed. Find those who need you with urgency. 6.    Take responsibility for how you contribute to the well-being and self-esteem of others. What you do and say has tremendous impact on others. Be cognizant of this reality when interacting with others. Be purposeful to build others up and avoid tearing them down. 7.    Protect what you have with all that you've got. Who you are and what you have to offer is a treasure. Watch yourself if you want to give your expertise away for less than its worth because you either a) want to be liked or b) do not feel that you can ask for equitable compensation. Protect yourself from those who might want to use you or bring harm to you. Start now to fully embrace all aspects of your life - the good, the bad and the not so pretty.  By owning all that you are you put yourself in the best position to achieve what matters most to you.
Ignite your Spirit "My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment." Oprah Winfrey
visit Bizimage.net

Emotional and Rational Brand Aspects

To begin the process of understanding the emotional and rational aspects of your 

organizational or personal brand.  

1. Do you know what business you are in… and what you are not in?
   
   Yes No Don't know
2. Is your target market well aware of what you have to offer and how you can add value?
   
   Yes No Don't know
3. Does your strategy reflect the unique strengths of your organization?
   
   Yes No Don't know
4. Does your strategy reflect what your organization is collectively passionate about?
   
   Yes No Don't know
5. Do your employees have clarity on what you do, for whom and why?
   
   Yes No Don't know
6. Can employees at all levels articulate how their job fits into the overall organization’s goals?
   
   Yes No Don't know
7. Do you have a set of long-term and short-term goals that are specific, clear and measureable?
   
   Yes No Don't know
8. Is a set of performance measures used to track progress against strategy?
   
   Yes No Don't know
9. When initiatives are proposed, are they determined in light of performance gaps against strategic goals?
   
   Yes No Don't know
10. Are individual performance objectives and measures tied to organizational goals?
    
    Yes No Don't know
     Betsy Jordan- Accelera Consulting,  Schedule appointment today to discuss results.   http://bizimage.net/contact.html

Branding Question?

Here's a simple test. Ask ten people on your staff what your company stands for. If you don't get the same answer, you have a brand problem.

Ask ten customers what your company stands for, if you don't get close to the same answer, you have a brand problem. Visit us at bizimage.net to creating brand power.

Brand Building

By Betsy Jordan of Accelera Consulting. A Windermere Design consulting partner.

The other day I had to buy a gift for my daughter to take to a classmate’s birthday party. I was seeking a gift that would provide the maximum value for my money. But I drove 20 minutes out of my way to go to Target, although there is a Wal-Mart on my way home.

I started to ponder the rationality of my decision. My targeted purchase was a Barbie, which I knew was a dollar more at Target. In addition to the dollar, I spent extra money on gas by going to Target. Plus, the extra 40 minutes I spent in the car was time I could have invested in doing something useful. Despite all this, I felt like I got a good deal and a positive price/value. So why did I go to Target? I went because of their brand.

What is a brand?
A brand is a promise that you make and consistently deliver to your customers. Your brand includes both the tangible and the intangible aspects of who your organization is from the perspective of your customers. It is what causes them to position you in the marketplace. Target and Wal-Mart are both in the volume-discount retail business. However, their target markets, store personalities and customer experiences are quite different. The difference is in their branding, which can clearly be seen in their advertising, store layout and design, product choices, corporate partnership choices, employee apparel and many other significant strategic decisions.

Why is branding yourself essential to long-term success?
If you don’t take charge of your brand, it will be done for you. Your organization will be positioned by your customers, which means that their impressions of you may:

1. Not be what you intended.
2. Not be relevant to them, and thus cause a barrier to their considering your products/services.
3. Be so unfavorable that any future business you want to do will be inhibited.
4. Be so undifferentiated that you will not be able to compete effectively.

For example, Target’s brand is aimed at the yuppie market, which wants good value without sacrificing style. Wal-Mart, on the other hand, goes after middle-class Americans who want low prices and approachability. But what about K-Mart? If asked, most people would have a hard time explaining just who it is K-Mart seeks to serve and how that chain is unique. For this reason, K-Mart wasn’t even on my radar screen when I was seeking to purchase that Barbie. And I am not alone. Data collected on this subject shows that K-Mart lags significantly behind Target and Wal-Mart in terms of market share and revenue.
If you do take charge of your brand, it will yield incredible results over the long term. For example, it is estimated that Coca-Cola’s brand equity is valued at over $67 billion – making Coke the number-one brand in the world. This is amazing, considering that the company doesn’t do much more than sell sugar and water in a can. Another example is the Disney Company, which is fanatical about protecting the value of its brand. And, without even knowing the numbers, it is easy to see the value of a brand when most people consistently ask for a “Kleenex” as opposed to a “tissue.” In the short-term, a well-defined brand makes it easy to deliver a positive customer experience, which means that customers experience what was promised to them or what they expected. And in the long term, it is these brand lovers, customers who are loyal to your brand, who provide the base for brand longevity and exponential results.

What are steps involved with branding?
There are four basic steps to Branding:

1. Market Research and Environmental Scan
2. Completion of the Strategic Brand Profile
3. Translation of the Strategic Brand Profile into Brand Charter Statements
4. Organizational Alignment to Brand Charter

For market research and environmental scan, you need to be able to answer the following questions:
How are we perceived by our consumers?

• What is their awareness of who we are and what we do?
• What business do they think we’re in?
• How would they characterize our corporate personality?
• Is their impression of us favorable or unfavorable? Why?
• Are they motivated to try our products and services? Why or why not?
• If they have tried our products and services, how motivated are they to repeat their usage and recommend our products and services to others?
• If we came up with a new product or service, would they be interested in working with our organization again? Why or why not?

What do we know our about our consumers and the marketplace?

• How would we describe our consumers? (This includes demographics, income level, education, etc.)
• What are the expectations of our consumers? What is important to them?
• How do we see our consumers changing and evolving over the next 10 years?
• What choices do our consumers have that are in competition with our products and services?
• What do we have that appeals to our consumers? What do others have that appeals to our consumers?
• What are the trends in our industry that we need to be aware of? Which trends do we want to lead, be the middle of or lag behind?

Strategic Brand Profile
The table below is a strategic brand profile. When each box is filled out, the emotional and rational aspects of a brand are captured.

Translating the Strategic Brand Profile into a Brand Charter
Once decisions have been made on the Strategy Brand Profile, the concepts can be captured into a brand charter. There are four separate statements that comprise a brand charter:

• Vision Statement: This statement describes the ongoing state that the organization ideally wants to achieve.

• Essence Statement: This statement is written from the perspective of the customer/client and reflects how the organization wants its customers to feel when they are experiencing products/services.

• Positioning Statement: This statement is primarily used by individuals who create advertisement and printed collateral, and focuses on three things:
  • Especially for Brand Lovers
  • Our organization, product/service is the Frame of Reference
  • That Product Difference

• Mission Statement: This statement clearly gives marching orders to the organization on what it needs to do, for whom and to what end, in order to deliver on the Vision Statement.

Organizational Alignment to the Brand Charter
Once the main strategic decisions have been made and articulated in the brand charter, the rest of the organization should be brought into alignment to support the strategy. Again, a brand is a promise that is made and consistently delivered. More often than not, this is where branding efforts fall apart. Promises are made, but they are made inconsistently. And, worse, promises are made but aren’t delivered on.
In terms of aligning external messages that are delivered to customers, review the following to ensure alignment:

• Website
• Products
• Services
• Atmosphere
• Printed materials
• Other customers
• Packaging
• Consumer messages in advertising

Review the following categories in terms of aligning your internal organization to support delivery of brand promises:

• Organizational structure Is work divided up in such a way that it supports strategic intents?
• Leadership Do your leaders understand and embody the brand?
• Processes Do processes support delivery of brand promises?
• Recruiting and Hiring Are the right people sought after and hired?
• Training Are employees trained on how to deliver brand promises?
• Compensation and Rewards Do these systems reinforce behaviors that support brand delivery?

The Bottom Line
During tough economic times, don’t cut your organization’s efforts to build an effective brand. You should never ignore your brand when you are “tightening your belt,” as tempting as it may be. Rather, that is the time to focus your resources on improving the touch-points between your organization and its customers.
You need to do more than make promises; you need to ensure that you deliver on them. You also need to do what it takes to ensure that your brand and strategic intentions are decision-making filters for employees at every level in your organization. Brands are defined by actions, not just words. What your organization does in bull and bear markets must reflect your brand identity in order to ensure long-term success.
Do you need to take greater charge or your brand?  Give us a call at 407.235.8250 for a free consultation.