Why VR is not catching on -One Designer’s Opinion

Lately, if you follow the social media feeds of many of the Tech News sites, there has been a rash of stories about how industry is having a tough go at getting people to adopt to Virtual Reality as a platform.  Articles, like this one from Android Headlines  , refer to VR as a dichotomy of the Tech industry that struggles somewhat in gaining massive levels of adoption. It goes on to suggest that one of the major barriers is that consumers have to “try before they buy” in order to understand VR.

My personal feeling on why VR is not getting the expected adoption goes into a lot more than just the try before you buy argument, and I thought I would take a moment to go into why I believe VR is not catching on.

Firstly, I am not going to fully dispute that “Try Before You Buy” is not a factor, because it totally is. Users need to know that they personally have a use case for a platform and they want to make sure that they can comfortably use said platform before they invest in it.

Investing in it, that right there is the true underlying detail that I believe is actually causing the resistance to VR adoption. If you look at the industry and the trends in computing, you will notice that people are shifting from Desktop and Laptop computers to more Tablets and Smartphones for their day to day computing use.  In fact a Marketingland.com article () dated April 3 2016 states that 65 percent of digital media time is being represented by Mobile platforms.

People are moving away from the desktop platform.

This fact brings us to the cost of adoption, lets use one of the top VR platforms to look at this in more detail, the Oculus Rift.  If a consumer is looking at the full Rift experience they are looking at having to purchase both the Rift and Touch controllers, a cost of $798 USD according to the Oculus Website.  But wait there is also the fact that a user requires a PC with the following specs minimal

• Video Card NVIDIA GTX 960 / AMD Radeon RX 470 or greater
• CPU Intel i3-6100 / AMD FX4350 or greater
• Memory 8GB+ RAM
• Video Output Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
• USB Ports 1x USB 3.0 port, plus 2x USB 2.0 ports
• OS Windows 8 or newer

Researching one of the “Recommended” PC’s, the ASUS G11CD a consumer is looking at an entry price of $2,299 USD according to Intel’s website. This brings a end user’s up front investment to $3,097 USD in order to be VR ready BEFORE TAXES!

“But David”, I hear you saying about now, “I’m hearing lots of good about the idea of using your Smartphone with a VR Headset to get the VR Experience”, and to that I have to say, you’re right, you have, however there are some issues there too.

When getting into VR using Smartphones, the upfront cost of a headset can be minimal, with many Google Cardboard headsets coming in around $12-$30 at entry level, and even the Samsung / Oculus partnership Gear VR headset is a reasonable priced $99 USD.

However, here’s Where additional problems come in.

First, what if you are using a Smartphone that is not compatible with these options? the Gear VR is only going to be of interest to owners of, or those willing to move to the following Compatible Samsung devices. S7, S7 edge, Note5, S6 edge+, S6, S6 edge.

If you are using Android devices that are not on the Samsung list, your luck is a bit better as you do have the option of Google’s Daydream VR headset, but what if you happen to be on iOS and don’t wish to change to an Android device simply to use Virtual Reality?

Well in that case you are pretty much short on luck. You see iOS, since it does not have protocols in it’s operating system to support a “Mouse Pointer” means that you are left with little choices.

One of the best ones I have personally found is the inexpensive Mattel product The ViewMaster (a review on it can be found here ) , which is fully compatible with all apps that support Google’s Cardboard standard, but at the time I write this, there is little information available on if it will work with Google’s Daydream VR platform.

As a Web Designer, I do believe that Virtual Reality has a strong potential to change how end users interact with the World Wide Web, but as the original cast of Saturday Night Live used to be billed, it’s just not ready for Prime Time yet, and In My opinion won’t be until a cross platform, cost friendly option can be agreed upon and deployed.

Of course, this is just My opinion on the topic, Have your say and leave your comments below

Thanks for Reading, Dave - Inertial Zen Designs

Some suggested solutions to the battle of Ads vs Ad Blockers

On Tuesday August 9th 2016, Facebook announced that they have flipped a switch which is designed to get ads displayed even if a user has employed ad blocking technology in their browsers.

In an article by the  New York Times , Facebook representatives was quoted as saying

ad blockers were “certainly bad for the publications who are robbed of half of the value exchange between users and publishers.”

From a publisher standpoint, the issue of lost revenue is a very valid one as the writers who compose for these sites are not to be expected to work for free and there is cost associated with hosting a Website.

The argument that Ad Blocking technology is a bad thing is very much valid, but then again so is the argument as to why users have turned to Ad Blocking software.  Those arguments include, but are not limited to the following items

• Website Advertising slows down a site's load time
• Auto playing Video advertising is annoying 
• Many Advertising platforms have become conduits for Malware 
• Advertising is not relevant to the user even though it's considered "targeted"

So lets take a look at each of these and the possible solutions that could be put in place to address them.

First, Website Advertising slowing down a Site's load time. this is very much an issue. The issue, however is not only the speed of how fast a Site loads, but where it loads from. When a Website loads, it puts out calls to other servers in many cases due to content being hosted on a remote location. Remote location calls means that the Website has to pull information in from multiple sources and thus uses more data to request info and leads to a slow down on delivery.

The answer to this, at least on Websites where the infrastructure is in place so a company host on their own servers is to create a in house Advertising department. Advertising is hosted on the same server as the Website instead of being called on from else where.

In analog terms, think of it like this. Would you read a magazine that goes "Oh, hold on a second, I need to run to the newsstand on 4th avenue for that Ad even though your magazine is physically located on 24th avenue" ?

Next on the list of arguments is that Auto playing Video advertising is annoying. And it is! How many of us have been hit with a blasting full video ad for something not even related to the actual Website we have gone to?  I'd be willing to bet that there is not a one of us who hasn't.  Web Publishers have actually been on the ball in this aspect as many websites have taken to loading the video muted or suspended until clicked on.  

Malware! This is a big one, but actually it can be handled for larger companies with the same solution as Website load time. Hire an in house marketing department which works hand in hand with your in house Social Media and Information Technologies departments to ensure that Advertising being served up to customers is free of potential Malware.

And finally, relevant adverting. Lets face it, We've all been there, We search for product on a retail site or go to a travel site etc looking for information and then for days/weeks/months that little cookie deposited by the Website reports back to the Advertising engine on multiple Websites and our search ends up following us around the Web in a annoyingly pestering manor of "Hey buy Me"

After seeing the same ad on 10 or more Websites a day, the end user gets annoyed and activates their blocking software. Was the ad targeted to the user based on something they were seeking out? yes, but here's the problem

SMART PLATFORM DUMB ADVERTISING

Let that sink in for a second. We are on a platform that is smart enough to know We went to Amazon and searched out, maybe even purchased, a widget. After that though the dumb advertising kicks in. Advertising served up after the search is not complimentary to the original search, instead it is simply "oh hey you searched this once so here's a reminder that it's out there"

Online advertising needs to be overhauled with an algorithm that works along the line of this

Customer A searches Item 1

|

Does Customer A Purchase?

|

YES-----------------------NO

|                                    |

serve up complementary products         serve up ad for searched item

Of course the problem with deploying this algorithm is that it gets affected by the issue of consumer privacy.  So long as the information the advertising is using to target ads is the cookie that says Customer A searched Google for Item 1 advertising platforms can not offer up complementary products to a potential purchase without knowing that said purchase has been made.

In other words Amazon (or any other company) would have to understand that their ads for complementary products could only show on Websites where the user is logged in using their site ID and it would have to be disclosed to the user that their purchase history is being shared with the advertising platform.

So, there you have it readers, from My viewpoint the arms race between ads and ad blocking technology has actual ways to potentially evolve into something welcome for all parties involved, but the key is things need to evolve and that is going to take time for the companies serving ads to build enough trust with end users so that the end user feels safe and ok with the advertising they see.

Use cases for Virtual Reality on the Web

Unless you have been living under a rock the past year or so, you likely have heard of Virtual Reality based projects ranging from Oculus Rift to Sony's Playstation VR to Google's Cardboard offering and Microsoft's holoLens Augmented Reality system.

Most of these offerings have been showcased around Video Gaming, but in the last few Months Google has actually started to present the idea of embedding 360 degree images and videos into websites so that they can be viewed with or without the use of a dedicated headset.

How this is done can be explained through a dedicated white paper on how to embed and deploy this technology, but as a Web Designer I believe the more fascinating aspect of this emerging element of Web Design is how it can be deployed to better Inertial Zen Designs' clients interaction with their consumer base.

Two interesting ideas instantly come to mind, showcasing a company's actual place of business location wise or products being offered in one's place of business.

The first, showcasing one's business location, can be easily compared to a person using a service like Google Earth's Street View to see the inside of a business from a first person point of view. 

 Since the image used is basically a panoramic 360 degree capture of the place of business, it's even possible to brand this image with a company's brand or logo, effectively turning the logo as a center point and a Website's header image in one photo.

Perhaps the more exciting use case for a business is the ability to use VR View as a tool that showcases their in store product. Imagine if your customer was able to see an item in your online store and think 

"Oh I like that, but what would it look at from all angles? If I could see it from all angles I most likely would buy it"

Well, with VR View, that question is no longer one that has to go unanswered, as now they can tap on the image, slide their phone, with VR supported browser technology, into a dedicated VR helmet and they get a fully immersive 360 degree view of the item AND the ability to click one touch screen button to add the item to their online cart for checkout.

Google's VR View protocols are in their their early stages, with most articles having been released around the end of March 2016, but this new addition to the World Wide Web promises to show some very unique potential for the future of presenting information on the Internet.

A preview of how Google's VR View protocols work can be checked out at Google's Blog

How to detect Faux News posts

This morning, as I was going over the Facebook stream with My morning coffee I ran into a friend sharing up the following:


This screen capture shows what should be a fairly believable story about a car crash that was caused by the new game Pokemon Go. A short bit of research quickly returned results that show this article actually comes from a Faux News site called Cartel Press.  As these stories are becoming more and more the normal, thought it was time to actually write a bit of a guide to detecting and verifying the stories that come across our Social Media feeds.

Step 1: GOOGLE THE STORY!

If the topic of a suspected Faux News article is in fact actual news, the chances are Google will have it in their News section, and with multiple sources available. CNN, MSNBC and other news wires should also be reporting on the topic.

 However, since not all sources these days actually verify and vet their articles before sharing them, this is not a 100% one and done solution, which brings us to the next step

Step 2: GOOGLE THE WEBSITE!

In the case of our above link, We know that Cartel Press is the Website which posted up this article, but what do We know about this Website? Again, Google becomes your friend. Here is the Google Results for Cartel Press


The first thing you will notice is that Google lists this site as a “News” source, but that is not actually Google’s fault as this happens more from the back end coding of the Website and how it tells Search Engines to catalog their site. Next look at the “articles” being returned for this site.

The top one is the afore mentioned “Pokemon Go: Major Highway Accident After man Stops in Middle of Highway to Catch Pikachu!” story, following up on that is the article about a Pokemon Go playing Teen being stabbed and mugged for their device and then an article about claiming that login issues with Pokemon Go are the work of ISIS.

But take a look at that 4th listing under News. Specifically the Website and categories listed, It’s the old faithful source of debunking Fake News, snopes and an article that debunks the story about a Teen being stabbed.

It should also be noted that Cartel Press is actually owned by another faux news site, huzlers.com. Huzlers claims in the footer of their own website the following



So, now We have at least one case of this site going with Faux News, but lets not just leave things at this point.

Notice how the original article has a picture of this reported Highway Accident? This brings us to step 3.

Step 3: REVERSE IMAGE SEARCH ANY IMAGES IN THE ARTICLE

One of the best tools (and browser plugins) I have found for this is a site called tineye.com . Tineye allows a user to either upload an image or if they have the plugin in their browser right click and perform a reverse engine search.  As you can see by the image below, when the picture of the crash from the Pokemon Go article is reverse searched, We discover a few things


1. The combo of the Crash photo and the Pokemon Go Logo return 121 Results

2. Sorting by earliest crawl dates (the date the image first is picked up by search engines) We see that the photo of the crash actually dates back to March 2nd 2014. Meaning this image of a crash that “Just happened” is in fact over 2 years old at the time of the publication of the Pokemon Go article

3. It would appear that the first posting of this image actually is credited to the Washington Times a news paper located no less than 383 Miles away from where the story reports the crash having happened

and

4. by clicking through on the Getty images link We discover this



 this crash from 2014 actually happened on Interstate 25 in Denver Colorado with there being one fatality and 20 injuries thankfully.

Step 5: LOOK THE ARTICLE OVER FOR ANYTHING ELSE YOU CAN RESEARCH

The article We have been using for the purpose of this post closes out with a line that reads

“The hashtag #dontpokemongoanddrive has since started trending on social media.”

but has it really been trending? A the time of writing this blog shows 52 instances of it on Twitter and 3 public post instances of it on Facebook, which calls into question the validity of it being a “trending hashtag”


So, there you have it people a short guide on how to Validate and Vet “News” stories online before sharing them up.

Welcoming a NEW Business (and Website) to the World

Inertial Zen Designs would like to take the time to introduce a new business (and Website!) to the Prince George BC area.

FT Reach for the Sky Behaviour Interventions 

FT Reach for the sky Behaviour Interventions was founded in June of 2016 by UNBC Alumni Florence Tsok, BSc.  Psychology with a focus for working with Children who are ranked on the Autism Spectrum Disorder [ASD] to build their practiced generalization of skills  in their natural environment.

Florence brings a strong attention to detail to her professional development of programs designed to assist children with autism. She holds a powerful belief that families should be included in the development of programs and attends conferences whenever possible to better focus the programs that FT Reach for the Sky Behaviour Interventions offers to the public.

Throughout the development of her Website, Florence was very involved with the project and was very professional, making working with her very much a pleasure.

FT Reach for the Sky Behaviour Interventions can be found on the World Wide Web at ftreachforthesky.com , on Facebook at Facebook.com/ftreachforthesky and on twitter at twitter.com/_reachforthesky

Inertial Zen Designs would like to take this time to Thank Florence for choosing Us to design her Website and wish her all the best in the future.

If you would like more information about Inertial Zen Designs, you may find us at inertialzendeisgns.com or www.facebook.com/InertialZenDesigns/

Online payment options for small business

The pending Strike / Lockout (depending on which side you ask) of Canada Post could very well be a signal to small business that it is time to reconsider just how they actually handle invoicing and payment collection for their companies, and the answer is in Technology.

In an article posted on CBC's Website Small business owner Frank Baizik was quoted as saying

“"We send invoices and we receive cheques by mail,"

The fact is, this practice is no longer the only option for businesses like Mr. Baizik’s.

Modern times have brought users to a world where online transactions are easier than ever to set up and deploy through services like Square Payments, Braintree, Interac, Stripe  and Paypal.  Many of these services have their own API protocols so that it they can be integrated into an existing Website with ease and some of the services have very reasonable, if any, fees involved.

the benefits of including payment services, like the ones listed above, include the fact that a small business can actually cut out the postal service all together when it comes to invoicing and collecting payments from customers. In this article, I thought I would take a bit of time to go over some of the options available to merchants.

Interac: interact.ca

In Canada, Interac is a major player in the payment industry. They are associated with all the Major Banks and run the infrastructure on the back end of the Debit Card Market. Through the use of features like Interac’s e-Transfer service, transfers are handled through linked email addresses and once notification of a e-Transfer is acted upon the funds are in the account of the receiver almost instantly. Fees per transaction may apply through the bank processing the transfers.

Stripe stripe.com/ca

Stripe, offers the ability to implement into one’s Website payment options, however this does come with a confirmed fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction. Transfers are not as instant as with Interac’s service as Stripe’s website states that they do transfers on a 7-day rolling basis, and disputes, such as chargebacks, incur a fee of $15 fee unless the dispute is resolved in your favour in which case the fee is fully refunded.

Square squareup.com/ca

Square has been around since May of 2010, and was created by the founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey. Much like Stripe, Square offers the ability to set up payments via ones Website, but offers much more. Square’s services include Payments through both online and point of sale, including the use of the Square reader which turns your iOS or Android mobile device into a payment terminal. Square also allows businesses to invoice clients online and even offers a online mobile marketplace for businesses. Invoices are sent via email and are free to send.

If your client pays via the invoice online there is a 2.75% fee incurred and funds are in your business account in one to two business days. Invoices can be generated directly from the Square app on one’s phone and emailed directly to customers.

Paypal paypal.com
Long associated as the payment method for Ebay purchases, Paypal is one of the older companies in online payment options. For businesses they have 3 tiers of payment processing options ranging from $0 /month to $35/month and a 2.9% + $0.30/transaction fee. Much like Square, they do offer the ability to produce invoices from one’s account that can be emailed to clients.

Braintree braintreepayments.com

Braintree Payments, is a subsidiary of Paypal, and much like Square and Stripe can be integrated into an existing website or app to allow for payments directly from customers. Pricing for Braintree states that the Merchant gets fee-free processing up to their first $50 thousand dollars in transactions and then there is a 2.9% + $0.30 fee / transaction

Braintree states that they work with all payment formats, including Credit/Debit cards, Apple Pay, Android Pay and Venmo payments.

Overall there are many options for handling the payments for a small business that do not rely on Canada Posts services. I hope this gives you a few options to consider that in the long term may well speed up and streamline the process of accepting payments.

Standards, when does a Designer stick to them or ignore them?

Pop quiz, You go to McDonald's and order up a Big Mac, what do you expect to find in the box alongside your fries and drink? I'm guessing you answer was something along the lines of the old Ad jingle

"Two all beef patties, special sauce, Lettus, cheese, pickles, onions on a seseme seed bun"

This has come to be expected because McDonald's has a standard of what the Big Mac is, and the end consumer has come to expect that standard when they order.

Web Designers, like McDonald's with their Big Mac, also have standards We are supposed to use when preparing Our products for the Customers. Those Standards are known as programming languages and is why, no matter the Website, using the code 

<img src="file.ext" alt="description" hight="pixels" width="pixels"> 

will result in your brower displaying a specific image exactly how it was told to display it on any device.

Any device and Standards is where the comparison to McDonald's much beloved hamburger starts to fall apart in Web Design though. You see, Web Design does indeed have a organization that is tasked to overseeing Web Standards.  That organization is the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C for short.

The W3C oversees standards for Web Design, in all forms from Websites to the Web of Devices ( which is commonly being referred to as the Internet of things, or IoT), and they do their job well except for one problem. 

Thanks to the efforts of companies like Google and Microsoft's Bing, coupled with the ever progressing changes to Mobile Computing, the Standards are not progressing at the same speed as technology does.

This, actually creates a very unique problem for Designers as on the one hand, practices of Good Design should dictate that Our final products are meeting the code requirements of these W3C overseen standards while at the same time result in lower rankings on search engines or even incompabable display of content on different browers.

In other words think of dealing with Web Standards and evolving technology like this

Imagine you have walked into McDonald's, ordered that Big Mac, got to your table and upon opening the box found a Whopper.

Customers,Tips on How to secure the services of a Web Designer

We Web Designers get it, your project is important to you as are the reasons behind your desired project, but there are times when we Web Designers have to decline projects.

Earlier today, Inertial Zen Designs received an email from a potential client, nothing unusual for a Design Company to get. Only this email was but one line of text

Hello,how are you doing today?

No signature, nothing else. Well of course, to ensure that this is an actual potential client, and in the name of what's best for business, a polite response was sent with some probing questions.  Those questions included the following:

What type of Website are you looking to have designed?

How many pages are you needing this Website to be comprised of?

When is your desired Go Live date?

And 

would you be so kind as to let Me know how you discovered Inertial Zen Designs

Of course signed with 

Regards,

David Peters, Owner Inertial Zen Designs

the result of these probing questions was an INSTANT response which a 8 point list of what the person was wanting. That list, to sum up was a request to clone another Website's layout, placing it on a desired domain (which I might state was discovered to be already registered by a third party as the person sending this email stated that they did not already have a domain), in a less than 60 day time frame and expecting all of this for a budget of less than $10,000.

Now, readers, you may have noticed a unique request in My probing questions listed above, that being asking the emailer if they would be so kind as to let Me know how they came to discover Inertial Zen Designs.  This is what is known as a Turing Test, and was added to see if this potential client was actually reading the email, a failing that was proven when the "client" asked that I get back in touch with him with 3 pieces of information including

And will like to know if you are the owner ??

The fact is We Web Designers love to hear from New Clients. Part of what makes our jobs exciting is the ability to work with people and bring their ideas to life. Web Design, however, is a very complex career. We have values and standards, and can be very selective in the projects We take on, and like any Professional We expect to be treated with respect for the skill set that we have. 

Website projects, especially ones with multiple Webpages to them, can run into the hundreds of thousands, in fact the Municipal Government of the City My offices are based out of just awarded a $130,000 CAD contract to a firm for a Redesign of the City's Website.

Web Design Companies are more than happy to help you envision your project and take it from your Mind to screens that can reach potential customers find Your products and services, but for that to happen there needs to be a team effort, and that means Respect being given from both sides.

Please, for the benefit of securing your future Web Designer have the following handy when you contact us:

1. Contact Information

    We Designers love to know who we are going to be working with.

2. Summary of desired project

    Details help us envision your project.

3. Make sure that the domain you desire is available 

   Logos, Headers, Content and Search Engine Optimization all end up being tied and referencing your domain name in many ways. if your domain name is not available it can back up a project causing additional costs and the missing of your Go Live date.

4. Have your content and media ready for Us.

  Without content and media, your customers have NOTHING to read, also much like having your domain name secured, it limits the delays and saves your budget having these details ready

5.Evaluate your Budget and Time Frame / Go Live Date

 Web Design projects, like the one mentioned above, are usually billed by the hour with most Designers charging between $45 to $60 an hour minimum. 

This means that project can take around 2,167 to 2,889 man hours (around 54 to 72 weeks) For a project in the $10,000 range, you can expect a Website to take around 167 to 223 man hours (or 4 to 5 weeks ) to be designed

Keeping all this in mind up front will give you, the client, better chances of securing a Web Designer while allowing We, the Designers, the best chances of bringing your vision to life.

INERTIALZENDESIGNS.COM IS DOWN, WORKING ON FIX

Oh, the headaches of owning a small business. Sometime yesterday, there appears to have been an issue with the Website for Inertial Zen Designs.

Here's what I know, Domain Registering Company GoDaddy is indeed having issues, and it appears that instead of pointing to where the site should be, it is pointing somewhere else. What this means is that if customers go to the Website they will find it DOWN.

At this point, I do not have a timeline for when things will be back up and running, but am looking into things and hopefully will be back online soon. Thank you all for your patience in this matter, and rest assured, even though the Domain is not currently resolving, the Website can still be accessed through the temporary address of

http://izd.bugs3.com/index.html

International rulings and social media

Social Media, since the early days of services like Myspace and Yahoo 360, through to the modern sites like Facebook, Linked in and Google Plus have all worked using a basic common theory.

The site works better with more contacts 


To make this concept work a simple premise was put into action. Users were able to upload their contact lists to servers for a cross check of their friends. If your friend was already on the service a button is offered to let you request a friendship, however if they were not, then you could invite them to join.

A decision in Germany ( Article ) has now put this very concept at risk as a Judge has upheld two prior decisions that found Facebook's Friend Finder feature illegal on the grounds that sending a invite to join is unsolicited electronic communications (or as it is more commonly known as, Spam).

Now, at first though, one might be wondering just why a ruling in Germany is of any concern to a user of Social Media in Canada. This is a honest and fair question to be wondering, the answer, however is going to most likely surprise you as it comes down to one law currently in place in Canada

C.A.S.L.

CASL (info ) stands for the Canadian Anti Spam Law, which came into service in July of 2014, and actually holds people accountable with fines for reported unsolicited electronic communications. the fines are tired so that if the average consumer or privately owned business is reported to the CRTC and can not prove implied or express consent has been given up to $1,000,000.00 is issued. If the communication is from a Corporation the amount goes up to potentially $10,000,000.00 per violation.

As the ever evolving nature of the Internet continues to change, so to will laws like CASL, and decisions like the one made in Germany are going to be looked at as road maps into how these type of services are handled in relation to the future of User Privacy on a Global scale.