I did some concepts for an agency website a few months ago, which I’ve just dug up and thought I’d share.

Shelves

To make the site more personal, each member of staff would have a shelf with a range of objects specific to their interests and work.  So, for instance, if someone was an avid fossil collector there would be a few scattered on there, perhaps with a link to wikipedia about that particular type of fossil, or maybe some info about where and how they found it.  Each person would also have a few of the agency’s projects on their shelf, ones they’d done a lot of work on, or that they particularly liked.

Camera-pan

Same Speech

Here, projects could be presented next to three members of staff who worked on them.  They would all keep to a very similar dialogue, but from each area’s perspective. So you could be listening the the creative person talk about how the navigtion of the site worked and then switch over to technical, and they would carry on the dialogue but from a build point of view.

Staffroom

Quite similar to the shelf idea, but with a bit of a different look. It would be built as a 3D environment, which you could explore and meet all the people who work at the agency with their stuff.  It would all be white with 3D shading until the objects are clicked on, at which point they are seen in full colour to indicate the agency coming to life.

I also did a few concepts for the stationery:

We Met At …

The idea was to make a bit of a joke about not remembering who people are, even though they gave you their business card at some event.

Light Reactive

The card would be made of light reactive material - so you would purposely spread your business cards about on your desk, so when you handed them over to new people you’d also be handing over a faint copy of what you’d been working on recently.  The cards might be left with shadows from pens, or the edges of sheets from your layout pad.

Museums and galleries make an increasing use of interactive exhibits to engage their audience, and allow them to take part.  With children specifically in mind (although it could be tailored to adults) I thought it might be interesting to connect the museums’ physical presence with their virtual presence, as a way of promoting their centre and engaging their audience during and after the visit.

I feel museums could get the experience of their exhibits through to prospective visitors much more effectively by communicating between online and offline entities.  Encouraging previous visitors to go to the website to relive their experience at the museum would increase chances of a return visit, and given the tools they would promote it to their friends via social networks.

The best way to explain what I’m thinking is probably a list of how this could work:

-  Puzzles within the museum could be played live against people on the website, with a webcam also streaming a video of the player in the gallery.

-  Children on the website could control parts of the galleries, e.g. pumping bubbles in to the foyer or changing the music, and then see and hear their work via a webcam.

-  In the museum children could adjust the design of the website, perhaps via a ‘lightbox’ they could arrange and place objects on - which would go up as the background image to the website when they pushed a button.

-  Recorded reactions from the exhibits - video cameras could record childrens’ reactions.  So if there was a surprising element to an exhibition, the camera would record the reactions when it got to that part.

-  Sound levels could be recorded throughout the museum could measure the levels of excitement throughout the exhibitions and be mapped out live online (and on screens throughout the museum), showing which parts of the museum are the most lively at that particular time.

-  Photo stations throughout the galleries would allow kids to upload shots of their day to their Facebook or Bebo profiles - and would also automatically go on to the museum’s profiles and website.

The museum could make real use of the online/offline interactions by creating projects the pupils could begin during their visit and continue online when they’re back at school.  A possible execution of this could be for the pupils to be given electronic cards which they would punch in or swipe at each exhibit and their reactions would then be recorded or documented.  Back at school they could map out their reactions as data and illustrate or explain what the exhibit did.  They would then upload this to the museum’s website and map out their day.  The data would then be collated to create an interactive map view of the museum and its exhibits that visitors to the website could view.

As well as providing marketing and promotion tools to the museum, the results would deliver invaluable information as to which types exhibits are most popular and how well the museum is working.

Earlier this week I briefly considered becoming vegan, without going in to all that, I looked around the internet to see what food options I’d have left.  I was quite surprised how little information there was in terms of buying food from major supermarkets.

My idea is for a website that pulls in information from the online supermarkets to create tailored shopping baskets for specific diets.  So if you were allergic to gluten, for instance, you could easily create your order without having to go through all of the ingredients each time you’re considering a product.

My Supermarket is a supermarket price comparison website that pulls in and compares products from all the major supermarkets to find you the best price.  This could work in a similar way so you could see which supermarket can offer you the best choice, and allow you to fill your shopping basket on the site itself.

All major online supermarkets have a list of ingredients and allergy advice  with each product, thereby it should make it possible to eliminate certain unsuitable products.

Potentially products could also be sorted according to place of origin, for those concerned about food miles.  Obviously this may be a little more difficult as this would vary with seasonal groceries, but I think it would be a very useful tool, and may mean people are willing to spend a little more for environmental reasons.

Sorry to bring it up, but with the current economic climate I’ve been thinking of how banks can present themselves to customers as the market picks back up.

Managing Your Credit Card

-  The ability to set payment goals for different types of purchases.  You might choose to pay off clothing and food purchases at the end of the month, whereas you may give yourself 6 months to pay off a holiday.  Obviously these purchases would essentially be on the same card, but your statement would separate the payments so you can keep better track of your debts.

-  Categorised payments on credit cards, e.g. clothes, eating out, groceries, so you can see where spending can be cut.

-  The ability to set budgets for these categories, and track when going over-budget.  It could alert you when you’re nearing a specific budget - “No more clothes this month!”

-  Suggestions for how to make most of remaining budget - so if you had £20 left in your groceries budget and 2 weeks left till payday, it might suggest a £20 Asda shopping list that could provide 2 weeks worth of meals.

-  Case studies of other people and what their budgets / spending profiles are.

Vouchers / Saving money

-  Internet browser add-on - if you were on the Boots website the toolbar icon would flash to indicate vouchers/coupons are available

-  If you created a budget online and it indicated you spent a lot on eating out it might offer you 2-4-1 meal vouchers rather than just suggesting you cut-back.

-  A feature that shows on a map which shops charge more or less for certain items.  There used to be a kids’ TV show which each week would have a product that viewers would win prizes for finding the highest or lowest price for.  So if it was Hula Hoops someone might ring in with a price of 94p at a petrol station, and someone else might ring in with a price of 29p at their corner shop.

-  It could also incorporate current vouchers available on the map.

Tips

-  Pledges - e.g. pledge to take sandwiches in to work.  Other people could join your pledge and everyone’s progress could be tracked.

-  People could suggest money saving tips, and others would be given the ability to digg them.  Digged tips would appear on your facebook app (or rss feed, or whatever)

-  Suggestions to have one free day / evening out a week.  Or suggestions based around current time of year - e.g. free family days out just before the easter holidays.

Credit Rating

-  The good side of credit cards - how to use them to improve your credit rating and effectively manage your money.

-  Introductory credit cards for people with low credit ratings - very small limit (£100?) that helps them to rebuild their credit rating.

-  Case studies of different people and their credit ratings - and how they can improve them.