Mind's Eye Interactive

Since the emergence of the world-wide Internet, managers have been interested in the possibilities of this new medium for effectively teaching new skills to their employees without having to rely on human trainers. William Horton’s Designing Web-Based Training, published in 2000 at the very beginning of the trend, helped define the practice and a system of guidelines and standards to go along with it. Today, the internet’s capability for training and testing is used not only by employers, but also by educational facilities.Web-based training (WBT) is most effective when it can lead a user through a complex, non-physical procedure. For example, while most people probably wouldn’t want brain surgeons practicing on a virtual patient (or at least not for very long), it’s very easy for WBT to walk a user through a new type of software, or a complex mathematical process. While it may seem like WBT simply mimics reading through a handbook or guide, the electronic component allows trainers to include animations and other visual examples that would fall flat in 2Dpun intended. The fact that the material can be accessed online rather than via CD-ROM can also help save money on production, although it can still be expensive to create a very complex WBT platform. (more…)

For companies that want a professional and attractive website, but don’t have the resources to devote to it, contracting to a web site design company is a popular solution. Many companies are specialists in one aspect of web site creation, whether its site design, marketing, graphic design, or branding. Pixel Productions Inc. is an example of a company that’s a recognized leader in all four areas.Pixel Productions brings their experience from a number of offline endeavors, including packaging design for food and wine products, board games, and branding campaigns for companies from Caregiver Services to Me Spa. Online, these skills translate into a web site that not only follows best practices and industry standards guidelines, but also conveys the spirit and personality of your company. As part of their branding service, they may even offer suggestions on how to make your company’s personality morepersonable. (more…)

The internet is unrivalled in its potential to reach a large amount of consumers at a minimum cost. This makes it highly attractive to companies looking to stay current with changing customer trends and preferences while also marketing their own product. Understandably, a large web marketing industry has grown up, in which companies contract to other developers to create exciting new material.These developers have some new tools at their disposal when it comes to reaching users. One of these is geo-marketing, in which internet advertisements are tailored to the specific location of the user. This can be as broad as the user’s country to as specific as the county. This type of web-marketing lends itself well to another new development in web-marketing: social media. Foursquare, the social network which tracks its users movements and awards badges and titles based on location, has deals with a number of large companies already, and that number will only grow. Bravo offered special badges and sweepstakes to users who went to locations featured in their shows, while Tasti D-Lite offered extra points on their TreatCards to users who connected to their Foursquare accounts. (more…)

How do you define “interactive television”? Even more difficult, how do you do so in such a way that separates theoretical or upcoming technology like t-commerce (being able to instantly buy a product being advertised) from more obvious and traditional forms of interaction, like changing channels or lowering the volume? This is the question facing many companies today as they try to bring television watching into the 21^st century?One way in which providers are defining interactivity is by degree, from high to low. In the highest level of interactivity, viewers can actually affect the events onscreen. One example is the 2006-2007 Finnish television show Accidental Lovers, in which viewers sent text messages which determined the emotions of the main characters. Obviously, interactive television can include other mediums of communication, like a phone. This type of interactivity dates back to even the early 1990s, when the Danish show Hugo premiereda television video game which viewers controlled by phone. (more…)