When Google announced their new visual search website for designer fashion, Boutiques.com, I took a look at the complementary iPad app they also released.  As the Boutiques.com website is positioned as a direct competitor to the site ShopStyle, I thought it only fair to take a look at their iPad app as well.

ShopStyle iPad App Main Screen

Launched in 2006, ShopStyle aggregates fashion from a variety of online retailers, both department stores and boutiques.  The company was acquired by Sugar Inc and became part of the Sugar suite of media sites.  ShopStyle continues to attract users who can browse through clothing from a variety of stores, create their own style lookbooks, and follow the inspiration of others.  ShopStyle widgets promote products on bloggers’ websites and on the Glam network.  The experience is curated discovery mixed with directed browsing.

Browsing through the Clothing Category

The iPad app, which came out this summer, puts the browsing experience into users’ hands.  It’s a sleek interface that quickly takes you into different categories for clothing, footwear, accessories, and more.

Browsing Products on the ShopStyle iPad App

The Product Details Screen

Here are my thoughts on the app:

iPad App Pros

• It’s very easy to quickly narrow in on the type of product you’re looking for.  Categories are straightforward, and there are a variety of refinement options for things like brand, store, price, color, etc.
• It has a clean modern interface that looks nice on the iPad.

iPad App Cons

• It’s not social.  The ShopStyle website has components for creating and exploring lookbooks, following users, and checking out curated trends.  All of that is missing from the app.
• The app interface may be easy to navigate, but once you leave the product details screen for the product page on the retailer’s site, you’re stuck with an experience that isn’t mobile-optimized.

You may also want to check out the previous post on the Boutiques.com iPad app.

This past summer, Google acquired visual search company Like.com, leaving many to wonder whether Google would soon be applying this pattern recognition technology to Google Product Search.  Yesterday we saw the result of that acquisition.  Google launched new site Boutiques.com along with a matching iPad app.

The main screen of the iPad app lets you browse through style collections or "Boutiques."

Like.com began as a comparison shopping website that differentiated itself by focusing on “visual search.”  Unlike other comparison sites, the primary focus was all on apparel, with an emphasis on fashion for women.  Adding aspects of discoverability into the search and browse process, Like users could sort through products by choosing colors and shapes.  Select one blue hobo purse and the results would bring back any other similar blue hobo purses.  As a merchant, I began using Like.com in 2008, but the technology and interface were still rough and the backend reporting was almost non-existent.

Once you've selected a boutique, images of the fashion inspiration are above and relevant products can be browsed through below.

The release of Boutiques.com is a different step for Google.  The site is very un-Googley.  As a fashion and celebrity oriented site limited only to women’s clothing, purses, and accessories, Boutiques places itself as a formidable competitor to ShopStyle.  ShopStyle, a social shopping site that was acquired by Sugar Inc in 2007, has a similar focus and demographic.  Users create trendboards or lookbooks based on their favorite styles and celebrities.  Designer fashions from all the major retailers and smaller boutiques are pulled into the site, and users can group items together and search styles.  ShopStyle launched originally with just women’s fashion in the US, but has since expanded to include Men’s, Kid’s, Home, and other countries.  They also have an iPad app.

Select a product and the details for that item open in an overlay above the main screen. Other products that are "visually similar" are presented below the product details.

I decided to go through the Boutiques.com iPad app to check out the features and functionalities.  The session was recorded with my iPad usability testing camera (first prototype).  The camera is the funny looking thing in front of my face.

After exploring the iPad app a bit, here are my impressions.

iPad App Pros

• The visual search technology seems much improved from the older Like.com days and the interface is more modern and clean than anything Like.com ever had.
• You can refine products displayed by color, fabric pattern, price, and style.  I like the treatment of the popups that allow you to choose your refinements.
• When you select your product type (shoes, tops, etc), a drop-down shows all the possible silhouettes or styles for that type of item.  Just choose V-neck, blouse, tank, etc from the list and all matching products will show up.
• The interface, in general, is clean and modern feeling.

iPad App Cons

• When you tap a product, a product detail opens in an overlay.  After tapping out of the overlay to get back to the main site, the app crashed everytime.
• The app is designed for users to browse via style collections or “boutiques.”  That’s fine if you want to browse through fashion like a magazine, but if you’re actually on the hunt for a specific type of clothing, there’s no way to initially begin narrowing down by product or designer.
• The app wants to make personalized product recommendations based on your style interests and wants you to follow other users and create your own “boutiques.”  I don’t have any interest in logging in to the app and creating a new account, especially if I can’t do it from my existing Google account or through Twitter OAuth.
• From the browse screen, the interface tells you the designer, but you have no idea who is selling it until you pull up the product detail.  Even then, I didn’t notice the merchant listed until after playing with the app for awhile.
• The interface is only horizontal.  I really would have preferred it if the app had been designed to work in either viewing mode.

Interested in how Google’s iPad fashion app compares to the rest of the market?  I’ve also posted a comparison with the ShopStyle iPad app.

The Blur Building and the Next Application of Mobile Computing

In 2002, the centerpiece pavilion of the sixth Swiss National Expo was less an actual building and more a man-made atmospheric presence.  The Blur Building, as designed by American architects Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, was a suspended platform in the middle of Lake Neuchatel in Switzerland.  The metal structure of the building used high-pressure spraying technology to blast little water droplets from the frame, essentially shrouding the pavilion in what looked like a cloud of mist.  The spray, temperature, wind, humidity, and other atmospheric conditions necessary to maintain the cloud of fog were all computer controlled.

As visitors left the clear of the shore and headed out on a walkway to the Blur Building, they donned the second feature of the installation, braincoats.  In addition to guarding against the moisture, these waterproof ponchos also were a form of wearable computing.  While on the shore, visitors to the pavilion were asked to complete a personal preferences questionnaire that was uploaded into an online social networking profile housed in a central Blur Building computer and wirelessly accessible throughout the structure.  As visitors were given their braincoats, their preferences profiles were downloaded into their ponchos.  While people slowly wandered through the fog within the Blur Building, LEDs within the braincoats would begin to glow red or green as they came in close proximity of another person whose personal preference questionnaire was a match to their own.  A sonic pulse within the coats also changed frequencies to indicate shared affinities as they neared other visitors.

Diller and Scofidio, in collaboration with Ben Rubin for the creation of the braincoat, were able to able to create a cultural-technological experience that combined nature with man-made structure, as well as human psyche with smart computers, to both bring people closer together and hide them from each other.  In an interview, Elizabeth Diller said of the smart raincoats with their changing red and green lights, “Ben collaborated on the ‘Braincoat,’ working with us on the desire to invest technology with complex communications skills — some involuntary, such as blushing.”

Smart raincoats may seem like novelty items in 2010, but we already carry with us a foundation for creating and recognizing personal affinity networks.  As more consumers make smartphones and mobile devices essential components of their daily wanderings, a population of geo-networked individuals is emerging.  We are being conditioned to reference our phones for location-specific information, thanks in part to apps like Foursquare and Gowalla, Yelp, and mobile maps.  But what if our phones started referencing us?

We currently have the technology to make accurate guesses about consumers’ preferences in music, movies, books, and more.  Both social networks and personalized product recommendation engines look at individuals’ actions and behaviors, and then use this information to show trends, make preference-based predictions, and to match up individuals with shared tastes or behaviors.  The next evolution of Pandora could be a mobile app that vibrated in your pocket or played an auditory chime whenever the person sitting next to you on the bus shared a similar taste in music.  Conference goers could meet other conference goers if their phones began to glow or vibrate whenever they passed someone who had a similar profile and session schedule.  Plancast users could upload a taste or event preference questionnaire to their profile and begin discovering new events or venues that might interest them via people outside their social network, merely by coming in close proximity to someone with shared interests.

The technology infrastructure isn’t fully ready to support a network of mobile people whose personal computing devices must be always on the prowl for other individuals with similar or compatible preferences.  However, as mobile technology continues to focus on location-specific and transitory actions, we will start to see the rise of affinity-based networks and preference-led encounters.

This is what I’m looking for in augmented reality on the fly:

Applications need to be dead easy for laymen to compile and distribute.

I’m going to say that we’ve reached the point where most internet users with average technological intelligence and sufficient motivation can figure out how to start a blog, set up Tumblr or Posterous, create a Facebook profile, or start using Twitter if they desire. The truly intrepid may take it upon themselves to create resources for other people: organize lists of Twitter users, post reviews on Google or Yelp, or publish content to their social service of choice. Can they quickly create a highly customized iPhone app if they want? Not as easily. Mobile apps or mobile-optimized sites are enticing, but things like coding knowledge and app store approval are still hurdles. The mobile world hasn’t reached the level where anyone with a reason and some free time can easily pull together a new app and send it off to their friends and followers in 30 minutes or less.

I want quick and easy access to different resources, all in one place.

I’m at SXSW right now, and this is my first time in Austin. A lot of people have dedicated some time and energy to compile their knowledge into helpful guides and resources for people like me. I’ve come across a great array of survival guides, party lists, and maps or blogs on Austin top restaurants, vegetarian eating options, and best BBQ spots. These resources are split between posts, maps, and Twitter. If I want to check out restaurant reviews, I can call up Yelp, and if I’m standing around lost, I’m going to turn to Google maps. That’s a lot of information to cull through when I’m on a street corner wondering where to get lunch. I may have moved beyond carrying around a physical guide book and the weight of the printed page, but it would still be nice to have all my resources easily accessible in one place – one singular place within my phone.

Bring different layers of information together in one application, and let it be customizable.

What if the maps of food spots and blogs on top eats could be combined into one resource? When augmented reality and mobile technology mature, I hope they reach the point where users can quickly and easily combine information from different locations to create unique on-the-fly resources. I want an app where the guides and reviews I’ve been seeing can be collected altogether. There’s a map, so the restaurant and party locations are all charted. I can choose a point and get information on that spot from Yelp, or from the bloggers who’ve made their own recommendations. Pictures that people upload to their posts are all there too, if I want to check them out. The app knows where I am (if I want it to), so when I’m standing on a street corner, I’m only a few clicks away from figuring out where the nearest cafe is and getting directions. If the app wants to watch where I’m walking and offer me tips or reviews as I go, that’s fine too. Essentially, I want the information that bloggers and social media mavens put together all easily complied into a layered app on my phone or ipod. I imagine easily being able to flip back and forth between maps, reviews, pictures, and posts – each a different layer in an application that can be compiled by a creator and customized by the user. I never need to switch to a second app because I can see everything I’m looking for within one application. And I imagine the app being incredibly easy for people to put together.

Parts and pieces of this are already available and accessible. But I’m looking for a utility that is dead simple to create, intuitive to use, and easy to quickly make accessible to anyone. Blogs aren’t so hard for most people to create, even when someone is starting out new. When augmented reality tools and resources become as easy to put together as a blog post is to write, I think we’ll have reached an exciting level of mobile information creation.