Unexpected... and thus authentic

Avoiding the cliché

I was flicking through my review copy (thanks Joe! - I'll review as soon as I possibly can) of Pine & Gilmore's "Authenticity", and I got to thinking about authentic places.

I've written now and again about why I prefer Dominica to other Caribbean islands I have visited - Antigua and Martinique, for example. A lot of my love for the place comes from its unspoiled character, from the pioneering feeling you get from being one of very few tourists, and from it's non-sanitised atmosphere. (Yes, it can pong a bit.)

Another reason that strikes me is that Dominica is not like you expect. We all have a vision of "Caribbean" in our heads, comprised in varying measures of beaches, cricket, rum, Bob Marley and Jack Sparrow. When you arrive there for the first time, you find Dominica looks very little like that. "Hey," you think, "this isn't like the catalogues - it must be the real thing!"

This Heineken ad (a very popular beer in Dominica, though I prefer the local Kubuli) hits the nail on the head.

Avoid the cliché, if you want to be authentic.

Fishermen picture by the author. Ooo!

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You're only supposed to blow the bl**dy doors off!

Sir Michael Caine on experience design

I'm reading the autobiography of one of my favourite actors, and it turns out he is also a restaurant owner with some snappy ideas on experience design. From the conceptual:

"A restaurant should be like a show where you are the star when you come in, and the audience when you sit down."

To the practical:

"You should never be able to see a lightbulb."

You get your money's worth with Sir Michael.

PS There's a prize for the first reader to recognise the quote that titles this post. My money is on Andy Nulman. At the very least, he should like the picture. ;)

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Thanks for the flowers

List of Truly Useful Things

Jessica Hupp at VirtualHosting has put together a a list of links to the Top 100 User-Centered Blogs. It's a useful list, and it's great to see Work•Play•Experience in there alongside big hitters like Adaptive Path or chart-topper Signal vs. Noise.

Thanks Jessica!

Flower pic by BaronessNordmark at flickr

Where to from here?

Finding your way around this page

Packed full of showbiz tips and tricks to blow your customers away, this blog is getting chunkier by the month. So here are a few pointers to find your way around it...

The main window only shows the last few posts, so if you want more nourishing goodness, check out the side bars at the right.

Towards the top you will see a box called "Top 5: the most popular posts". These are the five posts which you, the readers, have clicked on most often. If you believe in crowd power, there must be good stuff here.

Further down is the mighty, mighty "Search posts by theme". Click on a keyword and you will be transported - hey presto! - to a screen showing all the posts tagged with that word. Here, for example, is the very popular tag page for "presentation technique".

Look out, further down, for clips from the latest posts on a bunch of other blogs I recommend...

And way down below you'll find a complete listing of almost all the posts on the blog, just for your home or office browsing enjoyment.

Have fun! And now click here to return to the main window...

Cheers!

Adam

Dublin signposts pic by infomatique at flickr

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