Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) won't be breaking in to a sweat quite yet but a new web site, toonlet,
offers non-designer folk the tools to create comic strips in a matter of minutes.
This fun flash site has some interesting features such as creating your own custom cartoon characters
from a large range of exaggerated body parts and the ability to create &
save a character with multiple moods (happy, mad, disgusted...). But the killer
feature is creating comic strips as comments in response to other
persons comic strips.
Is there potential for comic strips to become a valuable addition to the existing user generated content players? Could comic strips be a serious challenger to existing technologies for posting comments or product reviews?
What would express the pitiful customer service I
received from Empire Direct or celebrate the pleasures of my new Panasonic
flatscreen than a short succinct comic strip?
To test this out I set out to see how quickly I could
create two new characters and a four panel comic strip in response to an
article I read on ROI of User Research?
I clocked in at an impressive 1min 47s.
OK, I’m not the next Robert Crumb
but I’ve taken less than two minutes to create my comic strip below.
In response to the article my comic strip
communicates a common frustration faced by user experience consultants. The
post didn’t support comic strips comments but if it had then this would have
been a fun, alternative and effective way to have my say.
Are comic strips the future of UGC? :)
P.S.
Conchango are recruiting! If any of my ramblings interest you and you
are passionate about User Experience the we'd like to hear from you.
Why not contact me and let's have a chat?
Listening to: Comicopera by Robert Wyatt