Pikki – Launched
Posted in Projects by Ken, January 29th, 2007
First a little word from Jon: Greetings everyone. Pikki is the latest project to come out of the jonkenpon workshop – as you can imagine, what with the release of 8apps a couple of weeks ago, January has been a very busy month! Pikki is a super easy-to-use mobile blog for your phonecam pics. Pikki is really an evolution of some ideas both Ken and I had before we started jonkenpon. It takes Ken’s previous experiments with mobile blogging, mixes it with this concept of themes / challenges (an idea from a previous incarnation of my Sketchplanet project) and wraps everything up in the kind of intuitive and clutter-free user interface that you will hopefully come to expect from jonkenpon. Do check out the screencast and read Ken’s comments on the project below!
Some Comments From Ken
So, what makes Pikki different from other moblogging services? One problem with most moblogging services is that people generally aren’t as motivated to moblog especially if they also maintain a regular blog. Other services also tend to lack focus, or are simply regular blogging services with the option to moblog tacked on. With Pikki we wanted to create a photo sharing / moblogging service that was simple, focused and different. We wanted to create something that was fun, intuitive and easy to use. What follows are some of the features that make Pikki a little bit special 
Try Pikki in 3 easy steps
This feature was intended to give visitors an easy and fun way to try out Pikki without having to sign-up. A visitor simply submits their email, sends in a photo, and waits for it to appear in real time. Then they have the option to sign-up with their first post automatically in their new Pikki.
Pikki Calendar
The Pikki Calendar is not only a quick and easy way to navigate through yours and other users Pikkis, but is also a portable ‘widget’ that you can put on your blog. This was intended to allow users to share their photos with not only other Pikki users but also the readers of their own blogs. Plus it will also help to introduce Pikki to new potential users.
Pikki Challenges
Pikki Challenges are a way to give users motivation and focus in what they submit. Each challenge originally starts out as user submitted idea on the ‘Upcoming Challenges’ page. These challenge theme ideas are then voted on by other users, and at the end of the week, the highest voted theme becomes next weeks Pikki Challenge. This feature not only allows users to share their ideas and photos, but also helps create more varied and interesting content for the site.
Customise your Pikki!
This feature was added simply as a fun, easy way for users to personalise their Pikkis. The colour scheme changes in real time in their ‘Profile’ page as the user selects colours with the colour picker. There is also the option to upload a custom tiling wallpaper for the background. I look forward to seeing how users take advantage of this feature to create their own unique themes.
Have fun everyone!
