Some people are prejudiced against Facebook. They have a pre-conceived notion that it’s all a waste of time. While it is true that a lot of people might spend excessive amounts of time on it, Facebook can be an effective social networking tool. » Read more: 4 reasons to use Facebook
Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’
4 reasons to use Facebook
April 27th, 2010
5 action items to help you be a project finisher
November 7th, 2009Have you ever started a project and failed to finish it? Many times you think you have great explanations for why you have not completed your projects. The truth is most of these explanations are really excuses. This post is going to discuss some action items you can take to ensure project completion.
» Read more: 5 action items to help you be a project finisher
6 Facebook tasks to reclaim your time
November 6th, 2009Facebook has helped many people get back in touch with old friends and colleagues. It helps us keep up to date on family news. I don’t hate Facebook. I just think some aspects of Facebook has taken over our lives. Not in a good way either. I see people spending way too much time Playing Facebook Apps. They spend way too much time living in their virtual worlds. I think the time is right to reclaim more of our life back. » Read more: 6 Facebook tasks to reclaim your time
Store layout and traffic patterns affect sales
October 6th, 2009Some of you might be saying, well of course Store layout and traffic patterns affect sales. I usually think of store layout in terms of placing items where you want your customer to be. But, I never really thought about how a store layout can affect foot traffic until, I saw it with my own eyes. Of course this was a simulation in a Facebook application called Café World.
Café World allows you to layout your own Café. You place the stove where the cook prepares the food, where the serving tables are and where the customers eat. If you have a good layout, the cook is efficient, the waiters & waitresses can clean and serve efficiently and customers will get seated and served in a timely fashion. If your customers are happy, then they tell other customers about it and more customers come. If the customer walks in, but doesn’t see anywhere to sit, they grow impatient and leave unhappy. If the customer walks in and sits down but isn’t served within a reasonable time, they walk out unhappy.
It’s interesting to note that changing the placement of a door, table, chair or even a serving table can dramatically change traffic patterns either for good or bad.
Another interesting thing, is a layout that works for light traffic doesn’t always work well when it gets really busy. Customers have to wait longer and grow more impatient.
I’m sure the larger restaurants, grocery and department stores do traffic flow studies, but I wonder if they do foot traffic simulations like this to see how traffic changes when fixture placement changes.
Zynga has done it again
October 5th, 2009Zynga the makers of FarmVille, a Facebook Application, have created another addicting Facebook Application called Café World. It kind of sucks you in with a challenge.
The challenge is Time and resource management. Of course you get to have some healthy competition with your Facebook friends as well.
You start off with 3 stoves, 3 serving tables, 2 dining tables and 2 chairs. You also get a decent amount of money to decorate your Café.
Café Dishes take various times to cook and if they aren’t served in a timely manner will spoil on the stove. Which means you have to clean up the mess and start all over again.
If you don’t plan it right you run out of hot food. I’ve already had all the patrons get up and walk out on me because there wasn’t food ready to eat.
There are also challenges of meeting your customers’ needs. If the customers walk in and there aren’t any empty tables,you eventually see a though bubble with a clock in it. Then they leave your Café unhappy.
The Solution is to add more tables and chairs. Well, that’s part of the solution. You still have to manage getting the food to the customers at the right time. If you do, they’re happy and give you a thumbs up. You know how well you’re doing by the Buzz Rating. A Rating that indicates how popular your Café is getting with the community. The higher it goes, the more people come to visit your Café.
The other part of the Solution can be solved with more ovens and serving tables. This ensures you can keep up with the demand for the dishes you cook.
I heard from one of my kids it’s a little like the Sims.
You get to pick your neighbors and visit their Cafés.
Overall it’s pretty fun. Unfortunately, there’s not much interaction between you and your friends in Café World.
Having said that, this game is for individual play. Great, if you want your kids to have a little fun without worrying about them interacting with other people on the internet.
Have you tried it? What do you think? How do you like it?
What games do you play?
October 2nd, 2009Games help people stay mentally sharp by challenging their skills and abilities. They also serve as inexpensive entertainment.
Games come in all kinds of forms
- Board
- Card
- Dice
- Dominoes
- Stones / Gems
- Pegs
- Paper & Pen
- Role Playing
- Video
- Simulations
- Repetition
Some games are designed to be played solo where your goal is to finish the game. These games tend to be based on memory, pattern recognition, logic and persistance. If you finish the game then you win. Other games are designed to be played head to head. These are usually games of chance or strategy or a combination. There are usually points involved and depending on the point system the lowest or the highest score wins. The last kind of games are designed to encourage teamwork, social skills and comradery.
Here are a few of my favorite games:
- Sudoku
- Chess
- Othello
- Pente
- Chicken Foot
- Cashflow 101
- Halo
Reply to this post. What are your favorite games?
Farm Town / FarmVille news
September 19th, 2009Here are some of the latest developments in our favorite Facebook farm applications. I recently wrote a blog on Farm Town or FarmVille. In the blog I mentioned that Farm Town had twice as many required clicks for harvesting. It appears that Harvesting in Farm Town has improved.
Faster harvest option
Improved harvesting User Interface in Farm Town
They have added a Faster harvesting option. In the past you would take 2 clicks for each field you wanted to harvest. You would click to select the field, then you would click to sell or click to store the harvested crop.
Now, after you select a crop to harvest and a method (sell or store) you are presented with this dialog. Asking if you want to use this option for the rest of the session. This is already making the harvesting more fun.
One thing is still missing, you can’t queue up the harvesting. You still have to do it one field at a time. So, when you measure this against FarmVille, they both take approximately the same number of clicks.
FarmVille Hot Air Balloon
Special Weekend Balloon Sale
While we were working one of the FarmVille properties there was a notice that said a Hot Air Balloon was available during the weekend. We jumped right on that opportunity to have a really cool decoration for the farm.
Networking at it’s best
When there are features that have been added or special purchase items in your favorite application, it’s always nice to know that your friends are looking out for you and will let you know that these opportunities exist. I’ve shared these with you, now share this information with your friends.
Happy Farming !!!
