After weighing in all of the pros and cons, a finalist has been selected. The PhlooQ team and the web community really gravitated towards the open, approachable look and feel of the widget above. Everyone found the "maybe state" a welcomed addition and also emphasized a strong desire for natural looking hands in lieu digital versions. We're happy with the overall direction.

Next on the agenda, redesigning the website.

Here's a new iteration of our ongoing expression of how the PhlooQ widget would work. 

In a nutshell, here's how it works: The widget is spawned by an event publisher and the user can invite or message members of his or her social graph as well as view users in the area of the event. The user also indicates their attendance at the event and can comment. 

It's time for another PhlooQ update, and this time we're focusing on what makes PhlooQ work. We've got three illustrations that capture, at a high level, what the widget is comprised of, how the user interacts with it and what the widget does in response to the user interaction.

At its core PhlooQ is quite simple (from a user interaction standpoint) but there is complexity which comes in what makes it tick and what it does below the surface.

Two more illustrations after the jump

After about an hour's worth of discovery time, mostly spent hammering David with questions, we've sketched out how PhlooQ is going to function (and how we're going to communicate how it works visually). This is an important first step and one that often times is overlooked in the haste to bring a seemingly endless stream of web 2.0 products to market.

Upon first glance PhlooQ may appear to be a bit uhhh.. complex. It features a mobile phone activation system, Facebook integration, phone call initiation as well as messaging directly from the widget screen and there is proposed future functionality that will extend even farther. Here's the thing though: at the end of the day PhlooQ actually simplifies event participation, network collaboration and communication through its unique approach. Interaction with the PhlooQ widget is seamless and requires little special instruction and that's why we think we're on to something here. It's simple and powerful and has the potential to make a real impact.

We're going to work on a sketch of the PhlooQ service offering and post it here soon, so stay tuned and tell us what you think.

As David mentioned in his post yesterday, our design firm liftagency llc will be working with PhlooQ to do a new user interface and appearance, and we're taking the extra step of sharing the process with anyone who cares to participate. 

A Bit About liftagency 

We like to consider ourselves a different type of design firm and one that has firmly embraced the web 2.0 communication methodology of rapid access to information - even if it's not 100% perfect. We've worked on a number of interface projects and been involved with re-designs of all sizes and scales and we are excited to be working with PhlooQ. Onward and upward. 

Read on to get a peek into our process for PhlooQ

The first step in this, and any, successful design project is to completely understand the scope of the project and to this end we'll be doing a working session with the PhlooQ team in which we hope to build out some sketches of the final product - we'll call this 'step one', and once we've got something visual to share with the team, we'll post it for the world to see. 

Next, we'll develop a series of interaction maps (wireframes) which will represent the components we'll be building out - this step will allow us to finalize the position of each interaction point (buttons, fields etc..) 

The third step has us delivering fully realized graphical compositions which will form the basis for the new PhlooQ, and we're going to be excited to get your reactions. 

Be sure to stop by this blog, and liftagency.com for further details as we document the entire process.