Hi I'm Ben

I love sports, beautiful designs and all things social.

[benlamdesigns-blog]

Week 10 – Home Stretch

The Olympics continued to roll on in the second and final week of Games.  As Canada continues to perform well (tying the most number of medals in a single games), the content creation and flow from our digital team have been extensive.  As part of our daily recaps, I design and create infographics and graphics for a variety of different areas, including:

• Daily medal tracker, tallying how many and what types of medals were won that day • Medal recap, listing who has won medals in which events • Fun facts, highlighting any records being broken or significant history on the line • Medal moments, highlighting athlete performances when they win • Summary graphics for anticipated medals coming up

At this point, our digital team has become a well-oiled machine, with each individual becoming a specialist within their specific areas.  This has allowed our content turnarounds to be quick and efficient, which have also allowed us to engage on our social and digital platforms much quicker.  We are driving the online conversations at a rapid pace and the results have been tremendous.  Our growth on all social media networks have exceeded our expectations, and our numbers continue to surpass those from Sochi 2014 Olympics, which was previously the most successful Games.  The recognition our digital team continues to receive from management and outside parties have been tremendous, and a big boost in our confidence to know we are doing our part to support our Canadian athletes.  A recap from Facebook Media showed Team Canada was performing in the top 10 for all Olympic social platforms across the board, and was number 3 behind Team USA and Great Britain.  Given the relatively smaller size of our teams compared with USA and Great Britain, these findings drew further praise from our executives.

Even though I am exhausted at this point, I am not ready for this experience to end.  It has truly been an amazing learning experience and a turning point for my career!

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Week 9 – First week of Olympic Games

What a busy, busy, busy week it has been!  The Olympics officially started on Friday with the Opening Ceremonies in Rio.  Not only was the world tuned into their TVs, but also online on their social media.  Our digital team was working hard to continually post pre-created and live content on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as the teams were being announced and entered the stadium.  Specifically, I helped design a majority of the pre-created content but also designed graphics on mini facts as they became live. We were all tuned into our personal social media channels as well to help share posts by Team Canada’s accounts.  The engagement on all channels were extremely strong and we saw a major bump in traffic towards all our channels and website.  We even received recognition from the board members and executives from the COC for the work that our digital team produced!

Needless to say, our team has continued to work around the clock since the Opening Ceremonies.  Whenever there are any potential medal moments, our whole team is all-hands-on-deck, with everyone helping out wherever they can.  Since Team Canada is off to its best start in Canadian Olympic history (by winning medals each of the days so far), our nights have extended late in order to create assets for these moments.  Fortunately, we are able to work from home at nights and weekends as they are fairly flexible.  My role as the “infographics guy” has continued as I have grown more comfortable and efficient with the process.  One of the latest posts containing my infographic about Canadian swimmer Penny Oleksiak went viral after her gold medal victory.  Within 10 mins of posting, it had reached over 20K likes and 5K shares!  Within 24 hours, it had generated: • Facebook: 87K likes, 23K shares, 2K comments • Instagram: 22K likes, 500+ comments • Twitter: 6K likes, 5K RTs

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Week 8 – And it begins

This week, I continued working on my Fun Facts infographic series, which were shared on our social platforms, website and app.  The response has been extremely positive, as our fans and athletes love getting to know interesting facts about Team Canada.  As the lead on the project, I’ve enjoyed getting the creative freedom to produce these assets.  Of course, with the freedom comes the responsibility to ensure that our branding is consistent and appropriately themed for the Olympics.  Overtime, I have slowly transitioned into the “Infographics Guy”, given my design background.  While there are other interns who understand how to use Photoshop and Illustrator, I have more experience within graphic design, and thus have taken on many of the visual projects.

As the Olympics opening ceremony gets underway this Friday, we are officially “all hands on deck”, meaning being on standby 24/7 and jumping in on anything that needs attention.  While this is definitely a high-pressure situation, there is great excitement mixed in with the stress of timely production.  We had a practice run-through during Canada Women’s first soccer match against Australia.  Given that the first goal was scored in a record breaking time of 20 seconds into the game, we needed content to post about the stat.  I created a quick infographic (of course) and we had journalists write a brief story, while providing some history of the stat.  These were then shared on our digital and social channels within minutes of live action.  It was a preview of the workflow required, with multiple conversation threads occurring across our team members and with external sources (e.g. photographers, media) to ensure every detail was covered.  The result was a success – we had the strongest engagement on our website and social channels of the year!  Now the goal is to continue to keep up the momentum throughout the games.

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Week 7 – Getting used to our empty office

This week, a large portion of our digital team departed for Rio, leaving our office quite empty.  As part of the “home” team, our job is to ensure that we provide the real-time content and support for our “missions” team.  This includes everything from screen-grabs to quick Photoshop edits and mockups.  In preparation for this transition, our team implemented an office messenger a few months ago.  Much like Asana, the use of threads and message chains have allowed us to minimize the emails being sent back and forth, and have made real-time communications overseas much simpler and effective.

In terms of my responsibilities, I wrapped up the Snapchat geofilters and have sent them for approval.  We are now starting a “Fun Facts” infographic series to continue to build the momentum for our audience engagement going into the Games.  As part of our team’s objectives, we are aiming to pump out more content on a regular basis in order to build our social media followers.  This has resulted in branching out the topics we would normally cover and coming up with creative and fun “series”.

Other projects this week included designing brochures to be handed out in our Canada Olympics House in Rio and designing infographics for our corporate partners.  These infographics are somewhat challenging since we often have to abide by rigid branding and design guidelines without compromising the needs and wants of our partners.  We try our best to find the best balance possible.

From a UX perspective, we performed more usability testing for the Team Canada app.  The app has officially launched in the Google Play and Apple Store, however, we are continuing to test out all the kinks before we promote it.

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Week 5 – Understanding the exposure of my work

This week, I got a chance to shift my work focus away from the athlete bios on WordPress, and towards more UX and design.  

From a UX perspective, I continued to perform usability testing on the Team Canada app as we get closer to the launch.  Based on our feedback and request for changes, the test app is being rolled out at least once every other day with new updates.  We are getting a variety of different perspectives on the UX, from senior directors to interns, in order to refine the app.  It’s interesting to have discussions about usability.  In one instance, I thought a carousel-like section needed navigational hints (e.g. arrows) so users would know to scroll, but my digital director (who specializes in digital and app navigation) informed me that most mobile app users would likely “explore” around the features of the app, and quickly learn to scroll.  These are the group discussions that give me a better sense of how the majority of today’s users think.

From a design perspective, I’ve been assigned some neat projects, including designing Snapchat geofilters which will be launched in Rio, as well as across major Canadian cities.  So during the Olympic games, certain hotspots will allow users to add our Team Canada filters on their stories!  This is definitely an exciting project for me given the exposure and magnitude of it.  I previously designed geofilters for Team Canada during the Athletic Trials, and it was a cool feeling to see it being used live by users.  I can’t wait to see these live during the games!  Other projects I’m taking on currently include infographics for various Olympic moments, including fun facts, ‘getting to know our athletes, sports, events, etc.

As this is the last week of having our complete digital team in the office before most of them depart to Rio, we held one last in-person meeting in order to go over all the procedures including asset turnarounds and medal moments.  Given the time-sensitivity of our content and knowing that most users will turn to our channels for live-updates, we put in place very extensive procedures and checks to ensure the flow of information is smooth.  This is a great learning experience for myself and the other interns since the stakes are extremely high once we get into the Olympics.  We understand everything needs to be done quickly and correctly.  With that said, the training and preparation provided to us have been wonderful and we are ready for the pressure!

[benlamdesigns-blog]

Week 4 – Getting ready for the ‘storm’

This week, I continued to create infographics for Team Canada social media platforms and perform usability testing on the new Team Canada app.  I also continued to update the athlete bios on the WordPress back-end in preparation for the Rio Olympics.

Also during the week, we held a digital team meeting in order to assign duties to everyone and brainstorm on campaign ideas.  I learned quite a bit as the senior managers were discussing overall Olympic objectives, including goals like social media impressions, followers, growth %, activations, etc.  As someone who works closely with the details of graphic and web design, it was eye-opening to see how all of my work fits into the big picture of our objectives.  

There was also a learning curve in terms of becoming familiar with the industry “lingo” and abbreviations used in day-to-day conversations.  As we continue to hire specialists and expertise from other sports networks (e.g. theScore, TSN), there have been a lot of relationship building in order to become more familiar with each other’s working styles.  This is truly an exciting and busy time as we prepare for a “storm” of work during the games.  In the meantime, I hope to continue to learn as much and as quickly as possible in order to contribute more in the distant future.

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Week 3 – Building team relationships

What did you do this week?

This week, my main focuses were on creating timely infographics for Team Canada social media moments (e.g. when Canada Basketball wins a game, when Milos Raonic advances in Wimbledon), designing athlete name tags for a Canada Day beach party event, and continuing to update athlete bios from the back-end of Wordpress.

The first editions of the Team Canada mobile app have also started rolling out.  I will be given access within the next few days in order to run testing on it.  I also brought up the idea of executing a formal usability testing procedure with internal staff and was told it’s a good idea.  So hopefully that will start next week as well.

What did you learn this week?

This week, I’ve gotten more opportunity to work directly with the senior graphic designer on a variety of little projects.  We even had a brief where he provided some feedback and suggestions on improvement.  Given his extensive background in print design, he has the “pixel-perfect” mentality and provided me with some “old-school” design practices that are critical to any designer’s success.  He taught me that modern designs for digital and web have much looser quality standards than print and as a result, they tend to lack quality.  He provided me with some tips and tricks to create strong designs that can be transferrable between digital and print.

What are your thoughts about what you learned and did this week?

The suggestions and advice I received this week were important to me, given their direct relevance to real world practices.  I requested the graphic designer to continue to provide honest feedback whenever he could because I know that is the only way I will improve as a designer.  I also know that the more I learn now and practice the new skills, the more efficient and effective I’ll be in the future.  This field placement is the perfect place to request feedback and I am taking as much advantage of it as possible.

Let me know how you resolved any issues, e.g, a team member not agreeing with your approach.

As mentioned above, I had the opportunity to have an honest discussion with the graphic designer.  Where he thought he needed to “let me down gently” with his feedback, I told him to be as honest and blunt as possible.  He was a little hesitant with his choice of words at first but became more comfortable with expressing his thoughts after I told him I would not take anything personally.  He understood that I wanted to get better and provided me with great suggestions in the end.

[benlamdesigns-blog]

Week 2 – Assisting with Web Development & Design

What did you do this week?

My focus this week continued to be on creating content for social media and web, mainly designing infographics summarizing Olympic stats, medals, Canadian history, etc.  My manager would provide me with some statistics/numbers on what he’d like to include in the infographic, and I would bring the creative direction on design, layouts, etc.

I also spent a large chunk of my time doing more routine web maintenance tasks, e.g. updating athlete bios to ensure consistent content and structure for all profiles.  As certain parts of our new website were launched during the week, I assisted with testing and recording usability issues regarding the change rollouts.  We expect other change to continue to rollout in the coming weeks.

What did you learn this week?

This week, I am learning more about the back-end maintenance processes for our Wordpress pages.  Specifically, with the new changes being rolled out, we have established specific procedures to follow for each sport, game and athlete.  This makes updating the content more effective and efficient.

What are your thoughts about what you learned and did this week?

I am very happy with the experience I am gaining in regards to web development and infographic design.  An organization like the COC has extremely strict branding and web guidelines when it comes to all digital and social content created.  This rigid structure has forced me to view things from multiple perspectives as I am working through them (e.g. making sure the logo placement adheres to the spacing rules, making sure the same content guidelines are followed with the copy).  This will only help me in the long run when I get a chance to oversee entire projects, since I will have that deeper understanding of the whole picture.

Let me know how you resolved any issues, e.g, a team member not agreeing with your approach.

There were no notable issues this week.  As mentioned last week, our digital team does a tremendous job of communicating our plan before we begin executing.  This way, all the kinks are worked out beforehand.

[benlamdesigns-blog]

Week 1 – Getting accustomed to the COC workflow

What did you do this week?

My focus this week has been on creating content for social media and web, including designing infographics summarizing Olympic stats, medals, Canadian history, etc.

I am also working with the digital specialist on usability testing for a new website coming out within the next month.  This includes finding issues, tracking and following up with them.  In addition, I am working on the back-end of the website and updating athlete bios to ensure consistent content is displayed on all profiles.  

What did you learn this week?

I am learning very the workflow process of the digital team and how quickly they are turning around content.  Specifically within sports, the “breaking news” portion is critical to an organization’s reputation, so we are aiming to create and post content as quickly as possible.

What are your thoughts about what you learned and did this week?

I’m happy with the exposure I am getting on multiple digital areas.  As an intern, I am “open” to anyone that needs help.  As a result, I am gaining skills and experience in multiple areas.  I believe this will be critical in my career going forward.

I have also been told that I may be helping with an app that will be launched within the near future.  This exciting work would include UX input, some UI designs and testing.  This is definitely along the lines of my interest.

Let me know how you resolved any issues, e.g, a team member not agreeing with your approach.

There were no notable issues this week.  The digital team emphasizes open communication lines, so we are able to everything fairly quickly as a team.

[benlamdesigns-blog]

Entrepreneurship in Nicaragua

Being an entrepreneur can be a scary task, especially when you don't have the right resources or guidance to start your business.  That's what many locals in Chinandega, Nicaragua face everyday.  Just like us, they dream of building a successful business, with unlimited revenue potential.  Unfortunately, for many it remains just that - a dream.  

Through Centennial College's Global Citizenship & Equity Learning Experience (GCELE) program and Waves of Hope - a not-for-profit organization dedicated to developing local communities within Nicaragua - I got a chance to work directly with local entrepreneurs and high school students to help turn their business dreams into reality.  For 2 weeks, the GCELE team (comprised of 12 students and 3 faculty) partnered with local translators and community members to build a marketplace to host 6 new businesses.  Needless to say, this experience is one I will never forget.

Here are 3 things I learned about entrepreneurship in Nicaragua:

Profits aren’t the only objective

Sure, we’d all like to make millions of dollars (who wouldn’t?), but it’s clear that most successful organizations have a deeper goal than just profits.  The same holds true for Nicaraguans.  When asked what success for their business looks like, one entrepreneur said, “being able to provide for the community”, while another said, “paving the way for our future children.”  These types of selfless responses spoke volumes about their beliefs and core values - caring, family-oriented and community-first.  After our first few days of assessment, our GCELE team quickly realized that a traditional North American business workshop approach was not the way to go.  We needed to learn about their culture and understand what drives them.  They wanted to make money, but they wanted to do it as a community in a sustainable manner.

Their natural ecosystem is their biggest asset

One of the biggest differences in cultural thinking between North America and Nicaragua is that, in North America, we would rather tear something down completely and rebuild it perfectly from scratch, than to work with what we already have.  In Nicaragua, they are the opposite.  They have adapted to their ecosystems so well that they don’t require much technology to complete day-to-day tasks - they simply use the natural resources available to them.  From laundry to health and fitness maintenance, Nicaraguans have developed a sustainable cycle that preserves the existing ecosystem, while accomplishing their goals.  Why tear down trees to build a barn when you can utilize them and save on resources/costs?  This was one of the biggest learning points I took away from their cultural thinking.

They have their own business culture

This was something we expected going in.  We knew that besides a language barrier, we would need to make adjustments to establish working business relationships with them.  One thing that stood out to me was the trust-building phase.  While the locals were friendly and welcomed us with open arms, there was some initial hesitation with trust, especially regarding confidential business information.  This was not surprising and we did everything we could to remind them we were here to help.  It took a few days of working together before most of the entrepreneurs felt completely comfortable with us.  To them, they needed time to get to know us and our intentions before they could trust us - friendship is part of their business relationship.

This GCELE experience has been an eye-opener to say the least.  As much as we taught the Nicaraguan community about business and professional skills, they in turn taught us about the importance of utilizing our existing ecosystem and a simpler way of life.  In a blink of an eye, two weeks came and went.  However, the relationships we built and memories we exchanged as a community will last forever.  I sincerely hope to be able to join another GCELE experience in the near future.  

[benlamdesigns-blog]

Jumping Into The Real World

To say this is an exciting time would be an understatement.  I finally have the opportunity to take what I have learned from Interactive Media Management and apply it to the “real world”.  Over the last two semesters, I have gotten a chance to develop and hone my skills in UX design, digital strategy, content strategy, interactive narrative, and pretty much every facet within interactive media.  This has allowed me to pursue my interests within UX design and digital strategy, specifically aiming to help organizations design innovative digital and social solutions with their users at the forefront.  I love connecting with people and understanding what makes them tick.  I believe it is this sense of curiosity and empathy that allows me to target a problem from different users’ perspectives, and ultimately, come up with a creative yet practical solution.

Combining my passion for sports, I hope to take this UX-thinking and interactive media knowledge into the world of sports.  In the short-run, I plan on working with the Canadian Olympic Committee and learning as much as I can about their digital strategy, social media, branding and design.  Team Canada has grown in following and popularity significantly over the last 5-10 years, so it’s an exciting time to learn how they continue to drive that momentum.  

As a current digital visual content intern, I have been assigned to multiple one-off projects thus far.  My responsibilities so far have ranged from designing social media content and infographics, to usability testing for new websites and apps.  One of the challenges I will have to overcome is being adaptable and flexible to projects that vary in size, time and budget.  As a creative thinker and a fresh intern, I tend to bring grand ideas to every project I am faced with.  While some of those ideas are great for long-term solutions (e.g. implementing VR or AR within existing media, developing new apps), they are not always the most feasible short-term solutions.  This is something I will continue to learn as I become more familiar with the COC’s workflow and thought processes.  Overall, my field placement experience so far has been great, and I expect it to become even better as I get more involved within the new websites and app development!

[benlamdesigns-blog]

Week 4 Recap

Nike Internship update!  - Conducted 1st round eInterviews last week via Hirevue app - Received an email saying I advanced to the 2nd round - Emailed back-and-forth with Nike recruiter re my application and internship opportunities o She said she was impressed with my campaign! o I’ll be doing a phone interview with her on Monday morning! Ahhhhhh! o Keep your fingers and toes crossed!!! :D

Martin Wong - Communicated via phone re internship experience at Nike vs Canadian Olympics Committee - Advice about questions to ask during interview as well as follow-up questions

John Stackhouse - Communicated via email re internship needs and introductions to other management members at RBC - Provided me with 3 referrals of other individuals I should connect with – added them all on LinkedIn and emailed them

Scott Morris, Sr. Media Manager - Met him at the Newspaper Day event and connected via LinkedIn - He reached out to me via email and we communicated on potential internship opportunities at his agency - Also communicated about the best type of experience to gain within the digital space as an entry professional

Andi Petrillo - Sent follow-up email requesting for coffee – she emailed me in March asking me to follow-up with her in April - She is extremely busy but hopefully she will find some time – would love to learn more about how she got to where she’s at today

[benlamdesigns-blog]

Week 3 Recap

Martin Wong - Communicated via phone and in person re Senior Project feedback - Walked through simulation and conducted usability testing; gathered helpful feedback on wireframes

Met with Scott Nihill, Interactive Designer and Owner of Embreate - Mentorship discussions re senior project feedback - In-depth discussions on project concept, simulation and wireframes - He provided me with great suggestions on improvements since he is currently working on a similar client project for the NBA – he gave me some new tech perspectives that I previously didn’t think about

Attended 2 networking events during the week:

1. AdClub Toronto hosted a Newspaper Day event for all news media companies and invited me to provide a brief speech about my academic scholarship that I received from them. - Got a chance to speak and connect with a number of industry experts, including John Stackhouse, SVP of RBC, who provided me with his contact info because he was so intrigued by what we are learning in IMM!  He even recommended me publicly and told media companies to hire me for an internship!!  After that, I got a chance to network with a number of industry professionals from The Star, Globe and Mail, Metro, 24Hr – absolutely amazing event!! - I exchanged a number of business cards and will be following up with all of them within the next week 2. Centennial College invied Fab Dolan, Head of Marketing for Google Canada for a guest speaker session - Provided insightful discussions on today’s digital marketing and how Google plays a big part in it.  Also gave some great tips on how to stand out from the competition in order to join an organization like Google.

Also, I finally received an email from Nike for an online interview this weekend!!!  It is for a Digital Branding internship in their Europe Headquarters in Netherlands, so fingers crossed!!

[benlamdesigns-blog]

Week 2 Recap

Andi Petrillo - No additional updates

Vijay Setlur - Still no response from him, no additional updates

Derek Kent - Still out of town, no additional updates

Martin Wong - Communicated via phone re COC interview prep and post-interview discussions (how it went, what I could’ve done better, etc)

Met with Canadian Olympics Committee (COC): - Asif Hossain, Digital Content Manager - Eric Boulé, Graphic Designer - Discussed my previous experience and background in design and sports, and how I would fit in with the COC’s digital design needs for the summer - They loved my energy and what I brought to the table and offered me an internship!!!! - I also connected with them on LinkedIn and Twitter - Formalizing paper package within the next week

Got introduced to David Downey, Manager of Development at CBC News + huge hockey fan - Communicated via emails about meeting up for coffee to formally introduce myself and to learn more about potential connections at CBC News - David has a close network of sports professionals, so his introductions will definitely help - Scheduled to meet this Friday

[benlamdesigns-blog]

Mentorship Blog - Week 1 Recap

Followed up and emailed Andi Petrillo:

Received response back from Andi – she is currently busy but will be more free in April; she will reach out to me for coffee then

Followed up and emailed Vijay Setlur:

No response

Spoke on phone with Martin and reviewed:

COC application – feedback on design and messaging

theScore application – feedback on design and messaging

Advice on career direction and experience needed (strong unpaid experience or average paid experience) & which internships to focus on

Emailed and called Derek Kent but out of town until Mar 29:

Left voicemail and email

Contacted HR for Canadian Olympics Committee for design internship:

Spoke with hiring manager over the phone re experiences and skills

Scheduled interview with COC this Thurs!

Reached out to VP and head of HR for theScore to apply for internship and introduce myself:

Positive feedback from her despite design internship opportunity being currently unavailable (At least I know I’m on the right track!):

“Hi Ben, Thanks for your interest in theScore!  Well, your application got my attention, very well done!!  I have sent it off to our design team for review.  Even though we currently do not have any summer design internships available, you never know when another one will be created.  Thanks again for your enthusiastic and entertaining application, it definitely stood out!

Best, Sally -- Sally Farrell |Vice President, Human Resources | theScore”

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Walkthrough of the project assumptions and prototype walk-through.

What I learned from this prototype process is not to request too much info from the users in the beginning (e.g. social media channels, address, interests).  While it’s great for the organization to collect this data, it comes across is “prying” from the user’s perspective, and can be a negative experience.

Another learning point is whether or not this can be an automated process or whether the user needs a coordinator to lead them through the simulation.

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Are You Including Everything You Need in Your Legal Considerations?

The terms and privacy sections of webpages and apps are usually lengthy and overlooked.  But if you stop and read what is included in these sections, you might be surprised and/or shocked about some of the clauses.  I know I was.

These are my key takeaways from reading the following legal considerations:

MilkVR

For content creation, Samsung is extremely thorough in ensuring that the content is original and abide by all their specific terms.  One term that I thought was interesting and subjective was that the content cannot be “in poor taste or is otherwise objectionable”.  There is no further breakdown of what “poor taste” means, which may confuse users.  All the other requirement terms appear to be more objective and straightforward.  

They also provide no guarantees in terms of content distribution, and that they “have the right, but not the obligation, to monitor submissions of Content, and [Samsung] may remove Content for any reason whatsoever without notice to You”.  Not surprisingly, this gives Samsung the free reign to upload or remove your content at any time.  Definitely something I would also include within my senior project legal considerations.

Another thing I found interesting was that as part of user’s continuing obligations to Samsung, “should there be any request for Maintenance from a user or Samsung, [users] shall perform any Maintenance necessary by no later than two (2) business days from the receipt of the request”.  This is a rather short time window for a response for anyone that is out-of-town or unavailable to provide maintenance.  I would have liked to see more detailed descriptions about what happens to the content in the event the user is not able to meet the 2-day deadline.  Will it be removed?  Does this impact the user’s account status?

Vrse, Inc.

The collection of personal information has always been a tricky area and most organizations struggle to find the perfect balance.  In the case of Vrse, their terms for the personal information collection on mobile application comes across as quite aggressive/intrusive.  Here is an excerpt:

“Our mobile application may collect certain additional information automatically, including, but not limited to, the type of mobile device you use, your mobile device's unique device ID, the IP address of your mobile device, your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browsers you use, and information about the way you use the application. We may also use GPS technology (or other similar technology) to determine your current location.”

While there is the option to turn off location services, the rest of the tracking appears to be mandatory.  I would definitely be more cautious in terms of the extent of personal information I would track for my senior project.  The more personal information the user knows is being tracked, the more concerned they are with their privacy.

One section that I thought was extremely well written was “How We Use Information and When We May Share and Disclose Information Generally”.  It categories all the different scenarios (e.g. surveys, contests, questions, service improvement, order fulfillment) in which the information may be used and provides detailed descriptions for each.  This is a great format to reference and is easy for users to follow.

An area that surprised me was in the “Advertising” section, where advertising companies “may place or recognize a unique cookie on your computer or use other technologies such as Web beacons”, and that Vrse’s “Privacy Policy does not cover any use of information that Advertisers may collect from you or that you choose to provide to them”.  I didn’t realize web ads had the capabilities to do that!  Although this isn’t specifically relevant to my senior project, this is something I would be cautious about including in my legal considerations.

Besides the few surprise sections within these legal considerations, MilkVR and Vrse were extremely thorough in covering all the necessary areas.  I would definitely refer back to these when writing for my senior project.