On Tap

For this Crowdtap Team Member Highlight, we’re introducing you to our Lead UX Designer, Marc S!  Marc’s job is to create a great user experience for Tappers new and old, and you will be seeing much more of his design work as we begin to release the exciting new features we’ve been working on!

Marc was born in Washington D.C. and has lived in many different places including Malawi (where Marc’s father was was serving as a diplomat), Iowa, Alabama, and Ohio before moving to New York.   Marc’s love for web design carries through to his hobbies, and he likes to spend his weekends meeting with friends to come up with ideas for new websites and designing/building the ideas they like the most.

Check out our interview with Marc below:

How did you first hear about Crowdtap and start working here?

I first heard about Crowdtap when one of their recruiters contacted me about the role. It sounded interesting so I followed up with a phone call. After getting a better picture of Crowdtap as a whole I decided it was a really interesting business–one that I wanted to be a part of.

What is your favorite memory from working at Crowdtap so far?

Product team game night! Every once and a while the Crowdtap product team will get together at one of our apartments and play board games, eat food and listen to music. Always lots of fun.

How did you first decide you wanted to go into UX design?

Actually, I never consciously made the decision to go into UX design, I sort of just fell into it along the way. I studied New Media Interactive Development at the Rochester Institute of Technology, which gave me a foundation of skills for UX design, but it wasn’t until I had been working in the field for a few years that I started to gravitate towards UX design specifically. Now that I’ve been doing it for a few years I love it and haven’t looked back.

If you weren’t a designer, what would you want to be?

Not sure, so I’ll just go with Marine Biologist.

Do you have any cool side projects you’re working on?

Yes!  Right now we’re working on a site called Glossi.  It’s an app for the web that lets you connect your social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, etc.) and create a beautiful, magazine-style layout of all your content. We’re still in private beta right now but Crowdtap members can use this special invite code to try it out–or just browse our other members’ profiles.

What is your favorite place in New York?

Prospect Park in Brooklyn is really nice, less overwhelming than Central Park. I also love the East Village and surrounding areas–so many good places to eat!

What is the best thing about working at Crowdtap?

The amazing team. We work really hard together but we have a lot of fun at the same time, couldn’t ask for more : )

We’ve been nominated for The 5th Annual Mashable Awards for Best Up and Coming Social Media Service!  Winning this award will help to bring recognition to Crowdtap in the online community and ultimately bring more brands to Crowdtap looking for your feedback and influence.  We need your help to make it happen; let’s go for the gold!

Here’s how to vote:

• Click here to go to the Mashable Awards’ voting page (you can log in through Facebook or Twitter)
• Type Crowdtap into the “I nominate” box
• Select “Up and Coming Social Media Service” from the category list and click Nominate.

You are allowed to vote for Crowdtap multiple times, but only once per day so be sure to come back often!  Let’s make Crowdtap a 2011 Mashable Award winner!

It’s October, and time for some very spooky Halloween poll results!  We launched quick hits asking you about your Halloween habits for creating costumes, your costume budgets, and (most importantly) your favorite candy brands!  See how your Halloween costume and candy picks compare to the rest of the Crowdtap community.

Check out the results below:

How do you usually put together your/your child’s Halloween costume?

Tappers are evenly split between the top two results of purchasing a premade costume from a Halloween store and buying individual pieces to create a custom costume.  Convenience and Price/Creativity are neck in neck!

How much do you usually spend on your/your child’s Halloween costume?

Most Tappers keep their costume budget modest, but a good percentage go all out by spending $45-$75 on the perfect Halloween night look.

Which major candy brand is your favorite?

Hershey’s reigns as the king of Halloween with a whopping 50% of the votes for favorite candy brand.  Halloween classics like Snickers, Milky Way, and Twix from Mars also make a very strong showing with votes at 36%.

We’ve had some great discussions this month on topics like Fall TV shows,  Labor Day activities, and even Super Powers.  Congratulations to all of our Tappers who have received stars for their excellent feedback this month!  Here are some of the top starred responses we have received from the Fall TV, Labor Day, and Super Powers discussions:

Which TV shows are you looking forward to watching this fall?

What TV show do you wish was still on the air?

What are your plans for Labor Day weekend?

Are you going to be shopping at any sales on Labor Day weekend?

If you could have one super power, what would it be?

What would you do with your super power to benefit society?

These posts are great examples of the kind of responses that will earn you stars and help you gain status as a top tapper. Awesome job everyone!

We have highlighted some of the top Tappers of the community in the past, and this time we’re introducing you to one of our team members, Arjun A!

Arjun is a Senior Software Engineer (aka Rails Ninja) here at Crowdtap HQ in New York, and is part of our team of developers who build all our new site features and keep the system running smoothly.  Arjun is originally from Bangalore, India, and married his lovely wife Shweta in Bangalore this past July.  When he’s not at Crowdtap, Arjun enjoys tennis, sports, eating, swimming, rock climbing, and gaming.

How did you first hear about Crowdtap and start working here?

Crowdtap had not launched when I came on board here so there was no public knowledge of Crowdtap nor was there something to look at for reference. I still joined here because the CTO and CEO shared with me their vision of Crowdtap and I was completely taken into it, and I am so glad I did.

What is your favorite memory from working at Crowdtap so far?

I’d have to say the launch party at SXSW 2011. It was awesome of the company to have every employee be there. The part I remember the most is when the team went canoeing on the river around Austin and then a couple of other team members hitched a ride on our canoes in the middle of our ride. It was funny because the way we were getting them on board, we were almost sure that our canoes would capsize.

What is your favorite programming language to code in?

Definitely Ruby. I also enjoy Javascript.

What is your favorite place in New York?

Tough one, but if I were to pick one spot, it would have to be Gantry Park in Long Island City. It’s got a great boardwalk, awesome views of NY and great seats to relax on.

If you weren’t a developer, what would you want to be?

I would have liked to be a marine biologist or a deep sea diver.

What is the best thing about working at Crowdtap?

Definitely the team! I go to an awesome office and just hang out with really smart people and I get to do some coding while I’m there. Whether it be eating lunch together, playing ruby games with the entire company, enjoying some downtime with a competitive game of foosball or writing awesome code that impacts many people, you cant go wrong by working at a place filled with people you’d be happy to consider friends.

From time to time we like to crowdsource a few of our quick hits to our members, so recently we picked some quick hits suggested by you and launched them!  You’ve come up with some great poll ideas on a wide range of topics that have garnered some great insights.  Here are your questions and answers about topics ranging from technology to sports to the current coupon craze.  Enjoy!

What do you use Twitter for?

Many Tappers haven’t gotten on the Twitter train yet, but for those who have, following favorite brands, celebrities, and keeping in touch with friends are the top reasons to tweet.

What is your favorite professional sport?

Tappers who picked the majority favorite, football, have a lot to look forward to over the next few months with the NFL season starting next week.

Are you friends with your mom or dad on Facebook?

This poll was targeted to teens and young adults ages 13-25, and shows that the majority of young members do like to include their parents in their social media experiences.

Have you joined the coupon craze?  Which of the following sounds like you?

The coupon craze seems to have hit quite a few Crowdtappers, and with shows like TLC’s Extreme Couponing, finding great deals has become a popular pastime as well as a way to stay within your budget.

Keep on tappin to see more polls created by our members!

This Crowdtap Member Highlight is shining the spotlight on Hanna E, one of the top young members in the Crowdtap community!  Her insightful posts and active participation have made her stand out as a top member both in the teen groups and on Crowdtap as a whole.

Hanna is a level 7 Platinum member, and has been on Crowdtap for seven months.   She is sixteen, and  lives in Ohio with her parents and her 6 month old little brother.  One of Hanna’s major interests is photography, and she is considering it as a career option for later in life.

Check out our interview with Hanna below:

What is your charity, and why did you choose that one?

My charity on Crowdtap right now is TWLOHA or To Wrote Love On Her Arms. I am an animal rights activist and a vegetarian but this charity is close to my heart because of past personal experiences with myself and with friends/family. I have supported TWLOHA for years through other websites as well.

How much cash have you earned on Crowdtap so far?

So far, my lifetime earnings on Crowdtap is $156.10. I never expected to earn cash at all when I signed up, so I am overjoyed with the amount that I have earned to date.

What has been your favorite action on Crowdtap so far?

I have loved the monthly Crowdtap community discussions ever since I began participating in them, but my favorite action available to me so far has to be the Adidas women’s gear! I just received my products and I am more than happy with them. I was sent five different articles of clothing, all at no charge to me at all.

What drew you to Crowdtap as a teenager?

What drew me to Crowdtap was actually an incentive to earn points on another website. Once I joined though, the charity aspect is what really kept my interest. I love to support charities in any way that I possibly can, plus I can earn money for myself AND sample new products! Who could turn down an opportunity like that?

You have given consistently excellent feedback in all your actions (especially for someone at such a young age), do you have any tips for other young members who want to give good feedback?

Thank you so much! I don’t personally believe that age is a measure of intelligence, but to anybody who is looking to give good feedback – Don’t ever blindly go into a discussion. If you don’t know about the topic being questioned, research it and be sure to answer all parts of the question in detail (include any pictures or ideas you may have) when you feel that you have enough knowledge on the topic.

What is your favorite thing about Crowdtap?

My favorite thing about Crowdtap is having the opportunity to voice my opinions and getting feedback from other members of the Crowdtap community through comments. When I receive a star it’s a great reminder that you guys are listening, that my opinions and ideas are getting out there.

Hanna E in her new Adidas workout gear!