We had a chat with Amsterdam artist Kakhiel, who is known for augmenting photos with his own doodles and chat bubbles! Here’s what he had to say about Stiktu.

In your opinion, what value can Stiktu add to magazines, newspapers, etc.?

I think it can add real value for magazines, newspapers, etc. as readers directly can give or read feedback and discuss a specific topic, which can be news, an article, a column, a photo etc. It’s what you now also see with Twitter, but the added value with Stiktu in my opinion is that it’s more exciting and creative as you can draw, write, add pictures etc.

This can also be a threshold for people to really start using it. I work in advertising and from experience I know most people like simplicity and uniformity, little effort and they need to see or experience a clear benefit. So what is happening with my post? Who’s going to see it? Why am I doing this? But especially What am I supposed to do exactly? I think you have to give people a little direction, people need a little push, an example so they think: ‘Hey cool, I want that too’ or ‘Hey cool, but I can do better’ so people challenge each other a little bit.

What’s your opinion about following objects instead of people?

I think for an app like Stiktu you have 2 target groups.

1 - People who use it in a serious manner to give their honest opinion about anything and everything (reviews) and they also like to see what other people think. In this case it is really about following the object.

2 - On the other hand you have a group of creative users, who will (to stand out) post as many funny, remarkable things as possible. Basically to entertain others. In this case it is about following people, because you want to see more stuff from someone whom you really think is funny. I think it’s important for this target group to know how many people see or like their stuff. That’s their sense of ‘reward’ and gives some sort of acknowledgement. If they see people like their stuff they will use it more often.

What’s your favorite feature within Stiktu and why?

As Kakhiel I of course spend a lot of time thinking about commentary and text on photo’s, so I think it’s really cool this is now also possible via Stiktu. I also think it’s pretty nice that it’s easy to attach photos to something straight from the library on my phone.

I really think the app is very cool and the power of it will become more apparent when a massive group of people start using it and people are categorized so they really find stuff they are interested in. So for example cartoonists community, poet community, movie lovers community, that’s why categories would be a smart idea, but that’s my opinion.

Try scanning some of these images to see Kakhiel’s art on Stiktu!