Code, Design, Designing Lean

Material Design for MVP

I’ve recently been building two prototype user interfaces, one for a mobile app the other a web-based dashboard. The mobile app prototype was built using a combination of Sketch and Apple’s Keynote presentation software. The dashboard had higher fidelity—a functional HTML/CSS/Javascript prototype interfacing with a light-weight JSON API.

I used this as an opportunity firstly to wrap my head around some of the design patterns for iOS 11, but also for trialling Google’s Material Design guidelines for this purpose.

There’s a lot to like about Material Design, especially for startups looking to develop a Minimum Viable Product. Continue reading →

Someone using a mobile phone to take a photo Image: janitors @ Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/janitors/14368191486
Design, Presentations

Mobile diaries

This is a cross-posting of a post originally published on the IDX Backstage Blog.

It was prepared as a “leave behind” resource for participants at the 2014 Design for Social Innovation conference who attended the speed teaching session I hosted on mobile diaries.

In the spirit of Legible Practice I wanted to document in a bit more detail some of the aspects of what was discussed in those sessions. I hope this is a useful resource for participants and those who weren’t able to attend but are interested in the method. I’d be delighted to hear any feedback you might have…

Header image: janitors @ Flickr

Continue reading →

Business 2.0, Design

Connecting

One of the benefits of having an extended train ride these days is the opportunity to catch up on some good videos that I wouldn’t usually get the chance to watch. The other day I had the chance to watch this one from Basset & Partners that:

…is an exploration of the future of Interaction Design and User Experience from some of the industry’s thought leaders. As the role of software is catapulting forward, Interaction Design is seen to be not only increasing in importance dramatically, but also expected to play a leading role in shaping the coming “Internet of things.” Ultimately, when the digital and physical worlds become one, humans along with technology are potentially on the path to becoming a “super organism” capable of influencing and enabling a broad spectrum of new behaviors in the world.

Connecting (Full Film) from Bassett & Partners on Vimeo.

While that blurb is perhaps a little hyperbolic, a lot of the themes presented in the video are very apparent in my work and reading of trends etc. Well worth a watch if you have a few spare minutes on the bus or train…

Business 2.0, Social media & networking

Layar – augmented reality

Fast Company points to this Engadget post on Layar – a new “augmented reality” application for mobile devices running Google’s Android operating system.

There seems to be a lot happening in this space of late, one of the more impressive demos being MIT’s “Sixth Sense” concept, which was presented at TED earlier in the year. Enkin is another Android-based concept that I came across late last year.

In relation to Layar, Fast Company notes:

And that’s interesting because augmented reality devices on a smartphone are particularly well suited for businesses that need to attract customers to their locations. Imagine a future when instead of picking up a restaurant guide for a city you’re visiting you simply dial up your fave AR app, and filter through its results. Restaurants that don’t have a Web presence in one or many different formats, will simply not get a look-in.

I agree – it won’t be long before small businesses, used to more traditional methods of advertising (Yellow Pages, local papers etc.) will have to also start engaging with social media and networking tools to support such applications. (I would argue they can use these tools for other purposes too.)

But there are other things to consider with such “location aware” services and applications, as (somewhat humourously) highlighted by Mathew Honan in his article for Wired I Am Here: One Man’s Experiment With the Location-Aware Lifestyle.

In recent workshops I’ve been highlighting the impact of the iPhone (~20% market share but 80% internet usage) and Android on the importance of mobile device support and considering how the rapidly evolving location-aware service space will impact not only traditional web applications, but also social media and networking services.

Given how fast this space seems to be moving, perhaps we’ll need to focus on them sooner than I thought…

(My colleague Jax Wechsler has been following the whole augmented reality meme on her blog – worth checking out if you’re interested in this space. Also worth mentioning for readers in Sydney is Mobile Monday, a monthly event focused on the mobile internet industry.)

P.S. sorry for the silence here of late – with the recent beta launch of the Australian ReachOut.com site and a workshop series for VicRoads I’ve been rather stretched…