As a lover of interaction and a heavy Mac user LEEP is perhaps one of the most interesting devices and could in time replace the mouse and keyboard (in time but not today). Its apparently 200 times more accurate at monitoring finger movement than anything on the market at the moment. Watch the video and see for yourself.
Microsoft to embrace ARM
Microsoft essentially has two operating systems the NT derived OS such as Windows 7 and an ARM compatable mobile OS based on CE such as Windows Phone 7. It is logical then for Microsoft to licence the ARM architecture although possible not to defend the existing desktop environment, more to possible look at the development of devices with a form factor that will sit between the Desktop and Mobile device. Read More →
HTML5 and CSS3
Is the advent of HTML5 and CSS3 going to make an impact on the quality of the web? I believe so which is most of the new projects we are doing focus on using this new technology coupled with the fact it works on the iPad.
This overly dramatic but equally as funny vide from the people at http://pragprog.com/ is worth watching.
DADAPP
Today sees the launch of DADAPP an application to organise, index and share files with any one or no one. The team I work with worked on the Photo element of this application and We/I have some ideas to develop other applications on top.
Watch this video of the DAD staff.
Go to the website www.dadapp.com and download a demo.
Customer Focus
This week we meet with a Andy and Simon from CWL systems, on the outside they seem a very focused IT consulting and implementation shop, what completely changed my view of this was the single slide displayed on a screen in their office:
- Customers are not dependent on us – We are dependent on them.
- They are not an interruption of our work – they are the purpose of it.
- They are doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity.
- Customers are our passports to success – without them we cannot get there.
I was impressed when I saw this much more than I was by the list of “me 2” awards on the wall, having spent the last few weeks looking at what I think will shape the IT industry in the future, I see customer relationship being the a key factor in sucssess. It is pleasing to see companies with this already in place.
Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us
Professor Michel Wesch sub 5 minutes presentation shows a complex subject concept in an entertaining way.
Just watch
Google Wave
I have just been watching this and think that Goggle may have just unveiled the future of collaboration software. Although in its infancy and with concerns around security and other elements this should make dispersed team communication much easier and may spell the end of share-point as a corporate tool in it current form. (I can see Microsoft moving in this direction as well).
Understanding Personas 1
In both software development and response marketing the understanding of persona’s is fundamental to successfully achieving the goals of the project.
Personas are fictitious characters created to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic that might use a site or product. Personas are useful in considering the goals, desires, and limitations of the users in order to help to guide decisions about a product, such as features, interactions, and visual design. Personas are most often used as part of a user-centered design process for designing software and are also considered a part of interaction design (IxD), however they are also used in industrial design too. Wikipedia
So what is involved a Persona:
Web 2.0
“Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.” Tim O’Reilly
Web 1.0 was the imitation of print media online and other than perhaps a basic search and possibly a facility to order there was no real ability for the user to interact with the site or other humans. This is still sadly in many cases still the norm, have a look at some of the successfully sites on the web right now.
It was the growth of the Web 1.0 site and ecommerce that gave birth to user experience and page analytics, the creators and innovators in these fields that changed business understanding of the potential and potential to build some form of meaningful customer interaction.