Posts tagged with: "design"

Rails. No, really.

The future of web and mobile design is in Rails, Sinatra, Django, and other RESTful web frameworks that can be used to leverage design power across multiple platforms, making it easier and faster (translate: more economical) to design for web, mobile and desktop.

Our UI/UX team was stationed up in NYC for the Future of Web Design conference last week and we were able to chat with some really awesome folks who had innovative and inspiring ideas about web design.

Last week Homezada officially released their home inventory software, a complete solution to the dispersed files, incomplete records, and scattered maintenance reports that plague homeowners everywhere.

Homezada's formula is "Everything about your home in one place" and they're serious about that; their software allows you to easily document all the possessions in your home, track the value of all of those items, track household improvements (making it easier to remember what you've done to improve your house when you decide to sell it), access an ongoing library of to-do maintenance items, and maintain checklists of seasonal cleaning, yardwork and maintenance projects. The system can remind you when it's time to update air filters, schedule furnace maintenance, and so on.

This article focuses on the correlation of UX and brand equity to quantitative measures that we see in market value.

User experience (UX) is a catch-all term that we use in the software industry to describe the overall feeling that an end-user gets when using a product. The UX is the attitude that is triggered when using (and subsequently thinking about) a company and their products and services. Since your user's attitude affects their future behavior toward your brand or product, a good user experience is vital to product adoption, engagement and loyalty.

Earlier this month we brought our expertise in mobile development and design to MobileUXCamp in DC. As we facilitated discussions throughout the day we were able to interact with motivated, creative mobile enthusiasts. We talked about how mobile design standards have influenced web design; we talked about our UX process, and we even delved into consulting strategies.

Several of our designers and developers spent this past weekend attending sessions on art and technology and talking to people about Intridea's methods at Betascape. The event pulled together artists and technologists from various industries and demonstrated what is happening on the bleeding edge of that intersection - from robotics to personal fabrication to data visualization.

The most popular session among the Intridea contingent was Kyle Fritz's talk, "Computers Suck, The Internet Rules: How to make networked stuff that interacts with the real world." Kyle touched on ways to virtually control your home stereo, locks, lights, and other household objects that can be remotely manipulated with just a simple working knowledge of electronics and a bit of hacking. It was a great example to our designers of how technology can be accessible and useful to them.

UI Kits are commonly found in most designer's toolboxes. We use them to bootstrap visual elements of a product before diving into the harder work. They are not as common with developers though, and in the spirit of this weekend's Betascape event of joining Art *and* Technology, I'm here to advocate for UI kits as a simple bridge between the design world and the development world.

Typically, every project goes through three main phases: Discovery, Design and Development. Although each phase defines a distinct position in the process, they do intermix. Generally, development starts as early as the Discovery phase, design continues to happen throughout all phases, and new requirements from the client pop up long after the Discovery phase is complete. This three-phased process is natural and effective but could be kicked up a notch by integrating a UI kit to the discovery phase.

This weekend we'll be supporting the innovation that happens when artists and technologists collide, through our sponsorship of Betascape 2011.

Last weekend, we sponsored and presented at MobileUXCamp in DC to discuss the ways in which mobile devices are reshaping our interactions with the web. This weekend we'll be in Baltimore, supporting the incredible work that happens when artists and technologists focus their combined talents.

Inspired by their recent trip to the Wolfram Data Summit, Marc Garrett and Jurgen Altziebler share their thoughts on big data and the missing component.

The Wolfram Data Summit is an invitation-only gathering in Washington, DC which brings together the leaders of the world's largest data repositories. Professors, Chief Privacy Officers, Research Scientists, Chief Technology Officers, Data Architects, and Directors from leading organizations like UCSD, the U.S. Census Bureau, Thomson Reuters, Cornell, and Orbitz (among many others) come to present on the challenges and opportunities they face in the data community and to discuss their work.

It’s been nearly a year since the release of the iPhone 4, and much to the dismay of the tech community, it’s still the only product in the Apple lineup with a high pixel density ‘Retina’ display. While the much-hyped feature drew universal praise when the device was unveiled, some were wondering the following:

Designers and developers have a symbiotic relationship. While they may have complementing skill-sets, there are plenty of advantages to reaching across the aisle, so to speak. This two-part series discusses how designers and developers can benefit from becoming more familiar with each others skills and I'll offer some advice on how to get familiar with the "other side." In this first post I'm going to talk about the world of the programmer, and how as a designer, you can start to get comfortable in that world.

Looking for a robust Photoshop template to create & preview Android wallpapers? The search is over! Intridea is happy to provide a pixel-perfect PSD GUI that allows you to preview Android wallpaper images exactly as they'll appear on your device. This wallpaper template is based on the HTC Vision (a.k.a. G2) running stock Android 2.2 (Froyo). The template is setup to preview wallpapers of 960x800 in size.

Create iPad wallpapers with this Photoshop template! Easily preview your wallpaper in vertical & horizontal orientations, upon both the lock screen and homescreen of the device.