Reversible USB type-C and lightning
This post was discussed on Accidental Tech Podcast #44, with Marco Arment, Casey Liss, and John Siracusa.
A lot has changed since this post was created in Dec 2012, some updates below
The corporation founded by the group of companies that developed the Universal Serial Bus (USB) specification are defining a new standard to rollout to the world, the full specification of which is set to appear in “the middle of 2014”. There has been much talk about the reversible nature of the new plug and many have compared the plans to the already reversible plug being used on the Apple lightning connector.
(more…)Space for silicon
Anyone who works around the Silicon Roundabout is familiar with the noise of building work. It’s happening all around and the amount of old buildings coming down and new ones rising up is accelerating fast. One of the reasons for the surge in new office space in Old Street is the demand created by the Silicon Roundabout buzz of startups and tech companies moving in.
This is great, but one of the main reasons the small businesses and startups are attracted to the area other than the community is the amount of relatively affordable office space. (more…)
Experience of coworking in London
For the past 6 months now we’ve been operating from Shoreditch Works and we’ve never felt more settled, so it felt like a perfect time to share our recent experiences of coworking in London as a small business. Prior to this we were sharing smaller spaces with other companies, all of which made us feel uncomfortable at times as we were never on an equal footing with the hosts, and all suffered from space, privacy and working-peace issues. Still, they served their purposes and we might not be here today if we didn’t take advantage of the opportunities when they arose.
(more…)Rebuilding The Castle Climbing Centre
Last week saw the launch of a new site we’ve designed for The Castle Climbing Centre in Manor House, North London. The Castle is a fantastic warren of climbing walls, caves and turrets all nestled inside a Victorian water tower. This year it has undergone substantial development including new bouldering areas on the upper levels and the addition of two huge outdoor artificial boulders.
The Castle has been awarded for it’s sustainable business practice, and has a multitude of initiatives that aim to minimise the environmental impact of the business and give back to the local community. With it’s own community garden — with outdoor Pizza oven — food is grown for their cafe and herbs are used to make lip balms for sale in the shop. They run lots of events and competitions with great programmes for developing young climbers and introducing non-climbers to the sport.
(more…)Apple TV – our predictions
There has been a lot of talk about what Apple might do in the TV space of late, again. There are rumors of a new device coming to market that will also come with a new SDK allowing developers to produce apps for the device much like iOS.
I think this is not actually the case. Apple have already sold over 10 million Apple TV devices and I cannot see them cannibalising those already in the market, after all these are set-top boxes not phones; I have no intention of updating my Apple TV every year. True an SDK update could apply to all models via a software update, but with the majority of the processor in an Apple TV unit being used already for video and audio processing there is little left over for running a wider selection of applications also. Nor would apple bother releasing a more powerful version leaving the 10m older models to collect dust.
iOS7 brightness controls
Has anyone else noticed how useless the iOS7 brightness controls are?
Now that the control centre panel is the (quick access) home of the brightness control, this panel, activated by an off-screen swipe from the bottom, overlays the content rather then pushing it up like the multitask bar of iOS6. Because of this the content that is overlaid is darkened considerably so that the new white, transparent panel can be seen effectively. In doing so this creates a situation whereby you have no idea what brightness level you are setting as the OS has darkened the screen automatically to show you the controls. (more…)
New portfolio site
It’s been a long time coming. Nearly two years after first launching the new brand and putting up a quick (designed to be temporary) one page portfolio site, today we launch our new portfolio site.
The value of design
Fantastic to see the Design Council & the Arts and Humanities Research Council teaming up to produce a report on the effect good design has on businesses and the wider economy. Being the design council they approached this in a way that uses design in a unique way and utilises the talents of Golden Wolf to bring to life their findings in this animation short. (more…)
An affair with Android
An Apple fan-boy & UX designer’s perspective on switching to Android from iOS.
Designing so many mobile apps at Every Interaction of late, we decided to replace our ageing Android ZTE Blade test handset with something more up-to-date that could run 4.2 Jelly Bean and the new generation of apps we’re designing and need to test. The obvious choice seemed to be the LG-made Google Nexus 4 as it’s impossible to beat on performance for money, and it comes preloaded with the stock version of Android.
What is User Experience Design (UX)?
This is a hot topic and widely discussed online with diverse variety of opinions and so we thought it about time we shared how we explain ‘what is user experience’. Everyone has an idea of what they think User Experience (UX) really is. UX is a buzzword that gets thrown around a lot, everyone claims to be able to do it and every client wants it. So what does it really mean, and how do we go about practicing it successfully? What follows are our own opinions, which I imagine differ amongst other groups.
Firstly it’s important to identify what UX is not. It is not User Interface design, it is not Information Architecture, it is not Content Strategy, it is not Planning or Product Management. These are all practices. Single disciplines around which an individual may decide to specialise their career – mere labels used to pigeon-hole people into focused carriers and salary brackets.
