Equator Live

As part of my ongoing involvement in the Apps for Grandpeople module I headed back up to Dundee for a second session with the level 3 Interaction Design Students. The first stage of the project, involved every student working individually to come up with a solution to an everyday life problem that their grandperson (relative or acquaintance of retirement age) faced. The session involved each student pitching an idea for an app developed from researching and working with their grandperson. Each student was given 3 minutes to pitch their idea to myself and lecturer Kate Saunderson. There was a great variety of apps covering a whole load of different areas and a number of the apps had definite commercial potential.

The afternoon session involved the students splitting up into groups of 4-6 and whittling down their concepts to one idea that they would take forward as a team. The decision making process was not an easy one for any of the groups as they all had some great ideas to choose from. In order to make their decision they had to take into account their personal skills, timescales, complexity and commercial viability in order to create the best possible solution. Some tough decisions were made and in some cases really good ideas had to be dropped in favour of simpler solutions that would produce a better quality final solution. This is an important lesson because when working on a commercial project budget and timescales can lead to better ideas being dropped in favour of more practical solutions. After a lot of very democratic discussions each of the groups selected the idea they would be focussing on until the end of the module.

There are now 5 exciting concepts being developed and I am very much looking forward to seeing the prototypes on my next visit on Tuesday 24th of April 2012.

Posted on March 21st, 2012 in Uncategorized with no comments

After enjoying working with the first year students on the ‘What is interaction design’ module on the Digital Interaction Design course at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design(DJCAD), I was keen to become further involved.

I know from personal experience that the working environment between university and agency is very different and something I could have been better prepared for. I feel it is essential to educate students about the working practices of a design agency before graduation to help them gain employment and make the transition as smooth as possible.

After some discussions with the course lecturers at (DJCAD) I was delighted to take on the role of external lecturer for the module ‘apps for grandpeople’. The module takes place in the final semester of 3rd year before the students final year where they work solely on their degree show project. Apps for grandpeople ask the students to conceive, design and prototype an app for a grandperson. A grandperson could either be a grand parent or another person who is past retirement age and someone that could be actively involved in the project. The idea is to create an app that useful to their chosen grandperson whether it be in an assistive, social or entertaining capacity.

To introduce myself to the students I went along to visit them and give an insight into how I got to where I am today and a breakdown of how Equator operates as a full service digital agency. This presentation can be viewed on slideshare:

Further to this I did a second presentation on the same afternoon based around the concept of branding. The students will need to create a visual identity and branding for their app so I covered the essential elements of a successful brand and threw in some pointers and sources for inspiration. I also took the opportunity to talk to the students about how to brand themselves when they move into the process of applying for jobs, which should really be in less than a years time. It is extremely important for creative students to promote themselves well to employers and this is not something that is currently covered well in University education. From my experiences and having seen some pretty awful CVs from creative students I felt it was time to create something to help. Watch this space as there’s something coming soon.

The second presentation on branding can be found here on slideshare.

Over the course of the next couple months I have a couple of days booked out to continue working with the students and help them produce some really nice apps for their grandpeople.

Posted on March 21st, 2012 in Uncategorized with no comments

I graduated from Interactive Media Design at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in 2009. Since my departure, the course has been renamed Digital Interaction Design (DIxD) to bring it in line with the skills being taught and industry terminology. Last October, I was invited to assist on a first year module alongside another 4 alumni.

The module was called “What is interaction design”; a module created to start students thinking critically by reading blogs, journals and magazines then asking questions and forming opinions.

I was asked to help as part of the student’s second assessment: to form questions around the theme, “What is interaction design” conduct an interview. Afterwards, the teams had to create a short 3-5 minute film using the information/footage/audio from the interview.

(more…)

Posted on March 21st, 2012 in Uncategorized with no comments

Semantic search sounds kinda sexy, don’t you think? Or have Google taken a leaf out of George Orwell’s 1984 – becoming a little like BIG BROTHER? Could they even be imitating the James Bond nemesis Elliot Carver in ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ – is it all about providing tomorrows searches today?

Here’s an example, from a personal perspective: recently my daughter Libby had two birthday parties on the same Saturday. Both of these were on my phone’s calendar. So it knows when I’m free. The phone also has a GPS system, so it knows where I am at all times during the day. Being the typical father (leaving everything to the last minute) I still have to pick up presents for the birthday parties, and also find something for me and Libby to do in between times.

Now, imagine if all this information was available to my search engine, making our relationship more up close and personal. The search engine should now be able to tell me when I am near a shop that stocks suitable gifts for my daughter’s friends! It should also suggest somewhere to have a spot of lunch, as it already knows what food I like, at a time when I am free. A search engine that plans your day… that’s partly Semantic Search… that’s – potentially, at least –Google.

From a business perspective it’ll become even more important for companies to keep their website finely tuned and up to date with Google. This means that businesses themselves will have to be more intuitive and responsive – semantic search will mean businesses having to think harder in  making their digital offerings that little bit more special.

Why? Because with semantic search the, search engines would aim to supply the user with a single defining answer to a query. No, it won’t give a definitive answer to people asking the meaning of life! Although if it could, it would. So the big question, then, is …  “if there’s only one answer to a search request, how do businesses make sure that theirs is the one?”

This is still a very big unknown.  And what effect this will have on businesses remains a mystery. It’s important now more than ever for businesses to make sure their website’s finely tuned with the best keywords for search, and that their metadata, digital advertising and marketing strategies are all perfectly optimised for this potential new development in search. The answer lies in businesses ensuring that the web positioning of their company is answering the question that their product/services solve. And it needs to do this clearly, succinctly and engagingly. Providing that “Voilà” moment for its searchers…

Imagine the possibilities as you sit back in your Google car … and enjoy the ride.

Can I have one please?

Posted on March 19th, 2012 in Uncategorized with no comments

Fashion, by it’s very nature, is about moving forward. By the time we are all coming to terms with the fact winter is here, the fashion editors are already planning what to wear next summer.

Yet, strangely, it’s only been fairly recently that fashion labels and shops have really had an attractive web presence. Only a few years ago the best we could hope for was clunky buttons on clunky e-commerce sites and positively baffling sites allegedly showcasing designers’ work. Not very fitting for a fast paced industry.

Thankfully, we are beginning to see the fashion industry use digital media in a really interesting, creative way. Sites are often now slick and user-friendly or challenging and unusual – overall more reflective of the actual products.

Clearly this isn’t always the case, but it does seem that increasingly the online presence of labels/shops is beginning to be as considered as the offline collateral and, in the case of shops, often the only presence, which means it really needs to be as appropriate and beautifully made as possible. This progress is in keeping with the nature of fashion. Fashion may, ultimately, be about money but it’s also about beauty, inspiration, art, exploration and innovation.

Whilst generally functionality is king when it comes to websites, and most adhere to that mantra, I personally appreciate sites that bend the rules and make the user work a little bit harder to find the goodies. You may not be able to have a tactile experience online, but you can certainly have a visual one.

There are 3 sites which I feel really provide the customer/user a visual experience.

Lookk
This is an ecommerce site to showcase up and coming labels. The design is clean and minimal with a monochromatice palette designed to ensure the creative work within really stands out. The grid has been well utilised with lots of clean, white space and beautifully considered typography.

lookk.com

Anti-Sweden
This is a jeans label from Sweden and this site, for me, is as close to getting the experience of print translated online. The navigation is not at all obvious but encourages the user to click around it and explore the site. After a little while it becomes apparent that anything in a black box is navigation, but there are additional jump off points in there too. The typography makes it feel very much like a magazine and, again, the palette is monochrome, but this time it’s perfectly in keeping with the jeans which only come in black.

Anti Sweden

Comme des Garcon
This is definitely a love it or hate it site. Rei Kawakubo fans will get it instantly and non-fans will find it merely a myriad of random, chaotic images. Interestingly, there are no Comme des Garcon clothes on the site as it serves to showcase the collaborations between the Japanese label and contemporary artists such as Mondongo and The Quay Brothers. Not entirely sure how this site can develop in it’s current form, however Rei is known for innovation so undoudtedly the next instalment of the site will be equally provocative.

Comme des Garcon

Posted on December 21st, 2011 in Uncategorized with no comments

Kuler is a tool by Adobe that gives users access to a huge collection of colour palettes. These palettes have been submitted by amateurs and pros alike, but thanks to the star rating system the better palettes naturally rise to the top. (more…)

Posted on November 2nd, 2011 in Uncategorized with no comments