I’m Like A iMedia Witch Hunter

We have been super busy with school, second semester is all that you would imagine it to be and more…but for some reason this week has opened me up to a ton of new resources for tutorials, articles, job sources and more. I keep finding myself checking my news feed just to see the latest postings and then play with the tutorials I find. I have been in touch with my former boss 5x more this week just because of all the cool things I am finding:

• Codrops – This website is packed with so many different things, from articles about web layout and design, to tutorials and source code on creating Javascript, CSS, Jquery features and more! I cannot get enough of playing with the tutorials and thinking of way to incorporate them into projects. It is a great resource for finding a little “something something” when you need a little extra “umph” to your website.
• Visual.ly  – This is a website that I have known about, but never taken the time to look into. Visually is an online source that helps users create visual data. There are several templates that you can link to your Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin accounts but they are constantly posting what other users are creating. If anything, it serves as a great inspiration tool to see what other designers are making including motion graphics, infographics and more! You can really get lost in searching through everyones creativity. 
• Happy Cog – I heard about Happy Cog because they are going to be at a conference I am attending later this semester. Not only are they a great company, but follow them on Twitter and you will find so many cool things about the industry. Just today I found a font for “blocks” to use as filler text and my mind was blown! I couldn’t believe how I was just finding about about something that seemed like a simple concept.
• Authentic Jobs – For anyone in the industry who is looking for a job, you definitely need to start here! Now only is the website a great source, but my Twitter feed is full of possible jobs daily..and not just simple little jobs..we are talking about great opportunities with great companies.
• Smashing Magazine – Smashing Magazine is another one of those companies that has been out for awhile but I never bothered to look into in detail. I am obsessed with reading their blogs and finding out the latest information in the industry. I already have so many articles and PDFs saved to read for the weekend. It keeps me on top of what I need to know when it comes to the latest trends and upcoming information.
• Awwwards & Awwwards Jobs – These are two of the best sources for both website information an jobs in the industry. Awwwards is constantly showing the newest and coolest websites with their “Website of the day”…they are also full of blogs, articles, information and more…like jobs! The jobs section isn’t as impressive as Authentic Jobs…but it is still something to take note of and look at if you need a job.

If I have learned anything during iMedia it is that we are constantly having to learn and be on top of our game as designers, programmer  developers and whatever area of the industry we work in. Following companies on Twitter is the best way I have found to keep up with all of these sources. I find myself wanting to research jobs, read articles and practice tutorials more than my actual homework…which could prove to be a problem if I am not careful!

Happy Birthday Text Messaging!!!

Did you know that the text message turns 20 years old today? It’s true! Maybe I should have texted that to you to make my point. 20 years ago, that takes us back to 1992! When you think about it, texting has become a way of life. I don’t call people, I text. My mom use to have to yell at me to stop texting at the dinner table…now we cannot get through a meal without her bringing her phone. Communicating via text is now a daily task.

The first text message was sent by Neil Papworth to Richard Jarvis, it read “Merry

Nokia 9000 Communicator

Christmas”.  In 1992, mobile phones did not have keyboards so Papworth had to type the message on his PC then send the text. Eventually Nokia phones picked up on the trend and by 1997 they became the first manufacturer to produce a mobile phone with a full keyboard: the Nokia 9000i Communicator.  With this simple advance in technology, the way we communicate has transformed greatly. ‘The average American user sent 0.4 texts per month in 1995. Gradually, phones and networks adapted to better accommodate SMS. In 1999, texts could finally be exchanged between different networks, which increased its usefulness. By 2000, the average number of text messages sent in the U.S. increased to 35 a month per person.’ Today, the numbers are off the chart. By 2007, also happened to mark the first year that Americans sent and received more text messages per month than phone calls.

Today, the art of text messaging has expanded from sending simple messages to friends to allowing us to receive updates, alerts, keep track of our finances, send email and much much more. There is even a national speed texting competition where the winners win scholarship money for school.

Technology and Holiday Shopping

I finally arrived back in North Carolina last night. After not having any Internet for four days, of course one of the first things I did was boot up my computer and get online. I have made it my personal mission to get all of my holiday shopping done before I go home in three weeks for Christmas break! Sounds almost impossible I know. I never go shopping on Black Friday…I usually split my purchases between online, and in-store finds! But once I had Internet, and caught up on my daily dose of nerdy reads…I was surprised to see how much of a part technology is playing today in the Black Friday extravaganza.

I came across an article on CNN Tech talking about how stores are “re-vamping” their mobile applications in order to appeal to customers during the holiday season, especially on Black Friday. Stores such as Target and Wal-Mart offer maps of your local store to show the shopper where the items they are looking for are located, short cuts, and what some of the best deals in the store are. The article failed to mention though how many shoppers are actually using these applications. Personally, if I was out on Black Friday, about to be trampled my hundreds of crazy shoppers hyped up on a turkey fueled dinner, my first thought would not be, “Hey! Let me pull out my phone and see where I need to go!” I imagine though that shoppers are using this application, before they even enter the store, in order to “strategize” their purchases.

Of course, today, Black Friday cannot be mentioned without the conversation of Cyber Monday following soon after. It seems like this year, everyone forgot what day Thanksgiving was on, and that Cyber Monday is technically the Monday after the holiday, because almost every online store I came across was pushing holiday specials, sales, free shipping…whatever it is..before our Thanksgiving turkey was even in the oven! It’s almost like the feeling you get when your neighbors start putting up Christmas decorations before Halloween..like, “Hey can we just slow down here a second! I’m not ready for this yet.” But I guess when it comes to the holidays, and everyones shopping lists, the sooner it is done, the better! I imagine this is why mobile apps are being re-vamped for the holidays, and Christmas specials have started before Thanksgiving is even over with.

It will be interesting to see what the ‘numbers’ from this week say. Did all of this new technology, and the rush to get specials to the consumers early really pay off? Or are people put off by it and want a break? I doubt the later is the case. I may have been out in the middle of no where during my Thanksgiving Break, but from the pictures I have seen, and the articles I have read in just the last few hours…the customers is taking to this holiday technology bate just how little kids go sled ridding…very fast…and without any control!….Let’s just hope there isn’t any crazy crash at the bottom.

Hope You’re Good At K.I.S.S.-ing

One of the phrases used pretty often in the computer world, is K.I.S.S….translation…Keep It Simple Stupid! When it comes to designing a user interface..or almost anything for that matter…these four simple words are usually thrown out the window, along with even the best designers common knowledge. It is safe to say that when it comes to technology in general, Apple is way ahead of the game. Not only are their products clean with sleek lines and a unique look, but their interfaces across all platforms are easy to use, understand and give the user what they need right away without any chaos and confusion.

I think the Edward Tufte Video: iPhone Interace Design said it best when he said, “Clutter and overload are not attributes in design..they are failures of design. If the information is in chaos, don’t start throwing out more information…instead fix the design.” The user interfaces Apple produces with their products, are simple, to the point, sophisticated and classic. Unlike some interfaces where you are constantly needing to search for the most simple thing, the iPhone interface places all of your applications on a simple slider, making it easy for the user to slide back and forth to find what application they are looking for. The user can also organize their applications into folders such as ‘social media’, ‘games’, ‘school’ etc. that way there are not pages upon pages of applications on the users phone, they would only need to find a folder, then the application within each folder.

With the increase in mobile application development, there are several applications out there today that are simply, bad. However, with the applications developed by Apple, the user can see a simple theme and continuity between the information presented and the manner in which it is displayed. During the video, when a simple weather application was shown along side a more robust and information heavy application, I was immediately turned off by the busy application because there was too much information being shown at once and I did not know where to look. By displaying the most important information first, such as temperature and weather conditions, the user is receiving the information they want as quickly as possible, with the option to view additional information such as maps if they would like.

Sometimes, during the development phase, designers under estimate the user. We think, because someone is not tech savy, they will never be able to understand how an application works, or how understand a certain interface. Because of this theory, designers usually throw everything they have at someone thinking, that by doing this, the user will not have to search for anything. However, we are quickly learning that it is just the opposite. Speaking from a personal view, I rarely have to help my parents understand their iPhone or iPad…but I can usually expect a weekly call about the WiFi going out or they don’t understand how something works on their PC. When you throw a ton of information at the user all at once, they become overwhelmed and do not understand where to look, what information to process first, or where to go next. The designers who can understand and master this skill quickly will be the ones to succeed down the road as mobile technologies, or technologies in general, keep evolving and becoming more popular. By keeping interfaces clean and simple, every user can understand it and be more confident when using the device.

I Don’t Usually Watch Presidential Debates..But When I Do I Watch On YouTube

I am not into politics at all.  The last election I kept track of what was going on, got into the occasional debate with classmates about which candidate was better and watched the votes roll in on election night. This year I can barely tell you each candidates policy, or even random facts about them..essentially I just do not care this year.

For the first time ever, YouTube had the debate live streaming on the website through ABC News.  I knew the debate was tonight but also knew I had to work on readings and other side projects….(and now this blog post). I turned on the YouTube stream just to listen to it in the background of my work, but soon I found myself glued to the screen listening and watching what would happen next.  ABC used a mix of facts, past quotes by Romney and Obama and live Twitter feeds to show what others were saying about the debate.

During the debate I had to sign off of Twitter because my friends were posting comments about the debate every two seconds! But with the live online stream, ABC would at times show Tweets by others watching the debate.  It was entertaining to see what others were saying about Romney’s big bird comments or how tired Obama looked or how the moderator was having trouble controlling the situation.  These Tweets would only be fed on top of the debate stream every few minutes.  Because of this it did not become annoying and was actually entertaining to see.  By incorporating social media into the Presidential Debates, the feed was able to establish a younger crowd and engage the viewer in more than one simple way.

I also found the random facts about the topics being debated as well as the corresponding quotes from each candidate helpful.  I do not remember seeing this in past elections.  This was helpful because, as someone who is not following the election closely, I was able to follow along and understand what each candidate represented and meant with current and previous statements. It was also interesting to watch the “Who Is Watching” ticker and see how many people were watching the live stream with you.

I can now probably tell you a little bit more about each candidates policies and where they stand on certain issues. I will probably be able to keep up in conversations tomorrow about how Obama said this or Romney did that. By incorporating different types of media into the Presidential Debate, the media and candidate campaigns are able to draw in a younger audience and keep them engaged in the debates.  By doing this hopefully this will also encourage young people to go to the polls and vote on election day.

Things I Have Learned In My Life…So Far

It’s safe to say this week has been a tricky one. Not really with school, but more personal life. So I decided to use this as therapy..try it out..see what happens. Don’t worry I’m not going to bore you with personal drama or rat out anyone. When working on an assignment this week, I came across a video of artists who put together a project called, “Things I Have Learned In My Life..So Far”. Although the artist in the video was much older than me it got me thinking, what have I learned in my life so far? What little nuggets of knowledge have I learned that I want to share with others? Coming across this also reminded me of one of my favorite books, “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pauche. If you have never read it I highly recommend it! It’s a yearly read for me.

If my mom were writing this she would probably list things like, ‘always look your best, stand up straight, look people in the eyes, and brush your teeth’…yes mom all very important things. I consider myself fortunate and blessed to be surrounded by family and friends who have always bestowed their wisdom upon me…but as with anything there are bumps in the road and we have to figure things out on our own…so this is what I have learned…through life…through iMedia…so far:

Work hard…then work harder. If you possess a brain such as Matt Damon in “Good Will Hunting” then good for you..please know I am sort of jealous..but only sort of. I always have loved school, but to read something and actually retain it was never my strong suit. I was always frustrated, especially in undergrad, when I would study for days and days and do mediocre but someone could study the day before or even hours before a test and do better. I was also never a great athlete, always average or below average. But I found a few sports I loved and worked really hard to be the best I could be. My parents were really big on making us work for things. We were never handed anything, we were never to expect that the world was sunshine and rainbows and everything would be great.  Because of all of this I never expected opportunities to be handed to me and I never wanted them to be either.

Make A Decision…Then Make It Right. My dad said this to me when I was a senior in high school and for some reason it has always stuck with me. We can’t predict the future,  and we can’t determine what will come from each decision we make. But we make our decisions, then try our best to make the choice work for us. The decision to come to Elon was based on a shot in the dark, a leap of faith if you will.  I never saw myself as being in graduate school, but here I am and loving every minute of it.

Finally…Crap Happens For A Reason. I’m a firm believer in this. I’m not one to tell you every last dramatic happening of my life. There is stuff you share and stuff you keep to yourself. But shitty things happen…that’s life…and we never know why when they are happening..but down the road we hit this revelation of ‘if that horrible thing never happened..this great thing wouldn’t of happened’…Enough said.

I’m sure through the course of the next 8 months of iMedia I will have several more revelations…and I am only 23 so I know I have a lot to learn about myself and in life.

The iPhone5 Is Almost Here…How Long Will You (or someone else) Wait For It?

There has been a lot of hype lately around Apple and the release of the new iPhone5.  The new version of the iPhone has gone above and beyond once again making it taller, faster, lighter and slimmer.  The phone is not released until September 28th but even with that customers have pre-ordered almost 2 million new phones. Some analysts estimate that by Monday morning roughly 10 million phones could be sold….worse case scenario is 6 million…..in PHONES! Days, even weeks before the iPhone5 goes on sale lines are forming outside of stores with customers who want to be the first to purchase the product.  Now you can use a service called TaskRabbit where you can find people who are willing to stand in line for you, for days and purchase the iPhone5 on your behalf. These “jobs” usually run around $40 – $150, which in my opinion is not enough!  You can find ads on Craigslist looking for people to do the exact same thing, even willing to throw in breakfast. What is worse is that waiting in line, or pre-ordering your phones doesn’t even guarantee you one on the release date! Many stores will sell out of them while pre-orders might not ship for over a month due to demand.

What fascinates me is the hype! Yes, Apple has a huge following and the majority of the consumers want the latest and greatest toys.  Some want them to look cool and classy while others are in it for the technology and the art behind creating such a device.  Either way Apple is on the right track when it comes to developing a product, realeasing it, and gaining a following to go purchase the product on release day.  It will be interesting to see what the customer feedback is after this weekends sales. Many were disappointed with the release of the iPhone4S claiming that there were not many changes.  Hopefully with the iPhone5 consumers will be satisfied with their purchases that they, (or people they hire) will wait for days for in line.