An Innovative UX Strategy for Square’s Mobile App

So, what’s your user experience “pit of despair” moment? We all have a story to tell either as a user, a customer, or a client. Join the conversation and start creating better user experiences at @Motivate_Design or contact us directly.

To learn more about why these three concepts should permeate UX strategy development and design lifecycles, including why our CEO Mona Patel has Verizon’s FiOS customer service in her sights, read her comprehensive article on developing new dynamic UX strategies at UXmatters. 

Summary:

To excel in graphic design, big picture thinking is a must. It’s not just about making things beautiful. The best graphic designers play an active role in shaping game-changing ideas that can grow businesses and create new categories. The next generation of the most influential business leaders will exhibit design thinking in the way they guide their organizations to success. This webinar will present a framework for disruptive design thinking that allows designers to have a greater impact.

Check out the presentation here.

Doodle illustration done by @pixelflex (Flickr).

An App for a Thermostat

With busy lives, we’re bound to occasionally forget to turn off the heater or air conditioner when leaving the house. Luckily, there is a growing trend of easy-to-use apps that allow users to remotely control their heating and cooling right on their smart phone. App-controlled thermostats help connect people to their utilities to save money, conserve energy, and reduce their environmental impact.

Products like programmable thermostats have been available for years. But, they were ugly. And annoying. Now, managing utilities has become a delightful and easy-to-use experience. Consumer-friendly brands like Ecobee and Nest  take the concept of “app-controlled thermostats” further by incorporating smart technology that pays attention to how users consume energy and learns their behavior over time.

A Social Energy Competition 

Social Energy = When your energy usage is shared.

You know those next door neighbors–the Joneses? They have nothing on you.

Social energy websites and apps are comparing energy usage amongst neighbors and friends, thereby allowing users to see how they rank in their electricity, gas, and water usage and allowing them to own the title of the local champion of electricity conservation. Is there anything better?

Friendly competition can motivate users to become more cognizant of their energy usage and conserve energy and save money. Platforms like MyEnergy and Opower can help people understand utility usage and spending. These sites show your energy consumption in visualized way, a clearer and more desirable option than the drab paper version of utility bills.

Net Zero Buildings 

Fossil fuels are expensive and having a large carbon footprint is just bad news bears. Instead of building less, we’re building smarter. Net Zero buildings are just saying no to fossil fuel and eliminating their carbon footprints!

Net Zero buildings are self-sufficient and never use more energy than they can produce. Net Zero status occurs when zero energy is consumed and zero carbon emissions are produced. In essence, the energy usage of a building is canceled out by the amount of energy it creates and has no detrimental impact on the environmental.

With the potential to grow into an estimated  $1.3 trillion market, Net Zero buildings can be part of the solution in the world’s mounting energy crisis. Net Zero buildings have already established a demand in Europe with net zero status becoming a requirement in regulation codes. If the US could adopt such standards and apply net zero regulations to all future buildings, it would be a large step (free of carbon emissions, of course) towards long term sustainability.

Click through below to explore Portland’s own Net Zero building on FastCoDesign.

Near Field Communications and an “Internet of Things” 

Ah, you left your wallet at home. But, you have your phone in handy. Pay for groceries. Buy train tickets. They are already in your inbox. No muss, no fuss.

Our all-expansive wireless network of connectivity between devices and the internet can lessen our environmental impact. NFC (Near Field Communications) enables a new ecosystem of interaction done solely through devices.

With little chips embedded into anything you want, information from the chip can be accessed through a phone as soon as it is close enough. This technology has the potential to replace plastic credit cards, paper receipts, and all transactions by feeding to a phone instead. It’s a positive way to lessen environmental impact and improve human efficiency.

Check out this infographic for a deeper look at how NFC functions.

Electric Cars and Beyond

From hybrid cars to the  ELF, transportation just keeps getting better, faster, and cooler. Hybrid cars, like the Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt, and Toyota Prius, have been on the market for years.  With the “best designed car ever” Tesla X and the half bike/half car ELF, how you get from point A to point B can help the environment and be fun at the same time. (Stay tuned next week for our thoughts on Tesla X!)

The ELF brings some innovative changes to the transportation. It all started with their Kickstarter, Organic Transit says, “The ELF is a fun and efficient personal electric vehicle powered by you and the sun.” A “velomobile,” the ELF is a human-powered vehicle that is protected from the elements, saves gas, and provides a workout. It’s a win-win!

Smart Grid System 

Grid system meet the 21st century = Smart Grid System

Technology makes us smarter (debatable?) so why not let technology make our energy grid work smarter.

A smart grid system allows our power networks to communicate better by connecting energy demand to renewable energy supplies. Until recently, alternative energy sources had to be within a limited distance from the consumer.  But now, a smart grid can take locally generated wind, solar, or gas power and deliver to the areas that need it most. It’s not so smart having wind turbines in the middle of Central Park, but taking the energy generated from already existing turbines in the Pacific to power our skyscrapers, now, that’s genius!

Learn more about it through GE’s cool interactive Smart Grid webpage.

What are your thoughts on the trends? Got any new ideas? Share with us below or join the conversation @Motivate_Design.

It’s going to be an exciting talk about the Future of Personas as well as thoughts on the subject from various industry leaders.

If you are attending this year, you don’t want to miss this one. There’s sure to be some interesting discussion taking place! It is on Monday, October 22nd at 12:20PM

http://futureofwebdesign.com/new-york-2012/

Just over a year later, I am so fully immersed into Apple that my Sony Vaio is only used to occasionally watch TV.  My iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro all sync beautifully via iCloud.  I needed it before I even knew that I did.

Normally, this is not what makes sense to me.  I remain the only voice of opposition when it comes down to company expenses that are cool versus functional.  But, something about the redesign rubbed me the wrong way.  “Microsoft is all about the dollars: They’re placing an emphasis on design because the dollars sit there. They’re looking at Apple’s market cap.”  There is no love.

Microsoft launched a redesign?  Great.  But, converting Apple celebrants to invest in a whole new collection of phones, tablets and computers will require far beyond than that of some swipes and swooshes the world has already seen.  Much like those Justin Long “I’m a Mac. I’m a PC.” commercials are outdated, so is the concept of just buying a computer.

Mac vs. PC

• Grid structure – popular with recent layouts
• Abiding by modern design principles – but is it too far? MAYA?
• Clean and calm. But, can we talk about the 90’s-esque teal background? Against the vibrant tile colors makes for a visual clash worse than wearing Celine with Birkenstocks.
• Social app – looks great simplifying our complex digital lives…
• Landing page is too strongly designed for tablet—looks like its only made for tablet
• Uses horizontal scrolling in main nav—big change for desktop software.
• Doesn’t feel warm or inviting. Too dark.

After watching the video:

Where to begin?  The desktop.  It’s a modern mask; the same Windows lives behind brightly-colored tile names.  A desktop is my home base.  If it’s not, then why have it?  It seems Microsoft now has two because they couldn’t make a decision or figure out how to get rid of one. What’s the point of having the modern Metro landing page if not to act like a mask covering up what’s actually living behind it?

It’s a hot mess. They need horizontal, vertical… for goodness sake, even diagonal integration across the Microsoft product lines and UIs. There are inklings of visual cues barely holding them together but nothing remotely close to Apple where you always know you are using an iPhone, iPad, iMac, iAnything.  They sell and promote each other.  They make sense to consumers as a group, a family, or a single unit that complements each other.

How do you prevent your desktop from looking like a Pinterest board? If you download an app and it appears on your desktop every time, sooner or later it’s going to look like Hoarders.  I hope there is a way to make sub folders…a cluttered desktop gives me anxiety just thinking about it.

 Next up… Part 2: Design Worship & Suede Calendars

This week, we visit the Microsoft Redesign: www.fastcodesign.com/1670705/microsoft-new-design-strategy

Julia Sloan – Part 1: Celine & Birkenstocks

Caroline Lee – Right-Click Redesign

In the past 2 weeks, two bombs were dropped:

• June 18th, Monday – A bombardment was based at Milk Studios, Los Angeles. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft‘s CEO, presented its Surface Tablet - a 676 grams grenade with a 10.6″ HD screen.
• June 27th, Wednesday – A new fusillade took place in San Francisco. Hugo Barra, Google‘s director of product management, presented its Nexus 7 Tablet - a 340 grams weapon with a 7″ screen.

The Table Takeover – Photo Courtesy of Wilen Group

After the attacks, we can say that the two captains invaded the Apple and Amazon territories for good. But for how long?

In 2010, the ipad was Time Magazine’s One of the 50 Best Inventions of the Year, Popular Science’s Top Gadget, and Groasis Waterboxx’s Best of What’s New.

Will Apple have enough munition to stay on top?

Will Amazon‘s soldier, Kindle Fire, have time to find new tactics to honor his army?

Who will survive, who won’t?

Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible and understandable to the majority. It involves typefaces, point size, line length, leading, tracking and kerning. Choosing the right typography  is always a challenge. To make your life as a graphic designer easier, Motivate has some tips for you.

What kind of typeface do I use?

• Helvetica is the most used in graphic design. This font is a popular choice for commercial wordmarks.
• Trajan finds its way into many Hollywood movie posters and anything remotely to do with religion, law, marriage, class or the past.
• Garamond is a great font for magazines, textbooks, and websites. It was recently named the second best font, after Helvetica.
• Futura is a font that comes up often in large displays, logos, corporate typefaces and in books where small text is needed.
• Bodoni is a great font for headlines, decorative text and logos.
• Bickham Script Pro is used mainly for formal occasions.
• Frutiger is popular for the smaller scale of body text in magazines and booklets.

What are the ingredients of this success?

• The bread of the sandwich for the simplistic design. Everybody can have it, Everybody can use it.
• The Ice Cream for the smooth animation.
• The mix of these two opposites for the multitasking. It’s like french fries with a milkshake: surprising, but surprisingly amazing!

Google’s recipe has the sweetest flavor!

Happy Flag Day everybody!

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