Project Comet

Project Comet

Adobe’s Project Comet, coming in 2016, promises to let us design and prototype websites and mobile apps with the same tool.

More than just allowing for interactive prototypes—which we’ve done with Invision—it also provides functionality to let us update the design (seamlessly with Photoshop and Illustrator) without losing any changes to the prototype, and touts lightning-fast performance with intuitive layout tools.

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Diss ‘n’ Gauges

Diss 'n' Gauges: Menu

I’m pleased to announce my first application is ready for sale on Google Play and Apple App Store. You can also see the information about Diss ‘n’ Gauges in my company’s portfolio.

Diss ‘n’ Gauges: Sometimes the best response is an app!

Diss ‘n’ Gauges: Multi-Pack combines all our individual meters into one great application. Are you looking for best and funniest way to start or end (disengage from) a conversation?

The Multi-Pack includes:

  1. BS Detector: Is your friend talking out of their butt? Inform them (and the rest of your party) that you’re not buying it.
  2. Dial Down the B!tch: Is your friend acting nasty or spiteful and it’s exceeding your tolerance level? Inform them (and the rest of your party) that they need to dial it down a bit.
  3. Give-a-Crap Meter: Is your friend droning on and on about something that you couldn’t care less about (say, Crossfit, for instance)? Inform them (and the rest of your party) of your disinterest in a fun way.
  4. Hottie Finder: Looking for a great way to strike up a conversation with that beautiful girl or guy across the bar? Let our Hottie Finder act as a divining rod to direct you to them!
  5. Gaydar: Often find yourself in a dance club, at a karaoke hall, or on a cruise ship with no way to hone-in on the guys around you?
  6. Fuel Gauge: Need some help deciding if you need one more or had one too many? Here’s a quick, clever way to reply to friends when they ask if you’re ready for another round.

All meters react to tapping on the screen. Tap once to trigger, tap a second time to reset. Diss ‘n’ Gauges is now available for iOS (iPhone, iPad) and Android phones and tablets.

Mission Small Business

Dear Readers,

I have a favor to ask you. I’ve applied for a grant sponsored by Chase and LivingSocial for my company, era404. This grant could help me with some internal development ideas I have to help the company grow. In order to be entered into the competition, I need to have 250 votes from Facebook users. The process is really simple and should only take one minute. Here’s how it works:

1. Browse to: https://www.missionsmallbusiness.com/

2. Click the blue “Log-in & Support” button

3. A pop-up will ask you to connect your Facebook account to prevent users from voting more than once. Chase will not use your Facebook account to get any information or post anything to your newsfeed. They simply use it to tally votes. Click “Login with Facebook” from the pop-up.

4. Search for “era404” in the Business Name field at the bottom.

5. Click the “Vote” button to the right of era404 in the search results (there will only be one result).

That’s it! If you feel comfortable, please forward this message to friends and family. We only have until June 30th to get 250 votes to be entered into the competition.

Lastly, if you’re worried about Chase and LivingSocial having access to your profile (even though they will not user your information or post on your behalf), you can revoke the privileges after voting, here:https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=applications

Thank you SO much for your time and support!

Pantone Moods Trends

As part of the newly launched Pantone Moods Facebook application, the world-renowned color gurus asked us how we could make the social phenomenon (a quarter million moods have been posted, to date) more exciting for users. Color enthusiasts have had the ability to share their emotions and tag them with Pantone color chip values for the past three years. However, in addition to tripling the color selections (Pantone GOE, and, now, Pantone Plus and Fashion + Home libraries) and and interacting with other members, mood-posters now have the ability to share their gender and location information with the world of users online. In league with OKCupid Trends and Mint Data, Pantone Moods users can see who has posted similar moods and color chips. They can even filter down by Facebook location, gender and time of post to see whose emotional spectrum is the closest to their own.  Read more

Seven Questions to Ask When Designing the Feel of Your Mobile App

Feel Can Make or Break a Product
Imagine you are shopping for a new car. You found a model that looks great and has all the features you want. It’s even in your price range. So you go to the dealer and take a test drive. After about five minutes of driving, you find you are mildly dissatisfied with the car. Perhaps it’s the way it takes the bumps. Perhaps it’s difficult to check your blind spot. Perhaps the pedals and buttons are not responsive. Do you buy the car anyway? After all, you like the look, it’s a good buy and it’s got the features you want. Odds are though you are not going to buy it. Why? Because you don’t like the feel of it, and the majority of your experience with a car is tied to the feel.

Feel Plays a Key role in Mobile App Satisfaction
Since mobile devices are held in our hands and operated with touch, the feel of the experience becomes a key determinant of user satisfaction. Also, since the screens are small, more interaction is generally required than on desktop devices. So we experience the nuances of the feel again and again as we use an app. Mild annoyances can add up, let alone major ones. Conversely, a good feel will create an ongoing sense of ease and comfort. This makes it more likely the app will be used repeatedly, bubble up on users’ favorites list, be talked about and recommended to others.

Seven Questions to Ask When Designing the Feel of Your App
So are you ready to optimize the feel of your mobile app? To help, here is a list of questions worth asking when designing a mobile app to make sure you have addressed the feel:

  1.  Have you anticipated how the user will hold the device?
  2. Have you designed for operation using fingers, thumbs or a combination of the two?
  3. Have you eliminated undesirable “eclipsing” effects, that is, uncomfortable blind spots where the finger obscures what is being touched in such a way that the interaction is awkward
  4. On screens with a dense amount of content, have you kept the structure of the layout and interactions simple?
  5. Have you used an intuitive sequence of gestures to perform core tasks?
  6. Have you minimized user effort to see, locate and interact with elements on the screen?
  7. Have you asked someone (or several people) to try a prototype of your app on an actual device?

Check your design against the above items, and you will find the improvements you make to the feel of your app to be well worth the effort.

Original post: Bob Moll, Pathfinder Software