More About Me

Hello! I'm Crystal

My favorite current apps are

• Rdio iPhone App- A really great music streaming app that has an aesthetically appealing interface with great user experience because it adds a lot of depth and sophistication. It has a better design quality than any other music app I've seen
• Sphere iPad App- Such a great exploration tool to look at photos in a subversive panoramic 3D image. The on boarding process was quick and straightforward, and there the main page is a discovery theme. All in all, it serves as a browsing tool for those who enjoy creative images and photography. 
• Motorola Spotlight Series Android App- This app is simply a story telling app with 3D graphics. It renders a virtual world and uses a gyro, accelerometer, and compass sensor to allow you to feel like you are within the story.

Android Guidelines

• Android's notification center very much complex with a lot of decision making which could be a good because you can multi task without leaving the center, or it could be bad because maybe the user uses it as simply just a news feed. I personally enjoy the extra informative visual images of the people who are notifying you.
• I really like reading about the concept of "action bars" in Android, because they explain what is the best way to place them to maximize you're screen real estate. They give you examples of where to place the action bars for the type of app you are making. The one thing I would mention though, is Android suggests to use a caret for the main action bar, but it's over redundant if your navigation button on your phone allows you to hit back anyways. 
• I like the overall feel of android's guidelines because they give very specific examples about how you can design your apps, and the logic behind the placement and IA. 

My name is Rachal and I'm a senior in Communication Design.

My current favorite app is Ultraweather, which is a weather app that displays current weather conditions and forecasts with beautiful photographs and clean typography. It describes the app as  'local weather forecast meets Instagram'.


iOS Human Interface Guidelines:

1) Take advantage of the whole screen:

2) Let color simplify the UI

3) Reconsider visual indicators of physicality and realism

Hello

Hello,
My name is Ambroise, I am a third year communication design student, with a growing interest in web and mobile design / development. I recently switched from android (which I had for almost three years) to iphone (ios7). I won't be turning back to android in a while as the interface Apple offers suits my needs much more than my previous device.

ios7 guideline, interesting points:

Avoid using the same color in both interactive and non-interactive elements.
Don’t take space away from the content people care about.
Use a navigation bar to give users an easy way to traverse a hierarchy of data.

My current favorite app is the built-in calendar app that apple integrates into ios7. It's simpleness and fluidity really makes it for me. It synchronises to my gmail calendar, which I also open on my laptop very often, and keeps everything tidy and in place. 

Hi, I'm Felipe Tavira!

I'm a exchange student in communication design. I have an android phone now, but I've had an iphone and an ipad.

One of my favorite apps is called Vine. Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vine/id592447445?mt=8
It's a social network where users watch and post short videos(they can only be 6 seconds long), you can explore trending topics, featured hashtags and follow friends etc. The thing I like the most about the app are the comedy videos, It's really cool to see how creative and funny people can be in 6 seconds.

3 things I found interesting about the Human Interface Guidelines:

-The use of visual weight and balance to show users the relative importance of onscreen elements, especially in apps people use in distracting surrondings(Phone and Clock, for example)

-Place principal items in the upper half of the screen and near the left side of the screen so it stands out.

-Focus on the needs of 80% of your users.When you do this, most people won’t have to supply any settings, because the app is already set up to behave the way they expect. If there is functionality that only a few users might want—or that most users might want only once—leave it out.

HELLO, I'M SHANNON

Hello everyone!

A little bit about me:

• Born in Jakarta, raised in Singapore
• B.S. in International Business, minor in Multimedia Design from Pepperdine University (Malibu, CA)
• 1st year MFA Design & Technology student
• Work experience come from a range of digital media (social media startup, mobile shop, online advertising technology company, ad agency)

Current favourite apps:

• Find. Eat. Drink (curated by food world luminaries, not just angry customers)
• Temple Run, and now... FLAPPYBIRD
• Flipboard (always)

Things I found most enlightening from the iOS Human Interface Guidelines:

• Launch your app in the supported orientation,regardless of the current device orientation
• Keep modal tasks simple, short, and narrowly focused to avoid distracting users from interacting within the actual application
• Avoid displaying a splash screen or other startup experience

I'm a Graphic designer from Beirut, Lebanon. I am currently enrolled in the Master of Fine Arts Design and Technology (MFA. I graduated from the American University of Beirut in 2013 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic design and a minor in Psychology.

My applications for the week:

Relay : it is basically messaging your friends using Giffs

Sphere: recording your world and everything around you 360 degrees. 

Snapchat: Messaging with pics and video with a time limit 

Three things from the iOS Reading that stood out for me
Embrace borderless buttons which I found interesting how design is changing to more minimalist choices even when it comes to functional tools. 

Using a translucent background and appearing to float

above the Home screen, I feel like all designs have been shifting away from that but I see how Apple embraced it successfully 

A key color gives users a strong visual indicator of interactivity

I love how how blue became an acquired indicator for interactivity but it is important to identify our target audience. I think older generations are not as equipped with these acquired norms. 

IOS reading and favorite app

Hi, my name is Natasha. My background is in fine art and exhibition design for museums.
My current favorite apps are:

• Mint - This app enables me to track my finances. Something I was never good at before!
• National Geographic for iPad - I'm not sure if this counts as an app or a digital publication, but I love how the embedded video, sound, and other dynamic content and the way it is seamlessly integrated with content on their website.
• Plants vs Zombies -This is possibly my favorite game ever.

Three things that surprised me about the iOS guide:

1. Don't make people enter information if possible (draw from data the device has already collected) p. 26
2. That there are only three main navigation types: hierarchical, flat, and content driven p.36
3. How many design choices they essentially make for you. I'm thinking specifically of fonts, text sizes, icons, and icon sizes.

Hi Guys,

My name is Aarti!

My background is in ecommerce and digital marketing. I'm in the MSc Media Management program at the New School for Public Engagement.

My favourite app is - seamless - because i love to eat.
But recently just discovered Level Up which allows you to pay with your CC at participating locations you just scan your QR code (all your CC information is already stored) and you receive digital receipts!

Three things from the iOS Reading that stood out for me

Aesthetic Integrity - with regards to integrated functionality and predictable user behaviour

Xcode - great for prototyping - which I did not know!

Simplicity - less confusion - this i found interesting because if we look at design as a whole across the web a lot of logos are now flat - which is like the iOS7 design, flat, simplistic and easy to understand. It took me a while to get used to the look because I liked the depth - and making things look like buttons but its grown on me!

HI

Hi, I'm Lucia Kim. I'm a senior in communication design. I'm both an android mobile user and ipad user.

My favorite app is WWF Together on iPad. It is like a storybook about endangered animals with that incorporate 3D animation and natural user interface. It believes that interactive experience helps the audience understand the narratives of animals and possible ways to get involved in endangered animals. 

From reading HIG guidelines, I found the following three very interesting:


iOS 7 embodies the following themes:

• Deference. The UI helps users understand and interact with the content, but never competes with it.
• Clarity. Text is legible at every size, icons are precise and lucid, adornments are subtle and appropriate, and a sharpened focus on functionality motivates the design.
• Depth. Visual layers and realistic motion impart vitality and heighten users’ delight and understanding.

One of the most important changes in iOS 7 for interface designers is the introduction of transparency and translucency.The status bar is now transparent, while navigation bars, tab bars, tool bars and other user controls have adopted translucency. Buttons in iOS 7 don’t have borders and backgrounds like they did in iOS 6 and earlier versions of the operating system. This allows the type to be bigger, but means that custom button designs will need to be reworked to fit the new scheme. Dynamic type automatically adjusts font-weight, letter-spacing and leading for each font size. It also supports text styles, allowing you to specify different attributes for headlines, body copy and buttons. The refreshed Weather, Photos and Camera apps all make full use of the screen to display content. This hints at the third primary theme of iOS 7 – that depth and realistic motion communicates hierarchy to heighten users’ understanding.

Natashia Tjandra

Hello!
My name is Natashia Tjandra. Natasha with a silent 'i'.
I realize there's another Natasha in class, please call me Tjandra.

Some words that describe me:
• Visual Communicator • Tech & Trends enthusiast • App lover • Design & Advertising geek • Food blogger • Cat crazy • Culture Addict

Work experience ranges from Branding, Advertising and Digital.

Fave app of the week is Paper by Facebook 

- low learnability 

- intuitive gestures 

3 Things from HCIs

iOS Design Principles

1. Aesthetic Integrity
• Integrated functionality, appearance & predictable behavior 
2. Consistency
• standards & paradigms people are comfortable with throughout the app
• eg. a key color gives users a strong visual indicator of interactivity, especially in apps that don’t use an abundance of other colors. In Music app, tappable and interactive buttons are red in color. 
3. Direct Manipulation
• multi-touch interface to engage 
4. Feedback
• subtle animation. sounds aren't recommended (people can't always hear their devices)
5. Metaphor
• virtual objects & actions are metaphors for familiar experiences
6. User Control 
• keep it simple & straight forward, predictable & familiar

Android Design Principles

1. Enchant me
• Delight me in surprising ways
• real objects are more fun than buttons and menus
• Let me make it mine
• Get to know me
2. Simplify my life
• Keep it brief
• Pictures are faster than words
• Decide for me but let me have the final say
• Only show what I need when I need it
• I should always know where i am
• Never lose my stuff
• If it looks the same, it should act the same
• Only interrupt me if it's important.
3. Make me amazing
• Give me tricks that work everywhere
• It's not my fault
• Sprinkle encouragement
• Do the heavy lifting for me
• Make important things fast

Something that I have to remember

Always keep to the recommended resolutions, displays, dimensions. 

See you in class. 

My name is Oriol Bella.



Favourite app: Spotify.
Three things from the android guidelines:

- In the android recent apps page, the most recent apps go from bottom to top and from right to left. This can make sense because the button to get into this screen is in the right-bottom of the phone, so your finger is closer to the most recent app, but the normal way of reading is the other way around, so it can create confusion.

- In the guidelines they talk a lot about graphic design concepts such as color, typography, white space, contrast... Which makes me think about how much graphic design involves UX design.

- As android devices have much more different screen sizes and resolutions than iOS devices it can be more complicated to adapt a design to android than to iOS.

My name is Charles L.

Current Favorite App: Seemic - I'm a twitter fend
Three things from the iOS Guidelines

1. Xcode is a great source for prototyping
2. Make it easy for people to interact with content and controls by giving each interactive elements ample spacing.  Give tappable controls a hit target of about 44x44 points
3. place principal items in the upper half of the screen and in left-to-right cultures