ma11kna

Hi Mobile dudes and dudettes!

I’ve decided to write a few posts on UI design to help you get started on iPhone and Android projects.

The resources we’re going to download and use:

For iPhone 3GS apps

http://www.teehanlax.com/downloads/iphone-gui-psd/

For iPhone 4+ apps

http://www.teehanlax.com/downloads/iphone-4-guid-psd-retina-display/

Getting started - Create new document

Before you even open Photoshop you should have your wireframes and flowchart done.

So open a new document in Photoshop. 

If you haven’t already I advice you to create some of the most used device screen sizes to your presets. You do it by clicking “Save Preset…” to the right in the dialog box.

Give it a name as you can see me do. I’ve named my Preset “iPhone 3GS” with the dimensions 320px x 480px with transparent background. 

Now click OK and we’ll begin. 

You can also open the iPhone 3GS GUI psd from Teehan + Lax.

Why you design for 3GS first

You may be wondering: “Why are we designing for iPhone 3GS when I have an iPhone 4 with retina display that is 1000 times more fun to design for?”.

The simple answer is;

Retina display is twice the size of iPhone 3GS’ display. So if you begin to design for retina, you have to divide the assets size by two.

But if you have done the most epic UI elements for the project and the buttons are 141px wide and 73px high and you divide it with two, you will get 70,5px and 36,5px.

In a designers world that means you will get semi-pixels, which ruins the whole feel of the interface. Pixel perfection 4 life!

I can you an example:

iPhone 4 (Retina display) Button:

iPhone 3GS Button (resized from iPhone 4 resolution)

Comparison after scaling down from retina to 3GS: 

You can easily see the right side is the iPhone 3GS semi-pixel. It’s not pretty.

How to export 3GS and Retina assets.

I created this web app while I was studying at Hyper Island as a fun weekend project. It is really simple, it’s called SMS Roulette. (Google it if you don’t know what it is).

This is the main screen

The screen is as you can see, made for iPhone 3GS.

NOTE!

Everything in this photoshop document is in vector. This means that I will be able to scale and edit the elements without losing quality. I create the elements with shapes and then edit the anchor points etc.

The first step is to save all assets in it’s original resolution. You do this easily by slicing up the different elements and save the as transparent PNG files. Be sure to name them something easy so the programmer understand what all assets are for.

In this project I started by hiding the background. 

After that I select and cut the element I want to export. I’m sure there are some fancier or easier way to do this, but I’m stuck in old habits.

I select the button (pic. 1 below) and “Copy Merge” (Shift+cmd+c). Then create new document. Paste the button (pic. 2 below) and save it to my assets folder as newchallenge.png.

Now that you’ve done that to all your assets, we’ll begin to export the Retina assets.

I start by add the eye and show all layers in the layer palette. Then I go up in the meny to Image -> Image Size. (Shortcut; Alt+cmd+I).

This is what you should be looking at:

Make sure to check the boxes in the bottom of that dialog. 

Then switch from pixels to percent in the “Pixel Dimension”-box.

I now put in 200 percent to increase the size of the screen by twice.

Then click “OK”.

Now you’re design is in the iPhone 4 resolution. Now you can do the same thing as we did before where you hide background layer and save all the elements, one by one.

NOTE, this time we’ll save the New Challenge button in retina, which means that you save the button as newchallenge@2x.png.

You will always save the 3GS version as button.png and the retina version as button@2x.png.

This way the programmer can easily add all the retina assets and build the application with both resolution from the beginning.

My mobile app prototype got featured recently on behance.net, designcollector.net and a couple of smaller blogs. I feel a lot more motivated to work on the current projects. Well... Those ongoing projects are so interesting that I would work my ass off with a smile anyway :)

In the last week I was fully involved into our new (and first) app concept. I feel that day by day I am learning a lot about programs, techniques and what this industry is about. It is about hard work. I have touched OmniGraffle and Cinema4D. I started to appreciate Illustrator and I think that this will be my main tool for future wireframing. This is how it looks right now After the feedback from Jason and Paulo my group needs to work on different scenarios and storyboards for visualizing the concept. I think there is a potential to create something fun. Right now I am doing some research into the style of our app. Appstore is not very helpful in finding inspiration... Dribbble certainly is, but I need something more than that. And this week we had very inspiring lectures from the industry. My favourite was with mills™and the way he talked about ustwo™- the studio of dreams. It was a shame Matt did not bring any pictures from the studio. Anyway, I am well impressed by the people I met so far from that agency. Right now it is the top desired agency for the internship. „Do less, but do it well.” was the main thing mills™ said that stayed in my mind. I think that sometimes my attention is all over the place. And the second thing was about a courage to make an app. I feel that there is not too much time and during our time at Hyper Island we should take as much as we can and make something significant out there. I am currently working on a side project and I cannot say too much about it here. Hopefully in two months I will something to show off. Lecture with Color Monkey was very inspiring as well. I felt that I just wanted to get out and start working on our app design for this module. And a Cinema4D workshop we had today. Many thanks to Josue Motta and Ola Syse for sharing their experiences with the program. I have never launched any 3D program before the lecture and now I know how to do basic things inside. I may need that very soon.

I have see this video sometime ago, so this is not a news post. What I would like to emphasise is the way this introduction was done. Unique style, music, words used, there is purpose in all those little things. To me, it is just perfect.

The first module called Mobile Landscape at Hyper Island is almost finished. We had our presentation today and it went very well. Why? 1. The flow was there, nobody read from the paper, the big amount of pictures was a keynote itself. 2. Strong research, work shadowing with reports down on paper, so we had a solid start. 3. Prezi tool. Zooming in/out had a WOW effect into it. Keynote transitions were too static. 4. Very little text. Images speak better. 5. Strong visuals and a structure built out of our findings. 6. We included one short (30s) video in our presentation. 7. In the end we created two subgroups, working on design and the script. I feel that subgroups speed up the work a lot. What we could have done better? 1. Plan before we started the presentation. It all worked out in the end, but I don't think that the process was conscious enough. 2. I did not feel that the group was on the same page during the whole process. Next time I will try to get people more interested in the topic. I should read/listen to a book on leadership. 3. There is never enough research and it is the top thing in any project I will take part in. More reflections soon.

Group 3 sat down with Göran Eklund, channel manager of sveriges radio Blekinge.

Group 3:

How many listeners does sveriges radio have?

Göran Eklund:

40% of Blekinges population listens to our radio channels each day. You are counted as a listener if you listen at least 5minutes each day.

Group 3:

How did SR get affected by the financial crisis?

Göran Eklund:

We didnt get affected at all.

Group 3:

We have listened alot at your radio channel through our Iphones with the SR app. What year was this app released?

Bosse Svensson (Technical manager):

Our first app was released 2008. We are releasing a new app this week due to alot of complaints on the streaming stability.

Group 3:

How does SR generate money? From commercials or from the listeners?

Göran Eklund:

We actually dont have commercials at all at our radio station. We get paid from TV-licenses.

Group 3:

How many employees are currently working at SR?

Göran Eklund:

We have around 30 people working in shifts. We are airing 24/7 365 days a year.

Group 3:

We are moving towards the future and ”new” technology is getting old. Currently the smart phone is being sold 8 times faster than computers when they first came out. Analyzing experts claim that 2013 there will be more smart phones than computers. How will SR be affected by this?

Göran Eklund:

As long as people pay their TV-licenses we should be fine. Have in mind that if you watch tv on your computer you also need to pay your TV-licens.

Group 3:

What different positions are there at SR blekinge?

Göran Eklund:

We have presenters, news transmitters and reporters.

Group 3:

How do you evaluate your airings to improve in your work?

Göran Eklund:

We have staff that works constantly with calling listeners to ask questions of what music they are listening to right now. We just had a topic about what people listens to, if it comes to two artists.

Lady Gaga or Sven Ingvars. The age groups where between 15 and 65. The majority actually answered Lady Gaga even the older generation.

Group 3:

What effect does bloggers have on Sveriges Radio?

Göran Eklund:

Active bloggers affect the webbstatistics positively.

Group 3:

What kind of staff are looking for in the future? Should they have any special skills?

Bosse Svensson (Technical manager):

In the future we will try keeping the current staff as it is and hire consultants for advanced missions.

Group 3:

How do you keep up to date with what the people wants?

Göran Eklund:

As i mentioned before we have staff that is calling around to people to ask for their opinion. But we also active at facebook.

Group 3:

Have you heard about Hyper Island before?

Göran Eklund: Yes, we actually had a project with a guy from hyper island a year ago or so. But it never got finished for some reason. Any more questions?

Group 3: I think that was all the questions. Thank you for Göran and Bosse for taking your time.

Göran Eklund, Bosse

No problem, good luck in the future.

Hello everyone! Today we go head to head, toe to toe with Andreas Constantinou - Vision Mobiles Research Director.

Carl-Oscar: You sent us a bundle of very interesting information via the slides that you gave us, thanks again for that. I however would like to know what you are most excited about - what are you really looking forward to when it comes to the digital industy?

Andreas: As mobile industry observers, the most exciting phenomenon we see happening is the ‘genetic pairing’ of the mobile and Internet industries into a single one; this genetic pairing leads into ‘mutation’ rather than ‘convergence’. i.e. we see unexpected new value areas emerge at the crossroads of mobile and internet. The genetic pairing of mobile and internet industries lead to value erosion (e.g. software and hardware commoditisation), wiping off 10s of billions off the mobile handset market. At the same time, new value areas are being created anew like direct-to-consumer applications, app analytics and customer experience management. The industry in 2 years will evolve as much as it evolved in 2008-2010 with the introduction of Apple’s App Store. We ‘re still going to see many surprises in the next 2 years.

Carl-Oscar: In the slides you highlighted some key points of the open source community. Is Visionmobile involved in the community? If not - would you like to?

Andreas: As analysts we are observers to mobile open source communities; we study the economics of open source; for example how major software platforms (Symbian, Android, WebKit, Chrome, etc) use governance models that often antagonise the ethics of open source. In addition, we track the influencers in open source, i.e. the smaller companies that have established reviewers or maintainers within major projects (Torch Mobile is a good example, which was acquired by RIM). 

Carl-Oscar: Some industry observers say that the current trend “mobile application” will be dead in the future, and be replaced by better working browsers - that we for example use today on our desktop/laptop computers e.g. the application would be imbedded into the browsers, just like “flash” is today. Do you think this is something that will happen?

Andreas: We see a multiplicity of runtimes, each with its own benefits - i.e. both native and browser-based runtimes - surviving well within the next 3 years. Each runtime has very different design goals and sweet spots - there is no design-once run-everywhere application like there is no design-once-apply-everywhere runtime. Google might want the world to consist of browsers (and Chrome is all about advancing the state of web development), but at the same time there are some pretty smart people working at Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, and all the other companies supporting different runtimes. It’s all about diversity (the opposite side of the fragmentation coin) and diversity is the sign of a healthy ecosystem.

Carl-Oscar: Where is Visionmobile in 5 years time? Is it just about mobiles?

Andreas: VisionMobile should be ConnectedVision in five years :) i.e. analysing the industry of connected devices, people and places :)

Carl-Oscar: What “key” skills are you looking for when you hire people today? What is that little extra that you look for when hiring people?

Andreas: our tagline since our inception has been “knowledge. passion. innovation.” and this reflects in the people we work with. We look for industry insiders with passion, creative flair and unconventional out-of-the-box thinking.

Carl-Oscar: Have you heard of Hyper Island before? If not, would you like to? If you have, would you like to come and give us a lecture in Sweden, Karlskrona? We are very excited about Visionmobile!

Andreas: yes, sounds like a great idea. We work with many companies in the Skane area, so hope we can make this happen :)

Thanks a bunch to the guys at Vision Mobile, really good answers - I at least can register with a lot what Andreas says, and would like him to come and visit us at Hyper Island.

If you want more visions from Vision Mobile - yes am a poet, go and visit: visionmobile.com/blog

For a more mobile future!

Regards,

Group 3

Hi there, and thank you for letting me interview you! 

First of all, tell me about you career? How and when did you start working for PayEx Mobile? 

My name is Rickard Wahlin and I currently work as Key Account Manager at PayEx Solutions AB. I have a major in business, economics and IT from StockholmUniversity and started working for PayEx in 2002. For the first 7 years I built up the Backoffice function for the e-trade division within PayEx, and last year I moved on to work with our University payment solution and PayEx Mobil.

I believe that mobile payment is the next big thing, it’s certainly a new upcoming trend. How do you see your own company develop in the next 2-4 years?

First of all I think we still only see the beginning of what will follow. From my job perspective, working with PayEx Mobil, I am absolutely convinced that payments of all kind will end up in the mobile phone and you will no longer need cash or credit card in the traditional way as we know it today. What will take time is the infrastructure around us, the level of acceptance among users is already very strong.

Will PayEx come up with a more efficient way to use Mobile systems when paying? Digital Receipts? Or maybe use retail stores like 7eleven or Pressbyrån to top up your PayEx account?

We have many plans for PayEx Mobile. Talking about toping up your account – you can top up your account via your mobile application already today. All you have to do is save your credit card credentials when you top up your PayEx Account the first time. Another way of doing it is to let people have a credit function attached to the account, so you get a bill each month instead – this is not live yet but around the corner. The third alternative, which is also our long term plan, PayEx is not supposed to be the sole issuer of PayEx Mobil. Our long term aim is that operators or banks will be interested so that you can have your Nordea account attached to your PayEx Mobil application (for example).

Talking about Pressbyrån och 7-eleven. You can buy PayEx Value codes there today to top up your account. What we do not have, and are working on, is that chains like Pressbyrån and 7-eleven accepts PayEx Mobil as a payment method. We are currently involved in many interesting discussions. Look at our webpage to see the ones already accepting PayEx Mobil, that might give you a hint. 

What gets you most excited when thinking about the digital media industry in the future?

The future is interesting. NFC telephones will make some difference, not only for us with a payment application, but also for example for passage systems. Swipe your phone to access locations (your home, the office, temporarily, permanent, sertain hours…) – no more need for any key´s. All you have in your pocket is your phone – no credit cards, no cash, no keys. All in one. In short, the future is creative.

Are you going to adapt this “RFID-tag” in a “invisible” way? Let me clarify that. Do you think it’s possible to use the iOS or Android to make a digital payment “push-wave” so you can pay for the things you want? 

Everything basically has to do with security. What is the lowest level of security that you accept? It is possible to make payment extremely easy and fast, but are you prepared that if someone finds your telephone they will be able to use your money. It is not all black and white, but the discussion is important. Maybe it should be up to every user to have their own security level?

How would you like to see the industry use digital platforms in the future and how can digital services improve the industry?

Anytime, anyplace – being able to transfer money, buy things on the spot – directly from adds in the newspaper, etc. How many times have you been prepared to buy something on the spot, but had no money at that specific time? Availability, always being able to buy things in all channels. I do not necessarily think it is all that good for the customer, but for businesses it is definitely something valuable.

Which are the key skills you are looking after when you hire digital creatives today?

Documented working experience and good working references is the easiest way of getting a job at PayEx. Personality is extremely important. Being the right person for the job. You have to be self reliant, taking initiatives, a good sense of quality. If you work at PayEx we say that you have to take active part, always try to make things better and think new.

It was really intresting and I hope we get to hear more about PayEx soon. Thank you!

 

A good newspaper is a nation talking to itself.

-Arthur Miller 

When old Arthur Miller wrote this, he couldn’t been more right, that however was in the 1950s, today we live in an ever growing civilization, that squashes you with information if you get left behind. This blog entry centers on what we learned when we visited BLT.

Thursday and it’s raining - who could have known? Apparently though Karlskronas autumns only consists of rain - what a drag. Luckily we had an appointment - an appointment with BLTs magazine director, her name is Kerstin Årmann. 

We sat down and waited for her to arrive, though after a time, we realized that we might need to mention that we are sitting here, so we did. After a couple of minutes Kerstin appeared and welcomed us to BLT. She led us to a conference room and bid us to take whichever seat we wanted. She sat down on one side, and well we took the other side.

Traditional news agencies have always had a strong foundation. As we know today though, due to social media interaction, and the coming of the Internet - newspapers have suffered a beating. Our initial discussion surrounded this phenomena a lot - what can BLT do? What can other agencies do? So what can you do? Do you have a golf session with all the higher ups in traditional news agencies? Why the hell would you even do that? My initial thought was really to involve news papers in todays blogger, to make the interaction more personal. At BLT they have a problem though, most news agencies have this - it’s called pride. Some people just don’t want to write a blog, why would I do that? When I can easily just write a very detailed journalistic piece of art? The problem is that the old warhorses don’t want to realize the simple fact that bloggers are biting at your foundation at the moment. (Rome was built for hundreds of years, but was sacked by an uproar from the masses) 

Is this an immediate concern for BLT? Not really, Kerstin told us that BLTs role is to be an observer e.g. they observe and implement solutions that works for the industry. The community in Blekinge is evolving rather slowly, so they have the time to really observe - before taking action. In short you could say that if you wanted BLT to grow faster - you’d need the people from Blekinge to take action. In the end it’s all about us consumers - are we happy with what we get? You could say that a prime example is the current BLT website that was made in 2005. Did I just say 2005, yes I did, so what happen’t was that BLT noticed that the interest wasn’t there - we readers didn’t visit BLT enough, so now they are making a new site, with new additions. I personally thought that the vision was really good, so in the future you will be able to visit a new “fresh” site. These additions are mostly to update the already existing areas, but also to provide more social interaction via blogs. 

Another aspect that is troubling, but required, is to make money. The economic truth of how traditional media gets their money flow today is still from traditional means e.g. the paper that we buy today from our local news stands, or get home in the post - is still BLT, and many papers primary source of income. This might be news for some, well at least it was news for me - BLT and SydÖstran is merging. This is just another solution to making news more accessible - in the future you will be able to get your Blekinge news from one single platform - the combined site of both together. In the share deliverance of news BLT knows though that a change is needed - they want to be able to give out their newspapers in other formats e.g. the digital formats, and well they want to make more money. In the future you will be able to read BLT at your mobile platform via a mobile application, or a mobile duplicate of the site. You could argue that this is old already, though for BLT it isn’t, and I personally would welcome the choice of getting that application. So there is a plan, not a master plan, but BLT is there for the people of Blekinge. I still continue reading news at BLT - and will do so until I move away from Karlskrona, Blekinge. 

Over and out,

Group 3

- Do you know about Hyper Island? What do you think of it?

We are aware of Hyper Island, and we think it’s an amazing place to learn about digital and interactive media. The people have an awesome attitude toward digital communications, and we love how proactive the students are about diving into their work. Hyper Island seems like a learning experience unlike any other.

- What is the hottest on the mobile market right now? (apps/web design)

From our perspective, it’s mobile web, because it requires no downloads and is becoming very accessible across a broad spectrum of mobile devices. As phones continue to evolve, the need for an app can often be filled by the mobile web. 

- Do you specialize in all platforms or just iPhone?

Punchkick Interactive supports nearly all of the mobile platforms available. When it comes to designing and developing applications, we work with the iOS that includes iPhone, iPod, and iPad, but we also work with Blackberry, Android, and other leading phone technologies.

- What media do you follow to keep up with the mobile app market?

We check the iTunes App Store to see the top apps, but we also read tech blogs and trade publications to see what technologies people are excited to use. We follow trends in Asia to see what technologies are growing in popularity, and we constantly keep our eyes and ears open and study this evolving market.

- How many people are involved in the development of an app?

The actual number can vary depending on the platform. At an agency level, the minimum would likely be four. We use a designer, and a team of developers, as well as a dedicated QA tester. It really depends on the scope of a project to determine how many resources will be dedicated to it.

- What trends are there at the moment?

In the U.S., mobile apps for smartphones and tablets are popular. However, many people are aware that the market of smartphones has not yet surpassed feature phones, so companies are easing into the mobile space and often developing mobile web presences first. Location-based services, check-in services (i.e., Foursquare), mobile coupons and loyalty programs are growing too. 

- What’s your prediction of the future?

We stopped trying to predict the future a long time ago. Three years ago, there was no iPhone – who knew that Apps would be so hot? The technology is changing so rapidly that the best you can do is to keep your eyes open for new opportunities, and learn as much as you can about the industry while inspiring trust with your clients.

- What are you excited about in terms of mobile?

We love how quickly mobile technology is picking up, and how quickly the technology is improving. We also like that consumers are becoming more educated about mobile technology and design.

 

- Are you able to accept interns from Hyper Island in the future? And if, what do you expect from them? Attitude, skills etc.

We do accept interns! Our team is highly collaborative, so we like folks who have an entrepreneurial spirit and take the initiative to drive their work to completion with vigor, passion, and creativity. So long as you have the right attitude, we can train for specific skills.

Group 3 “sat” down with Lennart Malm Web Coverage & Merchandising lead, Nordic, IBM Nordic

Henrik, Carl-Oscar:

Hello, Lennart, glad we got the opportunity to talk to you and ask some questions.

Lennart Malm:

Hello, Henrik and Carl-Oscar I always try answering questions from the outside to make our company work more efficiently.

Henrik, Carl-Oscar:

Are there any interesting future projects going on? Anything special that we should keep our eyes open for?

Lennart Malm:

There are so many different departments at IBM and everyone are having ongoing projects 24/7.

Henrik, Carl-Oscar:

We saw that you are developing a mobile app called Seer for Wimbledon 2011 what is so special about this application?

Lennart Malm:

You will be able to see any ongoing matches live with your smart phone, there is also a function that will give you the possibility to find a lot of restaurants around the Wimbledon arena, which gives you information of what specialities the restaurants are currently offering, and what the prizes are.

Henrik, Carl-Oscar:

What products does IBM provide that competes with Apple? Are there any mobile platforms being developed? For example a counter to Apples IPAD?

Lennart Malm:

IBM stopped most of their hardware production a few years ago. But you can still find IBM chips in hardware such as xbox360, PS3 and Nintendo Wii. 

Henrik, Carl-Oscar:

As we are studying Mobile Applications at Hyper Island, we are very interested in future mobile applications/solutions being developed by IBM. What are these future prospects?

Lennart Malm:

IBM has a lot of ideas that are being processed and thought of, what these are though I cannot answer. Though I’m sure there is ongoing projects going a the moment.

Henrik, Carl-Oscar:

Are you currently looking for staff specialized in Mobile applications?

Lennart Malm:

We are always looking for creative people

Henrik, Carl-Oscar:

What are the key skills you are looking for when you hire digital creatives today? 

Lennart Malm:

We really focus on the different portals where the Internet community discusses our products, or other related things. Some years ago we realized that IBM as a company really needs to be focused on how the social media reacts. At the moment we have many dedicated individuals researching different media portals to give us the best view of matters. 

Henrik, Carl-Oscar:Does IBM know what Hyper Island is? If so, what have you heard?

Lennart Malm:

I have heard some mentions before, though I only got the full picture when I checked out Hyper Islands website today.

Henrik, Carl-Oscar:

We know that IBM is a very large company, and thus we have probably missed some key information. We at Hyper island are always looking for speakers to highlight what the industry is looking for. We would like to know more about IBM, and would be glad to have you visit us in Karlskrona. Is this something that could be of interest in the future?

Lennart Malm:

We have people all the time who travel around and give lectures. But sure, if you contact me in the future, maybe we could arrange something.

Henrik, Carl-Oscar:

Thank you for taking your time! We look forward to seeing more of IBM in the future.

Lennart Malm:

Thank you for showing interest. Have a nice weekend!

Group 3 “sat” down with the well known Carl & Marcus from Illusion Labs. 

Carl-Oscar:

Alright! First of all we have people in our group that have tried your games before and really love them, Touchgrind comes to mention as soon as we started discussing it in the group. (One player has a score of 2 357 600, with the online rank of something abysmal)

Carl & Marcus:

Nice, to hear that! We have just released an update with Game Center that shows your rank among friends as well as daily and weekly rank so hopefully you can get a more satisfying rank now :)

Carl-Oscar:

Who are the people behind Illusion Labs? What is your current most important working policy?

Carl & Marcus:

Illusion Labs was founded by Andreas Alptun and me in 2008 and we started the company to create a fun and satisfying job. That is still what guides everything that we do. We are now 6 employees and a couple freelancing consultants. We both have a computer and mobile graphics background and we really like it when people go “wow!” about the stuff we make so our tagline is “Creating the wow effect”.

Carl-Oscar:

The name “Illusion Labs”, where does this hail from?? Who came up with the idea?

Carl & Marcus:

We were brainstorming names and and felt that we love creating illusions in the form of cool graphics etc in computers. We felt that we wanted our workplace to be a lab for making such things so then “Illusion Labs” felt like the perfect name.

Carl-Oscar:

I’ve played games since the age of something so small that I can’t remember how old I was. Games are always fun to experience,  I’m the kind of person that just got stuck in an RPG, forgetting the real life world sometimes. The world I envision when I play mobile games is that it’s rather brief. My question really is what you think about when your making mobile games. What world do you envision when you create them? What are the boundaries?

Carl & Marcus:

We often come up with a cool physics idea and build the game around that. We feel that elaborate story-lines work better on a computer. It could work on a mobile platform but it is not our focus. We fell that this area of the market is better covered by the giants of the industry.

Carl-Oscar:

When you consider the hardware implications as your create a game - what are these, are they known to developers? To me it seems that Mobile devices are bottlenecked on the hardware side e.g. we are kinda missing the old, yet new DirectX that Microsoft introduced for developers. Does this stop you when your making a mobile game? Do we need a Mobile DirectX variant as times flow past this interview?

Carl & Marcus:

Certainly not. We love working with OpenGL ES! Close to the hardware :) The capabilities of modern mobile devices deliver quite a lot and have not really been a big limiting factor for us. There are usually ways of working around the limitations with different tricks that can be challenging but fun to come up with.

Carl-Oscar:

Considering the available mobile devices for gaming at the market right now the PSP comes to mind. Do you envision yourself as a company to create templates for other platforms than the products you already use?

Carl & Marcus:

We might, but we love how easy it is to work with Apple products on the marketing and sales side of things. We can create a game that we love and release it. We don’t have to listen execs from other companies but can rather create what we feel will be cool.

Carl-Oscar:

If you envision the future right now - what game have you guys produced?

Carl & Marcus:

Cant really tell you the answer to this question ;)

Carl-Oscar:

What are the upcoming products? Any secrets?

Carl & Marcus:

Cant really tell you the answer to this question ;)

Carl-Oscar:

Who do you hire? What do you look in today’s and tomorrows creatives? 

Carl & Marcus:

We hire the most talented engineers who we feel will be great fun to work with. That being said we don’t have any plan to become a big company. We feel that our small size make us very dynamic.

Carl-Oscar:

We know that you are coming to Hyper Island in October, and we are all looking forward to that, thanks a lot for taking the time to answer our questions.

Carl & Marcus:

Thanks, Marcus is looking forward to meeting all of you!

So guys! Go and check out http://www.illusionlabs.com/ ! Maybe you will be the one with the highest Touchgrind score?

Regards,

Group 3

- Do you know about Hyper Island? What do you think of it?I know about it. Graduated some eight years ago. It’s still providing the industry with good talent :)

- What is the hottest on the mobile market right now? (apps/web design) Everyone is waiting to see if the iPad will make the splash it’s been predicted to make. It has the potential to further monetize sectors like newspapers, audio books, and suchlike - but only if the customers decide it’s good enough and it manages to achieve a big enough market. There is a lot of development going on behind the scenes here in Sweden; publishers and content companies want to be quick off the mark when the iPad is officially launched here. - Do you specialize in all platforms or just iPhone? We have done some multi-platform work (not just on smartphones, general accessibility studies and web design for mobile handsets) and a few forays into Android, but our main platform is iOS. It’s what our customers are currently asking for. - What media do you follow to keep up with the mobile app market? Personal networks, mostly. Twitter. - How do you think the pricing of apps will develop? Free + ads, cheaper, more expensive? I’m guessing that current pricing models and cost per app will stay at about the same level as today, but in-app purchases will become more and more important and free stuff will be used to as a lure to sell premium content. - How much mobile do you do at the moment? We are currently developing four apps in-house at the moment, I think. Hard to keep track of all our projects, but that’s an educated guess. - How many people are involved in the development of an app? Depends on the scope of the app, but it ranges from three people (designer, programmer, project manager) up to perhaps six. - What trends are there at the moment? Multiplayer gaming, augmented reality apps, development shifting from small independent developers and hobby projects as the larger companies all want apps of their own. - What’s your prediction of the future? Companies providing the services we’ve come to depend on the Internet for - banking, maps, booking tickets or travel, that sort of thing - will need to move into the mobile space soon, or lose market share. Most handsets will not be getting them as native apps, though. As mobile browsers evolve and competition shifts back and forth, HTML, JS, and CSS with progressive enhancement is the more obvious choice to maximize your reach. - What are you excited about in terms of mobile? Standardization! We finally have capable mobile browsers with blazing fast JS engines and accelerated rendering. Suddenly you have all the tools you’re used to, with the one-two punch of immediacy and localization. - Are you able to accept interns from Hyper Island in the future? And if, what do you expect from them? Attitude, skills etc. Yes, we are. We like them to be open-minded, comfortable with giving and receiving honest feedback, and equipped with curiosity and respect for those who use the services we design. We’re all about creating natural everyday experiences that nevertheless should feel magical. And that takes empathy, passion, and a fair bit of sweat.

BLT

We visited different news agencies in Karlskrona, here are some pictures:

The details of the interviews will be coming up later on during the day!

Sydöstran

We visited different news agencies in Karlskrona, here are some pictures:

The details of the interviews will be coming up later on during the day!

Here is the Video from the Shadowing @ SGU i.e. “Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning” (Swedish Geological Examination) Group 3 wrote a bit about it earlier, here is the contribution from Group 4! Enjoy!

Group 5 (Theatre of Retail) Interview with Joakim Allvarez, product Manager at MOBILAB, Product Manager at Bonnier Responsmedier Mobile services and Founder at Splashi Nordic AB. 

Thanks for giving this interview!

We think it is a matter of course to set up an interview every time a school is calling us.

Joakim, tell us something about yourself! I searched for you on the internet and found, among others, your homepage about “mobila presenter” (mobilapresentkort.se). Who are you and what are you working with? 

Basically, I’m actually an economist. But I slipped in to an IT-direction by pure coincidence, when getting contact with a Telecom company, so I got stuck and stayed. Sex years ago I invented a technology that made it possible to send something valuable by a SMS. There are not many companies in the world who have managed that feat, beside our company, only a South Korean Telecom company succeeded with that.

So you mean they also had technology to send something valuable by a SMS?

Exactly, for example sending a SMS with a check for an ice cream or with money – it is simply about sending a SMS containing something valuable in the actual SMS. A lot of news papers can send out gift vouchers to their costumers when for instant the postman never delivered the news paper or when something went wrong. That means that the costumer can go to the nearest store and get the news paper they should have got in their postbox.   

Wow. I mean, there have been six years from your findings till now and a lot of the new techniques today are very similar to those you invented six years ago.   

We were a big step ahead at that time. We got, and still have, kind of a monopoly situation in Sweden within our area and the technology we invented. The system is very secure and no one has managed to break it jet. 

Tell me about a normal day at work!

Normal days in our life always look different every day – the technology is constantly moving forward and so do we. We are launching new services very often. Yesterday for example we launched this new application which they use on “kvällsöppet”, it is mentometers where the audience can vote and interact immediately in the program while watching. So we are working with a lot of different stuff and we are only 10 employees doing this job.

What do you think about the fact that no one, till now, has succeeded breaking your systems and you are still producing a lot of new stuff, like apps – where do you think that will you be in 5 years from now?

If we look back in history and look into the future, they only have one thing in common is that they all have their faults. When it comes to the future of the mobile phone it gets harder to see a development. But one thing is for sure, there will be more mobile subscriptions then there is today. Today over 5 billion subscriptions exist (globally), which is a fantastic number if we look at the 6,6 billion people existing. Five years ago there existed just 1 billion mobile subscriptions, today there is 5 billion.

The technique is growing really fast! And if you think about the digital industry of today, is there something extra exciting going on? 

If I would choose one thing that is interesting right now, it would be Android. iPhone has changed the world and they made a lot of people interested in mobile phones when using it as a tool to communicate with the consumer. But the iPhone is a very expensive and hyped product. Android is a lot cheaper and you can get one from huawei for 3666 kr (unbound).  Android will take a large square on the market.    

Are you helping these companies with producing new apps?

Absolutely! We are working together with the manufacturers when deciding which apps are going to be in the phones. We collaborate with Sony Ericson, Nokia, and some of the big Asian companies.

What do you think will happen in 5 years, except Android and iPhone, will there be other digital phenomena?  

We believe that apps are really big, but in 5 years more services will be based on HTML5 instead of apps.

Why is that?

Let’s look at it purely historical, when the Internet became popular.  Imagine having to download an application for each page you want to open, without HTML Internet would never have had its breakthrough. Same thing about the mobile phone: there is a problem with the apps, just because you have to download it before you can use them. It would be much easier to release HTML5 as a solution to this problem – HTML contains more opportunities that today only can be found within an app.  

Do you think that companies will market them self on the internet in the future?

I don’t think that it will be enough to only merchandise your company on the internet. The whole media picture is changing very quickly now, companies have to market themselves all over the place, also on twitter and Facebook. But they still have to combine this with traditional marketing, such as newspapers, television and radio.

Are there any weaknesses in the digital industry?

The weakness today is that the possibilities are quite new and our imagination about how to use the digital industry is not as developed as the technology itself. The risk with new technology is that it can be abused, but I want to see the positive things in the digital evolution. As a mobile geek, I usually say that the phone is so much more for me than for others. One example is that a cell phone can accelerate the process of democratization –at all the last major international fractions (that has gone out of control), there has always been someone who has filmed the incident and uploaded it on youtube - that dictatorships can no longer choose what information they want to outsource .

Do you think that mobile applications will die out? Some lectures of ours said that there is no future for apps…

I think they are right, if we keep using apps as we do today that would say. The positive fact about them is that they could develop completely new services about how to use technology, for example in hospitals and within care. But the app from “absolute vodka”, a hyped app helping mix drinks, got more publicity than the app who could measure blood sugar for sick persons with diabetes. So the only problem with apps is how you market them.

What are you looking for, when hiring new creatives?

When we are looking for new employees, we are not looking after the one with the best scores, but we’re looking for specific personalities, people who are challenged by what nobody has done before. We often look for people who have an entrepreneurial orientation, someone who has good ideas and who can argue for them. It comes to think creatively and not in problems tracks.  

Do have one final comment to what we’ve talked about, to the mobile industry?

When you are thinking mobile, we need to consider both long-and short-sighted solutions. When you look in short term, an application should be as simple as possible, it should solve only one problem. Another important thing is to not listen to all the no-voters.

Unfortunately the call was interrupted, because Joachim sat on the subway. I called him up shortly afterwards and thanked him so much; he was interested in coming to Hyper Island to give a lecture. Maybe we meet him soon, let’s hope so!

Montessori is a company where some amazing people develop amazing iPhone and iPad applications for kids who are learning literacy and similar basics. We interviewed Bobby George about mobile and digital technologies role in the new education and mobile industry itself. It is definitely a pioneer company that you should keep your eye on.

Thank you very much for your response! Here there is a bunch of questions that we would like to ask you. Hope you’ll enjoy answering them… Thank you for the opportunity to discuss our exciting new project, Montessorium. You have presented us with some very interesting, challenging and thought provoking questions. We hope our our responses meet your level of inquisitiveness. - First of all your applications look like they are more than just works from a designer and a coder. Do you have any pedagogic background? Or do you have someone professional working with you about this? What kind of backgrounds are you coming from? Our project arose out of necessity, just as much as circumstance. Which is to say, Montessorium was founded by Montessori parents and Montessori teachers. While each of us has a unique background, Angela and Stefan come from the world of web development and June and I from the field of education, we share a common theme and purpose: we want to create beautiful, inspiring and educational applications. In short, apps that make a difference. From the very start our ambition has been to increase awareness of the Montessori approach to education. We want to extend the materials and activities found in a Montessori classroom, and make them available to a larger audience. The beauty of Montessori should not be coveted by a select few, but made accessible for an entirely new generation to embrace. - Is any of your applications are being actively used in a school or kindergarten? Or is your main market is the individual parents? While we originally designed these apps to be used primary in a family type setting, under the observation and supervision of a parent or guardian, we are increasingly becoming aware of the potential to educate a much wider audience, in a more populated type setting. Collectively, we strongly believe that our apps can: first, educate children in new, interactive and exciting ways; second, introduce new families to what Montessori education may have to offer their children; third, increase and strengthen the Montessori classroom experience at home; fourth, highlight what makes Montessori the most successful form of early childhood education on the planet. - How can digital make school more fun? Our apps are not designed to replace the classroom, but to enhance the classroom experience. That is, to extend the materials to a new platform, in a new way, and ultimately, to reach a new audience. In our estimations, one of the most significant advantages of digital applications is not the convenience that they afford, which is monumental, but the possibilities that they present. New ways to approach old problems. Think, for instance, of the ways in which the iPad will forever change the university experience. Incoming students will no longer visit the campus bookstore. They will simply download their books onto their devices. And, while in class, students can take notes, send emails, communicate both academically and socially, with their peers and their professors alike - all from a single device. Students can already access a wealth of information in an instant, tapping into dictionaries, encyclopedias and even online resources. Students may even attend classes, perhaps in another country, or on another continent, via these magic and revolutionary devices. But, this is all starting to become familiar… What fascinates us most, then, is the actual, physical learning capabilities that these new devices, such as the iPhone and iPad, can afford. They have the potential to completely change the way that children learn, interacting in new, dynamic and fun ways. This is exactly where we see Montessorium, at the forefront of these new developments. One of the fundamental tenets of Montessori education is that the child should be allowed to learn that which they wish to learn, following their own interest, at their own pace. New digital media will permit just that. We have a phrase around here that we really enjoy. The only thing more magical and revolutionary than an iPhone or iPad, is learning on them. In this sense, we would like to advocate a healthy and productive conversation on the promises and consequences of implementing digital technologies in traditional settings. - Do you think that increasing role of the digital media at school is something bad or scary as some parents or teachers believe? Why? Why not? This is an extremely timely and fascinating line of inquiry. We see ourselves at the forefront of exactly these types of questions. The old argument against technology was that it was a one way form of communication. For example, the child sits in front of the device, the radio, the television, and simply absorbs what is offered without actively engaging and thinking about the information that was being transmitted.  And, it was just that, information. Today, however, as we all know, this landscape continues to change as new devices become more sensorial and interactive. Children, and users more generally, are actually able to engage the materials with their senses! Of course, as with any new form of technology, parents and students, along with their teachers, need to find an appropriate solution that works best for the individual interests and needs of the child. - Do you find the current educational system useful / efficient? What can digital media do to improve it? What we would really like to see is an educational system designed around the individual interests of the child. A form of education that permits children the freedom to follow and explore their interests, at their own pace. It is time for the factory model of education to cease and a new form of education to arise. Of course, digital media could play a vital and timely role in this ascension. - How the technology have changed the interaction between kids? In our estimations, our apps, Intro to Math and Intro to Letters, serve to increase and strengthen the Montessori classroom activities. Often, we find students return to the classroom with a renewed sense of interest and vitality after playing with our apps at home. And, at the same time, they introduce new families to what makes Montessori such a unique form of education. - How did the role of consumer technology / digital media change at education in last 5/10/15 years? As we mentioned previously, if we could encapsulate this radical transition in a single sentence, it would read thus: In the education industry, technology has largely shifted away from a one way form of communication, (the mere transmission of information) to a more interactive and engaging method (an actual form of learning). - What do you get noticed in app store? We believe that it’s just a mess there until you get into top sellers lists? How did you menage until that stage? We believe that if you design a good product with a good, solid and meaningful story to tell, it will find a way to be seen. - Finally, do you know anything about Hyper Island? If you do, what do you think of our way of learning (learning by trying and experiencing, sharing the experiences) here? ( : We think that Hyper Island is very much in line with the Montessori revolution in education. We commend you and your school for helping us to take things at least one step further. Thank you very much again. We are looking forward to hear about your inspiring answers,

Sarp

I decided to go to sleep early today. I could not stay too long because of the early interview with USTWO, work on our presentation for the first module at Hyper Island and quite long trip to Poland I will experience tomorrow.