konch blog

New power socket on Ganton street (Taken with Instagram at The...

Tue, 15 May 2012 09:22:06 +0100

New power socket on Ganton street (Taken with Instagram at The Shaston Arms)

Instasunset (Taken with Instagram at Lloyd Park)

Tue, 01 May 2012 20:16:37 +0100

Instasunset (Taken with Instagram at Lloyd Park)

Baggy face (Taken with Instagram at The App Business)

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 09:52:58 +0100

Baggy face (Taken with Instagram at The App Business)

Sunset over Walthamstow (Taken with Instagram at Town Square)

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 19:27:24 +0100

Sunset over Walthamstow (Taken with Instagram at Town Square)

When in doubt, make (homemade) pizza (Taken with Instagram at...

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 19:44:36 +0000

When in doubt, make (homemade) pizza (Taken with Instagram at Brettenham Road)

How we designers get through Fridays

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:16:43 +0000

How we designers get through Fridays

Sparrow for iPhone Video

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 11:52:45 +0000

sparrowmail:

It’s been some time that we wanted to say those words:

Sparrow iPhone is now available on the App Store.

Like on the Mac, our goal is to offer you a pleasurable yet more efficient way to deal with your mail on your iPhone.

We gave as much space as we could to your content, emphasized the most common actions and made sure power features were quickly accessible and easy to discover.

You can play with the app and discover its features on our website.

Good Sparrowing to you.

What happens when you combine iOS gestures and UI conventions...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 11:39:00 +0000

What happens when you combine iOS gestures and UI conventions from Tweetie, Facebook, Twitter for iPad & Path? You get Sparrow, and that’s not a bad thing either. This mail app still feels rooted in iOS despite using a number of “3rd party” conventions.

No doubt using a lot of the tech from their successful desktop app this 1.0 release seems really stable. There’s clearly been some good beta testing. Push notifications are an obvious omission and they are hoping to implement them, but to be honest it’s quite nice not having constant notifications.

I’ll definitely give it a run as my default email client and for those that need it hope that a push solution can be implemented in the next or upcoming release.

fieldstudylibrary: “Wireframes are dead. Sketches are dead....

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:41:14 +0000

fieldstudylibrary:

“Wireframes are dead. Sketches are dead. Persona study is dead. Meetings are dead…

Photoshop is dead. Spec work is dead. Waterfall model is dead. Relational database is dead. A/B testing is dead. Five day work week is dead…”

I find myself worried that I am not keeping up with best practices and methods. I’ve been in job interviews where I get very specific questions about seemingly arbitrary processes and methods. Do you understand user flows, info architecture, A/B testing, QA, agile, etc. etc. etc.? Just do the work. Do what works for you. I used to be laughed at for designing for web in Illustrator; now it is becoming more standard and soon it will be something else. Tools change, processes evolve, goals are a moving target. Don’t be good at tools. Be good at getting good thoughtful work done.

Hot Dogs for lunch & iPad bingo for later (Taken with...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 13:59:05 +0000

Hot Dogs for lunch & iPad bingo for later (Taken with instagram)

typetoy: TypeToy.tumblr.com

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:56:00 +0000

typetoy:

TypeToy.tumblr.com

So with almost no fanfare this app called Clear comes out and it...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:52:21 +0000

So with almost no fanfare this app called Clear comes out and it doesn’t really do anything of note… well kind of.

For one there has been a load of hype and press around this app, someone even released a knock-off before the app hit the store! A lot of the talk has been around the interface, the rest its use of gestures. The general feeling is that this is a game changer, the start of a UX revolution where all apps will be super reduced and rely solely on gestures.

It feels kinda of foreign at first, like a new OS (*cough* Metro *cough*) has been strapped onto iOS but there’s nothing new here. They have taken the underlying gestures in iOS and brought them to the forefront rather than have them in a recessed supporting role. You’ll not find labelled buttons to close, add edit or delete. Instead you pinch, pull & swipe.

The apps feature set is also really really focussed. You can create lists and add items to those lists. That is it. It’s more like its pen and paper counterpart than any other app that uses skeuomorphism to make it feel like you are using a pen/paper/notepad.

But is that all it does?

Well no. It makes you think about what’s next, and what other apps will look like when you think different.

Hey it’s almost the weekend people!

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:15:14 +0000

Hey it’s almost the weekend people!

"Taking vacation at Red Frog is encouraged (and even celebrated). And it’s not abused. Ever. By..."

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:43:08 +0000

“Taking vacation at Red Frog is encouraged (and even celebrated). And it’s not abused. Ever. By anyone. Simply make sure your work is getting done and make sure you’re covered while you’re away and that’s it—no questions asked.”

- Give Your Employees Unlimited Vacation Days

Some look at business management techniques like this and think they are pipe dreams or flat out silly. I disagree: I think it’s a shift in our culture and a necessary one. Just as sales commissions train salespeople to focus on the wrong results, so do strict 9-5 environments and time-tracking. Productivity, skill, and value do not relate to minutes, hours, or days. One day I hope to lead an office with unrestricted vacation time, transparent salaries, and proper 15% time.

(via 9-bits)

We Are The 0.6%

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:24:38 +0000

We Are The 0.6%:

parislemon:

Hard to pick the most ridiculous element of these updated numbers.

Is it that just 0.6% of Android users have Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) two months after it launched?

Is it that of the remaining 99.4%, only 55% are upgraded to Gingerbread (2.3), which came out over a year ago?

Is it that over 30% are stuck on Froyo (2.2) which is 20 months old?

Is it that 8.5% (something like 10 million devices) are stuck on Eclair (2.1), which came out two years ago?

Is it that only 3.3% are using Honeycomb (3.0), which means that all those highly-touted tablets last year are clearly huge flops?

I can’t decide. You choose.