QR codes, UI and culture
Dan Grover left San Francisco for Guangzhou and became product manager at WeChat.
On his blog, he compiled a list of UI trends of Chinese apps and compared them to Western apps.
Two elements are striking because we, the Western world, never managed to make them achieve mainstream success: QR codes and location. Both are very popular in China.
Perhaps, then it might be important to consider cultural subtleties when executing on your idea. A good execution might be impeded by poor judgement on the cultural tendencies of the market’s society.
Christensen focuses on the principle that we “hire” certain products and services to solve our problems. That’s a great perspective to define the utility value of a digital product: Look for the same qualities in that product that you’d look for in a human being doing the same job.
At first (but only at first), think of your app as what utility value it offers to peeps, not UX.
The Manager’s One-Minute Guide To Brainstorming Apps ⚙ Co.Labs ⚙ code community
The scant science behind anything that claims to boost your brainpower
The scant science behind anything that claims to boost your brainpower
Debunking the effectiveness of Lumosity and co.
Shipping Stuff Is A Hassle. Shyp Will Do It For You
Shipping Stuff Is A Hassle. Shyp Will Do It For You
Using Shyp’s app, when customers request a pickup, they take a picture of their items using their smartphone camera. The app then shows the estimated arrival time for an assigned driver who picks up the items and takes care of packaging and shipping. Once the order is processed, customers are emailed a tracking number.Shyp + eBay?
Would You, Young Person, Pay $8 For A New York Times News App?
Would You, Young Person, Pay $8 For A New York Times News App?
NYT Now, much like similar news aggregation apps–Inside, Flipboard, etc.–churns out a curated stream of news articles in a form digestible to the phone-obsessed consumer. The app differs from its competition in that the 30-40 news articles a day will be curated and edited by esteemed editors from the Times, who will summarize the day’s news into bullet points. It will also offer morning and evening briefings, providing a roundup of the day’s news.
Seems promising, I would most definitely try it.
There’s just a tremendous amount of craftsmanship in between a great idea and a great product
Solving the App Store Discovery Problem with App Playlists and Good Taste
Solving the App Store Discovery Problem with App Playlists and Good Taste
Most of the attempts to solve the problem lean on shoddy software algorithms. They’re blunt tools at best, and games for crooks at worst.
I do agree.
iA Writer underwent a product revolution. It became Writer Pro and this is the intro video.
It adds a workflow for your writing and now costs 20 bucks. It looks epic.
Source: Writer Pro.
Subtitles
A very nifty app for the Mac which automatically downloads the appropriate subtitles for your movies and TV shows. Developed by Alberto Garcia Hierro.
Minbox
Minbox is a lightweight menubar app that lets you send files to the right people faster than Dropbox.
It was made by the guys behind Penzu, a secret journal.
You should check it out.
Google Glass app lets you simply wink to take a photo
Google Glass app lets you simply wink to take a photo
And so it begins.
Dragdis - a visual bookmarking tool
Dragdis - a visual bookmarking tool
Very clever and well implemented. You should try it.
The main problem with most bookmarking tools is that you either need to do a lot of actions to save anything or you end up with a huge clutter later. Dragdis solves all this by allowing you to drag and drop links, images, videos and text to folders that appear on the right side of your browser the moment you start dragging something. With two full days of Dragdis behind me, I am a very happy user as links and smaller pieces of content ar organized and easily shareable.