    
|
The HTML Working Group has update two Working Drafts and a Working Group Note today:
Learn more about the HTML Activity.
]]>|
|
The group of students, who were part of a fall 2012 freshman seminar class on entrepreneurship and innovation, have sold the intellectual property rights for their class creation — a campus navigation mobile application — to Hanover’s Tecore Networks. The goal of the class was for students to work together to develop an idea for a product or service, then work together to bring their idea to market. One of the purposes of the class was to help students develop usable workplace skills, such as teamwork, communication and troubleshooting problems.
The app is designed to give students a tour of the campus without a tour guide. It is expected to hit the market next fall.
On April 18, 2013, Team Banana Bones won the annual UMBC Idea Competition sponsored by the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship at UMBC, with their app that helps people navigate the UMBC Campus and community. It also interacts with campus resources such as the myUMBC Events Calendar and takes into account handicap accessibility routing for those who require it.
The winners, who called themselves Team Banana Bones, were Josh Massey, Andres Camacho, Ayushi Aggarwal, and Hashem Kanfash. Aggarwal says the idea was born of the need for an integrated campus body and the need for local business involvement in on-campus affairs. (Link)
Article credit:
UMBC students turned entrepreneurs sell mobile app to Hanover company
Sarah Gantz
Baltimore Business Journal
Date: Monday, October 14, 2013, 2:39pm EDT
“Get out of the building and talk to customers” is wonderful advice because understanding your customers is perhaps the best way to improve your chances of making good product decisions. Knowing what makes people tick enhances your product intuition—your internalized view of how great products should be built. And, honing this intuition enables you to make better decisions, faster because you are utilizing first-hand internalized knowledge of your customers and products instead of outside systems or ways of thinking.
Let‘s break down what it means to understand your customers by exploring empathy, experience, and excitement.
Empathy is being able to feel what people feel when they use your products. To be able to step into their shoes and see the world as they see it. It is one of the most powerful areas of intuition you can develop. Becoming a more empathetic product maker will make many decisions a lot clearer because you’ll be able to see and, most importantly, feel what matters most to your customers. Anyone can learn to be more empathetic; the main requirement is starting with humility.
What experiences do people like or hate? User experience—UX—has become an entire profession for good reason; the quality of a product’s experience is often tantamount to its success. There are times when you need to make judgment calls or compromises to a product’s experience—how do you know what is the right call (ignoring for a second user research methods)? You can only do this well if you know how to judge what is the best tradeoff to make. Developing empathy also helps.
Given two products, can you say which one would be more exciting? Intuitively knowing what makes people excited is a huge competitive advantage. The Kano model is an easy way to categorize excitement features, but there is also an element of excitement that comes from how a feature is implemented.
In an age of data-driven decision making, we should not lose our grasp on the place for intuitive thinking. Having a well developed intuition about what makes products appeal to customers is essential for creating great products. Data-driven and scientific methods will not by themselves result in appealing products for humans. Grow your intuition and then use it to make the best products you can!
The post Make Better Product Decisions appeared first on Treehouse Blog.
]]>An algorithm that assesses the quality of Wikipedia articles could reassure visitors and help focus editors on entries that need improving, say the computer scientists who developed it.
]]>
The old saying is that the optimist sees the glass as half full, while the pessimist sees the glass as half empty. It is, however, the opportunist who drinks the water while the other two argue about the amount of liquid in the glass.
The term, “negative space” is akin to that old saying because there is always something in the space. It may not be type or color or an image, but the space has purpose and function. How can that be “negative”?
Most definitions of “negative space” are that it is the empty space around and between the subject(s) of an image. Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, and not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and such space is occasionally used as an artistic effect to enhance or draw attention to the focal subject of an image.
The use of negative space is a key element of artistic composition. It is the glue that holds all of the elements together. It may be vast, or just a few pixels between an overload of elements, but it is always there.
“There is no such thing as negative space. Only shape and counter shape.” – Charles Goslin
This has been a misnomer in design for generations. No one knows who started it, just like why so many prospective clients all know the line, “this is a great opportunity to have your work seen,” when they want free work from a designer. It just keeps popping up. The problem is, when explaining design decisions, using the term, “negative space” gives off negative and confusing connotations.
It is a confusing term that should be replaced in our vocabulary as designers, along with other misnomers for design that only we understand. Communication with clients, and the masses.
Negative space, is, in fact, that illusion between the eye and the brain. You’ve seen the chalice that becomes two faces, and other such optical illusions? Does it have to be black and white? How do colors register on the brain?
The examples above are what most people think of with “negative space.” It’s the use of stark contrasts to reveal a complete or hidden image or message. As Goslin said, “only shape and counter shape.”
Even a mix of colors works when the shapes play upon the contrasting colors. It is not an easy thing and the simplicity demands brilliant thinking, and the ability to see quickly how shapes form an image. ©Noma Bar
The FedEx logo was a brilliant use of a negative shape… or was it just an accident that the type formed, and someone saw the arrow at the meeting of the E and X?
There is, however, more to the building of an optical illusion with those shapes. This is where most of the confusion of negative space arises. Is it so cut and dried? Does it have to be like the assortment of logos above? Does a straight line have to be straight or can it use shapes to give the illusion of it being a straight line?
Some samples from the website of Illustrator Tang Yau Hoong that are entitled, “The art of negative space. An attempt to tell a story through illustration.” Unfortunately, while they are all well-executed pieces of art, with fun, and creative twists, the shapes don’t interact with each other to the point where they can truly be called, “negative space“. What the empty or space shapes do, is draw attention to other shapes and elements. It is a clever use of minimalist design, rather than a use of negative space.
On the website, Photography Mad, the article, “Understanding and Using “Negative Space” in Photography,” the examples shown are NOT negative space. They are beautiful compositions, but it harkens back to the glass being full with water, and air. The space draws attention to the focal point. Negative space can be used effectively in photography, as it can be in illustration, design, and video. In this case, however, the backgrounds are not shapes that define, or work with the objects in the foreground. They are colors and blurs that emphasize another element to be more important and pop against it.
Often minimalist design is confused with negative space, as with the photographs above and Hoong’s illustrations. Minimalist ads have been around for decades. Even some of the greatest painters in history have used minimalist approaches in their portraiture to emphasize the subject figure.
Volkswagen was known for their minimalist ads, showing just the product, and not their vehicles driving on the Pacific Coast Highway, or lonely roads. The focus was simply on the cars and the space in these print ads drew the eye of the viewer right to the product.
Other minimalist ads that use space and simplicity to spotlight their message. It’s easy to tell the difference between negative space, and minimal elements, which are shapes against blank space, as opposed to shapes working against, and in tandem with other shapes.
Whenever you see the hilarious examples of odd client statements that dot sites across the web, it usually includes the client throwing out words they believe to be standard design terms that will communicate what they want for their design project.
So, what does “negative space” mean to different people? Obviously different things. The important thing to remember is that when a client sees space in a design, there will no doubt be a request to make a logo bigger, throw in ten pounds of type into the five pound bag, or fill the space because they feel they are not getting their money’s worth if all of the space isn’t used. Even using the term, “minimalist” has its dangers. In the end, every designer must know these rules of design, how and when to break them, and when to just tell the client, “here’s your design,” and smile, then hope it’s not changed.
What are your thoughts about the examples used in this article? Do you have a take on the terms and design executions? Let us know in the comments.
Featured image/thumbnail, negative space image via Noma Bar.
| Vandelay Web & Responsive Design Kit: 400+ Elements – only $27! |  |
|
|