Don’t ƨɘlʇiɘ my selfie, please!

Mobile Apps, UX, , , ,
A selfie taken during a recent conference. Wait… what happened to all those text in the background? Why are they mirrored?
A selfie taken during a recent conference. Wait… what happened to all those text in the background? Why are they mirrored?

Hey, what happened to all those text in the background? Why are they mirrored?

Who doesn’t want to take a selfie and broadcast it to the world? We all love to capture the moment, the place and the fact that we are present in the scene of action. we use the mobile front camera for taking selfies and video calls.

Depending on the social media app that you use to take a selfie, the transmitted image can be a ‘lateral inverted’ version as shown above.
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Who moved my hamburger?

Mobile Apps, UX, ,
hamburger menu-apps
Hamburger Menu (Side Drawer Menu) of Evernote, Gmail, VLC Player and Yahoo! Weather apps. All are Android versions.

You are not considered as a ‘complete’ UX designer till you publish your views on the “≡” alias “hamburger menu,” alias Side Drawer Menu!

The recent update of the YouTube Android app by Google prompted me to jump on the bandwagon and express my thoughts on this interesting UI pattern.

“≡” is called a “hamburger menu” for its resemblance to a hamburger, the top and bottom lines representing the bun and its middle line representing the hamburger filling.
– Wikipedia

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"If all you have is a hammer…" From MobileSparks 2015

Designer Life, Mobile Apps, News, , , , ,

If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail!
–Law of the instrument
(Narrated by Sahil Kini of Aspada at MobileSparks 2015)

MobileSparks is YourStory’s conference on mobile. The 2015 edition happened in Bengaluru on August 7th and 8th. Yours truly attended this conference.
I would like to share some quips I picked up during the event. I have created the following from my notes. The words may not be the exact ones uttered by the attributed persons. But I think I have succeeded in retaining the spirit.
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How to Design Intuitive Mobile Apps

Mobile Apps, UX, , , ,

vimeo-1
Vimeo iPhone app

“The UI should be intuitive” is the topmost item in the requirement brief from clients for a mobile app design.

Intuitive [in-too-i-tiv, -tyoo-] (adjective):
Easy to understand or operate without explicit instruction.
– Dictionary.com

So, ‘Intuitive’ means ‘no surprises,’ right?
It is difficult to bring novel interactive elements or ‘pleasant surprises’ or ‘Wow! factors’ in a completely intuitive UI.
What can we do to have the best of both worlds?
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Decoding the Elusive 'Wow! Factor' in Mobile Apps

Mobile Apps, UX, , , ,

Making
As a UX designer, I have been told umpteen times by clients or stakeholders to add some ‘Wow! factors’ in the design. There is nothing wrong in this request. But if you ask them to define this ‘Wow! factors,’ probably you will get some fumbling or vague answers. Or, they will mention the name of a recent eye candy app followed by the question, “Why don’t you design our app like that?”
If you identify with my situation, let us try to decode the ‘Wow! Factors’ and publish the results for the greater good of all app designers!

Wow [wou] (noun):
Excitement, interest, great pleasure, or the like
– Dictionary.com

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Why I'm Uninstalling a Great Mobile App from Yahoo!

Mobile Apps, Review, UX, , , , , ,

YahooNewsDigest-Android-Phone
Yahoo! News Digest mobile app is a gem. The experience is awesome. The news digest gets published twice a day at 08:00 AM and 06:00 PM. Simply consume the news as a healthy nine/ten/eleven nibbles. “Did you know?” at the end of each digest is always a good read. The subtle dots animations and parallax transitions are awesome.
But today, probably around 06:30 PM IST, with a heavy heart, I uninstalled this wonderful app.
Why, you ask?
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Articulating Screen – Is it useful in a DSLR?

Photography, Tutorial, , , , , , , , ,

Articulating screen - is it useful in a DSLR
The above photo was posted by Sudhir Shivaram in his Facebook page. (imgae link) My interest was immediately piqued. I understand the pain of looking through the eyepiece at such low angle (think macro photos). So I wanted to know what wildlife pro photogs thought about an articulating screen.
The following conversation took place based on my question.
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I participated in Canon Photmarathon 2014 and didn't win

News, Photography, , , , , ,

It was my first time attending a time bound photography spot event. It makes you feel the pressure when big things are at stake. In this case, the prizes at offer were phenomenal.
There were two themes given during the day in two session. First one was “Tranquility”. I had two images to choose from for the submission.
canon photo marathon 2014 submission 1 theme tranquility
Second theme was “Chaos”.
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Sujan Sarkar – Keep your camera ON; always

Interview, Photography, , , , , , , , , ,

Sujan Sarkar Interview with designpuli
Sujan, a school teacher, is the most decorated photographer we had the privilege to feature in this blog. He is fascinated by the energy of human soul, environmental issues, daily life, landscape and social issues. He is on a constant pursuit to improve his photography with every click.

Sujan Sarkar Interview with designpuli Sujan Sarkar
Facebook
Technique: Travel

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