My latest poster effort, just been accepted to the DIS 2012 conference in Newcastle. So if your attending I’ll be there from the 12th-15th June. Tweet to meet @kylemontague
Here is the full .pdf version of my poster:
Designing for Individuals: Using the SUM Framework – PDF Poster
So recently I attended and presented at the Digital Engagement conference which took place at the Sports Direct Arena (formally known at St. James Park) in Newcastle. There were some minor issues with the microphones and PA system, resulting in the first 4minutes of my presentation being delivered in the form of a mime. However the comments afterwards seem to suggest the message got across.
Ok lets just accept that touch-screens are here to stay, they are in our cars, pockets, supermarkets, atms etc. Most of us are familiar with the on-screen qwerty keyboard and are able to compose text messages relatively quick. I draw the line at text messages, although htc desireHD and ipad are able to send and receive emails I point blank refuse to compose emails on the things. It takes me longer, I make more mistakes and it raises my blood pressure (may not be fact). I believe I’m not alone with my frustrations, many of us are able to touch-type quite the thing on the classic physical keyboard. Sadly this skill can’t be directly transferred to our touch-screen keyboards.
More goodies.If you are like me and you break into a cold sweat at the very thought of using xcode’s interface builder to make a .nib file, and would much rather open up a code file and design your UIView then you are in for a treat.
Continue reading Objective-C 960 Grid is here (Update: added android version)
Ok so it’s been a while since I have posted anything, guess I broke my plans for posting once a week. Anyways testing you apps accessibility, currently I’m talking about iOS, however the same concepts apply to Android, WP7, Rim etc. When is comes to web design there is no shortage of tools and applications to help designers and developers validate and evaluate their sites code and accessibility e.g. W3C, Wave and aDesigner. However the same cannot be said for developing native applications for the mobile platforms. Whilst the OS giants provide accessibility API’s and guidelines (some more detailed than others) they fail to supply us developers with methods of assessing how we did. Sifting through your applications page by page using the Accessibility Inspector (iOS only) can be grueling process. *ASSUMPTION ALERT* As a result developers don’t do it. They just validate, check for memory leaks and submit to the stores. Why should they care? Apple don’t! Google don’t!, Windows don’t!, Rim don’t! The applications just get approved. Misuse a icon, or cut into someones profit margins and your app will be kicked back in your face in a heartbeat. Make your print magazine or news papers available in digital format and provide no screen reader (e.g. Voice Over, Talkback) support whatsoever. APPROVED!
Ok so this is a bit of a weird one, I guess it came to me in a dream where for some unknown reason I was completely deaf. Not sure what this dream says about with me but it was interesting. I began this experience feeling a little anoyed having just subscribed to 3months of Spotify premium (Still waiting on them giving me 12month free for my GuestList idea.) then not being able to full enjoy it. However as the dream developed I did other things including take a driving lesson.
Continue reading Cloud based emergency service tracking (I Had A Dream…)
I found a little snippet of code for resizing font sizes based on a UILabel size somewhere on the web (Sorry if it was your code, I couldn’t find the page again. But all credit to you!) The code below will take in a chunk of text, font name, minimum and maximum font size and a container size (width and height), and in return it will give you the font that will fit that space.
The next stage of my research, The mobile TV Guide. As you might have read from my earlier posts I’m interested in mobile devices and accessibility. This next project is no different, focusing on the Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) design and interaction methods. Whilst we are all familiar with the use of a grid layout; channels down the side and time along the top on our digital TVs, a system that works “Ok I guess” with the standard remote control for the majority of people. The same cannot be said for these applications that mimic this design on mobile platforms.
Had a little spark today and thought I would follow through on it. As a result I ended up contacting Spotify with my new killer feature request and writing this post. Hopefully I get a reply and who knows, they might even make it happen.
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