pinch/zoom blog

Here at pinch/zoom we always get clients asking the same thing, over and over. This is by no means a bad thing, it just reaffirms our role as mobile educators and not merely designers and developers.

Every project is unique and each client has their own unique problem they approach us to solve on their behalf. The problem is, on each of these unique journeys, we hit a lot of very common and repetitive roadblocks.

What is the mobile ecosystem and why should I care? What is device fragmentation and will it cost me money? HTML5 is finally supported on the iPhone and will fix all my problems, right?

These questions can often lead to lengthy discussions with your agency or developers but it's definitely handy to start with a small pocket of knowledge on each topic.

This is why we have created Mobile Bits, collective bits of knowledge about design & development for mobile.

In our third video from CTIA (and quite possibly the funniest), Brian Fling talks to VGo, a telepresence robot designed to help in the healthcare and those in remote working situations.

It's a pretty amazing robot and I can think of hundreds of useful applications for it. The VGo is a mobile device equipped with camera, screen and microphone, and it's controlled by a user with a computer and wifi/internet access. It's being touted as perfect for "executives who don't want the hassle of travelling between distant offices" but I think this is short-changing the VGo. Think of the opportunities for doctors in remote areas - if a country hospital had a VGo and a roster of specialty doctors around the world, think of how helpful that could be. Or a bomb disposal squad (although I'm sure they have their own robots). 

At SXSW I was lucky to be in a talk by Kent Brewster, the lead developer on their iPhone app project. As well as being an entertaining speaker, he had me wanting to scream "Yes" when he was describing the pitfalls he fell into during the process of building the app. They all hit so close to home - every single issue he struggled with was something we've been dealing with for the past 2 years within pinch/zoom. 

His big learnings that had me nearly sobbing with relief that other people have experienced this too: 

He didn't insist on an adequate API. There were 23 separate API calls for the front page alone. I've recently been arguing that 6 is too many for one screen, but 23 makes me really glad I wasn't working on that project. Apparently Netflix are fixing the API now, but keep in mind this app has been out for over a year now. 

He agreed to a ridiculous deadline. He thought he had about 6 months to develop the app but due to decisions from management he had to churn it out in a few months. This put unnecessary stress on the development of this project. 

He let people who didn't write code make key architectural decisions. I don't write code myself, but I have definitely seen people in management make key decisions that perhaps weren't the best way forward for a project. 

He tried to mimic native functionality and interactions using mobile web. This is a trap we've fallen into a few times now. In theory it should all just work. The reality is it can take longer to mimic native functionality in HTML than it is to write it natively in the first place. 

His slides are definitely worth a look, I've embedded them below. His talk was one of my highlights of SXSW. 

Brian Fling and the rest of the team are down at CTIA in Orlando this week, checking out the latest devices and releases. 

They caught up with Motorola about 4Home, their new home automation system and it really feels like the future is here. 

I've seen Bruce Sterling talk about the Internet of Things many times at SXSWi, and the shape of homes, businesses and the world around us once everything is interconnected. Motorola is taking the first step with 4Home, where thermostat, locks and monitoring systems can be controlled by either your mobile phone, tablet, computer or television. 

Consumers will have the ability to receive information about various appliance power usage as well as forecasts of future energy bills. This will empower them with the ability to adjust their energy consumption habits in real-time. 

  It feels like it was just yesterday that I opened my inbox to find an email from Brian Fling telling me he was creating a new agency for the mobile web and was full of vision and optimism. That email led to a lot of conversations about agency models, and un-agencies and the future of mobile, and in April 2009 pinch/zoom officially launched. 

In two years we've grown from a group of developers and designers spread out around the world (USA, Canada, Australia, NZ and England I believe), to focus on being a strategic mobile partner to some of the largest companies on earth. 

It's been a crazy ride in the last two years. We've seen the explosion of mobile thanks to the iPhone, Android and other smart phones. We've seen the beginning of tablets and the move away from PCs, and most importantly, we've seen a lot of companies come to the realization that they need to be focusing on mobile and need to be focusing right now. 

In the last two years we've seen the growth of mobile banking, mobile video, mobile search, mobile social networking. There are now 5.3 billion mobile subscribers - that's 77% of the world's population. There are over a billion apps downloaded from the iTunes app store. 

And the crazy thing is this is just the beginning. We're living in really exciting times - and going over my notes from the last two years we're only just scratching the surface. 

Before SXSW in 2010, we worked on an amazing project that allowed us to try a new way of working, pulling together a dream team to solve design issues that our client had been struggling with for nearly 5 years.

The Context is a show by pinch/zoom that covers mobile and the craft of kick-ass experiences. For 2011.03.14 we cover:

Design Summit and the future of design collaboration

iPad magazines

Smartphone marketshare

Mobile payments

HP webOS

CTIA

Tiny Wings and iPhone games

Twitter's #dickbar

I've just returned from SXSW in Austin and am full of ideas and inspiration. There were some really inspiring speakers this year, and much higher quality panels than in previous years. 

Mobile was definitely the hot topic of this year (followed closely by social media) with the majority of mobile topics having standing room only. There were some great talks, but the standout for me was Glenda Watson Hyatt talking about iPads and accessibility. 

Glenda has cerebral palsy and her methods of communication are incredibly limited. Her speech isn't easy to understand so she can only really talk to her family and close friends, which can be lonely and isolating for her. Her talk was given by a screen-reader with matching slides. 

Glenda's life has been significantly changed for the better by the iPad. On the same day she bought her first iPad she went to some social drinks, and with the help of her iPad she communicated with strangers for the first time in her life. Wow. 

Something like that really dwarfs a lot of conversations about cool iPad design and the latest must-have game. This is a device that can actually change a lot of lives for the better. I'm actually getting a little teary thinking about it again as it's really helped me focus a lot more on what I want to be working on.

Glenda mainly communicates via an app called Proloquo2Go, made by  AssistiveWare. She mentioned that it's a fraction of the cost of most accessibility software so accessible to most - I personally was shocked that it's nearly $200. I guess compared to Jaws and the like it's not expensive, but considering the average cost of an app in the App Store is US$1.29 it's a lot of money. 

A couple of us are currently throwing around ideas on how we can make a cheaper or free app that can help accessibility but to be honest, our experience with disabilities and communication is based on our web experience so if you want to help us with some research or testing then please get in touch. 

She also had some stories on how iPads have helped autistic children communicate, focus, learn and develop. 9 year old Leo had severe issues communicating and focusing until he received an iPad. “He is not conversational, he learns very slowly, and he has been prone to violent outbursts.”

Leo had shown interest in the iPod Touch, but its 3.5-inch screen was difficult for his fingers to navigate. Within a month of his Mom winning an iPad, Leo had mastered apps designed to teach spelling, counting, drawing, making puzzles, remembering pictures, and more. The iPad has also been used to teach manners and to distract his attention prior to outbursts.

There's more information about autism and iPads over at Foxnews. 

I feel like I had one of those "a-ha" moments like when I first saw a blind guy using a screen-reader to read an online newspaper. This is a device that can give people back their freedom, dignity and communication and open a lot of doors. 

For iOS developers, Apple have some development accessibility guidelines. As far as I know, there currently aren't any accessibility standards when designing and developing for mobile - the W3C have web accessibility guidelines and some mobile web best practices but there doesn't seem to be any all-encompassing mobile standards. 

And the Dicky goes to...

twitter failed so badly with the #dickbar by putting business goals ahead of user needs, we created a special award in their honor called The Dicky, for worst mobile design.

Looktel have released an iPhone app that uses optical recognition for blind users to be able to identify and count US currency. 

At pinch/zoom we've just created a show called The Context that covers mobile and the craft of kick-ass experiences. For 2011.03.07 we cover:

- iPad2 - iPad usability  - Web vs. Native - Device fragmentation - Why animation matters in mobile design - Apple's revenue model with carriers

FastCompany just published an article about the Q Sensor, a new portable, wearable stress-level monitor. 

Some of their findings from their initial tests are really interesting, for example, dealing with email on a daily basis was more stressful than public speaking, and getting a kid ready to go in the morning was more stressful than going on a roller coaster for one mother. 

What I find particularly interesting was some of the potential uses for this device, particularly in hooking it up to a smartphone. Fastcompany suggested that the smartphone could tell the user when they need to chill out but that's just scratching at the surface. 

Imagine out-patients from hospital being able to send this data to their doctors on a regular basis via their phone. (Or therapists, or counselors or even yoga teachers). 

As they mentioned, high stress situations is when recovering addicts can often relapse. Getting those early warnings connected to your smartphone could send alerts at the right time. 

Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer recently discussed the costs of running the world's largest mobile app store, stating:

We run the App Store just a little over breakeven.

Awesome quote from Craig Villamor on Mobile Web Apps:

When you visit a website and discover that they have a mobile version of the site, you are pleasantly surprised. The experience is so much better than what you had expected that little quirks don’t even register in your mind. On the other hand, when you download an app from the AppStore and it seems even slightly sluggish, when animations are not smooth and scrolling stutters, you think that app is a piece of junk.

I think Craig really taps into an exciting, yet freaky aspect of mobile design and development. The anti-climactic release of The Daily goes to show that native certainly doesn't guarantee better results.