Technology posts

The web has grown rapidly in the last two decades and its omnipresence makes it easy to forget that just 20 years ago it was an unheard of concept for most people.

While as designers and developers we feel fully engaged with the web, law makers are, perhaps inevitably, still running to catch up. The flurry of prosecutions worldwide for copyright theft, political dissent, and even bad jokes on twitter, all point to legal bodies struggling to cope with a technological shift that rivals the industrial revolution in significance.

The interests of governments have largely been directed at harnessing...

“Barry, wake up!” screamed Winny but he just groaned and pulled up the old comforter over his head. It was his first day off from the magical ministry and the last thing he wanted was some witch yelling at him.

“Wake UP!” Winny bellowed again as she flicked her wand, making clothes fly into the hamper and pulling the curtains open, letting the grey December morning flood the room. Barry didn’t move.

“Aflappio,” she said while flicking her wand and the covers flew from the bed, revealing the undergarment-clad body of her husband...

Doing business in the age of social media and online communities is not the same as it was some 20 plus years ago. It’s not enough to just have a great product or good customer service, you need great customer service and this could mean going back to the old ways.

Today I’m going to discuss with you the significance of getting personal with your business and why it’s more important than ever to ‘be friends’, so to speak, with your customers.

You...

It will come as no surprise to anyone, that slow buffering of a video is highly likely to see viewers give up, and go and do something less boring instead.

Think about all the hours you’ve wasted staring at a progress bar. A few seconds here, a few seconds there, you’ve probably lost months of your life.

As content consumers, we can find delays unacceptable, we certainly find them both irritating and frustrating; I take a very dim view of a company that makes me wait for content, even if it’s no longer than it takes to grab a sip of coffee. A slow buffering video, jerkily streamed audio feed or even an image heavy site...

For too long we’ve been trapped behind our desks, starved of human contact, linked only by the chirps of a push alert, comforted only by the soft vibration of a cell phone.

Perhaps it’s time to shut down the machine, open the blinds, step out into the real world and rediscover human contact. On the other hand that does sound a bit twentieth century.

Let’s take the...

Eventually there may come a day when everyone on the planet has access to the best internet connection speed possible. For now, however, there are still people in highly developed nations (such as, say, the U.S.) who are dealing with dial-up speeds and computers that should have long been obsolete.

This is the reality of technological advancement. Unfortunately, it’s an easy thing to forget for web developers who consider technology a priority.

When you make it a point to find the best possible speeds from your ISP,...

When I wrote about QR codes (Designed QR codes: the next level), it was very well received. When I wrote “SnapTags: Will they kill QR codes?” people got a little nasty with their suggestion on what I could do with snaptags and my mother. Now that I’m delving into Augmented Reality, I’m wondering what suggestions people will have for me…and certain family members when I insist that AR is the future of digital media?

According to Wikipedia: Augmented reality (AR) is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept...

The discussion has raged for quite some time – is the traditional business card dead? Do people, in the age of the web and technology still need to kill trees (or use ores and petroleum by-products) for a silly little piece of card stock to hand out at events or when meeting someone else?

The first argument I had heard on the subject was at a new media group in New York where the speaker insisted that, with web sites and the ubiquitous “about me” section, why would anyone need a printed business card? Being the curious sort I am—some may say the pain-in-the-rear—I had to raise my hand and ask, “but how do people remember our URL without that...

“ … One of the roles of design is to bring humanity, intelligence and beauty to the world of business, and indeed to everyday life.” – Michael Beirut

Is design losing its humanity? No one would suggest that computers are as adept as talented humans at creating innovative designs — yet — but technology has been making a significant impact on design-related professions in the last few years.

In some cases, technology has lessened the amount of contact designers have with clients, colleagues and professional development organizations,...

And it’s finally out! Please meet our new site: TECHi.com

It’s a brand new and amazing technology blog that focuses on tech stuff that’s always fresh and never boring.

You may have already come across it, or seen a few of the ads floating around the web. But now, it’s official, TECHi.com is out of beta and ready for prime time.

I’m super proud and excited today to shine the spotlight on the site that we’ve been working on so much for the past few months. And now, I’ll be...

Having a video on your website can vastly improve your conversion rate. Whether the goal is for users to sign up for your web application or simply to get users to contact you via a web form, a video improves the likelihood of this happening.

You need only go to the home page of any new Internet-based startup, and you’ll see an embedded video with a very large call to action beckoning you to play its two- or three-minute video introduction.

Videos that demonstrate web applications or web-based services are often called screencasts because they usually capture events on the company’s website. These screencasts...