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- May 13, 2013
We're All Cyborgs: 5 Things I Learned at CyborgCampYVR
If I told you we are all Cyborgs, would you believe me? Would you know what I mean?
This weekend I joined some of Vancouver’s smartest at Cyborg Camp YVR. An amazing lineup of speakers told us about the integration of technology and humanity.
This wasn’t a room of techno-nerds geeking out (well maybe a little) but a time to contemplate deep ethical and cultural questions about technology and its impact on humanity. This was about Cyborg Anthropology.
Here are my 5 takeaways from my day at camp:
1. Data becomes relevant with context
We are all digital hoarders. We create and store more information than we can use. Think about the value you place on all your digital assets (pictures, video, music, etc.) but do you really know what to do with them?
We’ve lost any constraint on the content...
- April 29, 2013
7 Rules for Success in the Cloud
The other day I met with a group of Chief Information Officers, answering questions they’re facing as they develop strategic Information Technology (IT) plans for their companies.
The conversation veered to the Cloud, and how they can use it to meet their organizational objectives.
As I listened, the conversation was all about cost-savings and efficiency—how they could decrease IT costs while increasing the organization's efficiency through their technical systems.
Yes, the Cloud definitely offers organizational efficiencies, and there are some really affordable Cloud solutions. They weren’t wrong, but they had missed a large opportunity. It made me wonder: How many business leaders are limiting their own reach and just don’t see the revolutionary potential the Cloud offers their organizations?
Here are 7 principles to consider as you make the...
- March 7, 2013
Using the HTML5 custom data-* attribute
There are a lot of exciting new features in HTML 5. Video, audio, and canvas seem to be the most discussed around the watercooler, but the data-* attribute—though seemingly less earth shattering—is extremely useful.
data-* what?!
The data-* attribute is a way to store custom metadata about an element within its own markup. In the past we might have done this with a class or the rel attribute, but data-* gives us an attribute specifically for this purpose.
The fun thing about data-* attributes—and part of the reason they're so flexible—is that you can name them as needed. For example, if you were making a coffee app with a list of coffee roasts, and wanted to store single origin information in a list item, you could create a data-* attribute called data-single_origin.
<li data-single_origin="true">Hyper roast</li>
Since we create the name...
- March 4, 2013
Real Mobile Stats from Domain7.com
Still wondering if going mobile is a good investment? It's probably time to stop wondering and start acting.
Two years ago we released our Mobile Manifesto, stating we'd always put mobile first when planning for the web. Not long after, we committed to making every new Domain7 web project responsive.
It seems the rest of the development world and popular media are catching on, which is exciting—but how often do you visit the site of a major brand on your smartphone only to find they still don't have a mobile optimized platform? Way too often in my opinion.
Recently I dug into the analytics on our own site to see the impact of mobile traffic on domain7.com. The...
- February 26, 2013
Human vs. Machine: the emotional dynamics of developer interaction
I love that Domain7 asks us as developers to consider what it means to “humanize” our craft.
It’s quite a clash of images:
Humanity – at its ideal I see gentle, relational, organic images of friends and family at rest and play; of emotional sensitivity and nurturing and loyalty and unconditional acceptance.
Programming – at its ideal I think of structure, rules, rigour and detail; of leaving no stone unturned in a quest to meet requirements by instructing a group of machines—our ever unflinching, unbiased, unforgiving taskmasters.
Is it even possible for computer programmers see the nuts and bolts of our work as relational? as a truly human endeavor? Don’t we spend our workdays wearing military-looking headsets and staring at screens while furiously entering streams of cryptographic-looking characters into our keyboards, pausing only briefly to slug black coffee straight from the pot-warmer protruding prominently from the nest of wires perennially obscuring our desk from view?
On the surface, thinking humanly about...
- February 21, 2013
Humanizing the DMV
Domain7 projects come in various shapes and sizes, but every once in a while we get to work on something that takes every shape and size—and those projects are pretty exciting for us.
Recently we partnered with a large US enterprise technology firm on one such project. They were working with a state DMV to provide kiosk-based services for all those sometimes less-than-pleasant but necessary motor vehicle tasks.
Not only were they hoping to make these processes more efficient, they wanted to provide more self-serve options, and add mobile to the mix. It was a perfect fit for our expertise in mobile and UX, and our mission to make our clients’ services more “human”. After all there’s nothing human about taking a number and waiting for hours at your local motor vehicle branch.
We started the project by gathering a deep understanding of customer needs—particularly in terms of mobile use—and used that as the basis for a cohesive UX. That meant creating nearly a dozen personae ranging from Sally Mae—the 80 year old who never touches a computer, to Johnny Xbox—the 16 year old who will only carry a conversation over IM. By working out the implications for each...
- February 19, 2013
Progressive enhancement & graceful degradation with Modernizr
So many different devices are used to access the web—from the top of the line, full-feature smartphone to the decade-old desktop running a legacy browser.
The former totes support for everything new and shiny and a touchscreen to boot, while the latter is limited in features. The two examples are disparate, but we need to develop websites for this very spectrum. Modernizr helps us do that.
What is Modernizr?
Modernizr is a JavaScript library designed to help create cross-platform, cross-device websites and web apps. It does this by testing the browser the user is on, and reporting back on what the browser is and isn’t capable of. As a developer, you can use this information to adapt your website accordingly.
Advantages of feature detection
Unlike some other approaches, Modernizr doesn't check what your visitor's browser or device is. Modernizr checks what the browser and device can do. For example, Modernizr won't tell you if your visitor is using Internet Explorer 8 on a desktop computer. It will however tell you that your visitor is using a browser that doesn't support CSS3 rounded corners and touch...
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