The iPhone 3.0 software introduces a new app, Voice Memos, into the Apple canon. It’s function is simple enough: Tap one button to record, tap another to stop, tap one more to share via email. This is where the fun can begin.
To create your own ringtone from the audio of your choice, simply use Voice Notes to capture your soundbyte. The sky’s the limit, but you’ll need to keep the duration to 40 seconds or less. Use the share function to email yourself the file. You’ll notice the file will be saved as an .m4a, a format Apple has popularized as a flavor of Mpeg-4. But I digress.
Converting an .m4a into a ringtone that iPhone recognizes is dead simple. Simply change the filename extension to .m4r and drag it into iTunes. Next time you connect your iPhone, clicking the Ringtones tab in iTunes will give you the ability to sync your new ringtones to the phone.
Have fun!
Add this to digg, del.icio.us, etc.
Recently our visual design team filled a white board with things related to interface design that drive us nuts. By no means is this an exhaustive list (and yes, I did filter the list before and after posting it).
DVD Menus - Stop it with the low budget animation and let me watch the movie. Also, would it kill them to include the whole song before the thing repeats?
Telephone UIs - the non-mobile kind
TV Remotes - Seriously, how many buttons do you need? A computer keyboard doesn’t have as many buttons as some of these things
Continue Reading »
Add this to digg, del.icio.us, etc.
Are you studying usability problems or looking for user preference?
When it comes to user research it’s important for everyone involved in the design process to have an understanding about the insights we can gain with a particular research approach. As interaction designers we look to user experience (UX) research to discover usability problems or barriers to the experiences we create. As stakeholders get involved in UX research, questions are sometimes introduced that are intended to uncover user preference instead of usability problems. This can profoundly affect research results.
Consider this scenario: You’re observing a UX research session for a media player interface. Your goals include determining if a user can create a playlist and manage a list of videos. The session is also set up to question which media player design the user likes most and to ask the user to rate the visual appeal of the design. Any cause for concern?
Yes!
Continue Reading »
Add this to digg, del.icio.us, etc.
A couple of weeks ago we presented a selection of our favorite games around the office. After another informal survey of the office, we are now proud to present a selection of the applications popular around here. The iPhone once again dominates the proceedings, but with a slightly stronger showing from the G1 (listed at the end).
We asked staffers to identify 2-3 non-default, non-game applications that they actively use and wouldn’t want to live without. We urged respondents to think of the apps that all their friends DON’T have yet. The overall goal was to expose some new apps that we think are actually worth having.
Some of these you have no doubt heard about recently (Brushes, which was used to create a New Yorker cover, for example, and Shazam is pretty well-known too) but many you may not know. Have a look, and comment to let us know what we’ve missed. Continue Reading »
Add this to digg, del.icio.us, etc.
Jared Benson, Executive Creative Director and Christian Robertson, Visual Design Director at Punchcut were recently interviewed for Adobe’s Inspire publication.
The 9 minute video interview discusses Punchcut’s points of view on designing for people in a variety of contexts for a variety of consumer devices across mobile, television and other emerging electronics.
“Punchcut’s really committed” says Benson, “to understanding people’s changing lifestyles as new technologies are introduced. Designing for mobile is not just taking an experience and shrinking it down.”
Discussing television, Robertson asserts “Television is already such a shared experience. The question is how can a connected TV experience bring that natural desire to share right into the experience of watching TV to where it becomes a participatory experience, even with people who don’t happen to be in the same room with you.”
Enjoy.
Add this to digg, del.icio.us, etc.
All this week various Punchcut team members will be guest blogging at the Adobe XD blog, Inspire. Below is an excerpt only.
Gestures are taking over. With accelerometers being packed into more and more consumer devices (think Wii remote, iPhone, digital cameras and a host of other electronics) designers are using physical motion as a basic component of interaction design. This is great stuff; rather than being limited to simple pointing and selection, we can now create richer UI experiences that respond to a broader range of physical interactions, such as tilting, spinning, waving and shaking.
Author Gabriel White continues to articulate the design opportunities and considerations at the Adobe Experience Design publication, Inspire.
Add this to digg, del.icio.us, etc.
All this week various Punchcut team members will be guest blogging at the Adobe XD blog. Below is an excerpt only. Read the full piece at INSPIRE.
ABSTRACT // Mobile handsets are much more versatile tools for social networking activity than desktop PCs. While the market may not yet have provided a perfect vehicle for this aim, conditions are improving and the potential is undoubtedly there. Phones have distinct advantages over laptops and deskbound PCs. Mobile devices are not merely portable, but their media capabilities tend to be more readily accessible.
1. Mobile is with you when you’re in the moment (improved status)
2. Mobile devices are a creation and capturing tool (richness)
3. Location. Location. Location. (proximity and discovery)
4. Mobile is built for bite-sized consumption. (bite-sized consumption)
5. It’s a communication device (targeted)
6. Lends itself to quick-hit communication (easy)
Read my fully articulated piece on INSPIRE.
Add this to digg, del.icio.us, etc.
Adobe’s Experience Design Team has invited Punchcut to author a series of blog posts for their publication, INSPIRE.
Several of us will explore user experience topics ranging from mobile, television and convergence to social networking. The site will feature Punchcut blog posts the week of May 25 to 29, 2009.
First up is Peter Odum’s piece outlining the ways mobile beats desktop PCs as a social networking platform.
Add this to digg, del.icio.us, etc.
Call me a browser hater, but I’m looking forward to the design opportunities — custom applications and *fully branded experiences — possible when you throw out the browser and build the display piece into something more functional from scratch.
Mobile and TV will be the heroes of the post-PC, post-browser internet, and of course they’re already emerging with mobile browsers finally moving beyond WAP and with an exploding mobile app marketplace. But that potential is already being realized in post-browser desktop PC apps like iTunes, Evernote, Tweetie and a raft of AIR apps. Other niche uses like wi-fi cameras and devices that defy categorization like the beloved misfit, Chumby will have their place. Many brands have yet to understand the role the non-browser internet will play in their business and brands are likely to get caught up in TV widgets and mobile apps without a complete strategy. That’s okay. We can help.
I’m not really interested in defining Web 3.0. (I’ll leave that to Tim O’Reilly, although I’m a fan of the semantic web flavor of Web 3.0.) The more immediate future is the internet beyond the current PC- and browser-centric incarnation.
Further reading:
Check out this video presentation with Dave Zuverink. Dave is part of Adobe’s army of experience designers at Adobe XD. Dave gently reminds the world that web pages are just the display, not the content.
* I wrote a blog piece “Digital Branding Demands Custom Typography” discussing the branding benefits of creating your own apps on my Typophile blog.
Add this to digg, del.icio.us, etc.
The hub and spoke UI paradigm is a mobile classic (read: old and tired) and Apple, for all their industry leadership hasn’t escaped its limitations with the iPhone. Even with all the upcoming iPhone 3.0 features there’s nothing to help users with the cumbersome home screen that’s increasingly crowded with apps.
Recent statistics show the average iPhone user has downloaded about 40 iPhone apps from Apple’s App Store. Even if users rarely adopt the free apps they download (research by Pinch Media), they are still having to manage them. They’re likely dealing with 3 or more screens full of apps without any helpful way of sorting or grouping them. Continue Reading »
Add this to digg, del.icio.us, etc.
