Punchcut.com

Brand Damage: Don't Rush Your Mobile App

Joe Pemberton — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 16:45:50 +0000

It's quite easy — and therefore tempting — to repurpose a web site for mobile by simply building an iOS or Android native app "shell" that merely loads a web site. It's a recipe for instant app presence: publish this month, not next quarter.

But App Store reviews of a major travel brand's app show the folly in stark detail.

Crap. Lame. Totally unusable. Absolutely useless. Waste of time. Beyond disappointed.

The false allure of develop once, deploy everywhere has dragged too many brands through the mud. These apps, when poorly executed, are an abuse of users' time and become corrosive to brands.

Thinking Outside the App

Punchcut — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:33:24 +0000

So you built an app. People can take your brand anywhere they go. But do they? And where do you go from here? Have apps delivered the value you expected from mobile?

Data Viz: Design Frontier

Gretchen Anderson — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 23:45:47 +0000

I had the pleasure of attending the Eyeo Festival last week in Minneapolis and came away inspired by how data and design are coming together in a new generation of experiments. This was not your typical design conference; the focus was less theoretical and less product-focused. The luminaries of data visualization are not those who typically head up design conferences and events — they are younger, more technical, and deeply passionate about open-source tools and active in sharing them widely.

Apple v. App Developers: Beware of Innovation

Joe Pemberton — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 22:55:38 +0000

Good news for users means trouble for developers.

As Apple has demonstrated, one of the dangers of innovating in the smartphone app market is there are no guarantees Apple won't borrow your innovations and bake them into future iOS versions. (To state the obvious, there's nothing stopping Google either.)

We exchanged a few sideways glances here as we watched Apple show off the "read later" feature in iOS 5. It was obviously a direct answer to the Instapaper service. Then there was the camera feature that uses the volume keys as a shutter button, a duplicate of the third-party app Camera+ that Apple blocked from the App Store in 2010. The New York Times has gone deeper, providing a round-up of coming iOS features that borrow features from popular iPhone apps like Camera+, Zinio, and others.

Uncovering Context With Mobile Diary Studies

Punchcut — Tue, 17 May 2011 20:34:21 +0000

Mobile user research can no longer afford to be confined by physical space and geographic boundaries. People are on the move. If we as researchers are to to understand their true

On the Origin of Ideas by Means of Natural Innovation

Punchcut — Mon, 09 May 2011 22:28:18 +0000

Innovation is a word steeped in cynicism. We’re probably all guilty in part perpetuating the negativity surrounding this word. But innovation should be a task of hope and joy and rigor,

Mobile Apps: Cutting Through the Clutter

Punchcut — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 00:39:14 +0000

Not long ago, mobile app stores were impenetrable walled gardens. Now, apps are central to the mobile experience and the challenge has reversed — the unfettered garden is overgrown.

Punchcut Releases Toolset For Multi-Screen UI Design

Punchcut — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:31:49 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO, April 11, 2011 — User interface design company Punchcut® released their set of UI tools aimed at addressing the landscape of screen resolutions for devices. The toolset includes resolution reference charts for mobile handsets, tablets and televisions as well as layered Photoshop® templates for common devices and resolutions.

Communication Arts Invites Jared Benson To Judge 2011 Interactive Annual

Punchcut — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 18:12:23 +0000

PALO ALTO, April 8, 2011 — Punchcut principal and executive creative director Jared Benson was invited to judge Communication Arts 2011 Interactive

Pixel Proliferation: A Toolset For Managing Screen Resolutions

Punchcut — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 00:33:41 +0000

Change is a constant. The device landscape is always changing and the device types are proliferating. With the increasing demand for unique mid-screen devices, it is becoming an even