Tipex get viral

http://www.youtube.com/user/tippexperience

After loving what Old Spice have done, this new ad campaign from Tipp-Ex is one that gets people talking. Have a look & enjoy!

Using Notifications

The purpose of using a notification is to do exactly that, send a notification that some information / data, has changed. How this works is it will make the change and tell the notification the change has occurred, then when the data is needed it sends out the new information. Note: This is a new feature Apple added to the 4.0 software, so if your app targets lower than that, you will need to add script to tell you app to check which version they are using and to disable the code if it is below 4.0.

First start by creating a notification file (your .h file). File > New File > Mac OS X > C & C++ > Header File.

NotificationNames.h is a sample filename you could use to remind you that this is where the names of our notifications will be held. In this example I am going to use just one.

In this file all we write at the top is :

#define AllowanceDataWasChanged @"AllowanceDataWasChanged"

Now I go to my .m file where this data is being written, so the data I want access to. At the top of that file (or any file where I will do the same, I put:

#import "NotificationNames.h"

This means we will be able to access that files information. Now in this .m file, where the data save is occuring, I put the following code, which will alert our notification that a change is taking place. In my file I was calling:

-(void)saveClick:(id)sender{

// saved stuff goes here

}

So I added this code to the end of it:

[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName: AllowanceDataWasChanged object:nil];

Now we need to go to the file where the information is being read, and where we need it to be read as data changes… Again at the begining of that .m file you need to add:

#import "NotificationNames.h"

Because I would like this data to be updated (it was a users name) as soon as there is a change in the name, I added this method to recognise / pick up the change sent to the notification:

-(void) updateViewData {

NSArray* array = [PListHelper getDataFromFile: kFilename];

if (array) {

nameLabel.text = [array objectAtIndex:0];

}

NSLog(@"calling update View"); // I added the log to see if it was being called.

}

Then we need to decide where we can / want to call that by using another method to see if there was a change:

-(void) allowanceDataWasChanged:(NSNotification*) notification {

[self updateViewData]; // method call that we wrote earlier

}

So there we are saying, if there is a change, load my updateViewData. Which – will load in those new / changed values. I also stuck this method call:

[self updateViewData];

In my

- (void)viewDidLoad {

}

method because we would like the new data to load if the view is loaded. Once you have the hang of that you can really add it into your code where you need to notify of data change.

Finally in your

-(void)viewDidLoad {

}

method you need to add the information that checks the notification, and if any changes were made:

[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self];

// register for notification by adding an observer

[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self

selector:@selector(allowanceDataWasChanged:)

name:AllowanceDataWasChanged

object:nil];

It’s an amazingly useful thing to know – thanks to Shaun Austin (@irvtheswirv) for talking me through it.

X Factor iPhone 4: Video & Editing

Study of Artist Robert Williams from Christine Morris on Vimeo.

This is a video of the amazing study of artist Robert Williams. As a spur of the moment exercise I wanted to out together a little video using just the iPhone 4. It was filmed and edited with the iMove app.

I was visiting with friends over the weekend and when I had a look at the study I was amazed, mesmerised even. I had to take a photo. Then I remembered – I have an iPhone 4, and aparently it shoots good video. So I took out my phone and thought I’d give it a try.

I took one video over the course of a few seconds and then thought how would I actually upload this somewhere? So I went looking through the apps I had and saw Ustream. I didn’t have an account properly set up and it wasn’t letting me modify my existing one on the fly so I had to wait until we came back.

The iMove interface where you can get started making your masterpiece!

At home I thought that actually it would be a perfect chance to take iMovie for iPhone for a test drive.

I’m not an iMovie fan on the mac only because I use Final Cut Pro and it’s really hard to use an app like iMovie once you’ve had all the features you could dream of, but I appreciate it a good starter piece of software.  I got the iMovie app for the iPhone and it was a bit confusing initially, so it’s a good idea to just play around with it. After a 30 minute or so play with the features and how it works, you really can get on and make a mini movie.

Choosing Video to import into iMovie.

I made the clip with a few titles and transitions, used the music provided in the app (they have a news theme a happy theme and so on…) in order that it is completely made solely with the iPhone. I then decided to upload it as it was…

Once I had sorted UStream, I logged into the app and went thorough the process to upload a video. It was easy to use and straight forward so it only took a minute or so. When I had a look though, UStream really compressed it a lot. The whole point of this video was to showcase a bit of the amazing quality the phone is capable of, and at that quality it was no where near impressive.

Importing Clips, Images or Music into iMovie.

I had to delete that video and think of another way. I thought YouTube would be a better option. You only need to click on your exported movie in Photos and then there is an option to upload to YouTube. Again it was really quick and easy to do, you can enter in Tags, description, titles etc, but that too had poor quality once it was up. (Note: There is an upload to MobileMe option which I haven’t tried but that might keep better quality.)

Export Options within iMove

I decided to attach the phone to the mac and just import it into iPhoto and access it as a movie file. That way I could just log into YouTube on the computer and access it that way – at the quality that I wanted. You can export your movie within the iMovie app at 360p, 540p or HD 720p and HD was what I chose.

Although in the end I had to copy across the film and then upload it from my computer, it was only because I really was after that HD quality to illustrate how good this little device is. If you are just shooting and uploading then you could try something like Youtube from the phone, TwitVide, Posterous, etc… and if folks are only watching it on their mobile devices they won’t notice the quality too much.

This really is an amazing feat, not only did I manage to shoot and edit on a single device, but it was actually fun and pretty straight forward!

Closed for comment

Ok, I will admit, this is a rant.

I have had people on occasion – in conversation to me, spurt the phrase “I won’t support Apple because of their closed system.”

Typically, I bite my tongue and reply politely that well, that is your choice etc etc… and leave it at that. I am sick of spending my time trying to help them see reason, because I think basically they don’t want to see reason and no matter how many arguements, or examples I show them they don’t want to support Apple because they are no longer the underdog.

As I see it, everything we do in our lives is abided by completely through a closed system, so you really need a new argument.

Admit you don’t like them because they are doing well, or that you don’t like how amazingly designed their products are, or that you prefer to buy a cheaply built, component compromised machine with thousands of viruses available to you. That’s fine I can respect that it is a matter of choice but stop saying it is a closed system…

Think about the following:

Do you use Microsoft products? Write Programs for the platform? Do you use .Net or VB that you have had to pay for? Interesting, can anyone write anything for Microsoft? Of course not, you have to learn .NET or VB, you have to purchase their products to design for their system.

Do you use XBox? PS3? Have you ever made a game for those platforms? You have to use what they provide, and it has to be of a certain basic standard to be on their platforms. It isn’t an “opened system” and thank goodness, it means there is some sort of standard there and that the games I buy will work.

Do you shop at a supermarket for food? Do you actually know how many varieties of apples there actually are? well, there are over 2,000 varieties of apples in the UK alone. Supermarkets have decided that the UK consumer is only interested in a very few varieties – varieties that coincidentally are tough enough to travel long distances to supermarket shelves. That system doesn’t sound very opened to me.

Do you take a course at your local college? What evening classes are on offer? What funding was made availalible and who decided what you wanted to learn?

Have you even gone to a restaurant and booked a table? Been to one that required a black tie for admission? Hmm that’s not terribly a terribly opened system eithor – I can’t hear anyone complaining about it.

Do you drive? Do you have to pay road tax for the right?

Our lives are fuelled by rules and regulations, by all of these closed systems, even the argument of designing for Android and that being an opened system, you are forgetting that you STILL have to know how to program and actually make the apps, so it is a closed system too.

That’s all – closed for comments~

Is that a smartphone in your pocket?

I am writing this post for & to coincide with the JCI annual business lecture, which I have kindly been asked to be on the panel for. A bit about the event from their site:

This year’s Business Lecture is titled ‘Making Sense of a Social Networking World’. Your host and compere for the evening will be Steve Parks, an ex-BBC radio journalist, professional speaker, author and entrepreneur.

The guest speakers will include:

Patrick Crane: Vice President Marketing at LinkedIn (via video link-up from Silicon Valley)
Will Kintish: Leading networking and LinkedIn training authority
Christine Morris: Founder of Apps & Hats and Digital Communications lecturer
Consultant from v social: Leeds-based social media consultancy

SMARTPHONES CHANGING BUSINESS

My focus is on apps and how the smartphone is changing business. Although it is changing business, it is things like social media that has helped make that change. Let’s have a look at how this shift happened and where it may be headed.

We know the iPhone launch 3 years ago (05/07) and the app store launched a bit after that. In 9 months 1Billion apps were downloaded.

Where are we now – as of 25th May there are now 204,304 apps on the App Store. We are up to 4 billion downloads and 85 million iPhone / iPod touch users. It’s also worth noting 200K iPads are sold a week, more on this later.

I find these figures amazing, but it didn’t happen overnight – almost, so how did we get to where we are now, what has driven these sales and usage, why do we see this as such a different platform, and can this growth be sustained?

COMPUTING CYCLE

We are currently in a new computing cycle, connecting to the Internet from smaller mobile devices.

We go from mainframes to desktops, to internet Desktops, to mobile internet. The devices get smaller and smaller, we have more and more choice, no longer are we presented with a beige box and that is our option. There are numerous features in mobile devices and most are more powerful than our desktops of 4 years ago. (IBM mainframe shown right)

They also cost less and less for their incredible capabilities.

It is estimated based on current figures and trends that as early as 2015 there will be a shift from current internet desktops to using smartphones to connect to the internet. A dominance of using these devices for our everyday, ubiquitous internet usage, our email checking, our shopping, our document reading and of course our social networking.

How can we predict this? What changes have occurred?

UPTAKE

We know mobile technology uptake has been a lot faster than that of desktop computers. If we look at the graph below from Morgan Stanley [April 2010] we see 20 quarters depicted, and we are shown in a 20 quarter time frame the growth of Desktop Internet with Netscape (launched 12/94), Desktop Internet with AOL (launched 9/94) and NTT docomo (global Japanese mobile operator).

Looking at the figures we see that by the same timeframe, 11 quarters, mobile internet as launched on iPhone | iPod Touch (launched 06/07) has reached roughly 85 million subscribers, versus by the same time comparison, 11 quarters, 31 million for NTT, 18 Million for desktop Internet with Netscape and 8 million for AOL. By my thinking even if we added the two figures together for desktop internet with both Netscape and AOL, it would still only be 26 million, to the 85 million we are seeing by the same timeframe.

The uptake on mobile Internet is epidemic in comparison.

The mobile device (iPhone) is being credited with being the spark for this mobile liftoff, and being an Apple hater or not won’t make any difference to these figures and what they have done for the industry. It is compared to the equally impressive launch of Window’s 3.0 which sparked desktop PCs in 1990, and Netscape browser sparking desktop Internet in 1995.

SOCIAL SURGE

We need to look at other contributing factors, because we know people are not just checking their email on these devices. So what has happened to help the surge of usage and purchase of these devices?

Looking at this prediction based on past trends and usage, we can see that the cross over from desktop internet users to mobile use is estimated to happen by 2015. The overall number of internet users continues to grow but the way the data is accessed is changing. We are using our devices more and more to do tasks that we traditionally have been doing on the desktop. (Just a note here to say that the iPad may change these figures more dramatically and quicker as we are already seeing a surge in the numbers reported from the ads on websites that detail where the hits are coming from.)

So what are the things people are doing on their smart phones?

I’m sure it’s no surprise to hear that social networking has overtaken email usage. Back in 2007 Facebook, Twitter and MySpace were starting to make their presence felt and by 2009 there were more users on social networks then users of email.

Also interestingly video accounts currently for 69% of mobile data traffic. Are you using social media and or video with your business, are you one of the people who use social media now more regularly than email? Are you producing any video content for your mobile audience?

Current dominance is Apple and Android platforms and there is a decline of Windows Mobile, RIM and Palm. So there may also need to be decisions made as a company regarding what platform you will aim to cater for initially and which as your second supported platform.

Interestingly we saw touch based devices before but the iPhone / iPod Touch is touch focused that is a huge departure. There is no stylus you are using your finger in a gesture based system and so apps, sites, programs… need to be designed and thought about differently. (Palm’s Pre was the first iPhone rival to include multi-touch.)

THE CLOUD

This is becoming a bit of a buzz word but actually, it will play an important part of our future computing. We are already using the cloud even if we aren’t aware of it. Users are expecting to have access to their things, their music, their files, their applications even, all to hand and all immediately accessible. When we log into our computers, we wait, and we watch for when the browser can be launched, where is our browser so we can check email, look at our Facebook, see who’s following on Twitter… all waiting for the internet to be ready for us. However, with our mobiles, we literally click a button and our mail is waiting for us, we expect immediacy.

From this same study we see that if Skype were a telecommunications carrier, it would be the largest carrier in the world, with 521 million registered users. That is a lot of people using the service for so many different reasons and equally so many different ways. Whereas initially many of these services when introduced were not trusted and people were worried about using them, we can see how it is quickly becoming mainstream.

BUSINESS AND SMARTPHONES, and sex?

In a survey from RingCentral they declared that smartphones tied with sex as the number one thing that business professionals can not live without. In a survey among RingCentral’s small to medium-sized business customers in the U.S., the importance of the smartphone in daily and business life was reiterated over and over again.

This study, (a survey of nearly 400 customers), showed that smartphones are taking on the defacto role in business communication.

Here are some highlights:

• Smartphones and intimate relationships tied at 40% for the number one thing respondents can’t live without.
• 79% of respondents use their smartphones to conduct most business calls, versus an office phone or home phone.
• 34% use a smartphone more than a computer for business. 7% even said they don’t take their laptops with them when they travel for business if they have a smartphone.

All it is really illustrating is that with platforms like Android and the iPhone, you can do a lot of work from your mobile device. It will be interesting to see how tablet devices like the iPad will be used for business and how those devices will be classified.

THE SHIFT

There was a time when people started to realize that you needed a website to exist. People would talk to you about your job and would always ask “do you have a website”, it seemed you didn’t exist if you weren’t on the web. Billions of webpages later, and yes we almost all have a website in some shape or form, heck a huge amount of people have a personal one, a professional one, a club one, a hobby one etc etc. Now we are starting to see the appearance of apps, becing the new norm. There’s an app for that which really has become a joke but actually, there most likely is an app for that, or one in development I’m sure!

I would add though that if you do have an app – do not have a bad poorly designed app. That seems more damaging to the business then is necessary. I recently came across an app for the estate agents ReMax and they had paid some company to essentially build “cookie cutter” apps for them. This means they had the exact same app, per location, and all of them were substandard. The wait for the app to load and get through all the ads was unacceptable, and it basically means I delete the app, and go pick up RightMove instead. So not only are they losing out on the slight ad revenue from the app, but I wouldn’t even buy my house from them. A bit extreme I understand but there is no excuse for some of the poorly designed time wasting apps out there.

Apps that have got it right are paypal, evernote, bump to name a few.

Here is an example of a new style of app that is appearing on the App Store – one to hopefully save us all money – these are brilliant! (Uk vouchercloud app)

Also the branded style of apps that offer the user more than just brand information are a great idea. They aim to make things easier for the consumer, and when you do that, then you will get customers because they will always go where things are easier. This Starbucks app is great, it’s all paid and you just get it scanned. Quick easy coffee, I think they are on to a winner here.

Hopefully we can see how these trends are occurring and the potential that we are experiencing this moment in time with technology. It is a real hive of creativity and ingenuity and I hope we continue to see real innovation with the creation of these apps and their uses.

SOURCES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainframe_computer
http://www.morganstanley.com/institutional/techresearch/pdfs/Internet_Trends_041210.pdf
RingCentral
http://www.businessinsider.com/10-ways-the-iphone-changed-smartphones-forever-2009-6#ixzz0owKtv8LE
http://mashable.com/2010/04/13/ringcentral-survey/
http://www.businessinsider.com/2009/1/apple-palm-multi-touch

… Waiting For Review

One of the Exercises I worked through with the iPhone SDK.

Documenting the process of starting app development seems to be as difficult as the actual app development. I started a new blog, where I would put code snippets I was working on, and had every intention of noting down my findings as they happened, but I found as I was learning I couldn’t stop long enough to write it down. I realise how valuable this process is and I am taking the time to look back on what has happened during these whirlwind few weeks.

Summer 2009

I had started looking at iPhone development summer of 2009. I had the Apress book, ‘Beginning iPhone Development‘, and I started working through the chapters. The trouble was that I really had no context of why and how it was actually working, which meant I wouldn’t be very likely to code my own apps. Anyway, from that point forward work started up again and I had to put it to one side because I could see the dedication it would take.

Some of the notes I took in my notebook while learning the languages.

March 2010

By the time Easter holidays came round I had decided that I wanted to start back getting to learn code. I had been thinking of iPhone development on and off through out the year and the time was right. So this time I planned it all a bit better. I would start off with learning the absolute basics, C during March.

I spent 4 weeks of March working through Apress ‘Learn C on the Mac‘, and an old C book I found from when I had first studied it years back (Teach Yourself C). I made hundreds of pages of notes in the process and worked through exercises from both books. I think some concepts made sense quite quickly from what I had recognised from earlier. I was now able to move on to ‘Learn Objective-C on the Mac’.

While I was reading the coding books I was also spending time reading about User Interface design. As important and essential the code is, no app will sell if it is unusable, or takes no notice of UI principles. along with that I was reading some more generic information about app planning. This was one planning phase I wrote out:

1 – Overall UI. This is the generic layout of the items for the features / functions of your app.

2 – Architecting. (application) This phase you are building all the elements so that they will work and are connected.

3 – User Testing. Testing phase of the app, though I would say that this phase really needs to be done throughout the whole process, continually as you try and check new things.

4 – Graphic Design. Make it slick~

April 2010

I spent an intense 2 weeks of Easter holiday reading and doing the exercises for Obj-C. I made a few of the sample apps as demonstrated, and I tried to modify them and add things to them to stretch what they were showing me.

By this point I was so excited that I was finding it increasingly harder to focus, I wanted to read faster than my eyes would let me because I knew the next step would be working through the first book I initially got – the iPhone Development book… I began sticking notes all over my computer and study of all the little reminders of things to do when developing, and conventions to follow as well as designing / sketching out app ideas.

One thing I hadn’t realised was that sketching out an app isn’t always as representative as I thought it would be. There was an app I had sketched out and when I went to just create a mock up in Interface Builder I realised that several things just wouldn’t be appropriate for touch, or that things could be done far more efficiently through touch. Mapping out the app while constantly questioning the touch factor of it is essential.

An image from Snippets, the code collecting program I have started to use to organise code.

I have also started collecting code snippets that I find useful and that I know I will reuse. I have tried a few applications for mac but I found Snippets (shown above) suited me best.

May 2010

Some frustrating code issues. I was lucky enough to bug coder friend @irvtheswirv about.

By the time May came round, I had tried and experimented with a few chunks of code from the books and from the Internet. This led to me wanting to go through the entire process of app – start to finish. Planing, coding and submitting.

Lil Tweet

The lil tweet app was initially created to just be a quick tweeting app, so I would not even need to look at twitter, I could launch the app and send a tweet really quickly. As I was working on it I wondered what it would be like if everyone was sharing one account, so I changed the app to reflect it no longer it being an app that I tweet from – but an app that everyone can tweet from.

I spent about a week coding and testing the Lil Tweet app, and from that time there was design issues, making the background image in Photoshop to match up where I was going to put the components.

I made the app initially just with the tweet field, and when it was looked at and tried, I was asked how can they then see the tweet they sent, so i spent time working on adding that you can then launch viewing the twitter feed you have just added to.  From there I realised that it would be very difficult to use if you didn’t have a character count down. This was the most difficult aspect of the app. I had so many errors and troubles to figure out how to get it to work. I swapped textFields with texeViews and Labels and back again…. This took up most of the entire time of the app development.

From there I worked on getting everything to Apple standard for submission, the images, screen shots, icons etc all had to be created to a set standard. This was then ready for submission which actually took me an entire day to do. I kept getting the certificates wrong and error messages about the certificates not matching were bugging me all day. Finally by the evening, I deleted all certificates and profiles and proisioning and went for it from the start of the process. This finally worked. *phews* Leaving me Waiting For Review…

Today (May 24 2010), 7 days after submission, the Lil Tweet app was approved and is now for sale.

£0.59

The Future

It has been an amazing journey and I am so glad I stuck with it. Since waiting for review, I started the Apps and Hats app for the show, and that has gone in for submission today. I hope I am as lucky and I get approved as quickly because I would love to launch it with the show on Friday. Just started planning for my first iPad application…

Using Video to Make an Impact

This is the video from the GirlGeek Dinner I spoke at alongside Sarah Hartley in Leeds Nov 2009. I really wanted to try to hopefully get some more people realizing that there shouldn’t be anything holding them back if they want to get video online. I look at how you can do it for free or very little money and that really the only barrier there is is themselves.

It’s funny though, watching a video back of a presentation always looks and sounds different, and I see so many things I would do differently – including the nervous pacing for the first 10 minutes of the video!

Clients From Hell

The http://clientsfromhell.net/ site is pretty interesting. It lets you post anonymously your very own ‘clients from hell’ stories. There are a few similar styles of sites where you can post confessions, or why your life sucks… but with this site I found you can read a few and have a laugh without feeling too bad about their stories.

You may find yourself recognising a few of them as well! Here was one that I thought was very funny:

Client: ”That sounds great. However, instead of a login box I’d like to use biometrics to identify the user.”

Me: ”Not sure what you mean.”

Client: ”When someone visits the website, I want them to be able to put their hand on the monitor. The monitor will then scan their hand to confirm who they are. I think that would be a lot more engaging. How much extra would that functionality cost?”

Me: ”Several hundred million dollars.”

Client: Why are you being a wiseass? Can you do it or not?

Me: ”No. Sorry. That’s a little too advanced.”

Client: ”Fine. I’ll try another web designer.”

Hyper Island – the aftermath

After such a full and productive day at the Hyper Island Lab that I talked about in a previous post, I thought I should summarize the main points and thoughts of the day. Of course this being the Internet – I don’t have to!

Head on over to the brilliant blog of Ally Manock who has written a great account of what exactly happened in this one day session and how we all managed to get to grips with this system. (image left, from Ally’s site, was a bit of a highlight when Jonathan Briggs took out his iPad *swoons*)

CHALLENGE: Could I run a Mini Hyper Island for my own groups of students

I did a mini Hyper Island today with my students and I wasn’t sure how it would go. They are a small group, only 12 of them and though they knew each other well, this can often make it more difficult to relax when suddenly you are all working as a group. I had told some other tutors that in my session today I would be getting my students to dance, shout, look into each others eyes and share ideas. Most of them looked at me like maybe this would not go so well, especially the dancing part…

THE CONDITIONS

This is a group of first / second year Creative Digital Communications Degree students, a range of ages and abilities. The room is a mac suite that has a large table in the center of the room so divides the space into two sections of small open area. There is also a projector at the front and a sound system.

THE SETUP

I set up the session so that they would know that what we would be doing was about creativity, and idea generation so they would get out of it what they put into it. (this is something the HI trainers had said to us on a few occasions). I also said let’s all just be open minded, and up for this and have fun with it.

THE PREPARATION

I had with me a clean white board and several markers and wipes. Also had music ready, chosen before hand from one of the students. I thought the best way to set this up would be to get them up and moving. They all stood up – and I got them to push in their chairs. This already is very different from our typical class, though we are very relaxed they are almost entirely looking at their screens the whole session.

THE ACTIVITIES

I then had them to do a First Exercise: Shout

All stand in a circle, heads down, eyes looking at the floor, and they would count 1, 2, 3 then look up and at someone direct in the eye. If they did actually both look at each other, they would scream and jump out of the circle. If not it would continue until everyone had caught someone’s direct gaze at some point.

RESULT: They started a bit shy, and very quiet. Years of being told to keep the noise down in a computer lab and suddenly I was asking them to make some noise, well, no one actually did a proper scream but they did eventually count to 3 loud enough so I could hear them. The goal was that it would loosen tensions a little bit and get them to be a bit more relaxed and open to ideas…

Second Exercise: Dance

They would all walk around the room, only one initially strayed from ‘the comfort zone‘ where everyone was but did ask me permission if he could first…  this was used to form random groups. I asked them to stop and they had to choose the 2 nearest people to them so that they would form a group of 3 people.

Each person then chose to be either an Apple, Giraffe or a Book.

*Cue Music* when the music plays the person who I called, so “Apple” would have to dance and the other two would copy them. This would repeat so each person had a try or more than one try, to really boost energy and laughs….

RESULT:

This went far far better than I imagined it would, I thought they would possibly refuse, but as soon as the music went on, they seemed to enjoy it a lot. The amount that they actually danced and lead the others in their team was fantastic and I think this was very successful.

We then moved onto a different type of exercise, one where they drew ‘apple’, again from the Hyper Island Lab. I got them into two groups to start with…

Third Exercise: APPLE

I gave them the challenge of drawing on the whiteboard, Apple.

That was the only restriction that I placed onto them, that it would be one groups turn then to swap to the other. I gave them around ten minutes before stopping the activity.

RESULT:

This was a little unexpected. They put rules onto themselves. Each person had a ‘go’ one after the other in order of who was standing where and when each person had drawn an apple, they said ok all finished… I asked them who said it was in order and you were having on try each and they realised that it was a restriction they immediately assumed.

We had a discussion about what happened, and I was impressed with their understanding and interpretation of the event. They got to realise that actually the first few ideas are ideas most people will have and only by keeping thinking then they truly got to the more unique and original ideas- i.e a candy apple was drawn by this point! We had a discussion about how many times are they working towards a product, or a site, or a film, and they have an idea ‘the idea’ and then they stop, they work on that first idea… not even realising that they could have had more than one idea! It’s a really great moment and I hope they keep to that thinking as they finish their year. Really successful and enjoyable.

Fourth Exercise: Plan a Party

This was interesting, I asked them to plan a party (from HI again) and where I was expecting more mundane answers they really seemed to be in a creative mood now, and gad started to give me some interesting answers. The second part to this challenge was then that they have £40 Million to plan the best party in the whole of Yorkshire, that will be written about in history books… and the answers are far more creative, illustrating that again we all put limits on our thinking to start with.

RESULT:

Well as I mentioned above, they were really into thinking out of the box by this point, more than I anticipated and they had started to come out with amazing ideas from the start! We then discussed how if you set yourself a low target, lots of constraints that actually that’s all you will reach, and how immediately if you give yourself a huge area to aspire to then you can have much more interesting ideas, sure we couldn’t have the biggest fireworks display, but we could have a small one, and maybe we couldn’t have a swimming pool filled with jelly, but we could fill a tub… You don’t want to know their other ideas!

Fifth Exercise: Tell a story

This was a case of standing face to face and one person starts to tell a story, I say switch, after only a few seconds and the other person continues….

RESULT:

This resulted in some fantastic interesting creative stories that would just never have gotten written without collaboration, and that was the whole point. To illustrate that you may have a pretty good idea, but once you open up and discuss it with others, you can get to an incredible point in the development of that idea. It also leads to looking at body language, the laughing and speed at telling your story and being as creative as possible was magical to watch.

THE CONCLUSION

What was interesting was they took it on board and really went for it, and had a blast doing it. Later I had to leave them to get on with their projects, and they did a group brainstorm (I told them about negative brainstorming) together using the whiteboard all by their own initiative. This had not happened before. It got them to think in other ways and to realize that actually they could be creative even if they didn’t think they were.

Brilliant, and wish me luck tomorrow – I’ll be doing it tomorrow with my shyest, quietest, most reserved group! They won’t know what hit them

Do you have any exercises that you try to get your students to be creative? Or are there any exercises you use for idea generation?

(dance photo shout credit)

Emotion in games: Heavy Rain

After seeing the trailer for this game on YouTube, I had to look further into exactly what it was about. Would it be a game that looked good but failed to deliver? Looking at the reviews, I see amazing phrases like

…if you stick with it, Heavy Rain will give you a ride like you rarely see in games.

This sounds like an experience and another shift in the advancements into the games on these consoles. It is describe as a game that is completely story driven and you have consequences.

This “interactive drama” style game is said to be emotionally engaging. Looking over the history of gaming, this completely amazes me. to go from what could be called ‘time wasting’ by many, goes to engage us on so many intellectual levels, with hand eye coordination, puzzle solving etc. that we now have games that engage us on far deeper levels.  Also that it has replay value because there are different endings to it. This review here http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/106/1067755p1.html explains, without spoilers, about how unique this really is.

There are four main playable characters. You control one character at a time for different chapters of the game. The characters were voiced, motion captured and modelled after several actors. Will this be pushing these intense realistic styles of games forward more, and will we be more demanding of our user experience? Are we playing games to escape our realities and have relaxation, to enter fantasy worlds? If so, will there be a point where the games are so realistic that it is far more engaging than our own surroundings?

Another amazing thing about this game is to think of the team that has actually developed it. Although there is a lot of talk at the moment of a return of the “bedroom” developer, clearly there is still a lot of scope in the big game houses publishing what looks to be an amazing new experience.

Where’s my controller~

Hyper Island

Brilliant name, this sounds like my kind of event, Hyper Island in association with Northern Net have joined forces to create what is described as

“a highly innovative one-day creative session using the digital network as a springboard for creative ideas…”.

So basically, this means – anything can happen. That’s exactly why I’m excited.

And scared.

What is so amazing about creative is that when we hear the word we all have different ideas about what creative is, and what it isn’t. How do we decide what gets lumped into the category, and if we are lumping it into a category then is it creative at all, should it be something that you can’t compartmentalize?

I have been on an all day creativity session and I found it the single most rewarding all day session still to this day, and that was over 10 years ago. I’m not sure it was necessarily the content, there are far more factors that take place, is the group open minded? Are they keen to practice what we are being shown? Do we follow like sheep or do we modify what we are told to be creative? Does the group feel comfortable together? Could it have been that at that point in my life I wanted to embrace something new and exciting?

I don’t know that there are any answers, but I know from what I have read it’s a bit enigmatic as to what will actually happen, which I think is fantastic. It means that it will be open to interpretation and it won’t be something that has happened in an exact way before.

Particular things I am looking forward to are:
• Explore creative principles, Idea generation and Idea development
• Use creative tools in a way that is relevant to your work

The Learning Outcomes are listed as:
• Insight into the theory of the creative process and the generation of ideas
• How invention, futuristic technology and passionate creative concepts are linked to new product and business development
• Develop new ideas and practical creative tools to implement into your work
• Product concept and services development for the future digital landscape

So that means this is my marker to judge whether or not the day was a success. Personally, if it’s been a blast and I come out feeling inspired, that’s all the ‘Learning Outcome’ I’ll need.

About Hyper Island
Hyper Island is a world-leader in the field of education for interactive communication, business management and leadership. For over 15 years Hyper Island has been developing and delivering training courses that deploy a unique brand of experience-based learning, to create immersive knowledge transfer environments for creative and digital industry professionals. We strive to break down the traditional walls between learning environments and the “real world”, valuing creativity and creative process as vital tools for any every 21st Century business.
Hyper Island has bases in the UK, the US. and Sweden where we also offer the following full-time educational programs: Digital Media, E-commerce, Interactive Art Director, Applications Designer & Developer for Mobile Devices and Motion Graphics Designer & Developer.

iPad shame about the name

On the day of “the announcement” the excitement was building and the conversations, rumors and guesses were heightening to a fever pitch. I tweeted out earlier that day: “If it’s called the iPad someone should get fired”. That may seem extreme but I stand by it.

I still think this because who did they test this on? Who was asked about the choice? How was it decided? I go through often in my sessions that testing is essential to design, and I think as much as the product will have been tested, the name is also important.

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