Wikipedia’s New iOS App Sees An Improved Design, Adds Social Features With Shareable “Fact Cards”

Home Automation System Seed Labs Launches Silvair Control To Make Your Lightbulbs SmartThe Wikimedia Foundation has been steadily rolling out updates to the Wikipedia mobile experience in recent months, and today that trend continues as the organization rolls out a brand-new iOS app. This release is focused on improvements to the visual design of Wikipedia’s app, better search, and includes the addition of social features that allow you to share facts and images with friends on social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and elsewhere.
While Wikipedia today sees nearly half a billion monthly visitors accessing its online encyclopedia’s over 34 million articles that span 288 languages, its deep integration into the iOS operating system is both a blessing and a curse. While it’s great to be able to quickly access Wikipedia content by way of Spotlight search and Siri, that also means that users have less reason to visit the native app directly when there’s something they need to research. And with an ever-growing number of mobile applications available for download from the App Store, it can be difficult to make the case for something as utilitarian as Wikipedia to remain on your phone’s homescreen…or second screen…or third.
To some extent, that’s why the Wikimedia Foundation has been rolling out these updates to its mobile application, with the goal of making its native version more attractive, easier to use, and generally more engaging. The idea is to make the app something that’s compelling enough to pop into from time to time, even if you’re not actively searching for a topic.
Things like the app’s “Random” feature, which suggests an interesting article for reading, and the app’s “Nearby” option, which includes articles that suggest content related to your current location, have for some time offered different ways to interact with Wikipedia, for example.
With today’s update, the app has been improved to make accessing its content easier and quicker than before, with consideration to mobile users’ limited time and smaller screens. The app now sports a cleaner design with a short descriptor of the topic right at the top of the screen that makes it possible to get a simple answer within seconds. Many articles are now also preceded by a large image, giving the app more visual interest.
Meanwhile, the app’s search functionality has been improved with a higher contrast search bar and support for showing your recent searches.
Once immersed in the app, Wikipedia has made changes subtly designed to keep you there – specifically, to keep you exploring topics and reading more. To that end, each article will now have a section at the bottom that encourages this behavior, connecting you to other information on the topic at hand. And an enhanced image viewer helps visual learners swipe through all the article’s images more easily.


The app is also now going social with a feature that lets you create images overlaid with text from an article that can be shared with anyone via social media like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, email or text, and more. Previously released on Android, this clever addition lets you share a fact with your friends. It’s an attempt at making Wikipedia something that’s more fun and social – a toy of sorts, not just a tool.

It’s actually a handy tool to use when having those sorts of arguments that can be won by way of Wikipedia searches. Instead of just texting or posting a link to the article and citing the factoid that proves your point, you can build these “fact cards” using the main image from the article and your highlighted text. Now, not only have you won the point, you’ve won with style, it seems.
The updated app is rolling out now on iTunes.

By: Unknown On 06:28

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SaaS Companies Look To Change The Interface Of Web Design

The Promise Of Outsourcing To VietnamEditor’s note: Dennis Mitzner lives in Tel Aviv and writes about startups, technology trends and politics.
Code-free web design platforms are an increasingly popular tool among web designers. Companies behind these tools promise a design experience that doesn’t require any coding skills or the need for an expensive third-party developer.Giants of the DIY website industry, Wix and Squarespace, promise a hassle-free, almost effortless ability for anyone to design a site within minutes. Unlike the two giants, new SaaS platforms such as Webydo and Webflow target professional web designers who have no interest or patience for coding.With Webydo, the user must have a design background working with software such as Adobe Photoshop in order to design sites from scratch, whereas Wix users with no background in design can create a site by modifying an existing template. Tel Aviv-based Webydo was founded to empower the web designer and subsequently diminish the role of the developer in the design process.“We initially felt enslaved to an old process that depended on developers to manually convert graphic design into handwritten code,” said Shmulik Grizim, CEO and co-founder of Webydo. “This professional process, which had not changed much since the 90’s, was slow, expensive and cumbersome. Consequently, we hired a group of mathematicians, engineers and developers who developed a revolutionary code generator.”It’s an industry norm for a large chunk of the design budget to go into development. After the designer submits the design, developers start working. This is often time-consuming and tends to have a bloating effect on the budget.Webydo, Webflow and Adobe Muse provide a service that makes the outside developer redundant. The distinguishing feature between companies such as Webydo and Webflow comes down to responsiveness and how elements on the canvas act in relation to each other.“Responsive design is the main issue. Companies that offer code-free web templates, need to choose between two approaches: fluid or adaptive,” said Nir Barlev, product manager at Webydo.With the fluid approach, the elements are arranged automatically according to the screen of a given device. Webydo uses an adaptive approach (the designer has full control over the position of each element independently) and Webflow has opted for the fluid approach.“The main weakness of adaptive design is that elements do not automatically arrange themselves in a responsive manner, which means that the designer needs to manually make sure that elements work in mobile, tablet and desktop,” Barlev said. “That makes their designs to be pixel accurate. With the fluid approach, all elements move on the canvas in direct relation to one another. To move one, you need to move all.”Regardless of minor yet important differences in interfaces, Webydo and Webflow are trying to reverse the trend that has seen developers dominate the industry. Now, the two companies are slowly helping designers take control over their work and build independent web design businesses and eventually bring their vision to life, independently.But are Webydo and Webflow putting developers out of business?“No, we’re not — the world is still in great need of developers,” Grizim said. “We’re just taking the repetitive, Sisyphean work out of the equation. We need developers to create new widgets and plugins, and many other creative coding tasks.”Whether SaaS design startups will be able to modify and eventually disrupt the standing of developers in the design process is an interesting question and will ultimately be answered by designers themselves.

By: Unknown On 07:42

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The Story Behind Samsung’s Galaxy S6 And S6 Edge Design Departure

The Story Behind Samsung’s Galaxy S6 And S6 Edge Design DepartureAdvertisement
Samsung has done something very different with this year’s flagship – or different for Samsung, at least. The company that has long held on to the belief that it can produce top-tier hardware using platics as the core component of device industrial design has switched to an all metal and glass enclosure.
 And for those who wondered what a Samsung smartphone using premium materials might feel like, the Galaxy S6 edge in particular is a very promising result. But how did Samsung, of all companies, ever launch a device where design was the primary tentpole feature?Zero
To get to the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, Samsung says it had to start from zero – meaning tossing out the design book that led to dimpled plastic mock-leather backs and shiny plastic hamburger outer ridges. It mean taking a step back and opening up the design process to feedback, listening to the complaints of both professionals and consumers regarding Samsung’s previous design choices, and then building anew from there.
To get to the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, Samsung says it had to start from zero.
Some might argue that Samsung didn’t start from nothing when it decided to move away from its plastic design legacy. Apple, after all, has created devices that look quite similar to the Galaxy S6, and details like the arrangement of ports and holes on the bottom edge of that hardware do look quite similar to the current setup at the base of an iPhone 6. But despite familiar port layouts, antenna placement and materials choices, the new Galaxy phones still feel distinctly Samsung, perhaps in part because they’ve retained familiar features like the rounded rectangle home button and center-set camera lens.

And the unique qualities of the curved display not the S6 edge are also Samsung through-and-through, with a reeling-in of a far-out feature the company introduced last year which in some ways helps illustrate down their entire product development process. The Note Edge has a curved edge with a dedicated display, which appears continuous with the rest. Reviewers mostly found that cute but ultimately extraneous, however, and the S6 edge is an iteration in action based on that response: it’s mostly aesthetic, rather than functional, and it contributes what it needs to without ending up feeling flippant.
Samsung says the design for these devices has been in the works for the past several years, rather than over the course of a few months or just since the Galaxy S5 was introduced. Its design came about in parallel with the choices made on the S5, Note and Note Edge line, though you also get the sense from the company that there were clear camps that favored one track vs. the other, and that the kind of metal-and-glass approach used on the S6 didn’t gain ascendancy without struggle.
It’s possible that Samsung’s recent struggles in its dominance of the global smartphone market helped give credence to voices within the company that sought to change their reputation for making handsets that seemed more functional than fashionable. It’s also likely due to the changing nature of Samsung’s business: The company was knocked off its lofty perch atop the key greater China smartphone market, first by Xiaomi undercutting its wide product range on price, then by Apple outdoing it in the premium sector with iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

Whatever the reason, Samsung has decided to break with tradition and take a risk on a design more in line with what premium customers expect. It’s not a guarantee that they’ll be able to retake lost ground in that segment, but it’s clear the opposite strategy wasn’t working in terms of long-term growth.
Practicality And Personality
Even though they changed their material strategy, with the added pressure to continue to offer ever-thinner and sleeker devices, Samsung didn’t want to also make their devices colder and less approachable. That’s why they developed, in-house, the sub-surface reflective coating that gives the GS6 and S6 edge its metallic- or jewel-like finish, which has the added benefit of being protected from scratching or marring itself thanks to being underneath the Gorilla Glass 4 outer surface.
The color options, including the bold and bright exclusive options for each model, were Samsung’s attempt to acknowledge that increasing desire on the part of consumers for a device that reflects their own personality. In smart watches, the trend towards greater customization is clear, but Samsung’s design choices are meant to appeal to that same instinct, in a way that still maintains the same general device feel and handheld user experience across variations.

On the practical side, Samsung’s designers made some changes that reflect usability challenges with previous designs. The rear-facing speaker is replaced with a downward facing one, which Samsung says makes for 1.5 times louder sound. There’s also a customizable LED with color options based on who’s contacting you, and quick reply settings that you can assign to the rear IR sensor next to the camera, so that you can automatically respond with just a finger press without ever lifting the phone off the table. Designers also made sure to extend the metallic frame above the glass surface all the way around the edge, in an effort to make it less likely to shatter in case of a fall. This was a passion project that emphasized user experience in minute detail.
Can Design Save?
The big question about making design the central selling point of the Galaxy S6 is whether or not it can turn things around for Samsung’s smartphone division, and help it resume growth and reclaim its position of absolute global device dominance. There’s no question, in my mind, that what Samsung has done vastly improves upon its existing track record of hardware look and feel, but ultimately the market will have the final say.
This was a passion project that emphasized user experience in minute detail.
That may dictate whether or not Samsung takes more of these kinds of design risks in the future, instead of the kind of conservative approach that has been the hallmark of Samsung’s Galaxy flagships over the course of the past few years.

By: Unknown On 10:39

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Tailor Brands Raises $1.1 Million in Seed Funding To Build Out Its Automated Design Process

The algorithmic logo design startup Tailor Brands has raised $1.1 million in seed funding from Disruptive Fund and various angel investors.
We first wrote about the beta launch of Tailor Brands at Disrupt San Francisco this past fall. It tested various branding concepts in beta. It’s now ready to use the new funding to build upon those concepts and for the public to access its logo and design services.
The goal of the startup is to reduce the cost of design by letting a machine create the look of logos and various branding items. These include business cards, bags, mugs, pens and various online materials such as social media profiles for smaller businesses that can’t afford to hire a graphic designer to do the work.
A graphic artist might charge anywhere from $1000 on the lower end to upwards of $10,000 for the design of all branding material, depending on the job. The Tailor Brands site will design and let you download the logo for free for your own use. It will also allow you to have unlimited revisions to that logo for free.
The money is made when you want designed assets and higher resolution images. Higher resolutions and storage of the logo on the Tailor Brands site starts at $24 for one job and go up to $99 for a complete package of business cards, higher resolution images and social media profile designs. Compare that to ordering business cards from a site like Moo at $19.99. Moo will design the cards for you using pre-made stock designs and then adding your information in after. Note that Tailor Brands provides the design but will not actually make and ship the cards to you.
The startup has so far done business in over 35 countries since its launch at Disrupt, according to Tailor Brands CEO Yali Saar.
This has helped set the company up for both funding and some runway to build out the business. Saar says he and his co-founders plan to use the new funds to hire more designers and to build out the services offered such as app design. Though he says Tailor Brands is experimenting with a lot of different ideas.

By: Unknown On 04:15

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Apple Has Hundreds Working On An Electric Car Design, Says WSJ

Apple is indeed working on a car, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Mac maker kicked off a top-secret project tasked with developing an electric car with a minivan aesthetic, per the WSJ’s sources, after CEO Tim Cook approved the project nearly a year ago. It includes

By: Unknown On 23:35

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