App
Decisions, decisions, decisions
- By Digital Utility TEAM | Culture August 31st, 2012
-
From the mundane “What should I eat for dinner?” to the exciting “Where should I go on vacation?” to the complicated “What logo should I choose?” we’re faced with a lot of questions everyday. Unfortunately, coming up with the answers isn’t always easy.
The next time you’re feeling indecisive, check out Idea Bucket, a new app that lets you rate, compare and analyze anything you want. Ideas are grouped into buckets and then scored according to your defined criteria. It even generates reports and indicates the “best” option for you. An innovative twist on getting a second opinion, this is a great tool to help you visualize, compare and prioritize your ideas.
Tags: App, Decision Making, Idea Bucket
A mobile mailbox
- By Digital Utility TEAM | Culture, User Experience June 11th, 2012
-
Households across Canada and the United States are ditching their landlines in favour of mobile devices. Already the norm in most parts of the world, the growing number of mobile-only households is a clear indication that consumers want to stay connected without being tied to a physical location. A new start-up is taking this trend one step further and is looking to de-link snail mail from a fixed address. The premise behind Outbox is simple: they intercept your daily mail, scan it and push a digital copy to the recipient. Plus, users can request the original hardcopy of anything they receive. Positioned as a complement to traditional postal services, Outbox is part of a growing number of businesses that are using technology to reconcile the online and offline worlds without eradicating one or the other.
Tags: App, Digital communication, Digital Content, Digital mail delivery, Email, Evan Baehr, Mobile communication, Outbox, Snail Mail, Start-up, US Postal Service
C2-MTL: The creative process
- By Digital Utility TEAM | Mobile, Strategy May 22nd, 2012
-
A behind-the-scenes look at how we developed the mobile (web) application for C2-MTL, a global conference that explores how commerce and creativity can redefine business.
Tags: App, App development, C2-MTL, Creative Process, Creativity + Commerce, Montreal, Nurun, Nurun Montreal
Small change for a big difference
- By Digital Utility TEAM | Culture, User Experience May 9th, 2012
-
When you combine charity and technology, great things are bound to happen. We’re big fans of Instead, a new micro-donation app that makes it incredibly easy to help others. The premise is simple – users are encouraged to make small cutbacks (i.e. order a drip coffee instead of a fancy specialty one) and donate the difference to a charity of their choice. While it may not be feasible for non-profit groups to solicit $2 donations – or for people to be bothered to give such a small amount – Instead streamlines the entire process so that giving becomes second nature.
Tags: App, Apps for charity, Charity, Donate, Fundraising Tool, Instead, Non-Profit
Selling out
- By Laura CHAMBERS | Culture, Mobile, Social, User Experience April 24th, 2012
-
Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram is the ultimate start-up success story: two guys create a photo sharing app, attract an incredibly passionate and active user base and, in less than two years, sell for an insane $1 billion to the world’s largest social network.
But before you could say Zuckerberg, Twitter and the blogosphere exploded with less-than-happy Instagram users reacting to the news. From accusations of selling out to encouraging others to start using a new photo app, it seemed congratulatory messages were few and far between.
Now to be fair, I’m one of the rare people on the planet who still uses a BlackBerry so I’ve yet to experience the magic of Instagram for myself. But I suppose that for the Instagram loyalists the Facebook acquisition is pretty similar to when that awesome band/ restaurant/ designer you discovered soooooooo long ago suddenly gets super popular. On the one hand, they succeeded and hey that’s great. I mean isn’t that the point of all this? But on the other there’s still that whole notion of being in the know before x was cool, before x was mainstream, before x sold out.
I’m sure Mark Zuckerberg had plenty of reasons to shell out the $1 billion – whether it was Instagram’s user base, UX design, staff, or just a massive way to trump Google’s acquisition of Picnik. I’m also sure that the Instagram founders had a good reason for selling, astronomical payday aside.
What I’m not quite sure of is the reactions people have had. Available for free to anyone with an iPhone (and now Android), Instagram was far from a small and exclusive community. Not to mention, its 40 million users had the ability to share their photos across other platforms, including good old Facebook. Yet somehow the app managed to cultivate the feeling of a close-knit community amongst its millions of users – a stark contrast to the mess of ads, pokes and spam messages that are becoming more and more synonymous with the Facebook experience.
They say it’ll be business as usual at the Instagram camp, which should appease the Instagram loyalists for now. My guess is that it’ll only be a matter of time until The Photo Network hits theatres.
Tags: $1 billion, Acquisition, Android, App, Facebook, Google, Instagram, iPhone, Picnik, Popular Apps, Selling Out, Start-up
Branded maps
- By Laura CHAMBERS | Culture, Social, User Experience March 23rd, 2012
-
“Meet me at the corner of Starbucks and Nike.”
Using stores and restaurants to find our way around town is nothing new. From giving directions to orientating ourselves, these branded landmarks are often the most easily identifiable things around us. A new start-up, CityMaps, has gained a fair share of attention for using business names and logos to map out cities*.
A quick glance at the site and you realize how powerful branding can be. Being able to know the answer to “what’s around here” with a quick look at a map can be a huge timesaver – both at home and when travelling. I’ve never been to San Francisco, but I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t have trouble finding my way to the corner of Tumi and Longchamp. However, if you told me to show up where Maiden Lane and Grant Avenue meet (it’s the same spot!), well let’s just say I’d be firing up Google Maps.
*CityMaps is currently only available for San Francisco, Austin, and New York City, however 25 to 30 cities around the world will be added by the end of the year.
Tags: App, Brand Identity, Brands, CityMaps, Company Logo, Google Maps, Logos, Maps
Blair Coughtrey on Stylify Me
Way to go guys!
Babylonho on Why the term “Best Practices” is mediocre at best
Well said. I found this while looking for that Dilbert cartoon to pin above my desk for the benefit of...
Annabelle Yoon on Stylify Me
Thanks Mash! We're glad you're finding it useful.
Mash Bonigala on Stylify Me
Great share, thanks! I find Stylufy superbly useful during project color phases!
Recent Comments
Search
Categories
Editor
- Kyle GORDON
Writers
- Jean Pascal MATHIEU
- Jim YANG
- Laura CHAMBERS
Contributors
- Amy MANUS
- Audrey CARR
- Boris PIQUE
- Cassandra GONZALES
- Chiara ANELLI
- Chloé ROUBERT
- David BLISS
- Edouard PLANTE
- Emily BOND
- Faustine FOURDINIER
- Faustine HENRY
- Flora LI
- Gonzalo CORCHON
- Grégoire BARET
- Guthrie DOLIN
- Henri JEANTET
- James NAIL
- Jan ZHENG
- Jean-Sébastien SLADECEK
- Jen CHOW
- Jérémy LUCAS
- Julián SÁNCHEZ
- Julien PHALIP
- Kevin WEBBER
- Kira LEVINE
- Liao CHEN
- Mark WADDEN
- Marta MIRANDA
- Michael MROWETZ
- Mona CHAMMAS
- Nadeem VISANJI
- Nurun Lab TEAM
- Retail FORESIGHT
- Robert MILLER
- Ryan BIGGE
- Steve TREMBLAY
- Tim BARBER
Links
Blogroll
Get Social