Design
Programming a flying bull with Node.js, Coffeescript and Parrot AR 2.0 Drone
When I was very young, my father used to take me to an airfield where hobbyists would gather to show off their model planes. I think that memory forced my hand into buying a Parrot A.R. Drone 2 a month ago. The Parrot AR 2.0 Drone is now widely available with a 1GHZ ARM Cortex […]
The XOXO Festival
This past weekend, I spent four days in Portland, OR at the XOXO Festival. Billed as “an arts and technology festival celebrating disruptive creativity,” it brought together 400 minds in one space to share and discuss our work. The conference talks and themes have been thoroughly and thoughtfully covered by Anil Dash, the NYTimes, BoingBoing […]
8 Pro Tips for Effective Prototyping
We’ve talked about how prototyping plays a part in our creative and development processes. Recently we’ve seen an uptick in interest among clients and momentum building, which is very exciting for us here at R/GA. With one of our major clients we’re now hearing the rallying cry internally, “Powerpoints don’t win customers!”. The benefits of […]
10 Tips for Avoiding Frontend Single Points of Failure
Last week I had the pleasure of attending an eye opening chat by Google’s Steve Souders at Etsy’s Code as Craft Technology Talk. He focused on Front End Single Points of Failure. Steve made the point that redundancy is not just for hardware. It’s important that our code gracefully recover from failed dependencies. This would […]
Interoperability and the Progammable OS
Consumer operating systems have come a long way in my lifetime. Advances in user design and feature improvements have made many things that were once impossible commonplace. But that’s not to imply there aren’t opportunities for improvement. For instance, I am consistently disappointed that consumers have settled for the status quo in application interoperability. Currently, interoperability between applications means one of two things: Cut to […]
The Web is a Village at Scale
Some time ago, I spent a month in the Himilayas. There were no roads or cars, only footpaths connecting small villages where people lived without most modern conveniences. Inside these tight-knit mountain communities, everyone appeared to have a natural sense of each others’ well-being. In contrast, it is well documented that technical societies tend to […]
Comparing Food Trucks and Software Development
Over the summer R/GA had a bout of what doctors call “Food Truck Fever”. Every day a new food truck showed up in front of our building on 39th street serving everything from Koren BBQ, homemade Chinese dumplings and artisan ice cream. Every day the trucks were greeted with a long line of hungry R/GA’ers […]
Copying Code is Like a Copying a Logo
Like logos and taglines, code is a powerful way to reinforce brand identity and attract customers; in many respects, code is similar to a branded typeface. Just as appropriating choice copy and visual assets is a sly way to bootstrap a company’s brand, swiping code can give a lift too. For example, shortly after we launched a […]
Using Code and Working Software to Inspire others
Successful programmers and technical architects are well known for their ability to deliver rock solid applications, however, it’s their ability to inspire that’s most prized at R/GA. Good programmers execute, while great programmers inspire. In his book, Sketching User Experience, Bill Buxton highlights the importance of sketching as a technique for putting “experience front and […]
