August 2011 Archives

The client says that their ________ research shows that their ________ want an ________ for their _________ mobile device. The __________ demographic that the client is aiming for Loves/Hates (circle one or both) ________ brand, as well as ________ brand, and insists that the ________ works also for the _________ user base. ____________ bandwidth is / is not (circle one or both) a problem but the client insists that we must also take into account folks with _______ fingers if we are going to design for ________. The user base may or make not have great ________ and that will need to be taken into consideration. But regardless, the _______ says that other __________ shows that market penetration.....

This Tuesday, August 30th from 9am - 6pm (Central Time, read Texas Time), the Mobile JavaScript Summit will be coming to a browser near you. If you are a web designer/developer who is wondering how to get started with designing/developing for the mobile web and mobile apps or have already started but would love to know more about how to take the web technologies you work in and turn them to mobile, then this will be a great one-day online conference for you.

The great thing about the Environments for Humans' Summits is that the price is low and you attend the conference on your own computer. The software used to present the conference allows the attendees to not only have a video feed of the presenter, also the slides in the main window and the ability to ask questions in real time.

Here are the talks that will be given:

Josh Clark on The New Rules of Designing for Touch
Jonathan Stark on Mobile Apps and the Enterprise
Jenifer Hanen (me) on The Realities of Mobile Design
Simon Laurent and Daniel Pinter on From "It Works" to "Wow! This is Fast!"
Lunch break
David Kaneda on Sencha Touch
Stephen Gill on Phone Gap
Marc Grabanski on jQuery Mobile
Kevin Whinnery on Appcelerator Titanium
Tom Dale on SproutCore

I presented last year at the UX Summit and really enjoyed the online format, I definitely look forward to talking about one of my favorite subjects on Tuesday.

If you would like to join us, please use the following discount code, HANEN20, at The Mobile JavaScrip Summit.

Where in I don't use the #fb tag and test to see if this post will or will not post to the heinous Facebook.

Update 10 mins later: It worked.

Trying out a way to filter my posts that Facebook posts as a note... Test... test... test...

Photos of the Hummingbird & Agapanthas at the Huntington Library & Gardens taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N8.

Yesterday, Thurs 08.18.11, Erika and I went to the Huntington Library and Gardens, as we walked towards the Rose Garden we passed a line of agapanthas that were thick with hummingbirds. Most were Anna's Hummingbirds fighting for territory over the flowers, but there was one very calm and peaceful young (juvenile, 1st summer) Allen's or Rufous hummingbird that was sipping at the agapanthas at its leisure and then resting on top of the flowerstalks.

I thought this was very sane behavior as it was 93F/34C in the shade. But as more and more of the visitors walking down the path stopped to take photos of a hummingbird at rest and so close up, Erika and I started to get concerned that it was sick and not able to move. At one point it sat for a breather on the sidewalk, which is a typical behavior of very young birds in their first week or two of fledgling/learning to fly as their muscles aren't quite ready.

I am glad that this little hummingbird had a court of respectful, if not photo-full admirers, while it was getting its strength up to fly rather than a bevy of local cats. After about 10 minutes, I got a bit distressed and asked Erika if we could move on, as I was afraid we would see the bad side of the circle of life.

Dear little young one, you were very lovely. May you fledge successfully. May you visit many flowers and have a long and good life in the shadow of the San Gabriel Mountains. Many blessings upon you. Thank you for letting us watch you.

"People who work creatively usually have something in common: they love the media they work with. Finding the medium that excites your imagination, that you love to play with and work in, is an important step to freeing your creative energies." - Sir Ken Robinson, The Element

My biggest surge creativity of the last 10 years was getting a camera phone and pushing the envelope of my long time photography practice with a 1 megapixel wonder. The past six plus years of having various camera phones with me everywhere I go has not just excited my imagination but freed me up to take photos of things or at angles or in lighting that I would not have with my SLR or DSLR cameras.

This summer after many years of coding web sites / apps and a few years of python mobile app attempts, I have fallen for Qt Quick / QML not just to create mobile apps that have been living in my head but as a new way to approach to javascript that has made programming in javascript fun again. The last few weeks have been very exciting because now I can program the camera and resultant photos on my phone. It is been compelling to take my hard won programming knowledge mash it up with my love for designing to create native mobile apps that I can use right then and there on my mobile.

What medium are you creating in right now that is exciting your imagination?

Fri 08.12.11 - Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N8 while driving northbound on the Pacific Coast Highway over the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station.

Photos taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N8 in and around Seal Beach, California from Tues 08.09.11 to Thurs 08.11.11.

Regarding the first photo, the local magnolia tree that was completely caught under the tank of a runaway Volvo, has not just rebounded a bit, but is now thriving nearly 18 months after the accident. Go, little tree, go!

I <3 London, it is one of my favorite places on the planet next to the Sierra Nevada Mountains here in California. The riots and looting of the last couple of days in and around London have made me very alternately sad and a bit horrified that my favorite city is in flames and the police & government have appeared to be asleep at the wheel.

We live in gravely odd times, an era that will make for great history reading many years from now but scary hard to shitty to live through. London is an ancient city but also a marvelously modern one - a city of great history but any history can be tossed aside and torched in an instant as the inhabitants try to figure out how to live in the now. I sincerely hope that the rioting and looting will stop tonight and the city will have a peace and space to thoughtfully determine where to go to next.

It took LA a number of years after 1992 to sort ourselves out, but we are now a better and healthier city. Yes, there is still poverty and inequality, but there is more hope and space to have dreams.

London, may you do the hard work to find peace, space, and give all the people room for hope. Hope for a future, hope for an education, and hope for a reason to live and thrive.

Read Annie Mole's How will London recover from this?

All photos taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N8.

Sat 08.06.11 - I also worked on my mobile app Qt Quick/QML app and worked on client sites. I really really really really really need to get back to my daily blogging practice. Please forgive me. Gah.