Universal Mind

iBrainstorm: Application Design from the Inside-Out

Jul 26

The past two weeks have been the culmination of a three month internal effort for the User Experience Design team at Universal Mind. Yesterday marked the day that iBrainstorm for the iPad and iBrainstorm Companion for the iPhone were both live on the iTunes AppStore! We’re very excited about their meteoric rise in popularity—iBrainstorm sits at #1 in Free iPad Apps in the Productivity category and within the top ten in all Free iPad Apps—but we’re more energized with how we got there. iBrainstorm is a perfect case study in our own UX practice and methodology as well as a powerful example of Universal Mind’s multi-device solutions. Here’s the story…

In Between the Glass

Jul 22

Design and Technology have disrupted our way of thinking since the time we could walk. Everything vying for our attention as we try to make sense of the spaces to which we occupy; the things we look at, touch, interact with and even desire. Every moment of our day design and technology work in concert together to influence purchasing decisions, collect our thoughts, and even influence social connections. Linking us within our businesses and our communities until the lines of work and life have become blurred.

Collectively these practices have propelled businesses, individuals, cultures, and generations to, quite literally “Think Differently” about how we live and interact with our world. They’ve also given us access to tools and products that have shaped new thoughts, spawned new companies, inspired a purchase, and moved industries in new directions. And now the landscape is shifting and redefining once again how we connect, share, explore, learn and interact within our own microcosm.

Native UI or Consistent UI across devices?

Jun 23

As we see more devices flood the market we run into challenges with the variety of specifications and building experiences for them. I wanted to explore whether it’s better to utilize the native controls for each device, or use a more consistent and custom UI (that may be on an existing desktop/Web app).

You can see several mobile phone apps below, on the left are Android OS versions and on the right are the iPhone versions. As you can see they look and feel like the same application but due to standard UI controls for that specific device the applications have slightly different controls.

Universal Mind’s Multi Device initiative

Jun 21

We at Universal Mind have started a Multi Device initiative showcasing enterprise applications with a consistent user experience on various devices. We created a sample application that was designed to work on several devices iPad, iPhone, Android, Web, and Kiosk (Blackberry, HTML 5 and Silverlight coming soon). Coming from a UX perspective there were a lot of challenges as we went through our UX process.

We wanted a way to showcase all the devices in a quick way so we created a short video reel of all the devices.

I have some screen shots of the personas, wireframes and design framework below.

Connecting Customers to Your Enterprise, Part 1

Jun 09

They’re on smartphones, tablets, and touchscreens. Are you?

The variety of connected devices and ways in which people use them is expanding at a dizzying rate. It’s creating almost unimaginable opportunities for businesses to interact with customers, expand revenue streams, even create new ones.

Take a look at these examples:

“eBay Inc. has made big news in the world of mobile commerce, becoming the first online merchant to break out m-commerce sales, and with good cause. Its mobile app for the iPhone and its m-commerce site, m.eBay.com, have generated $380 million in sales so far this year.”
eBay’s mobile channel has generated $380 million in sales this year
September 25, 2009

“Bank of America now has over 3.5 million customers and represents over a third of all U.S. mobile banking customers… They support over 850 handsets via their mobile web application while providing native…

Enterprise 2.0, meet Customer 2.0

May 25

During preparations to attend the Enterprise 2.0 show in Boston in June, we began discussing the definition of “Enterprise 2.0” as it stands. Seems that the term is still primarily defined as social software used in business/commercial contexts, and only loosely defined as Web 2.0 technologies, including RIAs, SaaS, and using the Web as a general platform.

In our experience, there’s a whole world of enterprise software and solutions outside of the Enterprise 2.0 arena. While it’s not yet “Enterprise 3.0,” it is a direct descendant of Web 2.0 advancements and it’s in response to a new level of expectations from users—be they consumers or even employees.

Emboldened by their smartphones, blogs, instant messages, and social networks, customers now expect anytime, anywhere access to companies they do business with. We call these users Customer 2.0. And while we’re not the first to use this term, we’re surprised by the fact that it’s barely made it into today’s lexicon. Because it seems that Customer 2.0 is at the heart of this digital evolution.

Thoughts from a Digital Solutions Agency

May 07

If you’re tasked with finding innovative ways to give your organization an edge, you’re probably considering some kind of digital solution strategy.

After all, everyone’s online. Everyone’s mobile. And everyone expects everything to be available all the time, anywhere and everywhere—whether it’s a customer buying shoes on the web, a field sales rep submitting timesheets from her cell phone, or a parts supplier optimizing delivery routes in real-time for your locations in the Midwest.

These are very attractive possibilities and, with the advent of technologies such as Adobe Flex, Microsoft Silverlight, and the multi-device explosion fostered by the iPhone and Android, realizing them has never been more doable.

That said, these opportunities are also packed with pitfalls.