effectiveUI blog

Interpreting today’s digital landscape and how it is transforming the human experience.

Beginning the Mobile Giving Dialogue

by Dan Saltzman
March 20, 2012

Determining strategies for touching customers through mobile channels isn’t just the topic du jour for big corporate entities. Public media has just as much on the line. Last week, the Integrated Media Association held its annual conference (iMA2012) in Austin as the traditional lead-in to SXSW Interactive. Among the topics in heavy discussion were shrinking budgets, journalism 2.0, and of [...]

The Page is Dead – A Digest Edition

by Chad Bakeman
March 15, 2012

One of the best technical sessions I attended at SXSW Interactive 2012 was titled “The Page is Dead” presented by Jacob Surber, Product Manager for Adobe Fireworks. I found the presentation to be a treasure trove of great information about responsive web design. In his presentation, Surber made a solid case for the importance of responsive web design as a [...]

SXSW: Hands in the Air and Enjoy the Ride

by Tony Walt
March 12, 2012

I’m happy to have the chance to attend SXSW 2012, although I have to admit my experience hasn’t gone exactly as planned. Normally, I am a meticulous planner. Prior to the conference, I spent hours on the SXSW Interactive website planning out my schedule so I could get the most out of it. Unfortunately, each time slot had at least [...]

Are Mobile Devices the Future of “Serious” Games?

by RJ Owen
March 7, 2012

Recently a co-worker came to me expressing some dismay about the launch of an upcoming video game. It featured characters and a theme she was really excited about, but what made her worried was the platform: the game was coming out only on iOS. “BOO!” she said. “Serious games don’t live on mobile devices,” she implied. Is iOS a viable [...]

What Adobe’s New Roadmap Means for Flash Development

by Greg Owen
March 2, 2012

Adobe’s recently released Flash roadmap formalizes the changes the company has been hinting were coming. The biggest takeaway is that Adobe is focusing on Web gaming and premium video for the Flash player going forward. It is also going to continue to develop AIR as a solution for deploying Flash-based applications as mobile apps, but development of that codebase is [...]

Native Mobile App? Mobile Web App? Both!

by Shane Church
March 1, 2012

Mobile applications are all the rage these days. There are currently three major mobile platforms: Apple’s iOS  (iPhone and iPad), Google’s Android , and Microsoft’s Windows Phone , and countless variations within these platforms for the developer to consider. Focusing on any one of these platforms leaves 50% or more of the market unable to use your application, but the [...]

Why Organizations Need the Open Web

by Rebecca Flavin
February 21, 2012

Depending on who you ask, the term “Open Web” might bring to mind a philosophy of openness and collaboration on the Internet, a collection of web technologies, or the idea of widely supported and accessible applications and websites that aim to be the antithesis of closed or “walled off” systems such as Google Chrome and Facebook. Regardless of which definition [...]

Things to Do in Denver When You’re a Dev (or a Designer)

by Jill Petersen
February 15, 2012

Whether you’re a designer, a developer or even an application enthusiast, Denver is the place to be. Ok, so maybe Denver isn’t San Francisco or Austin, but it is the HQ for EffectiveUI and there’s a ton of activities to entertain UX pros on their off hours. Take a typical Monday night in February, for example, where anyplace else you [...]

Building Bridges with Project Stakeholders

by John McRee
January 20, 2012

Most people would agree that building a software app is a much different undertaking than, say, building a bridge. Yet, there is one thing you can count on in both cases: change. Change can come from within the project as opportunities, risks and issues are encountered. It can also come from outside the project as the priorities of stakeholders shift. [...]

Digital Customer Experience Trends for 2012

by Rebecca Flavin
December 21, 2011

Forrester recently posted a question to its Customer Experience Community members on what their major predictions were around the customer experience in 2012. There was a lot of discussion around organizational maturity (e.g., is the organization in a place where it can take on a true customer focus?), as well as the personalization of experiences across channels. I chimed in [...]