What's ap?

Reserch phase

So as mention in previous blog I’m working on a application for iPad that solves the problem of how to efficiently prepare for a speech or presentation with focus on what to say and how to say it and also to memorize the verbal part of the presentation.

This part of the project I manly been making research on what great speakers recommend for preparation, Made a survey with help of answer sheets with focus on how people usually prepare themselves for a presentation and witch problems they encounter.

Also I made an interview with the Swedish former actor Johan Westmark about what he recommends to do before and during a presentation to make is as good as possible.

Oh and I’ve also built myself a comfortable working space as shown in the picture.

So at the moment I have three key ideas that the app will focus on likely.

Organizing bullet points

Organize time

Suggested tips/trix to improve the presentation

Other features that could be implemented

Import Keynote files

It would be possible to import a Keynote file to directly take bullet points and pictures without even opening the file.

Could be a big timesaver if you have made a presentation with Keynote and want to start rehearsing with my app.

Templates

The app could contain suggested templates for different kind of presentations.

Next week I will hopefully will have nice looking Sketches to show so stay tuned.

Speech preparation app solution

“I think presenting a idea is pleasure but preparing a presentation is a pain”

A few weeks ago I was sitting in a 3 hours train ride up to Stockholm.

I had the presentations slides ready so all I had to do was to prepare the verbal part of the presentation.

And when I was sitting in the train with pen and paper to write down keywords with my iPad as a clipboard I was thinking why can’t I do it on the iPad?

Sure there’s “Keynote app” for making the presentation but as far as I know there aren’t any good app for preparing what am going to say, how I gonna say it and to memorize it during the presentation.

So what i did was rehearsing with pen and paper which for me didn’t make sense.

Shortly what I’m missing is some sort of tool to get started and preparing the presentation.

So I’ve started a project which is about to create an iPad solution that solves the problem of how to efficiently prepare for a speech or presentation with focus on what to say and how to say it and also to memorize the verbal part of the presentation.

And I would like to do it on the iPad platform because then it could be more easily accessible for a quick rehearsal a few minutes before the presentation or when your sitting on the train for example.

Exactly what it will do is not certain at the moment but I would like to make interviews to make my app really user-based.

The interview questions will be:

What routines or rituals do you prefer to perform before a speech to prepare yourself?

How do you organize what you are about to say in a speech?

In what location do you usually prepare yourself for a speech?

How do you make sure to memorize your whole speech?

Is stress an issue for you before a speech and if so how do you manage it?

So if you’re reading this blog and would like to hit me with an answer you could send me a tweet to @AntonHkanson or mail me on anton.hakanson@hyperisland.se

And I will make sure to post updates on this blog about the project every week so stay tuned!

The past weeks me and my team have been working on a Project to create an mobile activity managing app specialized for people with Autism.

So I been working on icons that the user can choose to represent activities he/she wants to have as a overview or a reminder of during the day.

The idea is to make the icons so the user can pick he’s/her own color on the icon for eatch activity so the challenge has been to create shapes that are understandable with different fills of colors.

If you curios you can read more about this and similar projects at http://mindtheapp.se/

Pitch thoughts

Here I just want to share how I use to think when I prepare a pitch.

For me Pitch is more about feeling then actual content.

It’s about give the receiver the feeling that you are targeting there needs.

And by that secure there attention for the project.

The usual thought about pitch I believe is that it is a “sell talk”

You can make a sell pitch but I believe it will not give the impact you are after.

Selling is not about the need of the listener but it’s about telling about value content But not nessersarly content with value for the receiver.

For example:

This app is great because it has a timeline and are super simple.

That’s a “sell pitch” it tells the listener it has some value but it’s not really connected to the listener beliefs and value.

Also modern people are used to selling pitches in commercials etc and have a high resistance to selling messages.

But if you instead say for example:

We believe this app could help people track time with a simple solution.

This pitch is now connecting to the listeners beliefs and value. The audience are likely to have that same beliefs and value about this particular app.

So this could reassure the listeners that the speaker is going to pitch about a app that provides value to the individuals beliefs.

Heres a suggestion on how a Pitch could be structured.

Why

As Steve jobs did and many great speakers one way to really communicate in a believable way is to first tell the resin why to do it.

Witch makes sense because if you first of all know why you should listen then you are more likely to actually pay attention.

What

Here you can fill some content of the idea. Just brightly explain what the idea is about to make the listeners quickly understand what it’s all about.

How

So when you know Why and What it makes sense to know how to do it. In this case the audience are already convinced that this is a good solution but they are not likely to do anything about it if you don’t give them any direction on How to do it.

This step is about getting reality into the idea and guide the audience in there next action to support the project.

Reminder

Egen if a Pitch usually is short it can be hard for the audience to remember everything that been said.

So to make you’re pitch even more noticeable you can finish it with a quick summary.

This is usually appreciated for helping the audience remember what’s been said during the pitch.

What do you think? Was this helpful?

Parchment mobile element

I would like to share a idea of a mobile UI element that I been designing during the weekend.

I haven’t figured out exactly how it should be implemented in the UI but the idea is to have it as a drag down field with text.

Basically when you drag the part with the arrow down you reveal a page with text and when you drag it up you close it.

This could be a interactive way to hide and show short text information by the users choose.

As in my example it could be a “More about me page which could be implemented in a personal portfolio mobile site for example.

Hopefully the interactive design will bring curiosity to the user and it could also be a fun way to interact to slide the parchment up and down.

What do you think?

Project manager insights

The past week I been talking the role as Project manager in my team.

This is a tought role witch usually don’t instantly shows result and may feel unappreciated in the beginning.

But wile the project run you slightly start to see result and it’s a very appreciated role after a wile if you work hard and are stubborn.

So I would like to share a few insights from this experience.

Clear goals

Make it super simple for everyone to know what’s expected from eatch one of them and what the members expect from the team.

This makes individuals feel like part of the team and makes it easier to for individuals to focus on there work when they don’t’ need to think of what there are suppose to do.

Push the group forward

The project manager aren’t necessarily the one the one that makes the big decisions in the group but he can make suggestions to move forward in the progress.

For example if the team are stuck in a long discussion he can figure out what everyone seems to agree on and ask a simple question as:

- As I understand it seems like everyone has agreed on “something” is that correct?

If the answer from the group is yes then the group have made a decision and if the answer is no then you have localized a topic where the team has disagreement.

Either way it’s helpful for the group to know what they have agreements and disagreements.

Controll without controlling

A project manager isn’t’ necessarily the same as being a leader. The reason for that is that is when working in a creative team we want the individuals to express themselves and come with suggestion and ideas. If you instead take a leader role and try to tell them what to do it’s a risk that creativity gets shuffled away. Or even worse they may choose not to listen to you.

In the other hand if you don’t give the team any suggestions they are likely to not work as a team and the final outcome and motivation may suffer from that.

So I would suggest a project manager should instead be a guide that suggest tasks as far as it’s possible.

Instead of saying “you are going to do this” “I would say” “I would suggest you do this because it supports the team in this way”

Adapt to group and members.

It’s about being observant, ask questions and listen. Everyone is different and no project module works for everyone.

Of course no one is similar and every team and individual requires a different approach.

It also important to take notice of different phases of the project.

For example in the beginning the team probably need a loot more leadership and guidance to get going while after some time they might instead have other needs.

So when I plan my projects I always take in account the different phases that I except the team to go throughout.

Bridge comminucation between team-members

The team members need to focus on their task so too provide value as PM a excellent task is communicating.

That could include arranging meetings, organize schedule systems or a easy thing as asking people what there doing.

Deal with conflicts

This is a hush topic but I belive differences and frustration in the team should be dealt with in a early stage of the project.

To bring this up is may directly bring up conflicts witch can be scary and time consuming.

But ignoring conflicts would in the other hand slow the project down in the long run with lack of motivation and frustration.

So I would say a good PM can quickly notice and deal with upcoming conflicts for the teams best.

Folowups

Check with teammembers if the tasks they signed up for is been completed.

If it has it cold just be a way to make the teammembers feel appreciated and motivated for he’s/her work.

If not it you may have encountered a issues where you as PM can step in to solve it.

What do you think? Am I on the right track?

I’m a tweet-“oholic” and I think Twitter is a great tool to find information and for personal branding.

But I believe one issue is that it’s hard to know what to expect when following a person.

When I decide if I want to follow a person I would like to know what topics he/she is tweeting about and if it’s relevant for me.

So to help my Twitter followers/visiters I want to make it easy to quickly understand what topics I mostly

tweet about and if that’ relevant for them.

This is my solution: Make a few changes in your background design in your Twitter profile.

If you have noticed that I have made a few changes in my background design in my Twitter profile.

In the text bars I have whriten some of my main Tweet topics so the visitor directly can see that when entering my profile.

And with that I hope to make it easy to decide if my tweet flow is relevant for the visitor.

Bare I’m mine that this is not a complete design. I have some more color themes to try out and a few pixels to move.

So if you have any suggestion feel free to reach me on my Twitter @AntonHkanson

If you want to know more about tweet branding I would recommend this article http://blog.bufferapp.com/twitter-profile-conversions

To be mobile

When people ask me “what do you do?” I’ll usually answer “well I’m a app maker. I study to make apps”

So that’s the short version to go Hyper island Mobile application.

But I think that’s not the whole story.

Sure the outcome of our project are apps (obviously) but a app could be anything.

It could be a solution of a problem, a game to kill time with, or something we haven’t figured out yet.

The making of a app is also a broad topic so it’s easy to combine with your interests.

So if you are that techy guy you can learn to develop and program apps.

If you are into colors and shapes you can take part in making the app design.

And if you are like me into getting your visions and ideas into reality you can draw you apps and make them come to reality.

So the main reason that I like to work with apps are that I believe it’s a really easy way to make reality of ideas that is spinning around in my head.

For example if I have a simple solution for a problem I can create a app for that specific problem.

Ofcourse I can’t do it myself but in my class and in Hyper island i constantly have talented people around me that can help me out.

Sounds interesting?

Me and Alex Auld want get you going in the app world so we are hosting a workshop in how to come up with app ideas.

Meet us at Hyper island open day.

Cheers!

Suggestion inpiration buttom in OptiscanApps QR generator

I’ve been following the trend of QR codes and I would like to share some thoughts and ideas that been spinning around in my head for some time….

My understand of QR is that it has been growing big as a new tool in marketing. A new solution to reach the audience.

It has the advantage to bring a customer relevant information or entertaining on a specific location.

It’s also possible to get statistics on the numbers of scans which can be used to effectively measure the numbers of people you reach

This is great for the companies but what about the enduser?

Maybe the opportunities of QR-codes aren’t that obvious to the user. The user might need some “help” to see the advantages and to use it efficiently.

So I been looking into OptiscanApp which seems to be on the same track because they provide a QR generator in there QR app.

Witch I think is great because it could give the public a chance to, in a easy way try out and use QR.

And at the same time educate themselves about how to use QR.

However, when I open the QR generator and got the the menu with the different QR generator solutions I felt a bit confused and I thought “how is this useful to me?”

So I want to add a feature that maybe could help.

My suggestions is a button that will take the user to a new advice and inspiration page. This new window that appear could contain many things but for example:

How users have used QR codes Invitation cards, posters etc.

Products with QR codes on.

You can activate the button by holding on it and swiping down

I have chosen to make a new design for the button because:

I want the user to experience curiosity.

When dragging something down it would be expected that something falls down.
In this case it could be a new “inspiration page” falling down in a short animation.

In this app standard buttons placed in the top are not excepted to bring the user to a new page.

I also have ideas on how the “inspiration page” could look like but that might be another post.

Well that’s all for now.

Icon Suggestion for Systembolagets app

I’ve been looking into Systembolagets app lately.

I think it looks great in many ways but it’s one detail that I’ve been thinking on.

To me I don’t instantly understand what the icon for “pris”(price in swedish) is suppose to look like.

With the context “pris” I understand that it’s looks like a stack of bills.

But without the context it could be any kind of stacked cards.

Personally I prefer when a icon are able to explain itself without the use of context.

So I have made a suggestion on a different icon.

Hopefully this icon are easier to understad without using the context but are still connected to the context.

See pictures below