a game designer explains the counterintuitive secret to fun [permalink]
“A voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles.” -Bernard Suits
blogs are cool [permalink]
But, to the people who send email, to me or to any blogger: please consider publishing what you write instead of emailing it. Not because email sucks, but because more people than just me should be able to read what you wrote. You have something to add to the discussion.
The barrier to entry to publish something online with tools like Tumblr and Medium is so low, way more people should think this way.
a week with ios eight
One week after WWDC, I’m still struggling to come up with talking points about how my experience with iOS 8 has changed how I use my phone. Frankly, the announcements this year were more exciting as a developer than as a user. Rather than just parroting some features that others have already covered better than I could, I’ll share some thoughts about the path that iOS 8 might be laying out for the future.
Given so many new updates for developers: extensions, widgets, full camera access, custom keyboards, continuity, iCloud Drive, HealthKit, and more, there is an overwhelming sense that the biggest changes we’ll see in iOS 8 are likely to come from third parties. It’s been hard to use my iPhone without imagining how current apps could take advantage of these new features, or what new categories of apps are possible for the first time.
One big rumor that we didn’t see addressed on stage was any mention of the oft-rumored iWatch. But after considering a number of the changes to iOS 8, I think the iWatch did make its mark on WWDC. The rumor of an Apple watch always seemed a little peculiar to me. What value could we really get out of a wrist device in a world where we already have an iPhone in our pocket?
An all new App Store, just for watch apps, seems unlikely, and a very limited environment for making valuable experiences. Notification Center widgets however are extending apps beyond the iOS fullscreen experience in a way that feels like a very nice fit for a notification driven device. Developers are being encouraged to fit their apps most critical information and functionality into much smaller constraints than they’re used to dealing with. This seems like an effort that could translate directly or indirectly to extending features to a watch.
On the surface, the tap-to-talk functionality of the Messages app seems like Apple admitting the value from transient messaging apps like Snapchat. However, it’s also a strikingly simple way to send a message from a device that has no keyboard for text input, a valuable feature to have on a watch.
Along with the push for continuity, carrying information and workflows between your connected devices, improvements to Siri, such as a hands-free way to engage with the assistant: “Hey, Siri,” and the potential of a wrist bound device to input valuable data to HealthKit, there is a compelling picture forming of what the rumored device could deliver in Apple’s forthcoming ecosystem. The rumored iWatch hasn’t been at the top of my wishlist, but I’m finally beginning to see some strong potential for what kind of features a wearable device could bring to the table.
I think we still have a lot to see from Apple this year.
frosted glass
More than once, I’ve looked for a way to execute a frosted glass appearance (a la iOS 7) in HTML5 without the need for JavaScript, extra markup, or a duplicate, blurred background image. I just recently wanted to do this again, and noticed someone doing something similar using psuedo-elements. It turns out it’s possible to do with filters (presently only in WebKit), so I took another crack at it, and here is the JSFiddle:
It’s far from perfect. How blurs are executed by CSS filters solicited some tricks to make them completely fill the background, and a trained eye will see some bleed on the edges. If you were to try different border sizes, etc. You would likely want to fudge with the numbers a bit to get appropriate coverage for the blur effect.
Let me know if you use this somewhere, I’d love to see it in action.
Update: It looks like you’ll be able to accomplish this effect with no tricks before too long.
reeder for mac beta
Today a public beta of Reeder 2 for Mac was released.
It has been a few months since I switched to Unread on my iPhone. Unread explored some interesting new design ideas, but it’s become clear over the past few weeks that many of the interactions are slower and more cumbersome than the corresponding actions in Reeder.
The new Mac beta is beautiful, and it was just the nudge I needed to switch back to Reeder on iPhone. If you use RSS at all, Reeder gets my highest recommendation. Silvio Rizzi has great intuition for user interaction, and Reeder has spent more time on my home screen than any third party app besides Tweetbot.
build-a-bird
Over a few nights while my wife was reading, I built a Flappy Bird clone… maker.
Paste in some links to images hosted elsewhere, and get a link to your version of the game. It’s a fun, infuriating game. In that, it’s authentic to the Flappy Bird experience.
It’s been a while since I’ve made a game of any sort, and I’ve never made one for the web. This was an experiment of sorts, but it was definitely amusing. It works decently on most iOS devices, though I haven’t tested it in many browsers.
Anyways, check it out, share your creations, and let me know what you think by posting with the hashtag #buildabird.
recent graphics demos
3D graphics are intriguing. It was my favorite area of study at DigiPen, and a few recent videos are kind of mind blowing. I thought I’d share, in case you haven’t seen them.
Snow simulation, as seen in Frozen:
Stylizing animation by example:
No longer working with graphics on a day to day basis, it’s always amazing to come back around and see what’s being done every few years.