There is seemingly a “technological revolution” released every second day in the digital industry, however every now and again something pops up which really makes people take note.

With the release of Facebook Places last night, it seems we are really entering the next phase of social media, a more diverse level of real-world interaction, as well as a completely new level of targeted marketing.

Places takes the existing concept of applications such as FourSquare and takes it to where people already are, Facebook.

While primarily aimed at iPhone users for now (Android and Blackberry versions are planned), Places introduces location-based services to the world’s most popular social network.

Places enables users to share their current location with friends, find out where their friends are, and discover new places of interest. Users can also add their own places of interest to the platform, whether it be a business or a residential address.

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Timesheets.

No matter what company you work for, there is no doubt that they’re not the favourite part of anyone’s job. In fact, it’s safe to say in most cases; they’re considered a hassle – and can even be seen by some individuals as a lack of trust within their role.

But once you look past a timesheet being a way for Management to ‘keep tabs’ on staff, you start to appreciate their true value.

If you are a company who estimates work based on hourly/day rates, then timesheets quickly become the most valuable tool you have; both from your own perspective and your clients.

Timesheets:

1. Allow you to see how many hours were spent on a particular project and evaluate it based on this measure. Has it been profitable? If no, where was the time burned? What can be done to mitigate this going forward?
2. Allow you to quickly produce accurate project KPIs, based on actual time logged.
3. Help you to validate contingency hours to clients, by providing an accurate breakdown of time spent on the project.
4. Allow you to monitor company billability across projects, departments and individuals.
5. Allow you to evaluate where time is being un-necessarily burned on a company and personal level. Would there be value in outsourcing certain tasks?
6. Help you to manage planning more efficiently; knowing that the time booked in for one person is achievable within the timeframe based on previous experience.
7. Evaluate current staffing levels, based on the level of hours being logged.
8. Ensure that new work is being quoted realistically, based on previous developments.
9. Help you to spot trends and identify risks.
10. And more.

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We have already established communication, problem solving, understanding code, attention to detail, time management and human behaviours as core attributes of a designer (see Part 1 and Part 2) and in this article we continue to delve into what makes a successful designer.

Look at websites and analyse WHY the designer has utilised certain elements

It is one thing to look at a design and like it, however it is only when you make the effort to understand the reasons why you like it, that you can actually learn from the design.

When analysing a successful, or just as importantly, an unsuccessful design, it is important to consider why the designer has placed particular elements in certain positions, what they are aiming to achieve through their design, and what message they are trying to get across to the viewer. It is often an interesting exercise to consider how the message of the design could be totally changed by altering a particular aspect of the design.

Another point to consider is that you should always look at other designs subjectively. Whether you like the design or not is almost irrelevant. The more important question is whether or not the design is successful in meeting its objectives by effectively communicating to the target audience. As an aside, an unsuccessful design is not always a reflection of the designer’s ability but is quite often a product of the restrictions, or requirements imposed by the client.

Make the user happy

Some of the most successful web and mobile designs in the past twelve months can credit their success not to their innovative services or offerings, but simply to their execution. As designers we should aim to be making the users’ experience as simple and as enjoyable as possible, regardless of how menial or basic the task may seem to be.

As designers, we should always strive to deliver an “experience”. Users want to be able to connect to the designs in their day-to-day lives, and we should respond to this by offering design in which they not only feel comfortable using, but also actually enjoy using. We should appeal to people’s emotions. Make them smile, make them laugh, make them happy but most importantly make them forget that they are actually having to complete the task at hand. A user may not always recognise a “good” user experience, however you can guarantee that they will notice, and be turned off, by a bad user experience.

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With the increasing popularity and ease of use of smart phones and mobile devices like the iPhone/iPad and Android handsets, mobile data traffic is expected to rise 40-fold over the next five years at an estimated growth rate of 117% year on year – seeing data traffic figures rise from 8 petabytes/month to 327 petabytes/month in 2015. While admittedly a large proportion of this traffic will be video data, mobile web browsing will continue to soar in popularity, meaning demand for highly functional and content rich sites will rapidly increase too.

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The internet has evolved. No longer are there a few ‘big boys’ doing all the cool stuff you like to play/purchase online, the new development tools are now cheaper and give you an opportunity to build sites that were too expensive 5 years ago. The growing concern is that the data you create and input into a website is now so easily moved around the web via API’s/RSS. What rights do you and the website have on this data? The DataPortability is one project that is trying to bridge that gap.

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A big hello to Melissa who joined us this week as our resident copywriter extraordinaire.

She joins us after working at a multitude of agencies where she performed magic for NS&I, Friends Provident, Cancer Research and Lexus (among others)… oh and she likes coffee. Ace. Get them in!!

Yep, we are looking for another hero to join the We Love family. This time though it is a Project Manager we are hunting high and low for.

So if you are looking for an engaging position in an up and coming agency that is starting make waves in the industry then now is the right to join our tight team of super heroes. There are interesting times ahead.

Who are you? Well Agency experience is a must. You have dealt with large and small clients alike and understand the variables in each. You keep your head at all times, can manage a client and staff, keep projects on track and on budget. Run multiple projects at a time. Help create and define scopes and budgets. Reporting both ways with authority. You can PM agile or waterfall depending on need. Provide sanity in an insane world, make people smile and give a damn about your co-workers and the creative output that make up We Love. You are the glue. A lot to ask we know but we find our own high expectations make for a happy creative life for all

As always Excellent package for the right person.

If you are THE PM then apply to work@welove72.com

We Feel that the people that work for We Love are its most important assets. In fact, they are the DNA of the company. We are always looking for talent of all shape and sizes. We are currently looking for a:

Flash Developer / Web Developer

You ooze talent, you have vision and can code the ass off Kylie. You know your way round flash and can animate better than the Warner Brothers, ActionScript better than Cyborg. And are willing to prove yourself in a fast growing, fast paced industry.

Good OO principles required, though we won’t tie you down to PureMVC. AS3, php/python and a good knowledge of HTML/CSS a must – anything else will be a bonus. You use bzr/svn/git regularly and knowledge of the Gaia flash framework is favourable. Someone who is mature enough to understand a brief, can take direction as well as contribute and show initiative. A couple of years experience behind you is a must.

Mac happy and PC proud.

So stop arsing around and send your CV and Folio site to james@welove72.com

The clone tool is one of the handiest and most used tools in Photoshop, but people often get a bit confused on how it actually works.

Here is a brief overview, and a very simple example, of the basic capabilities of the Clone tool. This post should be used as a starting point to the more advanced techniques that are to follow in the upcoming weeks.

We will start with the following image, with the aim of removing the lady from the landscape.

The Clone tool works by sampling an area of an image, and then reapplying this sample to a new area, it can be used for removing unwanted elements from you photos, as well as adding new elements.

Open your image in Photoshop, and select the Clone Tool

Duplicate the Background layer by pressing Cmd + J, and name the new layer “Clone”

With the “Clone” layer selected, you now have to select a reference point for the Clone Stamp. For best
results, use a small brush size and zoom right up on your image.

To set the reference point, hold “alt” and select an area in your image which best matches the area you want to clone out.

In the example, we will start by cloning the top half of the woman. Sample an area of the sky to the left or right of the woman.

The key to getting a flawless clone is by using the tool in a “dabbing motion”, rather than “painting” the area. “Painting” leads to results which have a repeating affect which is very noticeable.

Continue this process until you have removed the majority of the woman, and only the bottom of her legs are still visible.

The process remains the same for the next step, but it is worthwhile dropping your brush size right down again. Due to the unevenness of the rock edge, it is important to select a sample area which is going to match that of where the legs join the rock. Don’t just sample one area of the image and use it for the whole process, you will achieve better results by changing your sample area to match the area you are working on.

This is just a very basic example, but once you understand how the Clone Tool works, you will continually be amazed at how handy it becomes!

In the next post I will run through some much more advanced features of cloning, including the Vanishing Point tool which enables you to clone areas with consideration for perspective!

On a recent flex project we had some complex animation – including alpha masks – to be embedded. Not sure why, but when embedding flash files in Flex with the tag, all action script is stripped out. It would be interesting to hear Adobe’s reasoning on this one, but here’s a solution to keeping the embedded swf’s actionscript intact.

The first step is to embed the SWF in your Flex project as binary data:

[Embed(source="complex.swf", mimeType="application/octet-stream")]
var theBytes:Class;

Next you need to load the data contained in your SWF by using Loader.loadBytes and instantiate the embedded SWF.

var loader:Loader = new Loader();
loader.loadBytes(new theBytes());

This will create your swf and if all you need is the actionscript to run, you can stop here.