Clickbaiting is something that I absolutely loathe. It’s perpetrators use tacky images and moronically worded headlines to lure people into clicking their links; links that would almost certainly be skipped if it weren’t wrapped in clickbait BS.

My rant comes at a time when clickbait BS is at it’s peak. It’s all I’ve been seeing in My Facebook Newsfeed these days. Sure, I follow a few meme related pages and I expect a certain level of clickbait BS from them. The last straw was today when a legitimate business news corporation (which shall not be named) wrapped their article in clickbait BS.

Clickbait BS are all worded in the exact same format and cannot be mistaken:

Clickbait BS examples:

“He woke up and went to work.. What happen next will have you crying”

“She went to the doctors thinking she was pregnant… What the doctor told her next will surprise you”

“She tries to cover up her wounds. But by the end something happens that will break your heart.”

This even extends to listicles:

“25 reasons why girls are the best” followed by caption: OMG NUMBER 7 AND NUMBER 8

“10 reasons why you should sleep in” followed by caption: Number 8 and number 9 are so true!

This is a PSA so that you can avoid falling victim to clickbait BS. Facebook needs to adjust their algorithms to punish clickbait BS.

Together, we can erradicate clickbait BS.

Benjamin Lee. Find me at http://www.itchban.com

Pinterest has just introduced “App Pins” in a special collaboration with Apple, which allows users to directly install iOS apps from within the Pinterest app itself. This is a great feature as it both helps Pinterest expand it’s use cases & helps Apple in tackling the problem of app discovery on their already crowded/drowning App Store.

What are App Pins and how do they work?

As you can see in the picture above, in the top right of the app there is a blue Install button. You tap it and it will conveniently load the app page, where you can directly install the app. If you tap the Pin / Image itself, it will also “app swap” you to the iOS App Store page.

Pinterest has provided no instruction on how to generate App Pins and pin iOS apps other than “You can also save your favourite Apps right from the App Store itself”. Doing so via the App Stores Share button, only lets you Pin the not-so-great looking App icon to your Pinterest boards. The demo App boards which are hand picked by the Pinterest staff themselves seems to display a variety of pinned images / screenshots and not just the App icons. This seemed a little silly so I investigated further on how to get App Pins attached to images other than the App icons on the App store.

How to abuse Pinterest App Pins (developers)

So it turns out that in order Pinterest Pin to become an “App Pin” for an App Pin, all it needs is to have the Pin’s URL link point to the web iTunes app store page.

I’ve made a test pin to show that this works here. It is a random image that I have pinned and pointed to the Instagram app page. Test it in your iOS Pinterest app.

This means you can practically upload any image from anywhere and have it be an “App pin”. You could have a picture of a Cake or a Wedding Dress, change the URL to have it point to your new (and unrelated) app and effectively change it into an App Pin.

Dangerous precedent for Pinterest

This is dangerous for Pinterest as developers are surely going to flood Pinterest with App Pins to drive traffic to their app install page. It is annoying enough to be unintentionally “app swapped” to the App store and it will become a big problem for Pinterest if app developers abuse this and create misleading / unrelated App Pins. Regular Pinterest users already know how easy it is to accidentally tap a Pins image and have it open the in-app browser — just imagine that scenario, but add the annoyance of App swapping. It will be extremely difficult to purge them if Pinterest lets it get out of hand.

Solution

I think it would have made more sense to only allow Pins to “become” App Pins, if the images are pinned from the actual iTunes app store website. Whilst this does limit Pinterest users choice of images, at least they will be relevant. App developers usually provide a good set of usable portrait oriented screenshots which would be suitable for pinning anyway.

I commend Pinterest’s initiative and intentions; it just seems like they’ve opened up a potential avenue for abuse. Good news for iOS developers for the time being though I guess…

Originally published at www.itchban.com.

At some stage (iOS 7) Apple and it’s design team decided to shrink the Contact Caller ID photo to a small cropped circle like the image below. Although it made the design look cleaner, it also made it harder to immediately recognise who was calling.

How To Get Fullscreen Caller ID’s On IOS 8

Great news though, you can now use fullscreen Caller ID back again on your iPhone & iPad by following these tips:

1. Open the native Contacts App
2. Find and select the contact you want to update to a fullscreen caller ID.
3. Press the edit button in the top right of the contact card.
4. Tap the edit button under the contacts profile image (top left of the screen)
5. Select Choose Photo and select the appropriate image from your photo library.

A few conditions to make sure that the phone displays the fullscreen caller ID is to have the full-size image on your phone (in your camera roll). Also try to choose a portrait oriented image as these will display the best.

Originally published at www.itchban.com.

The Instagram Hashtag

By now, you should know what hashtags are on Instagram. Basically, they’re a quick way to help you share and publicly archive your images to the hash tagged word. (Read more about it on Instagram’s blog here). Instagrams blog post even states that hashtags are a way to “find new followers and share your photos with more people

Instagram Hashtags Are Broken And Tricky

The Hashtag system was a great way to share your images on Instagram; that was until Instagram hit it’s global popularity status. Instagram recently announced that it has hit the 300 million monthly active user milestone making it the premier photo sharing service of the world.

The popularity and sheer number of active users has essentially made the hashtag pretty bad at it’s job. Under the more popular hashtags (e.g. #vsco, #vscocam), your image will get flooded into oblivion in a matter of microseconds.

Let’s be real here, people searching for hashtags won’t ever look at more than the first 30–50 images. If you post an image and within 1 minute your photo is immediately pushed beyond the first few pages of results, no one will see your image.

The Trick To Using Hashtags Properly

Ideally, hashtags are meant to connect you with likeminded people and communities and allow you to share your images within those circles. This would be the fastest way to find and connect with new followers.

That is why it is best to stay away from the most popular hashtags; especially the one’s you find on the “popular hashtag lists” and “popular hashtag apps”. Whatever you do, do not Google hashtags to use. They will do you no good.

Instead, Find Very Specific, Community Based Hashtags. This will ensure that you connect with people who are interested AND looking for pictures like yours — ensuring a high engagement ratio. It should also go without saying that you should keep with the theme of that hashtag and only post images that are relevant. Nothing is worse than an Instagrammer hash tagging all their photos which have absolutely no relation to the theme/topic (see hashtag hijacking below).

The Hashtag Engagement: Needs To Be Balanced In Terms Of Popularity And Active Usage. You want your image to stay in a top results position for long enough to be seen by a good amount of users. At the same time, if your image sits in the top results of the hashtag for too long, it usually means that no one is really using & engaging with that hashtag.

Engage with account specific / competition specific hashtags. The more popular accounts usually have their own account/community specific hashtags that they use — you can find them in their profile description. It is also worthwhile entering some of your relevant images to competitions that Instagrammers and Brands run.

The official @instagram account runs a Weekend Hashtag Pproject (#WHPxxxx) that has a specific weekly theme. They pick a bunch of winners weekly and tag their accounts. If you don’t know, @instagram has one of the largest accounts that run competitions so it’s great exposure for you. Read more about it at their blog.

Hashtags Can Often Be Hijacked. It is because hashtags are public domain, that they can be easily hijacked beyond it’s intended purpose. For the more popular hashtags you often find tagged photos that have nothing to do with the original hashtag.

Users who are desperate for likes will usually google the most popular hashtags and just spam them all over their photos. Doing so only destroys the value of the hashtag and makes it useless; hence why you should never Google hashtags to use on your Instagrams.

It is for this reason that Hashtags often have a finite shelf life, so it is necessary to keep up (or create) the latest, most relevant ones.

Find Good (Relevant) Hashtags, And Then Create A List Of The One’s That Work For You. For obvious reasons, you won’t find a list of recommended hashtags in this blog post, because if I did, they would immediately be rendered less useful. Instead, you’ll need to find hashtags and communities that are relevant to the themes and styles of your Instagrams and experiment with them.

Overall, I think someone needs to design a more efficient archiving & tagging system (at least for Instagram) as I don’t think it is efficient enough to support 300+ million users.

Leave a comment below of your thoughts on this and let me know what works for you ☺

Follow me on Instagram @itchban

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Originally published at www.itchban.com.

Here is a video that I wholeheartedly agree and relate to. I quite often run into people who keep saying that “studying” is not for them, and thus they give up on any notion of increasing their knowledge and skills, and relent to the labourers life.

I feel like they have been mislead by a broken educational system into what studying actually is. In school, they were forced to “study’ thing’s that were of no interest to them, guided by teachers who could care less about them, floating through an educational system which can’t wait to get rid of them.

Their idea and memories of reading a book of any sort are filled with dread and regret. Absorbing any amount of quality information to them has been paired with bad feelings, drooping eyes and despair.

For those of us who were fortunate enough to see the brighter side to “studying”, we know that knowledge and learning is the key. It is our responsibility and life’s mission to absorb as much knowledge and information before we expire.

Studying, when focused on topics that actually interest you, is an entirely different world. You can learn about exactly what interests you, and disregard all that bores you. If I have learnt anything through my academic career, it is to learn how to learn.

This is the key to “study”.

Originally published at www.itchban.com.

The time has finally come, Project Ara’s launch is imminent. Actually, by hardware and tech industry standards, it was lightning quick. The inception of this project only occurred over a year ago, through a viral concept video by Dave Hakkens (Phonebloks). Google’s modular (Lego) phone has actually sped through the product development and iteration process faster than most others.

Project Ara, is Google’s attempt to change the mobile phone game; by allowing customers full customisability. much like how the PC world works. You can pick and choose the individual components you want on your mobile phone and simply just slide them into the phones slots.

Project Ara Destined to Fail?

I am certain that this phone will not take the mobile phone market by storm and gobble up market share. Mobile phones have already reached a point of saturation and quality that there is just no substantial need for this in the mainstream mobile market.

Sure, a modular system has it’s advantages; but have you ever dropped a Lego model before? Dropping your Ara will be sure to send modules flying in all directions.

Then you have to consider how fragmented and dysfunctional the Android OS & software experience is already. Thousands of different mobile handsets made by dozens of manufacturers makes it extremely difficult for software developers to create a cohesive and unified user experience. Project Ara will amplify this issue by infinitely complicating it right down to the individual components of the mobile device.

Ain’t nobody got time fo’ dat.

Project Ara Is Not A Mobile Phone

The mobile phone market is not where this project will find it’s place. Sure, it could possibly make access to mobile phone’s a lot cheaper (great for developing countries aka Puerto Rico) and hobbyist / product hackers alike will be sure to adopt this “phone”, but I think it’s true purpose lies elsewhere.

Project Ara’s primary purpose as a product (by my predictions) will not be to serve as a mobile phone, but as a mobile computing device that will serve as a hub for other applications. It will enable product & hardware developers easy access to a strong and well established OS (Android). No longer will they have to build an entire hardware & product from the ground up. They can simply just build a single module and plug it into this “computing hub”. This is probably why the US Military has shown such great interest in the project.

With this is mind, this project could potentially change the way products are created in the near future. I’m glad they fast tracked the project to get it into the hands of the public ASAP as this will require the participation of every level of stakeholder, if it is to ever find its true purpose(s).

Originally published at www.itchban.com.

This list has probably been touted more than enough on the Internet and Design circles. I recite Deiter Rams 10 Principles of Good Design on the small, off chance that you haven’t already come across them before. Even if you are familiar, it is always necessary to refamiliarise yourself from time to time.

These are basic, and all encompassing, and can be applied to practically anything that requires meaningful thought and planning. Here we go:

01 GOOD DESIGN IS INNOVATIVE

The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.

02 GOOD DESIGN MAKES A PRODUCT USEFUL

A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product while disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.

03 GOOD DESIGN IS AESTHETIC

The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products are used every day and have an effect on people and their well-being. Pnlu well-executed objects can be beautiful.

04 GOOD DESIGN MAKES A PRODUCT UNDERSTANDABLE

It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product clearly express its function by making use of the user’s intuition. At best, it is self-explanatory.

05 GOOD DESIGN IS UNOBTRUSIVE

Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.

06 GOOD DESIGN IS HONEST

It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.

07 GOOD DESIGN IS LONG-LASTING

It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years — even in today’s throwaway society.

08 GOOD DESIGN IS THOROUGH DOWN TO THE LAST DETAIL

Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.

09 GOOD DESIGN IS ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY

Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimises physical and visual pollution throughout the life-cycle of the product.

10 GOOD DESIGN IS AS LITTLE DESIGN AS POSSIBLE

Less, but better — because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.

BONUS: Here is a take away poster for you.

Originally published at www.itchban.com on December 11, 2014.

Nokia have gone and made a pretty informative video which visualises how a modern digital camera works. They’ve slowed down the process and broken it down into the individual roles of digital camera components to illustrate the entire process (in a nutshell). Basically the process goes:

• From when the light darts towards the camera.
• The shutter snaps open and shut to let a burst of light in.
• The light passes through the lenses, where it is bent to the proper perspective.
• The ball bearing optical image stabilisation rocking about to compensate for the camera movement.
• The light hits the camera sensor.
• It is then digitised and processed and is sent to the camera/phone’s screen.

Obvious, but pretty cool to see it visualised in such a way. Sorry though, still won’t buy a Nokia.

Originally published at www.itchban.com on December 16, 2014.

Seeing as how Apple’s latest 2014 Christmas advert is semi-trending I thought I’d post one of their earlier YouTube videos for you designers out there.This is an old video, actually the very first video Apple has on their YouTube Channel so there’s a likely chance that you haven’t seen it before. It is a visual based phrase video which talks about Apple’s design philosophy, namely the basis behind their “Designed in California” stamp. Check it out.

Originally published at www.itchban.com on December 17, 2014.

Just a quick video by /Bigthink I thought I was relevant to share with you guys. A technology expert in the field of technological change and impact discusses the severe disruption certain technologies can wreak on traditional industries which are not prepared for their arrival.

He goes on to talk about the technical feasibilities these technologies will bring and how our future will be shaped by these changes. An example he uses is how the manufacturing industries should brace themselves for a major shift, given the recent advent of advanced robotics and 3D printing. The combination of these two technologies (among others) are poised to shift the manufacturing landscape. It has within this year, become cheaper to manufacture in America using these technologies rather than outsourcing to Chinese factories.

Other industries such as Finance, Healthcare, Energy, Food and Telecommunications are also mentioned in the short video.

It is worth noting that Vivek is making educated speculations on how certain technologies will impact these industries in the future and there is every chance that his predictions will not eventuate. Still though, I don’t think his predictions are too far fetched, and in my opinion, they all pretty accurately take into consideration our current technological landscape.

As designers, it is paramount to have as clear and relevant a picture of the future as possible. For whatever field you are working in, having a (relatively) accurate vision of the future landscape will help design a product or service that is largely immune to the tests of time. This won’t always be possible, but if you can stay up to date with information from your relevant fields it can be quite easy to make general predictions.

Personally, I am pretty well read in terms of emerging technological trends so nothing really surprises me anymore. The upending of ill-prepared industries has been happening since as long as I remember, and history favours the prepared.

Stay informed!

Originally published at www.itchban.com on December 29, 2014.