By Adam Silver - February 7, 2012
It used to work something like this: when you had a design problem, you called in the pros. Let's say you sought the ultimate ergonomic office chair, or a device that redefined portable audio. You called in the industry elite to create an innovative product for you. For decades, we've approached design as the province of experts. But in recent years, there has been an explosion of user-generated design. Talented people are going it alone and bringing their designs directly to market.
By Kristina Loring - January 10, 2012
While the Internet is buzzing with ways to survive the last year of the world (according to the ancient Mayan Calendar), frogs are thinking of other things that will shape culture this year. We asked frogs from across the globe to share their personal favorite tech trends that’ll crop up this year and what their impact would be on design, business, entertainment, and our daily routines. We had frogs from all disciplines—from strategy to engineering—draw from their passions and expertise to offer their input. Without doubt, 2012 is shaping up to be a year of hyper-connected, highly-personal, ultra-smart computing that, well, might just skip the computer altogether.
By Timothy Morey - October 14, 2011
At frog, we are often asked to think about the future. Clients come to us and ask us to think about “the future of X,” and we have developed a series of methods and techniques to study possible futures. One method to understand possible futures is to look at “lead users.” The assumption here is eloquently summed by writer William Gibson, “The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed.” That insight, combined with Everett Rogers’s classic diffusion of innovation framework created in the 1960s and popularized in high tech by Geoffrey Moore in the 90s, and we arrive at the notion that some things that lead users do will become mainstream down the road.
By Jaleen Francois - March 1, 2011
Music is the stuff of cultural reflection, personal identity, and universal connection—how many times have you asked someone what they’re listening to lately? But somewhere along the way, the jukebox, that beloved piece of Americana, lost its edge. Though they serve up thousands of songs, today’s jukeboxes frustrate users with complex and tiresome interfaces, overwhelming music catalogues, and an overall experience that has become generic and less engaging. The jukebox needs to modernize in order to engage with users who are accustomed to digital, on-demand music selection and curation.
By Eoin O' Donovan - January 18, 2011
Fronteers is a volunteer Dutch front end developer community which was founded in 2007 by the world famous (or perhaps nerd famous) PPK.
By Andrea Bebber and Kristina Loring - November 9, 2010
A World of Tweets gathers real-time data to show a map of Twitter hot spots from around the globe.
In the current state of data overflow the need for comprehensive and recipient-savvy visualization is greater than ever. David McCandless, infographic guru and author of Information is Beautiful, explains the need for using rich images to explain relationships between gluts of information:
“Data is the new soil. For me it feels like a fertile creative medium, and data visualizations and infographics are flowers blooming from this medium. If you look [at data sets] directly, they’re just a bunch of numbers and disconnected facts. But if you start working with them and looking at them in a certain way, interesting things can be revealed.”
If data is the new soil, then our Milan based studio has gotten their hands dirty by creating a stunning visualization of geolocated tweets from around the world. A World of Tweets (AWOT) kicked-off as a personal project by frog Technologist Carlo Zapponi, who then was joined by Senior Visual Designer Andreas Markdalen. Both created a striking view of the world that provides a topographical image, but also enables insights into online media consumption in real time. The online app visualizes any tweet from around the globe, choosing from a variety of HTML5 based visual map views, labels and modes.
By Mark Freudenberg - November 5, 2010
I had the privilege to speak to Professor Ray Bareiss’ “Software Products Definition” class in October at Carnegie Mellon University – Silicon Valley. I haven’t presented to a class full of students in some time. However, once I learned that the class was at 6:30 p.m., I knew that I wouldn’t be dealing with your typical students. I suspected, and was proven correct, that the students would be well seasoned professionals in the industry.
By Phil Brock - October 5, 2010
The question of who owns personal data just doesn't seem to go away. It seems to ebb and flow, most recently with the ability to collect data from devices within a Personal Area Network (PAN) or Wireless PAN (WPAN). A recent experience of mine brought this issue up to the forefront again.
By Robert Tuttle, Chief Architect - September 15, 2010
A look at software architecture and engineering principles as applied to creative design, product development, and marketing perspectives
Playing off of the obvious (and sometimes absurd) stereotypes of business and technology leaders inside product and services organizations and where they often direct their focus and priorities, our CMO and CTO characters* walk into a bar and order the same cocktail. While the CTO might be taking account of the ingredient ratios, mixing sequence, and transfer method from shaker to glass as the bartender executes the order, the CMO likely awaits the final appeal of color, aroma, taste, and most importantly, effect after delivery (especially if there is resource negotiation to be done with said CTO!). Regardless, both appreciate having a quality result in hand and getting down to business.
Especially important in the practice of software innovation and realization, the effort to translate and align different language, concepts, and perspectives among architecture, engineering, product development, and marketing disciplines towards a common user experience goal requires a person or team with hybrid or blended skills across design and technology along with a framework on which both objective and subjective requirements can be generated, analyzed, executed on, and measured.
By Shawn L. Morrissey - August 27, 2010
When we last left our hero, he was busy bookmarking websites, and downloading apps to his iphone and android devices, gathering information focused on multiple facets of his life. Truman, and his lovely wife Meryl, were keeping track of all kinds of personal data, from daily blood sugar counts, to calories consumed, to amounts and types of exercise. And then the light fell out of the sky...
