Involution’s Design Axioms Applauded in The Designer’s Review of Books

22.Feb.13
by Jon Follett

Dominic Flask, Editor of The Designer’s Review of Books, recently reviewed Involution’s Design Axioms deck, created by Juhan Sonin, along with Luke Wroblewski, Andrei Herasimchuk, and Dirk Knemeyer. The deck features striking graphics, detailing sixteen foundational principles that outline the essential rules of interface design.

The Design Axioms deck serves as a recommended pathway for UI designers, telling you where to spend your energy and where not to, when it comes to interface design.

Flask writes, “Overall, Design Axioms is an excellent reference deck for the beginning interface designer and provides a good set of principles to start building an educational foundation upon.” The deck is organized into four sections: "Let Data Scream", "Prototype Like Crazy", "What Interface?", and "Know Thy Code". To complement the bold imagery, the writing is direct and commanding. For example, take this excerpt from Real Data is Truth:

Shortcuts make design more efficient. Sometimes, they also make it worse. Injecting Lorem Ipsum and other dummy data into design during the creation process sucks. Dummy data leads to dummy design. […] Great design surfaces Truth, and real data is Truth.

As Flask notes Design Axioms won’t make you a master of interface design in a single day — after all, the Design Axioms are not about cutting corners — but you “would be in pretty good shape if you started that day by flipping through the Design Axioms deck.” If you’re serious about design and coding, the Design Axioms deck is a great weapon to have in your arsenal. If nothing more, it will provide you with an assertive, creative guide toward becoming the best software designer you can be. And for UX teams, the Design Axioms are a great resource for inspiration, brainstorming, and critique sessions.

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Topics: Design, UI design, Blog, UX, design axioms, user experience

Involution establishes operations in the U.S. Midwest

26.Jul.12
by Erik Dahl

COLUMBUS, OH (U.S.)—July 26th, 2012—Involution Studios, a software design consultancy based in Boston, MA, announced the opening of a second studio location in Columbus, OH.

"We are so excited about the new Columbus studio," said Dirk Knemeyer, a founder and current chairman of Involution Studios. "From our first project in Palo Alto, California to our studio in Silicon Valley, then Boston, and most recently here in Columbus, we are realizing the vision of bringing absolutely world class software design to as many people as possible."

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Topics: Design, UI design, studio, News, Blog, innovation, software, UX, user experience

Energy and Software

23.Jul.12
by Jon Follett

Energy is the industry that IT forgot — or at least until recently. While sectors as varied as finance and healthcare, entertainment and communications have roared ahead with digitization, automation, and analytics, the energy industry has not evolved as rapidly. Despite this fact, it's clear that the future of energy lies in software. In both conservation and sustainability, software offers great possibilities for innovation — enabling companies to understand consumption trends, make better decisions about energy usage, and improve efficiency and performance over time.

Last week, at the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council seminar "New Tools for the Energy Challenge", panelists discussed the opportunities and challenges facing the fledgling energy software space. The panel, moderated by Gabe Cole, SVP Transformation Services at technology consulting firm Telwares, included: Badri Raghaven, CTO of FirstFuel; Ganesan Ravishanker, CIO of Wellesley College; Lillian Smith, Principal User Experience Designer at Autodesk; and Kevin Johnson, CEO of Outsmart Power Systems.

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Topics: Design, UI design, infovis, energy, sustainability, Ideas, analytics, visualization, Analysis, Blog, software, conservation, UX, ui

Involution Studios designs user experience for CodeRyte's Natural Language Processing health system coding software

30.Mar.12
by Jon Follett

For Immediate Release
BETHESDA, Maryland (U.S.) - March 30, 2012 - CodeRyte, the leading and fastest growing Natural Language Processing (NLP) and computer-assisted coding supplier in healthcare, is partnering with Involution Studios for the user experience design of its ground breaking health system coding software. CodeRyte’s sophisticated NLP technology streamlines the coding process and identifies clinically relevant information about medical records. The highly innovative, end-to-end health system solution offers a full picture of patient care over the lifecycle of treatment. CodeRyte recently extended its long-term collaboration with Involution, so that the software design consultancy can remain on board through the product launch and beyond.

"Working with Involution as our design partner, we are completely re-imagining the Health System Coding product, and taking a fresh look at how it can be extended to get the most out of its substantial vision. Involution's experience in cutting edge technology and healthcare software design makes them the perfect choice for CodeRyte. Their team has been absolutely integral to our efforts to create a highly usable, useful, and robust experience," said George Moon, CodeRyte Vice President.

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Topics: Design, electronic health care records, UI design, coderyte, Healthcare, health, natural language processing, nlp, healthcare design, News, Blog, EHR, UX, ui

What the iPad Retina Display Means for Designers

07.Mar.12
by Jon Follett

Today Apple revealed the third generation iPad with its Retina screen, bringing the most powerful mobile visual display to market with a whopping 326 ppi in its 9.7 inch space. Print resolutions typically range from 300 - 1800 dpi, which means that Apple has effectively brought mobile computing into that same realm, a significant step to say the least. There's no doubt that the e-reader experience on the iPad will be greatly enhanced, be it for books, magazines, or even PDF documents. And with a starting price point of $499 for its bare bones model, it's conceivable that the other tablet competition and dedicated e-reading devices like the Kindle and Nook could soon be in for a bumpy ride.

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Topics: Design, UI design, apple, iPad, Ideas, third generation iPad, iPad 3, Analysis, Blog, high res screens, high definition, HD, UX, user experience, Retina display

Internships and Apprenticeships at Involution

24.Feb.12
by Jon Follett

At Involution Studios Boston, we've been lucky enough to design crazy, brain-bending, exciting software that changes the way humans work and play. Since 2004, we've been creating software for some of the biggest and best companies, not to mention over 100 different start-ups in various industries. Our alumni have worked for companies like Apple, Facebook, Adobe and IDEO. And we're fortunate to work on important, complex problems in practice areas like healthcare, security, information technology, and engineering.

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Topics: Design, UI design, internships, Blog, engineering

Involution Principal to conduct applied UX methods workshop and expert session at HIMSS12, healthcare and technology conference

15.Feb.12
by Jon Follett

For Immediate Release

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (U.S.) - February 15, 2012 - Involution Studios Creative Director Juhan Sonin will conduct an applied UX methods workshop and expert session at the HIMSS12, healthcare and technology conference next week. The hands-on, interactive workshop will focus on real-world scenarios in measuring the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction of the user experience with Electronic Health Records. Sonin will cover usability research methods across the software design spectrum that can be adapted to any organization's EHR development, customization, or implementation process. In addition, Sonin will be participating in a forum where industry experts interact with HIMSS12 attendees on a one-to-one basis.

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Topics: Design, UI design, Healthcare, electronic health records, healthcare design, News, Events, HIMSS12, EHR, UX, mobile, user experience