At Involution, our software design methodology approximates that of the industrial design process: Designers take an overall, system wide view of the product, and are responsible for specifying, as much as possible, the final form and function. This means that, just as an industrial designer understands her materials, be they metal or silicon, so too must the software designer understand his, be they pixels or code. Ours is a rigorous and broad perspective, which requires that the designer be fluent with everything from concept sketching to pixel pushing to prototype coding. In the end, asking a user interface designer to understand all of these parts of the process gives them a powerful set of tools for creating effective and beautiful software, which is always our goal. And while taking this path to creation can be challenging, we find it yields positive results.

Here’s what we’re reading online, this week at Involution, on design, tech, and the digital life, in our links round up.

The Therapeutic Touch of the iPad
The iPad may be the most important new computing device since the PC, as evidenced by its beautiful interactions, rapid adoption, and stunning sales numbers. With the iPad and the proliferation of tablet devices in general, we could be at the cusp of a revolutionary new age of personal computing: We've only just begun to see some of the numerous ways these devices can truly benefit users and improve their day-to-day lives.

As an experienced musician and occasional audio engineer, I was excited by the prospect of producing The Digital Life, a podcast on design and technology, which is sponsored by Involution Studios. Over nearly a year of production, we've learned a great deal about creating an online radio show. Every so often we get requests from friends of the show to describe how we go about generating the podcast. We're more than happy to share our knowledge, so, we thought we'd pull back the curtain today and reveal a few of our production methods.

Here’s what we’re reading online, this week at Involution, on design, tech, and the digital life, in our links round up.

Lion Roars
Apple launched the latest version of their ground breaking OS X operating system today with a host of UI innovations culled from their iOS mobile platform. As might be expected, these innovations were met with both cheers and jeers.

At Involution, when we design software, we draw upon a process akin to industrial design, where—after we engage in an initial product architecture to understand the feature grouping, flow, and functionality—the next step is often sketching.

If you haven't done it before, sketching concepts for a software user experience may seem like a daunting task located in foreign territory: Aren't we creating for the digital realm? Am I a good enough artist to do this? Where do I begin? However, the benefits to sketching can be great and change your overall design process for the better. So, here are five reasons to give it a try.

Here’s what we’re reading online, this week at Involution, on design, tech, and the digital life, in our links round up.

Facebook Closes the Door on User Data
Facebook is racing to shore up the walls of its garden, in an attempt to keep Google+ and others from leveraging its social graph and contact data.

Last week Involution Studios celebrated seven years in business. We've had a bunch of highs, a handful of lows, and a whole lot of fun in that time. We've had amazing employees, partners and clients, and even as another recession seems to be looming we are going strong and showing no signs of slowing down. Here are the seven most important moments for the company, one for each year, even if not evenly distributed, in chronological order.

Here’s what we’re reading online, this week at Involution, on design, tech, and the digital life, in our links round up.

Death to RFPs
A List Apart has a great article on why RFPs are no way to hire a creative firm. While I've heard from some that there's plenty of great work to be had by responding to RFPs, my personal experience is that the process is often arduous and by definition, a one size fits all approach to evaluating proposals. If you can get past the poorly articulated boilerplate language and foam and froth of legalese, you might be able to figure out what the client is actually asking for and craft a proper response. Of course, since most RFPs are a shotgun blast from an organization looking to receive as many proposals as possible, if you play the game, your chances at winning the work are dubious at best.

On Tuesday, Involution Studios Creative Director, Juhan Sonin challenged infovis guru Edward Tufte to engage more fully in the discussion regarding our nation's greatest problems, including education, energy, finance, and health, among others, during a segment on The Digital Life podcast.