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.

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

At Involution, over the years, we've been lucky enough to count among our team a number of designers and strategists who are also industry thought leaders. In this new and regular blog feature, "From the Archives", we'll highlight articles from the past, written by our Invo colleagues that have stood the harsh test of Internet time and still have something to say to us today.

This week, our links round up on design and innovation in the digital life features a little something for everyone: from the future of gestural interactions to a ground breaking transparent concept plane to J.K. Rowling's latest online endeavors.

For the past 10 months, Involution Studios has been producing The Digital Life podcast on digital design and technology. We're proud to say today that we've achieved a significant milestone: Episode 30. The Digital Life has now reached adulthood and is stretching its legs.