Will IoT change how we interact with mobile apps?

Mobile apps try to keep you glued on the screen for as long as possible, but in the future these experiences will become focused and unified, as they interact more seamlessly to become extensions of your IoT system.

That’s according to Frank Palermo, the VP of digital solutions at Virtusa, who says the growth in momentum surrounding IoT will change UX design for mobile applications and consumer systems.

See Also: Enterprise outlook: partly cloudy with a chance of fear

Palermo makes a few points on the future of UX design in the IoT age, including what might be the most shocking to users today: No more screens.

Screens are a thing of the past, according to Palermo, in a design world focused on integrated context. Everything is always running and UX design needs to make operations simple for the end user, removing clutter found on apps currently. The UX needs to change as well to make sure only a few connections are occupying the space, and Palermo claims data-driven design might help towards a cleaner interface.

He also points out that loading will no longer be an issue, adding that we already tune out of websites that take more a few seconds to load — hence why Facebook, Apple, and Google all launched systems to make webpages load faster — so consumers will have even less patience for IoT services that are spend time booting or loading.

That might be fixed by the time IoT comes to consumers, as LTE Advanced, Wi-Fi ac routers, and over 100Mbps download speeds become commonplace. Palermo also sees beacon technology adoption as an imperative to avoid poor radio signals indoors and believes designers should make it a top priority to set up systems with beacon technology in mind.

For it all to work, he says, there needs to be standards for IoT devices, which also seems to be developing.

Palermo suggests the Open Connectivity Foundation, a merger of the Open Interconnect Consortium and AllSeen Alliance, is a good sign of companies working to create standards for IoT. Having all devices cooperate with one another could advance consumer interest in IoT, instead of walled gardens that do not accept third-party devices.

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LED Mood-Sweater Shows People How You Really Feel

As the wearable tech market grows, creatives are introducing more high-fashion and interactive designs.
The GER Mood Sweater reads human emotions by reflecting specific LED light colors onto the white fabric of a sweater, which looks like a glowing futuristic loose fit turtleneck. Developed by San Francisco-based design firm Sensoree, the mood sweater contains a type of sensor known as the Galvanic Extimacy Responder. You wear the sensors on your hands, similar to lie detector test technology.


The emotions corresponding to the five light colors are tranquil or zen teal, calm or relaxed blue, ruffled or excited magenta, nervous or in love red, and ecstatic or blissful light yellow.
Kristin Neidlinger, Sensoree's founder and lead designer, describes externalized intimacy, or "extimacy," which aims to outwardly reveal sensory awareness to both yourself and others.
"Instead of intelligent technology, we create 'sensitive' or Sensoree technology that is intuitive, responsive and illuminates the senses," she told Mashable. "I believe technology can make us more aware. With responsive clothing, you can animate your body and heighten communication with yourself."
Currently, a limited edition of 100 mood sweaters are available for preorder on Sensoree's website. Its final retail price is still undecided.
This isn't the first example of high-tech fashions. An "intimacy" dress made from opaque smart e-foils turns transparent when the heart races, and the robotic spider dress has jerking and twitching limbs that move to protect those who get too close.

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InVision Raises $11.6M From FirstMark Capital And Tiger Global

InVision, a prototyping tool for thousands of web developers and designers, has recently closed an $11.6 million Series A round from FirstMark Capital and Tiger Global.
The company launched in 2011 out of New York with a mission to make it easy for designers to share, interact with, and get feedback on their prototypes. Users can easily upload Photoshop files to the web and add interactions to form a simulation, all within a normal web browser under a single link (which can be password protected).
In February 2012, InVision raised a $1.5 million seed round with FirstMark. The startup has since focused on facilitating the conversation around these prototypes, which can now happen with a much wider range of people.
Founder Clark Valberg explained that traditionally, the communication between designers and coders about the final look and feel of a project was limited to an inner circle of people. With InVision, a wide range of people across the company can consult on the design and give their feedback asynchronously.
That might sound like data overflow, but one might also consider it a less risky alternative to launching a real product before the design department is ready. That is, after all, the argument. Some startups believe that design, in multiple drafts, should come before coding out the product, while others believe that you should push a real product out as quickly as possible to get users (and ultimately receive their feedback).


Valberg isn’t opposed to iterating based on user feedback, but believes that it’s better to get much of that initial iteration process out of the way before you “lose a lot of control” by making your product publicly available.
The new funding will allow InVision to continue picking up new customers, which currently range from small startups to huge corporations. The company is also working on “some interesting partnerships”, as well as some enhanced marketing and new features.

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Design App Creates Beautiful Photo Collages on Your Phone

Photoshopping yourself into Justin Bieber's arms just got easier to do from your phone.
Tel Aviv-based Bazaart, previously a Pinterest app for creating fashion spreads, relaunched on iOS Wednesday as a social design app. The app lets you layer photos to make collages as well as cut the background out of photos, either manually or with the app's automatic tool, which is based on complex algorithms and works surprisingly well.


"People have too many photos," founder Gili Golander says. "[Bazaart offers] the ability to join them together and create something that is more than the sum of the photos in it."
The pivot came because of how the Bazaart team saw people using the previous app not just for fashion, but also to create home design spreads, greetings for family members and art. The app now allows users to add multiple photos, text overlays, backgrounds including gradients, textures and patterns as well as photos provided by the app or via web search inside the app.
Along with cutting out objects in images, the app allows you to change opacity and order of the layers.
The result is everything from high quality artwork to, of course, cutout head shots placed on an image of Justin Bieber (space is another popular background). A quick perusal of the app reveals the many languages represented; Golander says the United States, Russia, Brazil, Mexico and France are the countries with the most users, in that order.
The creations made in Bazaart are shared to Pinterest more than any other social channel, followed by Instagram and Facebook. The portrait layout works well for Pinterest, Golander says, but they are planning on adding options for landscape and square in the future.

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Christmas Dresses And Christmas Party Wears

Christmas festival is around us and many people making it their suits for this festival to get best on this. Especially for women it is difficult to select a good dress with the excellent design and give them trendy look. SO in this article we will talk about the stylish design for the Christmas and spread your holidays with the style, to make you are the best dressing guest for your Christmas 2013.Beautiful and lovely Christmas Dresses for women is La Femme 17456 which is the beautiful evening gown. This dress will grab the attention of others. It contains glittering lines which are forming the gown. They are coming together, favorable at the waist line. From the top it contains strapless neckline. It contains a beautiful wave frame of this wonderful design. Most of the people love this dress in black and white because it looks lovely. You can wear in the different parties of the Christmas, very flexible and lovely.Another dress for the Christmas is illusion glamor down by Sherri hill. You feel fantastic and look stunning in this dress. This invention has a jewel neckline for a brilliant and luxurious style. It is a slim fitting and full length skirt. It is totally a Hollywood look, ready for the red carpet. You can get this dress in black and ivory.Above information about the girls now the Christmas dresses for the boys because they have also the right to look good, handsome and stylish. One of the dresses for Christmas contains black collar with the white shirt. You can get in all the sizes. It is normally for 3 years to 16 years. Its front strip is also in black. It looks awesome. In this shirt boys look smart and classy. You won’t get any complains about it. For the men there is charcoal suit which looks fabulous. It contains two buttons in front. Its coat is black and shirt is white. It has single back outlet. You can get in all sizes short, long and regular. Over all these are the some Christmas Dresses which looks awesome. There are number of varieties in Christmas dresses. Its upon you what you choose.  

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