[tool recommendation] cloud-based, annotate-able and share-able screenshot software: Monosnap

 The best screenshot tool ever for your desktop (both PC and Mac), iPhone, and iPad to annotate and share seamlessly. 

The best part is that this tool is FREE even for the usage of its cloud system! 
Because of this tool's user-friendliness, functionality and perhaps most importantly simplicity, I just couldn't close my mouth after install the program on my PC and iPhone and use it. 

Thanks to whoever designed and developed this tool. Highly recommended!

- URL: http://monosnap.com/

[Personal UX/UI review] unnecessary interaction to see iOS's Messages's time stamp

• app: Messages (iOS's default text message app)
• issue: the time stamp appears when swiped to the left although the space doesn't change after swiping interaction
• recommendation: just display the time stamps so users don't even need to swipe to see when each message is sent or received

[conference] Google Developers Summit 2014

Title	Google Developers Summit 2014
Place	COEX Grand Ballroom 104, 105
Time	February 26, 2014 1PM~6:30PM
Speaker	Ryosuke Matsuuchi, Mickey Kim, et al.
Organizer	Google Korea
Focus	Android design guideline, Chromecast API, Google Play utilization

I.       Android design guideline [Chansuk Yang, Developer Relations]

1.       Message

1)      Basic advice

①  targetSDK>19 (meaning use the most recent)

②  change support package level to support minimum Android OS level

2)      What’s new in KitKat

①  Home menu button: use app launcher icon as home menu button

②  Visual design: when design, comply with people’s mental model so users don’t need to learn something new

③  Two gestures: for zooming in and out, double touch or double touch drag

④  Full screen mode: lean back mode (touching the screen in any way will bring navigation and notification bar back into place.), immersive mode (swiping down from the top or up from the bottom will bring notification bar or navigation bar respectively)

3)      Android design pattern

①  Action Bar: app icon, view control, action buttons, action overflow

A       Suggestion: Android doesn’t recommend customized Action Bar

②  Up and back difference

A       Up: higher category

B       Back: previous page or closing a pop-up window

③  App structure

A       Tab: fixed and scrollable tabs; needs to be located at the top of the screen; needs to support swiping

B       Navigation Drawer: system bar needs to stay

④  Dialogue and Toast principle

A       Principle

l  How much impact will the action bring to users? E.g. purchase brings a great impact

l  Does it allow users miss-click?

l  Can the result of the action returnable?

l  Sufficient user feedback to users? E.g. Facebook’s like button

B       Example: closing an app-> taking too much time-> consider using Dialogue window

⑤  Notification: utilize expand and contract option

4)      Responsive design

①  Need to support tablet

②  Use DP (density-independent pixels) (e.g. 200 dp)

③  Resource qualifier- provide different size icons

2.       Takeaway

1)      targetSDK>19 (meaning use the most recent)

2)      Home menu button: use app launcher icon as home menu button

II.      Chrome WebView Essentials [Alex Danilo, Developer Advocate]

1.       Message

1)      What does this mean?

①  New capabilities:

A       indexedDB: important technology to store data (e.g. games)

B       Web Sockets: push data back and forth client and server

C       requestAnimationFrame: synchronize animation on screen (not wasting time compared to JavaScript)

D       SVG filters and Effecs: e.g. convolution blurs

E       H/W accelerated rendering (e.g. <canvas>)

②  Debugging Features: Analyzing web traffic, monetizing

③  Hybrid applications: Use native component, interfacing JavaScript to native

④  Compatibility mode: Use targetSDK>19

⑤  Multi-threading and thread blocking

⑥  Custom URL Handling: URLs must conform to RFC 3986

⑦  Viewport Changes

⑧  Styling Changes

⑨  Sizes are in CSS pixels instead of screen pixels

2)     Best practices

①  Set SDK version to 19: <uses-sdk android:targetSdkVersion=”19”.>

②  Enable hardware acceleration: <application android:hardwareAccelerated=”true” ..>

③  Enable Debugging: WebView.setWebContentsDebuggingEnabled(true);

3)      The Future: Web RTC (real-time communication; P2P communication; e.g. Google Hangouts is coming

2.       Resources

1)      documentation: http://goog.gl/1gJ8gp, http://goog.gl/Xj2zpK

2)      samples: http://goo.gl/2LfCBS

3)      twitter: @alexanderdanilo; g+ google.com/+alexdanilo

III.     New AdMob- profitability, convenience and control [Siyoung Choi, PBS AdMob Lead]

1.       Message

1)      Best practice

①  Why it got popular:

A       YouTube video review (subscription 3 M)

B       Review: ## reviews

C       Community BBS

D       Siyoung’s insight: Low requirement, short game time, free

②  Ways to purchase mobile app contents: Freemium, in-app purchase, download

③  수익= 매출 - 비용

A       운영서버, 퍼블리싱, 분석도구, 마케팅채널, 보안솔루션, 결제솔루션

B       매출: DL x재방문율x결제율x ARPPU

C       매출 결정 변수: 마케팅x In app 설계x service balance x결제지원수단, 개인별 결제 한도

④  모바일 광고: 사용자는 돈을 내지 않고 광고주가 대신 지불+손쉬운 적용, 안정적 수익, 적은 투자

2)      AdMob 특장점

①  Reach and scale: Google Play global target, localization languages

②  Innovative ads: 전면 동영상 등 creative

③  High fill-rate: traffic이 수익화에 적용

3)      광고 수익의 규모는

①  계산: 10M user, 노출율 90%, CPC 100 KRW, xxx -> 9M KRW

4)      New AdMob

①  편의성: 빨라진 지급주기, 앱 개발자에게 최적화 된 UI (수익화/홍보 지원), 앱 업데이트 없이 mediation, house ad 적용

②  수익성: 전환최적화 기능 (자동으로 단가 최적화), 수익 극대화 (mediation 활용- Optimize AdMob Network)

③  컨트롤: 세분화된 필터링 (140여개 예. 경쟁사 광고 제외), 광고 심사 센터

5)      광고 수익화를 위한 적용 Tip  

①  Refresh rate: 30~60 seconds

②  광고와 컨텐츠의 경계

③  Smart banner 사용: portrait <-> landscape

④  전면광고: 사용자 별로 노출횟수 조절, 사용자가 즐거울 때, user flow 끊기는 지점, 호출과 노출분리, 최신 SDK 사용, Google Analytics 사용

2.       Takeaway

1)      Request to convert to New AdMob at Bit.ly/newadmob

2)      광고 수익화를 위한 적용 Tip

①  Refresh rate: 30~60 seconds

②  광고와 컨텐츠의 경계할 것

③  Smart banner 사용: portrait <-> landscape

④  전면광고: 사용자 별로 노출횟수 조절, 사용자가 즐거울 때, user flow 끊기는 지점, 호출과 노출분리, 최신 SDK 사용, Google Analytics 사용

IV.    Chromecast [Mickey Kim, Head of Asia Pacific, Chromecast]

1.       Message

1)      Lesson Google learned

①  need setup experience to be easy

②  need nothing new to learn

③  need to support cross platforms and devices

④  need to support second screen (smartphone, tablet, laptop)- because 77% of the time while watching a TV, second screen has been used; the bigger the screen, the more YouTube people watch

2)      setup process: plug in-> connect to Wi-Fi-> cast (bringing optimized resolution depending on screen size)

3)      benefit

①  video and audio cast to TV

②  Chrome web browser tab mirroring

2.       Takeaway

1)      Just add code from Cast SDK at developer.google.com/chromecast into your smartphone, tablet and website

2)      Review the Cast UX requirements and integrate

V.      Google Cast SDK Overview [Chansuk Yang, Developer Relations]

1.       Message

1)      Download SDK at developer.google.com/cast

2)      Google Cast 구성요소

①  Sender Application:

②  Receiver Application:

③  Cast Device

④  Streamiing media server

3)      Check out

①  User Experience with Google Cast at https://developers.google.com/ast/docs/ux_guidelines

②  Google Cast Design Checklist:

4)      Google Cast SDK 구성요소

①  Sender SDK- Android (google Play Service), iOS (SDK), Chrome (JavaScript)

②  Receiver SDK- Receiver Library & Media Player Library (JavaScript)

③  Cast Developer Console

5)      시작하기

①  Google Cast Developer Console 계정 등록- $5 onetime fee, receiver app/device registration and management

②  Receiver app 등록: Ap ID 발급

③  Cast Device 등록 (unlock)- 개발, 디버깅, 테스팅을 위해

6)      Sender Application: cast device 검색, receiver app 실행, 보안 채널 연결, UI control, media message sending, custom message sending

7)      Receiver application: 단순 웹 어플리케이션, 컨텐츠를 표시하기 위한 인터페이스 제공, 미디어 컨텐츠를 컨트롤 하기 위한 메시지 수신 및 처리, 앱에 특화된 사용자 정의 메시지 수신

8)      Receiver application 종류: default receiver, styled receiver (CSS 만 등록), custom receiver,

9)      Supported media: most open format

10)    Google Cast Sample apps: github.com/googlecast

11)    Stack Overflow: #google-cast

2.       Takeaway

1)      Include Chrome Cast in your app

[Personal UX/UI review] packet design

<case: CheilJedang's medicine packet design>

Issue: at the upper right hand corner, the packet says "pls be careful since your mouse get hurt when taking the medicine"

Recommendation: design the packet safe enough so that no one get hurt while taking the medicine and no need for patients to worry about safety

[Personal UX/UI review] subway ticket gate machine design

<case: subway ticket gate machine at Konkuk Univ. Station in Korea>

Issue: 1. twisted diagonal design makes passengers to twist arms to badge 2. badging area seems to be too large and can be misunderstood like below marking

<the same machine in a different angle>

Recommendation: like image below, 1. let passengers badge without making them twist arms 2. make badging area design intuitive enough so that no one get confused

[Personal UX/UI review] building number and name system on campus

<case: Seoul National University has number and name at the top of some buildings> 

Positive: first-time visitors can easily identify buildings from afar

<case: Konkuk University building number system>

Issue: difficult to tell which building is which from afar

Recommendation: put a number and name on top of each building if appropriate

[Personal UX/UI review] iOS Jihachul app for Korea

<iOS app: Jihachul>

Issue: 

1. Is this icon necessary? If yes, what is the icon trying to communicate with?

2. If urgent nature is important, can this icon be colored e.g red to be distinctively and intuitively recognizable to people in a rush?

3. Two different information category: one is station name and the other is direction. Can these two are differently expressed in design so that easy to identify?

4. Again, text color and font size are the same with #3. Can this be iconized so that users can focus on where and when to get off and on?