Marketing and Design Blog

A Designer’s Loosely Organized Thoughts on Adobe Photoshop Touch

As a Professional Designer Person, I'm contractually obliged to get excited when Adobe releases a new version of Photoshop. Early last week, the newest product to bear the Photoshop name was released to iPad 2's everywhere. After some fiddling, I've come away with a few initial impressions.

Cool Designer Tool: The Cosmonaut Stylus from Studio Neat

I'm an iPad junkie (I know, it's a huge shock to you all). Moreover, I often use it to take notes, access my calendar, sketch out ideas, and generally hash out ideas while I'm at work. It's become my digital sketchbook, a device with unlimited potential for assisting me in fleshing out ideas.

For the past few weeks, I've been using Studio Neat's Cosmonaut stylus instead of my old Wal-Mart brand capacitive stylus. It's been a great experience, though not without quirks.

Read more about Jason's experience with Studio Neat's Cosmonaut stylus. 

Interaction is Branding

When someone mentions "branding," my guess is "interaction design" isn't the first thought that comes to mind.

In the increasingly always-connected mobile world we live in, it should be.

The way a user interacts with an app, website, or device has a profound impact on the emotional connection users form with their favorite brands. People love to be surprised and delighted - and paying careful attention to interaction decisions is a fantastic way to reinforce a brand experience. Read more about branding and interaction design.

Healthcare websites go mobile – with help from Atomicdust

If you’ve ever tried to access a website designed for desktop browsers on a mobile device, you’ve probably noticed it’s often less than an ideal experience. First, of course, is load time – it can take a long time to load those media-rich pages. It also can cost you money if you’re on a limited data plan. And then there’s the pinching, zooming and scrolling. Despite manufacturer’s claims of full compatibility and the near-tablet sized screens of some of the latest models, it’s still a huge issue, right? Well, if you think it’s not worth it – imagine how your customers feel.

Gateway EDI had been wondering the same thing – so they came to us for help. Read more about the mobile site we designed for healthcare billing provider, Gateway EDI. 

Creating a Mobile Experience for a Brand Already on the Go.

If there’s anything that we at Atomicdust love more than technology and music, it’s exercising (not true).

Actually, it’s challenges that we love. And recently, we ran up against one heck of a design challenge.

Regular readers of our blog may recall a recent collaboration with our friends from Halski Design for the St. Louis based consumer electronics company, Yurbuds. Yurbuds.com received many accolades, and when we were asked to take that experience and translate it to the touch screen of the iPad (largely for Apple Store employees to demo for their customers) and mobile devices, we were happy to oblige.

Read about Yurbuds mobile and iPad development.

The Tech Bubble

Ben Horowitz and Steve Blank are having just about the most interesting debate via The Economist about whether or not we are entering, starting, exiting, or experiencing a tech bubble.

While I leave this argument to smarter people, I would like to suggest that regardless of whether or not the new starting lineup of tech IPOs - LinkedIn, Groupon, Salesforce.com - are here to stay or are overvalued, the simple fact they are even receiving financial backing is encouraging. Considering the housing market is still tanking and the economy is still sputtering, it is quite amazing that they are going public, and now.

The reason: People are dying to believe that the digital age is just getting started.

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