Daily working life is far more complicated than ever before with many simultaneous projects and work going on all at the same time. Thankfully there are a couple of online project and work web tools which can be used to enhance your productiveness, increase efficiency and help tackle daily workload.

Skitch

Skitch, which is available on the Mac, iPhone and Android, allows users to take quick screenshots or photos and add annotations, words and marks to indicate or describe additional parts about the picture.

Balsamiq

Balsamiq is a perfect tool for producing wireframes for vaious web design and development projects. From quick and dirty mockups to deep and meaningful site structures and content plans.

Screenr

Screenr allows for the recording of on-screen actions and screencasts. Perfect if you’re working on a corporate network and can’t install additional software, and great even if not. You may want to go with the pro version if you want to keep your screen recordings private.

Basecamp

Basecamp is so widely used now it’s almost not worth mentioning, but it is a hugely comprehensive project management tool which allows for the management of multiple projects with multiple people across loads of organisations. It’s extremely cost effective and allows the transfer and storage of large filesizes.

Trello

If you’re not using Basecamp for your project management needs because it’s overkill then Trello is a good substitute. It’s perfect for assigning projects, and keeping on top of responsibilities, a small number of actions and upcoming and expected deadlines.

Markup.io

Need to communicate a quick issue with an online project, or use another website as an example (noone ever does this!!)? Markup.io allows you to draw on a webpage and create a link for someone else to see exactly the same markup. Indicate changes and errors or highlight what you like and don’t like!

Gather Content

If you are into your content strategy and have a lot of content to write for a website, gather content can help. Setup your planned content and then gather to match the setup. It will help reduce assumptions over content and ensure every detail is planned for!

Image Computer toolkit by ZaCky ॐ, on Flickr

It only takes a moment on the 8.21 Southwest Trains service from Clapham Junction to Teddington for me to realise just how much I use the Kriega R25 backpack. For the past five months, the Kriega R25 has carried my camera, laptop, books, holiday gear, badminton stuff and general work related paraphernalia with me pretty much on a daily basis.

The 25 litre Kriega backpack replaced my previous, long lasting North Face Jester backpack which boasted an impressive 10 year life.  The ever increasing size of the hole in the bottom was the main decision to switch from North Face to Kriega.

I went for the R25 mainly because of Kriega’s patented quadlock harness. By bringing the straps together in the middle of the chest it takes the weight off your shoulders for easier use of your arms and shoulders whilst motorcycling, which also means that the straps are longer and therefore proves much easier access for putting the backpack on and taking it off. The harness is also very easy to close and open, and the length adjustment system which Kriega have implemented on the R25 is easy and quick to use. It’s essentially a backpack which is designed for motorcycle riders.

When you’re riding a motorcycle on a daily basis you need something dependable, functional, capable and flippin’ easy to use. This ticks all of those boxes for me.

One of the few things which I had difficulty finding out when searching for product reviews before I bought it was how waterproof it is. Kriega do waterproof backpacks and others which aren’t, so does that mean that they let all of the water in? In short, experience so far with the bundles of rain a classic British summer delivers is no. The straps tend to absorb the water which although annoying, isn’t the end if the world. The rest of the backpack tends to collect some of the water which you can see beading on the surface, and absorbs the rest. The inside of the backpack hasn’t got wet, yet. I did have the intention if attaching a Respro waterproof reflective backpack cover to the R25 if it wasn’t waterproof enough – I don’t plan on getting one anytime soon, although it might be a good idea for high visibility during winter commuting.

Before a road trip on the Honda CB600F Hornet

The main and pretty much only issue I do have with the Kriega R25 backpack is the zip. Whilst the material overlap is sufficient and it does what it needs to, i.e. keeps the contents inside the bag with overlapping material to keep water out, the zip often gets trapped with the overlapping material and it never seems as though I’ve completely closed it. Having said that, even though the zip does catch on a regular basis, I’m confident that it won’t tear itself apart! The guarantee which comes with the backpack from Kriega is enough to keep me confident.

On the whole, this is not only a motorcycle backpack which i use when commuting, but one which i use for everything. The harness which takes the weight off your shoulders and places it on your chest and hips makes it so much easier to carry anything. I get a few blank stares from people who walk past me in the street when they see me wearing what looks like a parachute, but the benefits of carrying stuff more comfortably completely outweigh this. I certainly believe that Kriega should be selling the technology to people to make cases for musical instruments – I can imagine those are some heavy bits of kit.

I do have a fairly small upper body frame compared to your typical motorcyclist, so I am probably on the smallest setting for the straps. So I would say don’t buy this for a child or young adult. But when I have my jacket on, there’s no problems at all and the harness is really easy to tighten and adjust to fit you.

Fantastic piece of motorcycling kit. If you’re in need of a new backpack, buy one.

Photos here

At it’s highest level, Information Architecture is described by Wikipedia as the art of expressing a model or concept of information. In laymans terms, and within my day-to-day work as a Digital Project Manager, it is methods of organising and labelling websites and applications.

Information Archiecture improves user interaction and experience by making content easy to find because of it’s nomenclature and grouping.

Information architecture (IA) is the art of expressing a model or concept of information used in activities that require explicit details of complex systems. - Wikipedia

These days, whether people realise it or not, Information Architecture is actually performed by a lot more people, on-the-fly, every day!

Modern smart phones including Android, iPhone, Blackberryor even Nokia allow users to manage and group the content on their phones. This of course stems from the introduction of downloadable applications. People can simply drag and drop (or select and move) their applications into groups on different screens. For example, I have screens set up for the following:

• Travel
• Calendar
• Popular Items
• Social Applications
• Phone settings and search

These theoretical groups allow me to manage the contents and applications within my phone into more manageable screens. If I can remember the rough subject of each screen then I’m sure to find other applications nearby.

Simply having the ability to rearrange the icons on my android phone makes me want to arrange them into groups, categorizing what they are to make them easier to find.

So, more and more people are performing the art of Information Architecture, without even realising it!

Photo: Android Travel Screen by Richard Stowey, on Flickr

I’ve used a few handheld devices over the years, and as there are a few more on the market now, but I’m wondering whether any of them are as efficient as they could be.

The Psion, Tapwave Zodiac, Nokia mobile phones, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, HTC Hero and Samsung Galaxy Tab – It’s interesting how the text input on these devices has developed over time and it got me wondering which input method is the most efficient. But there are lots of things which affect how good an input is.

Weighing them all up provides an accurate view of which one is the best. So bearing that in mind, I’ve separated the devices I’ve used into the types of input in order to compare.

I’ve rated them from a 1-5 (1=low, 5=high)

The early transition from QUERTY keyboard to was clearly met with issues. The pen input of the Tapwave Zodiac and other Palm based devices has definitely improved with the use of finger based touch inputs. I find that the next step now is to refine the devices and make them much easier to use, fool proof and really try and understand how people use their devices.

For me, QUERTY keyboards are still the clear winners, but they aren’t as versatile and interesting to use with other applications.

The next steps are ones of refinement rather than major changes, and I think that there will be a battle between the touch screen keyboard and the QUERTY keyboard for mobile devices.

Blackberry Curve black closeup by bigpresh, on Flickr

Swype launched a new beta programme recently for their unique swyping keyboard. I decided to install the software on my HTC Hero and since then I’ve been trying to get used to the new way of typing on touch screen mobile phones.

It works quite simply by allowing the user to draw one continuous line between the letters on the keyboard which make up your chosen words. It automatically puts spaces into the sentence when you lift off your finger to start the next word.

Its fairly hard to get used to at first and that’s not just because of the new way of typing. There are other differences such as the layout of symbols, removal of the button to hide the keyboard and the introduction of a microphone key. it’s slightly alarming at first but you get used to it the more you use it.

One of the harder elements to get used to is the new predictive text (unfortunately out doesn’t iuse the same library as the default keyboard) and making edits to text you have already written. Typing words which contain double letters also seems a little tricky resulting in a little finger wiggle to get it sorted.

Above all it’s pretty satisfying to use especially when it comes to typing longer words and the actual user input is fairly easy and interesting. Much more thought is required when putting in the words though, and if you make a mistake on a long word then it can be annoying.

After using the input for a little while and to start writing this blog article, I have found that it is definitely quicker than the standard htc keyboard. That is only if you use one finger to type. If you are a multi-finger touch screen typist, then stick with that! The swype keyboard has specific other uses too, such as aboard public transport. Not having to lift your finger from the keyboard as often definitely improves accuracy!

The use of hardware is petty good and performance verses the default HTC Hero keyboard is definitely better and it copes with hardware lag better and more obviously.

Overall I would recommend giving it a try. Its now my default keyboard for most things except entering postcodes and telephone numbers! And the best bit is that you can choose when to use it, and even switch to it half way through typing!!

TechCrunch50 Day 2 by magerleagues, on Flickr

Friday marked the launch of the London Design Festival with the writing of the words “LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL 2010 IS NOW OPEN” on the set of Audi production line robots which have been placed in Trafalgar Square.

Even though I missed the opening line, there were plenty of messages which came flooding through from their website. You can log on and submit a message of your choosing, with it randomly being selected through a lottery type system. It is then written, recorded and played back both online and also on the LED type display which surrounds the installation. Take a look at the video below and the picture above to understand how it works.

London Design Festival – Outrace – Audi Robots from Richard Stowey on Vimeo.

If you are in London between the 16th and 23rd of September, then go and take a look. Apart from it being crowded with tourists who are probably wondering what on earth it is, it’s a chance to see some production environment machinery in real life. The London Design Festival also has other events on in London this week. A full schedule can be found by going to the London Design Festival website.

It’s also worth checking out some of the designers other collaborative work: Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram

Image Outrace – London Design Festival 2010 by Richard Stowey, on Flickr

I have a few different cameras. The one I most use is my Nikon D90. I can take thousands of pictures and all it costs me is a little electricity and the time it takes to process them. Since the dawn of the new digital revolution with digital cameras popping out of people’s chests across the world at a rapid rate, the price of medium format cameras have gone down! Which makes it a great opportunity to get into it.

Although there are exceptions to this rule, a lot of the medium format cameras are now significantly more obtainable.

The camera above is a Zeiss Ikon which cost me around £8. Another camera I laid my hands for a cheap price is the Coronet Captain which cost less than the Ikon at about £5. Shown below, it’s a pretty basic box camera, which was made 20 or 30 years ago by Coronet, who are a Birmingham camera manufacturer no longer in operation. It’s dead simple to operate and the photographs which come out are larger than the standard 12 pictures you get on a roll of medium format, and you only get 8. There are two focus settings, the ability to set a timer, or add a green filter – but the best bit are the two view finders which are both waste level. One is for landscape shots and the other is for portrait. Genius!

The cameras which have waist level viewfinders create a completely different photograph to cameras which you hold up to your eyes and point and shoot. Images of people are in the middle of their body, and so produce a completely different sense of that person. The quality of the photographs which it produces is very interesting and completely unique, and unique per camera too. Each one will have it’s own little discrepencies in the manufacturing process and could have slight issues with the light seal, which all makes it very interesting.

So, if you’re after a new and interesting camera which is simple to get to grips with, cheap to buy and you can throw around as much as you like, here are some to look out for: Coronet Captain, Hasselblad 500c/m, Mamiya C330, Yashica Mat 124G, Lubitel 2.

Photos by me: Zeiss Ikon and Coronet Captain

As is usually the case over the festive holiday period, I had a little more time on my hands than usual. After seeing a number of adverts for the Decode: Digital Design Sensations exhibition at the V&A I decided to go and check it out and see what all the fuss was about…

I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of translating digital ideas into physical reality. The idea of taking a set of data, either made up or recorded from somewhere and representing that in a digital way. The Decode: Digital Design Sensations exhibition at the V&A is a demonstration of just that. Digital ideas represented in an easy to understand way.

The exhibition was split into three distinct parts: Code, Network and Interactivity. Code simply showed what could be done with raw data and the different ways in which it can be represented. I particularly liked the Digital Zoetrope by Troika London in this section which comprised text spinning on the outside of a cylindrical object, and appeared to slow down periodically in order to reveal certain facts.

Network contained exhibitions which displayed information which used a network in order to supply the information. There were a number of different ideas present here which mainly seemed to aggregate data and provide a visual representation of the data. One of the possibly more well known exhibits is the Exquisite Clock, where users who have downloaded the iPhone app can contribute an image to the clock pool. The clock uses these contributed images to display the time.

The interactivity section was by far the largest, in space and numbers. Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Make Out display was one of the most intriguing with a six screen display with lots of videos of people kissing, sourced from the internet.

Other installations which I really liked included the Vanetian Mirror by Fabrica, which essentially recorded a long exposure picture but in a digital form. It was displayed on a high definition screen, almost life size. Because of the long exposure, subjects would have to sit or stand still for a few minutes before being completely and clearly shown.

Daniel Rozin’s Weave Mirror was also extrememly clever using motors, electronics and laminated c-shaped prints to display a reflection of whatever was in front of the mirror. The mirror was constantly moving to reflect what it saw using a gradient from light to dark.

Alth0ugh not by any means the last of the exhibition, Body Paint by Mehmet Akten seemed to be one of the most enjoyable interactive exhibitions with people throwing themselves and everything else they had up, down and around in front of the display which altered the paint on the digtial canvas. A very neat idea, and very well made!

Overall, the exhibition really shows off current trends, capabilities and performance by digital designers around us. The multitude of ways data can be represented, used, manipulated and displayed are seemingly unlimited. This, it seems, is the future – digital ideas which transcend the virtual world and real world boundaries, and bring some of the human elements back into computers.

Human input, digital output!

The end of the year usually gets me thinking about the future and this year is no different. Current technology and the demands for unique content seems to be growing at an ever increasing pace, and nothing shows this more than the accelleration of mobile devices with their app stores. Apple iPhone App Store, Google Android Market, Blackberry App World, Nokia Ovi Store, and everyone else who is following suit at the moment. But where does this app business all lead? And what does it get us?

The manufacturers have provided and are building on the platforms, and it’s up to the users to create the content, for themselves or for other users. The greatest solutions and answers permiate their way to the surface and become the most well known and widely used.

So, what does the future hold for the app?

The movies depict a future of robots being delivered to our houses, as in iRobot or A.I. and arriving as a close representation of our human selves, capable of everything we can throw at them. Capable of cooking, cleaning, administering medication, mending and making things… but how long would the development and perfection of all of these things take? How long would the development of all the apps in the iPhone store have taken if Apple developed them all before the release of the iPhone? Well, probably a lot longer than it has taken.

Perhaps all we need is numerous organisations to develop the framework, build the platforms, invent the language and create the rules which can be the blank canvas for others to use as a test bed onto which they can throw their ideas. Robot owners can download their applications, test and rate them and provide feedback. Survival of the fittest.

A competitive environment similar to the app store environment of the moment, but with robots and applications which use their motor and processing capabilities, will throw up interesting results.

So, what will happen for the future? How long will it be before robots are available to everyone, like mobile devices are today. Will there even be a time when everyone has their own personal robot assistant? Only time will tell!

Photo by alliewiki