We’re very happy to to launch the Visit Stratford app on iPhone and Android this week after an intense but rewarding development process to create a cross platform promotional app for Stratford ahead of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London this summer.

What’s particularly exciting for us now is seeing the kickstart of an innovative marketing campaign by the project sponsors - SRP, Newham London Borough Council, and London & Partners - to promote the app. 

The marketing campaign involves both traditional marketing and social media campaigns across twitter and Facebook. We’re particularly excited by bus adverts featuring the app that are heading there way across london for the next month or so. Teams of volunteers will also be heading to Westfield with HTC handsets to showcase the app to shoppers. It’s a first for us and we’ll be studying the impact that these marketing techniques have on downloads in the coming weeks. 

Please take a look at a great app that we’re working on. No doubt many of you will make the trip to London’s Stratford City in the next couple of months and this FREE app will give you all the information you need.

Despite being one of the apps of the year (50+ million downloads and 14 million daily users in April) I only came across Draw Something a few days ago while reading an interview with Simon Oliver on the Guardian. We had the pleasure of collaborating with Simon on several projects, and indeed the app immediately reminded me of one of them: Magic Paintbox.

However, this is not (just) a self-promotional post. Draw Something is a joy to play, and I think it is also a great playground for designers and communicators, or anyone who wants to convey ideas through images. There are a few things that we can learn from Draw Something and its gameplay:

* It’s storytelling, not just drawing. When you’re guessing a word, you see the drawing being played back as it was drawn by the other player. So when your turn comes, you’re not simply drawing a picture, you are setting a scene, introducing characters, guiding your fellow player to the a-ha moment.

* You don’t need millions of colours and plenty of brushes to get your idea across. Most of the time two will be enough.

* Given the scarcity of means, you can use colour to draw the attention to what really matters in your composition. 

Following from our own Milk Monitor app and the Baby Lullaby app that we made for Decca a while ago we’ve been playing around with ideas about tracking personal data for other health related purposes.  We’ve developed an idea called Symptoms Diary that we thought we would share on our blog.

The Symptoms Diary enables users to track recurring symptoms that are of concern to them so that data could be collated and presented to a medical practitioner to help the diagnosis of a potential illness or problem.

The Symptoms Diary app enables users to add, edit and browse data in a visually accessible and simple manner. The functionality is stripped down to provide the necessary focus i.e. allowing the user to easily enter data and recognise patterns / recurring symptoms. We’ve devised the app navigation into five sections: Diary, Help, Donate, Export and Settings. Donate was added as a way for users to gift money to charities working within the health sector. 

By using the calendar view the user can easily enter data for the current day (and previous days if they had forgotten to enter data), modify data, and see recurring symptoms and patterns. Tapping a day would open the day view where users are able to rate their symptoms, access information specific to the symptoms and add personal notes. A pencil icon in the calendar view indicates where notes have been added. Users can export reports that they can send via e-mail and set up alerts / reminders to enter symptoms at specific times.

In terms of the overall look and feel we’ve tried to strike a balance between an app that is easy to use with something that is both friendly and modern. We’ve added textures to the interfaces to make the app feel more intimate and personable without distracting from the core purpose of the app.  We’ve tried to make the app feel that it belongs to something medical whilst being at the same time soothing & calming. 

Ladybird Classic Me Books has been included in The Telegraphs Top iOS apps for Children 2011. Shane Richmond, Head of Technology writes:

A sizeable dose of nostalgia for parents along with plenty of entertainment for children. The Me Books app gives you access to digital versions of the classic Ladybird books that have been around since the 1940s. The The books are narrated by a range of celebrities, including David Jason and Adam Buxton, and it’s possible to record your own version too.

Apps Magazine has published their 2011 Award winners and Ladybird Classic Me Books was named ‘Best Entertainment App of the Year’. To top it off it also picked up SILVER in the ‘App of the Year’ category. 

I disagree with the idea that you can design websites without coding them, but here you go, Adobe are about to release Muse, a product (free for now) which promises just that.

Is it going to be better than Photoshop mockups? I think so.
Is it going to make better websites? I don’t think so.

This is a step in the wrong direction as Elliot Jay Stocks puts it, and from a company which is trusted by so many designers. Adobe seems to suggest that you (print-based designers, that is) can just keep doing what you’re doing and this magical piece of software will handle scary code and all that boring stuff for you.

I am not proposing that print-based designers stay away from webdesign unless they are willing to become code monkeys, but I believe that webdesigners should understand the habitat of their designs (the Web), as well as using the Web’s fabric (HTML, CSS and JavaScript) to design good websites. Cause we don’t make static pictures of webpages, we craft live, accessible, interactive experiences.