In Case You Missed Google I/O 2013

While Apple tends to get more press around it’s World Wide Developer Conference or WWDC 2013 that happened last week (see our post here if you missed it), Google had it’s own developer-centric conference, Google I/O  last month.  Perhaps taking a trick out of Apple’s bag, Google refrained from releasing any big products like they did in 2012 with Google Glass perhaps saving such reveals for their own separate events like what Apple does with it’s iPhone.

That said, Google did show off a big array of new enhancements and services that Team Ratio think are worth highlighting, check them out in the slideshow above.

10 Important Design Changes to iOS 7

Apple revealed it’s new design for iOS 7 at WWDC 2013 yesterday and love it or hate it, it’s sparked plenty of conversation.  The departure from skeumorphic design to a flat design has people everywhere drawing comparisons to Android and Windows Phone design.  We asked Team Ratio to chime in, and in addition to their thoughts, Shelby Blair, User Experience Designer created a quick presentation on the Top 10 design changes in iOS 7 as seen above.

Here are examples of what other team members had to say:

“iOS7 will widely be talked about for it’s UI shift to a simpler design (which is good), but no one talks to how they are letting us use more gestures to better manage our content. Re-imagining things isn’t just about what it looks like, its also about why it is.” - Aaron Johnson, User Experience Designer

“In comparison to the Windows Phone, it  is an entirely different interactive concept, so I don’t think Apple copied them in any way.  Moving away from textures is a long term trend in tech design – I am frankly a little surprised Apple has gotten away with it for so long.” – Matt Beck, Project Manager

“I expect there will be a lot of subtle animations, etc, that make the new interface feel more polished than can be appreciated through static screenshots.  That said, the new version of iOS is essentially just a re-skin – I don’t see any new innovations that suggest Apple is catching or surpassing Android.  Stuff like multitasking and the tabs in Safari, while visually well-executed, are pretty blatant ripoffs of what Android already has.” - Cooper Crosby, User Experience Designer

“I think Apple did the right thing by moving towards this direction- however I don’t think they took the time to execute high quality designs. Going simple and flat doesn’t mean the design should suffer. Google has been successful with this design principle because they take the time to set rules, boundaries, and patterns.  The Android GUI guidelines are the perfect example of that.” - Jasenka Gracic, Project Manager

“They mashed iOS together with Android and WP, and the results are cludgy, feel strange, and not like Apple.  I saw a good comparison here: http://www.droid-life.com/2013/06/10/ios7-vs-android-a-quick-comparison-after-the-wwdc-keynote/
They also stole the new weather design from Yahoo!. First, they give them an award for design: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/apple-design-awards-2013/
Then, they clone it and put it into iOS7: http://twitpic.com/cwltow ” - Garrett Amini, Front End Developer

“Feels like they’re trying to play catchup with the flat design movement. In a lot of ways (their switch to Helvetica Neue Ultra Light, the vertical carousel of tabs in Safari, etc), it feels like they’re copying Android. While the first pictures I’ve seen are pretty, nothing looks very groundbreaking, and I don’t think it’ll get me to stay with iOS devices.” - Shelby Blair, User Experience Designer

Time will tell, and at the end of the day, it’s not what it looks like but how it works that will go a long way to determining iOS 7′s success.  But it’s worth noting that for the first time in a long time, Apple isn’t leading the way in design but rather catching up.

Team Ratio Proud of it’s Winners in the Core77 “App to the Future” Design Challenge

Last Fall Ratio hosted a Windows 8 Design Contest to help designers new to Windows 8 better understand the design language. Since then, we  have  launched the Windows 8 Design Handbook, a resource for designers who want to master Microsoft’s Windows 8 Design Language.

In March, we heard that Core77 was holding a similar contest, the “App to the Future” Design Challenge.  The contest was to design an app for Windows Phone that showcases how to create, connect or “impress the pants off your future self.”  Ratio was thrilled that Core77 was taking an interest in Windows Phone design, so our Creative User Experience Team broke off into groups and entered the contest.  Their objectives were simple:

• Allow every team member a chance to show off their ideas and designs to both Ratio and the world
• Be among the winners of the contest

Each member of the team would be given 2 working days to come up with ideas and turn those ideas into winning entries.  They would then each get 3 minutes to present their designs at internally at Ratio, then each idea would be entered into the contest.

Ultimately, of the hundreds of entries, 50 finalists were chosen by Core77 and 5 winners were announced.  We were extremely proud to find out that out of our 6 entries into the contest, Ratio had 1 of the 5 winning apps, 1 honorable mention, and 2 finalists in the contest!

Here is the writeup of one of our winning app, fitChamp created by Ratio CRUX members Christian Valencia and Shelby Blair.

“fitCHAMP—a social fitness app that combines the powerful APIs of the personal fitness trackers that you and your friends use onto a single, beautifully designed dashboard where you can track and compete with your friends through certain metrics like distance moved, steps taken, and calories burned.” – Core77

“Could be fantastic if the platform API’s work well together and you can map data onto similar and comparable points.” —Chris Caldwell

“Great socialization/gamification of the dataset and activity.” —Eric Ludlum

“Similar apps exist but the design of this app provides a fresh look. Social component is certainly a motivating factor to challenge someone.” —Pratik Kothari

In addition, Roman Pohorecki from Ratio had his app, SnapCals featured as an honorable mention finalist.  Here’s what Core77 had to say about SnapCals:

SnapCals by Roman Pohorecki, USA

“Great idea to build a data base of calorie content for foods.” —Corrina Black

“Apps that help you determine your caloric intake in a useful and easy way are almost non-existant. This app takes a unique approach to helping address that problem.” —Chris Caldwell

Additionally, Ratio’s Bart Claeys and Tyler Eide were among the finalist for their submissions for their Octalytics and MONEY apps respectively.

Ratio could not be more proud of our entire CRUX team and big a huge thank you goes out to Core77 for organizing and hosting the contest!

Ratio partners with Next Issue Media to help them reach a goal of 1 million subscribers

Opportunity

Next Issue Media is an independent media venture founded in 2009 by five of the major global publishing houses (Conde Nast, Meredith, Hearst, News Corp., and Time) to translate their paperback magazines to the mobile and digital world. Being early to launch on Windows 8, Next Issue Media has the opportunity to establish itself as THE premier magazine offering on the Windows 8 platform and build a competitive edge against its competitors.

Situation

Next Issue Media’s unlimited magazine subscriptions service originally launched on the Android platform where there are currently 36 magazine titles available to subscribers.  Next Issue Media also has an iPad app with over 80 titles available. Ratio was asked to assist in creating a compelling experience that leverages the unique features of Windows 8 while supporting the company’s goals.

Results

Ratio was selected as the Windows 8 agency by Next Issue to design and develop the new Windows 8 app.  The result is an magazine app that is optimized for tablets and desktops presenting the impressive quality and quantity of digital magazine content on Windows 8. The Windows 8 version of the app offers users personalized options to pin their favorite titles to their start screens, a feature unique to the Windows 8 app.  Once in the app, users experience a spacious new library layout, which also features recent back issues.  Users can also take advantage of multitasking with snap view, and live tiles with rotating covers of the latest issues.

NIM’s new Windows app now gives customers the choice to seamlessly access their subscriptions  from their tablet at home, to their laptop on the road, or to their company PC at work.  This beautiful app brings incredible value to Windows 8 customers, allowing users nlimited all you can read access to over 85 magazines including titles like Time, Sports Illustrated, The New Yorker, and Cosmopolitan to name just a few.   With this new market multiplying their customer base several fold, NIM has positioned itself towards its goal of reaching 1 million customers in the next 18 months.

PIL’s iCookbook™ Wins 2013 Appy Award for Best Cooking App for the Second Consecutive Year

PIL’s iCookbook™ is a special project to us, one that is close to our hearts. We are proud to have partnered with PIL in designing and developing the iCookbook™ app, which almost all of us here at Ratio Interactive have been involved with in one way or another. We are thrilled that this past weekend at SXSW, iCookbook™ was awarded with the 2013 Appy Award for Best Cooking App for the second consecutive year!  This prestigious award is well deserved and only further validates iCookbook as a top-ranking multi-platform recipe app, built for iOS, Android, and Windows 8.

The annual Appy Awards were announced this past week at the SXSW Festival in Austin, TX with the purpose of acknowledging creativity and excellence in app design across all platforms: mobile, social and web-based.

Press Release:

Publications International’s iCookbook™ wins best cooking app at the prestigious 2013 MediaPost Appy Awards. LINCOLNWOOD, Ill.,  March 12, 2013  /PRNewswire/ — Publications International, Ltd. (PIL), the world’s leading publisher of favorite brand name cookbooks, is pleased to announce its top-ranking multi-platform recipe app, iCookbook, has been named the best cooking app at the MediaPost Appy Awards for the second year in a row.

The annual Appy Awards, announced this past week at the SXSW Festival in Austin, TX, are among the most prominent awards in the app industry dedicated to acknowledging creativity and excellence in app design across all platforms: mobile, social and web-based.

“We are blown away to win this award again. My hat is off to the other apps we compete with and we are humbled to know that other people love our app as much as we do,” said  Jerry Croft, President of Cooking & Digital Media at Publications International, Ltd. “All of the people here involved with iCookbook work very hard to try and provide the best cooking app for the everyday Chef,” Croft added. “Winning this prestigious award validates that effort.”

The iCookbook app, available for  iOS,  Android,  Amazon  and  Windows 8 devices, offers everyday cooks an easy way to navigate and discover a wide variety of accessible and affordable meal options with more than 2,100 recipes hand-picked by the team of food experts and accredited nutritionists at Publications International.

The iCookbook app is also filled with user-friendly features to streamline the entire cooking process such as: advanced filters to search for recipes based by theme, ingredient, cuisine, brand (Hershey’s,  Campbell’s, Crock-Pot etc.), full color images with every recipe, the ability to create shopping lists, watch how-to videos, share recipes with friends and family via Facebook and email, and even access articles, conversion charts, measurement tools and more.

Every month iCookbook also releases a FREE recipe pack with great timely recipes for its users to download. Special themed premium recipe collections such as Paleo Recipes, a Heart Healthy collection from  Go Red  for Women, and traditional Irish Foods perfect for a  St. Patrick’s Day  party are also available for purchase via the iCookbook in-app store.

To learn more visit  www.icookbook.com.

About Publications International, Ltd.: Publications International, Ltd. (PIL) is one of  North America’s leading publishers of cookbooks, with more than 400 active cookbook titles and more than 50 recipe magazine releases annually. PIL’s award winning iCookbook platform is available on Windows, Apple and Android devices.  http://www.pubint.com

Contact:

Jena Vuylsteke Williamson
Appency for Publications International, Ltd.
949-929-8203
jena@appency.com

SOURCE  Publications International, Ltd.

Keep SXSW Weird

As we fly back to Seattle, spent from 5 days of working, networking, walking, parties, and great music, I finally have some quiet time to myself to gather my thoughts around one of the most unique events of its kind, SXSW Interactive.  You can’t compare it to other conferences of its kind, not to say that it’s necessarily better or worse, but it’s just different.  Keep Austin Weird.  This is Austin’s slogan for a city that prides itself on being different, and that vibe is reflected in SXSW Interactive, for better more than worse.

SXSW, much like Austin, is a tribute to music and the art of motion pictures.  With the convergence of technology and its influence on music and the arts, it was just a matter of time that SXSW added an Interactive focus to the conference and SXSW Interactive was born. The biggest companies and the most creative minds now all converge in Austin and the result is some combination of CES, Mardi Gras, Coachella, and a farmers market if you can imagine that.  From huge corporate sponsors of parties that have futuristic helicopters from upcoming movies parked in their lot

(Vice’s Viceland in collaboration with the new Tom Cruise movie Oblivion)

 to popup yoga sessions on the street, there’s something for everyone.  However, with this potpourri of sensory overload also comes confusion.  The sessions are spread out all throughout downtown Austin, and although all within walking distance, because of the lines and the distance, planning out your day becomes a practice in futility.  Say what you will about Las Vegas, but one thing they can do is handle a crowd and make it easy to see as much as you can in one fell swoop.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting they move SXSW Interactive to Las Vegas, the contrary.  Note that there is a new offshoot, SXSW V2Venture kicking off this summer.   For SXSW, just like Austin, the challenge I see is keeping SXSW “weird.”  Of course there is value in sessions highlighting the most well known speakers in the technology sector and open bar parties hosted by the biggest brands in the world.   We at Ratio were grateful for the opportunity to design and build an interactive experience called the Monster Match at the Microsoft Windows Studio.  The Studio was created to celebrate art and music while showing how you could leverage the new Windows 8 platform to design and build beautiful experiences.  The Studio was a fantastic place to have a casual conversation while immersing ourselves in art.   That said,  I believe that the magic of SXSW, and maybe of Austin for that matter, is in the serendipity it attracts.

While leaving one of the aforementioned networking events at 2am, I spilled onto Sixth Street which is closed off for perhaps some of the best networking, a street littered with food carts, restaurants, and bars, all open and many taken over by a variety of events.  As I was going for my 2nd round of the best NY style thin crust in Austin, low and behold I run into a fellow Seattleite waiting in line behind me that I hadn’t seen in nearly 5 years back home.  While chowing down on a satisfying slice, we vowed that we’d meetup again the next day and setup time to really talk.

And therein lies the magic of SXSW, and for that matter Austin.  It’s a crazy mess at times, disorganized feeling, and chaotic for sure, but it just works.  I had mixed feelings on day one as I spent more time walking from hotel to hotel looking for my scheduled sessions, but by the end of my 4 days in Austin I felt recharged and inspired by what I saw and how I saw it.  SXSW, please don’t outgrow yourself, and like Austin, stay weird.

Designing For Android

Designing for Android
Getting Started.

Let’s face it, as designers, the Android platform is terrifying. Android is a mixed bag of operating system versions, frozen dessert names, and pixel densities — something that designers, don’t want to worry about. The goal of this article is to help you make sense of the Android ecosystem, and start thinking about designing across several screen sizes and resolutions. We’ll provide you with a few tools, helpful links, and do our best to get you started on this platform; it’s the stuff we wish someone had explained to us earlier on. Once understood, there’s an endless sea of users just waiting to get their hands on the next great thing, your app, maybe…

01 First things first, get a device in your hands

Nothing will get this process running quicker and more efficiently than having a device in your hands. Use it, try it out, swipe around, type stuff in, download an app. Do your best to accomplish an everyday smartphone task. To choose a device there are few things to consider, we’ll give you our thoughts on devices as well. First, Samsung, HTC and Motorola consume well over half of the total market share for Android, and HTC and Motorola specifically run a customized theme of, what we refer to as “pure Android” style. We suggest starting with a Nexus model as of 2013. Nexus is currently produced by Google though LG, previously Samsung and HTC, resulting in what we call a “pure Android” experience. Other carriers and manufacturers pack the phone with a custom Android theme, and various applications that you might not need, Nexus does not. One other bonus to Nexus, is that you can stay up to date with software earlier as Nexus get’s software updates before the other manufactures.

Secondly, we recommend getting as many devices in your hands as you can. It’s important to understand how different the experience can be across different carriers, screen sizes, operating systems, and pixel densities. Try out the HTX one, Galaxy s3 and the Motorola Droid 4.

02 Understanding Screen Size & DPI

Understanding the complexities of varying screen sizes, resolutions, pixel densities, etc. is paramount in understanding where to start with Android. There are three terms to address separately when designing for Android, they all seem like they could be synonyms, but they aren’t.

Resolution: The total number of physical pixels on a screen at one time.

Screen Density: The number of pixels within a physical area of the screen. When we talk of this, we are talking about DPI, or dots per inch. There are 4 levels of screen density within Android. lDPI, mDPI, hDPI, and xhDPI. If a graphic scales across all 4 of these levels, some manual graphic editing may be warranted, while not completely necessary. For example, when you put your thumb on the screen, how many pixels are you touching? It varies between devices.

*Density-Independent Pixels (DP): The goal of DP is to make that beautiful button you designed looks crisp and is the same physical size on all Android devices.  Your thumb doesn’t change dimensions across devices so neither should your button.

How do we make sure your assets look sharp and measure the same physical dimension?  It’s pretty simple actually.  Create copies of assets at various pixel dimensions to match four key sizes: lDPI, mDPI, hDPI, xhDPI

Keep in mind that this red icon will appear same physical size on screen.  The difference is that each ‘Screen Density’ is packing more pixels into the same amount of space. The higher the density, the clearer your screen and graphics will appear. For example: a 100dp graphic would be 100px x100px at mDPI. The same 100dp graphic would have to be blown up 200px x 200px on an xhDPI screen. If you don’t provide the xhDPI asset, your icon will be blurry.

Designers are responsible for providing pixel assets across the entire. This will keep your design clear and crisp.  Be aware that screen resolution and screen sizes are in constant flux, so you may need to create additional assets.

When setting up a design document, or starting out with wireframes, It’s recommended by us at Ratio and Google that you start from the middle. Begin working at an average 2.5-4.0” screen size, at MDPI screen density. Let your app scale up and down from there. Start with a resolution of 480 x 800px. Android has posed a section in their **‘developer guidelines called Supporting Multiple Screen sizes. While this has a lot to do with development, there are some nice graphs to help explain this further.

03 Unique Android Features

This is a short list of gestures, functions, features, and UI normalities that we find to be special to the Android platform.

Extended Hold

This mode allows the user to enter a multi-select state. A contextual ‘Action Bar’ is usually present at the same time.

Widgets

Also known as ‘Companion Widgets’, these small app extensions live on your home screen and provide access to one important feature of the application. This allows users to perform tasks without diving fully into the application. This feature is unique to Android, and does not exist in iOS or Windows Phone OS.

Up vs Back

At a quick glance, you might find yourself confused to see what appears to be two back buttons. They are different, I assure you. In the top left of an app, is the ‘Up’ button. This moves you up in the navigational hierarchy of app you are currently in. At the bottom is our the ‘Back’ button. This is a global backbutton for the device itself. Using the ‘Back’ button maintains the same functionality as the ‘Up’ button, until you go so far as to leave the application you were in. The ‘Back’ button continues taking you back through the history of the phone itself, across applications even. Pretty sweet huh? We seem to like it.

Action Bar

The action bar is what lives at the top of each app. It contains various features that are necessary to providing users with the level of intractability they expect. Link: http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/actionbar.html

Themes

When designing for Android, it’s important to keep the device themes in mind. As mentioned before, different manufacturers produce a different visual theme for Android for their devices specifically. You can set your app up to stay consistent across varying themes, here is a helpful link to understanding themes. http://developer.android.com/design/style/themes.html

Typography

Android has some standard fonts. Use Roboto as the standard font when designing in Android. This does not mean this is the only typeface you can use, you don’t even have to use it, but now you know what one you are seeing all over the OS. Here is a helpful link explaining more details around using Roboto, and scaling type appropriately. http://developer.android.com/design/style/typography.html

We hope that these notes, links, and opinions will help you get your head wrapped around the idea of designing for Android. There is quite a lot of content we left out of this post, so make sure to check out the official Android Developers page and click on ‘Design’. Hope you enjoyed this read, and happy designing!

04 Resources

GUI: http://www.teehanlax.com/downloads/android-gui-psd-high-density/

* Official Design Guide: http://developer.android.com/design/index.html

** DP / PX Calculator: http://labs.skinkers.com/content/android_dp_px_calculator/

Allrecipes Video Cookbook / iOS

Opportunity

All good cooking apps require recipes.  Allrecipes already has an existing successful iOS app that pulls in its traditional recipe content from Allrecipes.com.  We wanted to create a better way to present recipes and cooking videos. Tall order but when you experience the Allrecipes Video Cookbook app for iOS, we think you’ll agree – it is better.

Solution

The Allrecipes Video Cookbook was created offering optimized UI for both the iPad and iPhone. The application leverages content through a web service so its always updateable and fresh. On the iPad you’ll note that the app offers a very unique navigation model for the videos that really sets the application apart. Each recipe preparation step is tied to its place in the video. As the video plays each step text is highlighted, these step numbers are also navigation. By simply touching one step you jump to that part of the video, no need to “scrub” to find that part again. The app also includes ingredients, step-by step instructions, and reviews of the recipe from the Allrecipes community, but the real beauty is in navigating the recipes thru beautiful video.  The recipes are grouped in categories and searchable for easy selection, with over 700 recipes to choose from you’re sure to find something great to prepare.

Result

Using Allrecipes top recipes professionally produced as videos, the Video Cookbook offers a different approach that guides users thru recipes through watching videos. Once you try it, you’ll wonder why it hasn’t been done before. What’s incredible is that the app is FREE, with more video recipes added all the time, this app is set to be a staple on your iPad or iPhone for a long time to come.

Ratio’s Favorite Apps of 2012

We realize it’s already February, but as we continue to progress through 2013 and the innovation of apps continues to flourish, we wanted to take the time to look back at all the apps that made our lives in 2012 easier, more interesting, and to put it simply, more fun. While it was hard to choose from a list of so many favorites, these are the apps that garnered the most votes.

5. Shazam

Thanks to Shazam, you no longer have to lose sleep trying to figure out the name of that one song that’s been stuck in your head all day. Shazam uses the incredible power of lightning-fast tagging to identify songs in as little as one second. Whether you’re listening to the radio, watching TV, or out at a bar or club, just hold your device up to the song you’d like identified and it instantly provides you the song title and artist, along with options to preview, purchase, or stream the track. It even allows you to stream lyrics and Youtube videos as well.  “I know the music I like when I hear it, but I don’t always know the song, Shazam solves that problem! I use it almost everyday, and in the end, that’s what makes an app great in my books!” says Rick Locke, Marketing Manager at Ratio. Shazam is a great way to discover more about new music and to stay up to date on the songs you love.

4. Paper

“Paper is where ideas begin,” and we have a lot of them. With the Paper app, we are able to capture and store our ideas as sketches, diagrams, illustrations, etc. and keep them easily accessible in one place.This is mobile creation done right because it is an easy and beautiful way to create on iOS. Paper was built from the ground up specifically for touch and creating on the go. We love this app because it gives you five essential tools that are perfect for the creative process to write, sketch, draw, outline, and color. “Paper is a beautifully designed app and is one of the most fun to use. It houses a number of unique gestures and tools that you discover while you’re using it” says Bart Claeys, Creative Director at Ratio. You can even purchase additional tools from the in-app store if you want to take it a step further. Paper works exactly like a notebook or journal, but with more convenience. We’re hooked!

3. Uber

Nothing says class quite like riding around in style with your own private driver. Thanks to the Uber app, now you can ride with both style AND convenience. Using the iPhone or Android app, you are able to request a car from anywhere and within minutes, a professional driver will pull up curbside in a sleek black car at your service. On top of that, the payments are hassle free! Keep a credit card on file so you can automatically make charges, rather than having to deal with the pain of a cab’s payment process. “Uber takes all frustrations around cabs away. You can see the estimated time of arrival, you can call straight to the driver and star that driver after the ride. Plus no more lost time trying to pay the driver with cash or card (which is always a hassle)”  says Bart Claeys, Creative Director at Ratio.

2. Pocket

Mobile devices have increasingly become a great resource for us to discover content we love.  The problem is, since so many of us are usually on the go, we don’t always have time to enjoy the content right then and there. Thats where Pocket comes in. This app lets you take pretty much anything you find online and save it in a convenient and organized way, so it’s ready to view when you are. “Pocket makes it so easy to mark content for later and read it on any one of my devices. You don’t even need an internet connection to use it” says Cooper Crosby, a UX Designer at Ratio. Now as you’re discovering new articles, videos, pictures, etc., you have it all easily accessible on any device. Everything is stored in one place, your Pocket!

1. Spotify

Music is a huge part of our culture here at Ratio, and we’re always excited about listening to and discovering new music. Spotify helps us do it all. With such a tremendous music selection over 16 times that of Pandora (16 million songs vs just under 1 million for Pandora), you are able to search specific songs or artists, create your own playlists, share playlists, or keep it a surprise by listening to Spotify radio, catered to your taste in music. If you don’t know what to listen to, or you feel like discovering something new, just start with a song you love and let Spotify take it from there. With Spotify it is truly “music all day, every day” says Shelby Blair, a UX Designer at Ratio. This app allows you to listen to your downloaded music across all devices and continue to listen offline.

Although we couldn’t include all of our favorites, we thought we’d give one app in particular an honorable mention. It may not have made our top 5, but you should definitely explore Simple, a unique banking app. Who ever thought banking apps could be fun? Before Simple popped up one would only open a banking app if really necessary. Simple changed that game. It is the most fun, best performing and best looking banking app there is around. It comes in iPhone and Android versions and offers some unique features such as showing you how much you tipped, pinning your spendings to a map and auto-tagging transactions. On top of that, customer service messaging is built-in and they reply within the hour, not to mention it helps that they’re experts at what they talk about. Oh, and did you know you can attach pictures (scans, PDFs) to a transaction through the app? They just rolled that feature out last week. Get ahead of the curve by signing up now, it will take time for your account to be approved!

We hope you explore and enjoy all of our Favorite Apps of 2012 just as much as we did!

Ratio Interactive Featured in Today’s Puget Sound Business Journal

Pickup the February 1-7, 2013 issue of the Puget Sound Business Journal and turn to page 9 and you’ll find Ratio featured in the Growing Your Business section.  You can also see an excerpt of the article here, but you’ll have to have a subscription to read the article in it’s entirety.

The article, written by Emily Parkurst, staff writer from the Puget Sound Business Journal, highlights the beginnings of Ratio Interactive in 2005 and talks about the decisions along the way that have grown the business to what it is today.

This was the 3rd time Ratio was highlighted in the Puget Sound Business Journal in the last 3 months.  Ratio was named as one of the Top Ten Web Developers in the 2013 PSBJ Book of Lists and Emily also highlighted the hiring of Kevin Dillon as President to Ratio which can be read here.

If you don’t have a subscription to the the PSBJ to read the articles and you’d like to know more, give us a shout at 206-624-6678 or email us at hello@ratiointeractive.com.

CES 2013 – Without the “Next Big Thing,” how do companies and their products stand out?

As I walked around what turned out to be the largest CES show in terms of size (1.92 million net square feet, or 37 football fields of exhibit space) one thing struck me.  How am I ever going to figure out what I want to see?   With over 3,250 exhibitors showing some 20,000 new products and only 3.5 days at the show, between meetings, sessions, networking, and the list of companies I knew I wanted to see, there was only a small sliver of my attention available to be wowed.  

In the end, three very powerful takeaways surfaced.

1. Take care in the Design of your product or service and how you present it.
Smart watches were plentiful at CES 2013, but one stood out from the rest, the Italian made I’m Watch.  From a brand perspective, the booth was one of the busiest on the floor showcasing beautiful design from the packaging, the iconography, to the booth team wearing jeans and t-shirts all fitting the brand.  Taking the lesson from a better known “i” product, it goes to show how design matters and beautiful sells.

2. Create an a way for consumers to Experience a product or service
Nikon went above and beyond placing it’s cameras for people to touch and try.  They setup environments to show off how good their cameras are, one example by staging dancers so that people could take action shots and see the results first hand.   Everything was geared towards letting people experience the cameras in situations where they could really get the most out of the trial.  Again, the booth was among one of the busiest on the floor.

3. Get in front of your audience outside of the exhibition floor
A trend that’s become popular that I really think is powerful is that of renting out restaurants/cafes near the convention and using them to create an entire experience that you can control in high traffic areas without the noise of the normal exhibition floor.

For the last couple of years, Lenovo has booked out the AquaKnox restaurant in the Venetian and they not only use the venue to create an entire experience showcasing their products, but they use the space for parties, meetings ,and press events.  McAfee also booked out the Delmonico Steakhouse to create a preview center for it’s new personalized security solutions.  Skipping the crowds, and being able to control the first 2 takeaways, Design and Experience make this option a tremendous opportunity to reach consumers in an much more personal way.

 If you attended this year, what stood out to you?  We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Business Development Manager

We are currently in search of a Business Development Manager to join our team. The successful candidate will be responsible for helping drive Ratio Interactive business development efforts to support continual growth of its long-standing digital & consulting services business. Candidates should possess strong business acumen, bringing relevant industry knowledge, experience, and a proven ability to develop messages based on information accrued from internal and external sources. This individual will be responsible for efficient management of the account development process, including lead generation and qualification as well as comprehensive collection of prospect requirements, collaborative development of solutions and effective presentation of these solutions in the form of written proposals and in-person client pitches. The individual will see the process through to close of new business and beyond, with a keen eye to developing long-term client partnerships.

ESSENTIAL SKILLS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead Generation: in partnership with the business development team and management, research and develop list of potential clients, proactively identify, locate, and qualify new business leads.
• Communications: creatively and confidently convey the added value of our services to prospective clients. Effectively guide the Ratio Interactive’ team in crafting a strong approach that addresses the needs of the overall relationship, associated projects, and the client’s goals.
• Execution: In collaboration with others, develop strategic proposals, respond to RFP’s and RFI’s in a timely manner and with an informed understanding of customer’s needs, industry best practices, while emphasizing the positive impact Ratio Interactive can have on their business. Collect initial drafts and supporting verbal, written and graphic input from the producer, creative and technical staff. Incorporate drafts into professionally formatted and clearly structured documents, generating comprehensive and visually compelling proposals.
• Confidently position Ratio Interactive’ solutions and skills relative to other solutions potentially offered by competitors. Close new business with clients that lead to long-term partnerships.
• Organization: build client relationships with cross-functional teams including C-level, marketing, strategy, production, technology, program management, finance and legal. Demonstrate the ability to leverage internal and external resources to better understand client’s industry, lexicon and typical industry practice. Remain current on industry trends, best practices and relevant topics to grow domain expertise. Examine portfolio and history of competitive comparative landscape so as to better understand our value proposition distinctions.

 REQUIREMENTS:

• At least 3-5 years business development experience, with specific, successful track-record of selling digital solutions or IT consulting/staffing.
• Relationships and contacts at top consumer brands, agencies, and relevant industries are a plus.
• Exceptional team player with the confidence and integrity to earn client and internal team confidence quickly.
• Strategic thinker with strong analytical skills.
• Strong passion for and knowledge of technology and digital media, with specific knowledge in current and emerging web and mobile technologies and their relevance in the marketplace.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills including presentation-writing skills.
• Strong negotiation skills.
• Ability to thrive in a fluid and entrepreneurial environment.

Interested? Apply Now!

Account Director

Account Directors are directly accountable for revenue, delivery, sales, and operations support for a client portfolio.

Overall responsibilities include the following:

Client Relationship

• Establish consultative client relationships to guide client(s) in their digital strategies and ensure that Ratio Interactive solutions and methodology are used to best advantage
• Understand client’s business goals, pressures, and requirements; convey client’s needs to the internal team
• Represent the Ratio Interactive team’s proposed solutions to the client, persuading the client to redefine the problem or their approach as needed
• Navigate the client’s organization to reach decision-makers and expand Ratio Interactive’s footprint; gain access to stakeholders for other team leads as needed
• Serve as escalation point for client concerns or to discuss changes in strategy
• Decide which new business to pursue/accept or turn down, based on appropriateness for Ratio Interactive and “fit” with account strategy
• Lead the charge for innovation – work with experts on team to proactively bring ideas to the client and persuade client to engage

 
Team Leadership
Account-Wide:

• Establish overall team structure; work with team leads to ensure team is staffed appropriately
• Communicate role expectations to team leads and direct reports
• Share vision for the account and empower team leads to establish relationships with client
• Establish team culture – rules of the road for collaboration, communication, escalation
• Ensure that operations/processes are effective – financial, project delivery, cross-account management
• Provide coaching to team members to support team culture or correct issues
• Manage communications (internal and external) regarding key personnel change

Project/Program Level:

• Ensure that scopes of work are aligned with account strategy as well as client needs
• Ensure that scopes of work are specific and accurate; actively participate in development of scope descriptions and project plans for complex/strategic initiatives to develop SOWs
• Lend industry, client, and Digital/Mobile expertise to the execution  team, participating in major internal reviews  (focusing on project(s) that are most strategically important)
• Participate in major client presentations; ensure that the team is prepared with rationale to effectively “sell” the solution; consult clients on the decisions in front of them as needed
• Serve as point of escalation for issues that the team cannot resolve on their own

 
  QUALIFICATIONS

• 6-8+ years of relevant account management experience in a technology consulting, or interactive agency, focusing on project oversight/management for Digital/Mobile business solutions
• Bachelor’s degree required
• Strong client management skills – demonstrated success selling and delivering Digital/Mobile solutions to enterprise level brands
• Strong financial management skills – experience planning, creating, tracking and managing client financials in a service environment
• Strong project and team leadership skills
• Excellent communication (verbal and written) and negotiation skills
• Ability to lead and work across cross-capability teams
• Expert conflict resolution skills – creating calm out of chaos

Interested? Apply Now!

Scott Grogan – Front-end Developer

1. What’s your favorite way to wake up and what’s the first thing you do?

Early. With coffee, a cherry-almond scone, and an hour or two to read or work on a personal project before dealing with the rest of the world.

2. What’s the worst/most embarrassing CD/Album you’ve ever owned and do you still have it?

The soundtrack to Mortal Kombat the Movie, and hell yes I still have it. FIYAAAA BAAAAALL!

3. What did you want to be when you were little and do you think you ever will be?

I thought I’d be an animator, but I don’t have the patience to draw the same thing over and over again. Actually, I originally learned Flash for exactly that reason, and it led to this whole wide world of interactive development. It went better than expected.

4. What were you doing before you started this gig?

I was a front-end developer at Nordstrom. Ratio is definitely more my size.

5. What was your favorite toy as a child  . . .and now?

I spent a lot of time playing with Construx, which were like legos but with beams and hinges instead of bricks. Now I just hack around with my Arduino, or whatever random project sounds good at the time.

6. If you were an ice cream what would you be?

Cold.

7. If Ratio were to give you the day off, what would be your ideal way to spend that day?

Doing ridiculous experiments (ie. blowing things up) with the Mythbusters. You said ideal.

8. What’s your favorite app?

I use Flipboard on my iPhone all the time.

9. What’s your motto?

Every day: Make something; Learn something. I figure if I can live by that then I’ll do OK.

10. What is your favorite part about working for Ratio Interactive

The exercise program. The stairs to the office at the top of the building are going to get me back in fighting shape.

Ratio Featured on the Windows Store Homepage

Ratio is extremely proud to be a part of Microsoft’s long awaited Windows 8 launch today as we’ve powered over 20 apps now available in the app store.  It was almost exactly a year ago that Ratio made a conscious decision after attending the Microsoft Build Conference to invest heavily into building for Windows 8.  We saw that Microsoft  was building an OS from the ground up with design and user experience at its core and that excited us.  Today, Ratio is being featured on the Windows Store Homepage in a Video that highlights how we built for Windows 8, and more importantly WHY Ratio built for Windows 8.  Congratulations to Microsoft and all of our partners who have been with us on this journey, it’s only the beginning and we couldn’t be more thrilled!