Google Maps (Website) With the amount of information that Google Maps has available to display, they do a fairly good job of avoiding horror vacui. Google Maps keeps a good signal-to-noise ratio by following the 5 cartography design principles of strong visual contrast, legibility, figure-ground organization, hierarchical organization, and balance. Their use of strong contrast in giving city…
Entry 7
Replying in the Messenger App As Facebook strives to make its Messenger App the go-to all-inclusive application akin to WeChat, it has ended up becoming as bulky as a Swiss army knife – even in its basic chat and messaging functions. Messenger is a classic case of flexibility trade-off as features are given priority over efficiency and…
Entry 6
LinkedIn Layout There’s a growing consensus in the business world that a LinkedIn is a must-have even though there is still no definite statistical proof of its success. The fact that its user base is growing can be understood through the lens of the technology acceptance model. That is to say, a potential user looking to get hired created an account…
Entry 5
Joule by ChefSteps Who knew that the perfect steak involved vacuum-sealing, plastic bags, and Bluetooth? Once again, my ever so thrifty roommate bought another toy. Sous-vide is a cooking method in which one immerses a vacuum-sealed pouch into a temperature-controlled water bath for an extended period of time. In the case of Joule, it is…
Entry 4
Writing Chinese as a Second Language *In this entry’s context Chinese refers to the standard spoken form of modern Chinese (普通话), based on the Beijing dialect, and China refers to Mainland China excluding Hong Kong which uses Traditional Chinese In this day and age, Chinese is almost an essential language to learn. Chinese is by…
Entry 3
Amazon Echo Dot (Alexa) Help! My bedroom has a permanent corporate eavesdropper! Oh, my apologizes, Alexa, I meant to say personal, virtual assistant. Just this past semester, my roommate spontaneously purchased, as per usual, an Amazon Echo Dot and conveniently placed it in our bedroom. With this situation, I’ve been able to observe how my roommate interacts…
Entry 2
Google Inc. Clock App With an aggregate 4.2 star rating in the Google Play Store and 100-500 million downloads, this app packs a functional punch into a small, simple package. Interface Opening the app causes the user to immediately encounter a bold blue, white, and gray interface. Blue is the world’s most popular color and tends to…
Entry 1
The Oregon Trail Originally released in the 1970s, the survival, choose-your-own-adventure game simultaneously educated and entertained millions of elementary schoolers and has now become a cultural icon. In 2016, the game was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame, and deemed by Time Magazine as the 9th Best Video Game of All Time. Background The…
Craig Bossley 