6 Months Journey.

6 months ago, the engineering team and I were on a mission - to build our first mobile client, an search application for iPhone. We dream big. We don't want to rush something out, or settle only for something good enough. We want to build something matter, something we ourselves do want to use.

Every day was a baby step for us, engineers getting their hand wet with the programming language, guided by a newly hired iOS programmer. Me, myself start to explore the task of a project planner and product/UX designer.  

Brain storming, planning, benchmarking industry leaders, stealing ideas, saying yes and no to a long list of features, sketching wireframes and mockups, building prototypes, toss them off to the trash and start from scratch again. The cycle repeats till we had a solid vision of the final product. 

Moving things forward, and connecting the dots was the most challenging part of the project. To share the thought and describing the aesthetics goal with visual designers. To explain each screen transition, animation and UI decision with the engineers. To listen to their feedback, to admit that my idea sucks, and also to insist on what needed to be done.

The journey was bumpy, internal security team caught some critical bugs, the first application to the app store was rejected by Apple and many minor episodes. But luckily at the end of the day, we managed to pull the project off and had it on store in time for the holiday season.

The feeling was great, and we really think that we had something solid. And personally one of the best from Rakuten. Although the search engine is target on Japanese market, we did make the app international with English support. You can get the apps on the App Store worldwide. Please check it out here, or visit our website (only in Japanese)

**I was pretty helpless when getting the apps  programed except being a cheerleader to the engineers. Oh, ya! I did have a chance to code some CSS and they did shipped in the final products. At least some minor contribution. :)

And sorry readers if you are looking up for a photography post, NEXT post will come with pretty photos. Finger crossed!!



   

Design that changed the world

Judged from the title, I would think that this is an exhibition about futuristic design, something high tech that would change our world entirely. This is what I had imagine. Not until I read the description about it.

There is a world that we always tend to forget about. The world that still suffer a lot from poverty, clean water, food, electricity, education...everything we take for granted in a modern world. This is the word "world" meant in this particular exhibition. It all about how the power of design, to create some simple tools to tackle day to day problems faced by this people in underdeveloped countries.

A product that seem so ordinary, has the power to change the world.

The Jaipur leg also known as Jaipur Foot is a rubber-based prosthetic leg for people with below-knee amputations, produced under guidance of Dr. P. K . Sethi by Masterji Ram Chander in 1969 for victims of landmine explosions. (from wiki)

This is the laptop designed for the "One Laptop per Child" program. Their mission is - To create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. When children have access to this type of tool they get engaged in their own education. They learn, share, create, and collaborate. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.

The glasses on the left top is eyeglasses with easily adjustable, fluid-filled lenses, instead of requiring an optician, could be "tuned" by the wearer to correct his or her own vision. You can read more about it on Inventor's 2020 vision: to help 1bn of the world's poorest see better

Then there is the solar cooker, a device sunlight as the energy source for cooking outdoor. A piece of black board, the only learning equipment in a classroom. And some toys made from some recycled materials.

If you can read japanese, you can click on this link to find out more items displayed on the exhibition.

Finally: Refreshed Photo Portfolio

After one month of coding, trial and error. Finally, my new portfolio are ready to go public. All the design of the portfolio should be perfectly showed in modern web browser including chrome 5, safari 5, firefox 3.6 and even on the iPhone (sorry Adobe, no flash is used) !!!

This is the link http://bihongphotography.dotkoyi.net. Please check it out and I would like to hear from you how you think about the portfolio.

Would like to thank my friend koyi for hosting my site for free!! If you wonder why the site's url ended with "dotkoyi.net". And Cheyeong too for helping me out with the coding.

Hope you like it! Many thanks :-)