I woke up to my phone buzzing at 2am with emails from our London office sharing the news, we’d been announced as Adweek’s digital agency of the year. I’ve only been with AKQA for 8 months, but this is a fantastic gift, and I’m truly proud to be a part of this family.
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/agency-year-akqa-137015
I’ve been working on something for a long time, and finally got around to making it happen.
Freshly is a way to find out what farmers’ market is near you, open, now. It’s driven by trying to remember when the markets are open, and where they are on which days. I wanted something that would keep me out of the supermarket when I just wanted to pick something up on the way home.
I’ve started with three cities I know well, New York, Toronto, and San Francisco. All the market information has been gathered by me now, but future markets can be added by anyone. At a glance you can see the markets nearby, and show what’s open now, tomorrow, or in the next week.
In the immediate future as I beta test, I want to get Freshly mobile optimized, then start expanding the offering including showing what’s in season at each market, and hopefully getting to the point where the farmers’ who will be at a market can show what they’re bringing that day. I’m very happy to have got to this point, thanks to the developer Chris Casciano.
Sign up and I’ll let you know when you can use Freshly www.shopfreshly.com
There was a post this morning by Dave Winer regarding the google results on an iPad. He thinks it’s bad design because Google changes the results layout, optimizing for tablet and providing less content.
His thoughts here: Google search on iPad is bad design.
While some of the points he makes are valid, I have to disagree with the closing statement.
Designers really need to hear the following, loud and clear: The iPad browser is fully capable. It doesn’t need you to treat it differently. You’re fighting with users when you get fancy. Just stick with what works on the desktop. And if you must screw around, then make the opt-out obvious and painless.
The iPad browser is fantastic, it works well, often better than my desktop browser. I agree that changing content often doesn’t make sense in an iPad browser, but this isn’t one of those cases.
Look at the above comparison. I get Mr. Winer’s point about the whitespace, it could be reduced to get an extra result on the page. What doesn’t work though, is the way a tablet screen is intended to be used, tapping without worrying about what else you’ll hit. On the tablet optimized version, each link is clearly on it’s own, no ambiguity about what will be tapped. Can you zoom in on the default results and get a larger hit state? Of course, but you’re adding another step to the interaction. Zooming isn’t a great experience to be default, it’s a step around sites that haven’t been designed for tablet or touch.
Besides the tapping, I actually prefer the secondary functions tucked away, making a more clear layout with the results the most important part of the page. This is a return to the simplicity that made Google famous, getting to the point quickly.
This house is so beautiful, it makes me question city-living. I particularly love that wood panel bar.
This is the notebook of Michael Farley, Associate Creative Director at AKQA NY. This is where I write things I think about design and mobile. This is all my blog, and anything I say here is more than likely my own opinion, I don't know anyone who agrees with me.
I rarely write, I'm too busy with the three things I've created. The first was hello, burrow!, followed by a little girl named Maddie, and my latest, freshly. I love reading email, so get at me.
