Company

Portfolio

Practice Area

Involution Principal announced as speaker at NextGen:Health, healthcare innovation conference

by Jon on February 2^nd, 2012 - Comments (0)

For Immediate Release 
NEW YORK, New York (U.S.) – February 2, 2012 – Involution Studios Creative Director Juhan Sonin was announced today as a featured speaker at the NextGen:Health, leaders in healthcare innovation conference.

At NextGen:Health, top innovators in healthcare will bring game-changing ideas to the forefront of the industry. The first day of the conference includes a series of short, engaging talks on everything from increasing patient well-being, to improving the experiences of the doctors and patients, to enabling better research and data sharing.

Sonin will be joining other notable speakers including Dr. Nicholas F. LaRusso, Director of the Center for Innovation at Mayo Clinic and Dr. Jay Parkinson of HelloHealth. Sonin will be presenting on the topic “Hacking Health: Designing for and Understanding Your Health”.

“We’re excited to have Juhan speaking about designing your health at the NextGen:Health conference. His talks are inspiring and entertaining and I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us this year,” said Andrew Zimmerman, MD, co-founder of NextGen:Health.

Sonin is a nationally recognized expert in design for health and wellness. In addition to leading the HIMSS Mobile Health Design Workgroup, he has also provided consultation for the US Dept of Health and Human Services on the design of Medicare.gov and national health IDs, and co-designed Project Laika, the open source data interoperability service used in CCHIT’s EHR certification.

“I’m looking forward to speaking at NextGen:Health and honored to be part of the event,” Sonin said. “Some of the most influential and innovative thinkers in the field will be participating in the conference. As citizens of this country, and of the world, we’re really obligated to take a serious look at the way health and healthcare are provided and consumed. Understanding your own health and being able to design the experience to best serve your specific needs, is critical to providing people with better outcomes.”

The conference is set for March 29-30, 2012 in New York City at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. For more information please visit www.nextgenhealth.com.

About Involution Studios  
Involution designs and builds exceptional apps for innovative and visionary companies. We deploy small and experienced teams to create software that is highly usable and appropriately beautiful. Our client list includes Apple, AstraZeneca, McAfee, Microsoft, Oracle, PayPal, Shutterfly, and Yahoo. For more information please contact info@goinvo.com or +1 617 803 7043.

Tagged Design, health, healthcare, UX

The UI is the Hero

by Jon on January 26^th, 2012 - Comments (0)

Is the age of ubiquitous computing is upon us? We may not be living yet in William Gibson’s plugged-in future, but there’s no doubt that we’re absolutely dependent on the digital realm. From tablets to smart phones to laptops to car navigation systems, we always seem to be connected. The digital life is everywhere we go, and software is our intermediary between physical reality and the bits and bytes. Over the past two years, the massive rise in popularity of mobile devices has changed the frequency, duration, and level of engagement of our digital existence. No longer is digital interaction reserved for those specific times when we huddle around the glow of desktop monitors. Mobile has made software integral to and embedded within people’s lives, but the convenience and pervasiveness of mobile computing is only part of the story.

People’s attitudes towards software are changing, as are their expectations about how it should work. It is commonly accepted that our day-to-day reality is infused with the digital, and this connected lifestyle has reached far beyond the world of knowledge workers and other geeks. This is a seismic shift in our total cultural conception of computing.

Software is part of the continuous thread of our lives now, and more and more, the user interface defines how we interact. Software’s ascendency in the public mind is clearly reflected in, of all things, our television advertisements, which gives us a view of the digital zeitgeist. Aside from the many advertisements for the iPhone, iPad, and various Android devices that dominate the airwaves, there is more interesting and telling evidence. One example in particular can be found in the television ads of two financial services companies, who, in a fist fight for new accounts, have turned, not to a celebrity or executive spokesperson to entice stock traders to register for their system but to the user interface of their trading software. Both Fidelity and E*trade have recently promoted their professional style trading systems with ads touting the quick response, ease of use, and information visualization capabilities of their platforms. In these ads, the narrator is secondary to the sleek curves of the UI chrome and the flowing lines of the live charts and graphs.

But strangely enough, it’s this Michelob commercial that illustrates just how deeply computer interactions have embedded themselves into our consciousness. In the advertisement, a man goes through the activities of his day, using the gestures normally associated with a tablet interface to move items, transform his surroundings, and generally improve his life. While I’ve never tried gesturing with my hand in the hopes that I could magically move objects out of the way, there are many times I’ve caught myself half expecting an “undo” option in the real world.

As digital products continue to grow in popularity, and ease of use, beauty, and usefulness have become increasingly important, the software user interface has become the key element and product differentiator. The sophistication of the average consumer is growing, and in this new understanding of software the user interface is the hero. For digital product designers, then, our opportunities are many, but our work is definitely cut out for us.

Tagged iPad, iphone, software design, ui, user experience

SOPA, Job Innovation, and Creativity in Isolation

by Jon on January 16^th, 2012
Comments (0)

Here’s what we’re reading online, this week at Involution, on design, tech, and the digital life, in our links round up.

SOPA: Anatomy of a Public Uprising
As most of us of are aware, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) […]

A 2012 Invo Preview

by Jon on January 5^th, 2012
Comments (0)

Happy new year! Two thousand and twelve is going to be big here at Involution Studios. We’re excited, not only by the software we’re designing and building for our clients, but also by an internal project, that, after months of […]

Involution Principal announced as speaker at HIMSS12, healthcare and technology conference

by Jon on November 18^th, 2011
Comments (0)

For Immediate Release
LAS VEGAS, Nevada (U.S.) – November 18, 2011 – Involution Studios Creative Director Juhan Sonin was announced today as a featured speaker at the HIMSS12, healthcare and technology conference. The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), […]

Laptop Music, Kinected Hacking, and Supply Chain Design

by Jon on November 9^th, 2011
Comments (0)

Here’s what we’re reading online, this week at Involution, on design, tech, and the digital life, in our links round up.

If You Make Sure You’re Kinected, the Xbox is on the Wall
Last week, Microsoft’s Kinect turned one year […]

Software Design is a Team Sport

by Jon on November 4^th, 2011
Comments (1)

I’m a big Boston sports nut. And, as cliched as the sports metaphor may be for discussions on teamwork, there are lessons to be learned from the collapse of the Red Sox, which was the worst in baseball history and […]

What’s Next?

by Dirk on October 6^th, 2011
Comments (1)

As countless, near-identical Steve Jobs obituaries spew out of the blogosphere/Twitterverse today, let’s honour his contribution by doing what he did best: anticipating at what will be next…

As Robert Fabricant eloquently wrote in a recent Fast Company […]

Dahl joins Involution as Director of Design Strategy

by Dirk on September 22^nd, 2011
Comments (0)

For Immediate Release
ARLINGTON, MA (U.S.) – September 22, 2011 – Erik Dahl joined Involution Studios this week as Director of Design Strategy. Based in Columbus, Ohio, Dahl will spearhead development of Involution’s Design Strategy and Research practices as […]

The New Age of Software

by Jon on September 4^th, 2011
Comments (0)

Last month Marc Andreessen published a significant essay in the Wall Street Journal, outlining the many ways in which software has become not just important to our world, but the critical guts and infrastructure of it. Andreessen is, of […]

Cloud Co-opetition, Hurricane Irene Infovis, and Nokia’s New Design Emphasis

by Jon on September 3^rd, 2011
Comments (0)

Here’s what we’re reading online, this week at Involution, on design, tech, and the digital life, in our links round up.

Visualizing Irene
For those of us on the Eastern seaboard of the United States, last week was quite a […]

Authenticity and the digital life

by Dirk on September 2^nd, 2011
Comments (0)

The “It’s (so-and-so’s) birthday” feature on Facebook is simultaneously one of the best and worst examples of how social networks can impact our digital lives. Best, in that it lets us know when something important and personal is happening to […]

From the Archives – Working Virtually

by Jon on August 28^th, 2011
Comments (0)

In this blog feature, we highlight articles from the past, written by our Invo colleagues that have stood the harsh test of Internet time and still have something to say to us today.

Four years ago, I wrote two pieces […]

Wearable Health Tech, Beautiful Subway Stations, and Democratizing Data Analysis

by Jon on August 27^th, 2011
Comments (0)

Here’s what we’re reading online, this week at Involution, on design, tech, and the digital life, in our links round up.

Health Tech: Wearing Your Heart on Your Sleeve (or Maybe Your Arm)
It won’t be long before the walk-in […]

Car Sharing, Comic Book Art, and Intellectual Jazz

by Jon on August 21^st, 2011
Comments (1)

Here’s what we’re reading online, this week at Involution, on design, tech, and the digital life, in our links round up.

Better off TED?
Richard Saul Wurman is re-inventing the conference format for the 21st century with his follow up […]

On Open Work Spaces

by Jon on August 20^th, 2011
Comments (1)

The space in which we work defines us, both as individuals and as teams. Sometimes we’re unaware of how important our office environment is, but the fact remains that it’s key to our every day mental health and our ability […]

On Talent, War, and Devastation

by Jon on August 12^th, 2011
Comments (1)

Ever since the U.S. started on its long road to recovery from the Great Recession and tech companies began expanding the ranks of their employees again, there’s been a dearth of talent to choose from, especially those most important senior […]

Console Game Memories, Low Cost Internet, and Facial Recognition

by Jon on August 10^th, 2011
Comments (0)

Here’s what we’re reading online, this week at Involution, on design, tech, and the digital life, in our links round up.

The History of the Game Console
If you were a console gamer back when it all began in […]

Visualizing Data

by Jon on August 4^th, 2011
Comments (1)

In this age of ubiquitous information, knowledge workers and organizations can be overwhelmed, even paralyzed by the mass of data presented to them daily, unable to make sense of it all. Our ability to collect data has increased exponentially as […]

The Trouble with Tracking

by Dirk on August 3^rd, 2011
Comments (0)

I’ve had a few brushes recently with different tracking technology deployed in automobiles used by professionals. When the Geek Squad came by to help with printer problems, the tech explained that his company-provided car has a tracking device that logs […]

Boston Talent Wars, iPhone Facial Recognition, and Freedom of Tweets

by Jon on August 3^rd, 2011
Comments (0)

Here’s what we’re reading online, this week at Involution, on design, tech, and the digital life, in our links round up.

Tech Talent Wars: Boston
The Talent Wars are heating up in Boston, as tech companies of every kind, from […]

Pushing Pixels and Carving Bits

by Jon on July 28^th, 2011
Comments (0)

At Involution, our software design methodology approximates that of the industrial design process: Designers take an overall, system wide view of the product, and are responsible for specifying, as much as possible, the final form and function. This means that, […]

Technology, Health, and Our Memory of Art in the Internet Age

by Jon on July 27^th, 2011
Comments (0)

Here’s what we’re reading online, this week at Involution, on design, tech, and the digital life, in our links round up.

The Therapeutic Touch of the iPad
The iPad may be the most important new computing device since the PC, […]

Practical Tips for Producing a Professional Podcast

by Jon on July 21^st, 2011
Comments (0)

As an experienced musician and occasional audio engineer, I was excited by the prospect of producing The Digital Life, a podcast on design and technology, which is sponsored by Involution Studios. Over nearly a year of production, we’ve learned […]

Lion Roars, Google Labs Shuts its Doors, and Math Gets a New UI

by Jon on July 20^th, 2011
Comments (0)

Here’s what we’re reading online, this week at Involution, on design, tech, and the digital life, in our links round up.

Lion Roars
Apple launched the latest version of their ground breaking OS X operating system today with a host […]

Five Reasons to Sketch Your User Interface

by Jon on July 14^th, 2011
Comments (2)

At Involution, when we design software, we draw upon a process akin to industrial design, where—after we engage in an initial product architecture to understand the feature grouping, flow, and functionality—the next step is often sketching.

If you haven’t […]

Facebook Domination, Driving Distracted, and NASA TV

by Jon on July 13^th, 2011
Comments (0)

Here’s what we’re reading online, this week at Involution, on design, tech, and the digital life, in our links round up.

Facebook Closes the Door on User Data
Facebook is racing to shore up the walls of its garden, […]

Seven and Seven: A Look Back on Involution’s History

by Jon on July 7^th, 2011
Comments (1)

Last week Involution Studios celebrated seven years in business. We’ve had a bunch of highs, a handful of lows, and a whole lot of fun in that time. We’ve had amazing employees, partners and clients, and even as another recession […]

Design Lessons, Home Health, and Killing the RFP

by Jon on July 6^th, 2011
Comments (0)

Here’s what we’re reading online, this week at Involution, on design, tech, and the digital life, in our links round up.

Death to RFPs
A List Apart has a great article on why RFPs are no way to hire […]

Where are you, Edward Tufte?

by Jon on July 1^st, 2011
Comments (0)

On Tuesday, Involution Studios Creative Director, Juhan Sonin challenged infovis guru Edward Tufte to engage more fully in the discussion regarding our nation’s greatest problems, including education, energy, finance, and health, among others, during a segment on The […]

Talent Wars, Typography, and Standing Up

by Jon on June 30^th, 2011
Comments (0)

Here’s what we’re reading online, this week at Involution, on design, tech, and the digital life, in our third links round up.

The Hiring Wars
The tech talent crunch, especially in Silicon Valley, is leading to all sorts of crazy […]

From the Archives – Applied Empathy

by Jon on June 23^rd, 2011
Comments (0)

At Involution, over the years, we’ve been lucky enough to count among our team a number of designers and strategists who are also industry thought leaders. In this new and regular blog feature, “From the Archives”, we’ll highlight articles from […]

Gesturing Towards the Future

by Jon on June 22^nd, 2011
Comments (0)

This week, our links round up on design and innovation in the digital life features a little something for everyone: from the future of gestural interactions to a ground breaking transparent concept plane to J.K. Rowling’s latest online endeavors. […]

The Digital Life Turns 30

by Jon on June 17^th, 2011
Comments (0)

For the past 10 months, Involution Studios has been producing The Digital Life podcast on digital design and technology. We’re proud to say today that we’ve achieved a significant milestone: Episode 30. The Digital Life has now reached adulthood […]

Law and Order and Social Media

by Jon on June 16^th, 2011
Comments (0)

At Involution, since we’re fully immersed in the digital life, we’re often deluged with articles via RSS and Twitter. In this, our first links round up, we thought we’d share some of what we’ve been reading online on the topics […]

Planting seeds and tilling soil

by Dirk on June 10^th, 2011
Comments (5)

Jared Spool delights in being provocative. Listen: I like provocative. Much of the way people frame our professional world is outdated or out-of-touch. It takes provocateurs to get most of us to look in a different direction and consider new […]

Involution client Raptr featured on TechCrunch

by Dirk on May 26^th, 2011
Comments (0)

For Immediate Release
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA (U.S.) – May 26, 2011 – Raptr, the only online platform that allows gamers to share, interact, and discover personalized gaming content across all major gaming platforms and IM services, was featured on […]

Considering Transhumanism

by Dirk on May 15^th, 2011
Comments (4)

This weekend I attended the Humanity+ Conference at Parsons in New York City. Subtitled “Transhumanism Meets Design”, the conference aspired to “explor(e) emerging technology, transdisciplinary design, culture and media theory, and biotech.”

My exposure to transhumanism was […]

Involution principal a “Respected Advisor” to NextGen:Health

by Dirk on April 19^th, 2011
Comments (0)

For Immediate Release
NEW YORK CITY (U.S.) – April 19, 2011 – Involution Studios Creative Director Juhan Sonin was announced today as one of just 11 Respect Advisors for the NextGen:Health Conference. Scheduled for February 2012, NextGen:Health aspires to bring […]

Get immersed in African tech opportunities

by Dirk on April 8^th, 2011
Comments (0)

If you enjoyed our recent series on tech in Africa you might be interested in actually checking the situation out, on the ground, with the foremost tech experts on the continent.

Muchiri and Niti have put together a fantastic Africa […]

Investing in Africa: challenges and constraints

by Dirk on March 30^th, 2011
Comments (0)

This series on technology in Africa is written by Involution friends and emerging markets experts Niti Bhan and Muchiri Nyaggah.

Imagine counting kilobytes while surfing the web. Or keeping track of how much data capacity you have left for essential […]

Involution principal to present workshop for incubator

by Dirk on March 29^th, 2011
Comments (0)

For Immediate Release
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (U.S.) – March 29, 2011 – Involution Studios Creative Director Juhan Sonin will present his celebrated Design Axioms workshop on April 6, 2011 at 4 PM at MassChallenge, the Boston start-up incubator. Sonin’s Design […]

Software in Africa: more, better, different

by Dirk on March 25^th, 2011
Comments (0)

This series on technology in Africa is written by Involution friends and emerging markets experts Niti Bhan and Muchiri Nyaggah.

It may come as a surprise that great software has been coming out of Africa for some time. By 2007, […]

Mobile in Africa: from SMS to Android

by Dirk on March 16^th, 2011
Comments (3)

This series on technology in Africa is written by Involution friends and emerging markets experts Niti Bhan and Muchiri Nyaggah.

It wasn’t so long ago that if you wanted to post a letter from Ghana, a former British colony, to […]

Challenges present opportunities: innovation in Africa

by Dirk on March 8^th, 2011
Comments (0)

This series on technology in Africa is written by Involution friends and emerging markets experts Niti Bhan and Muchiri Nyaggah.

Early last week, rolling blackouts across most of Nairobi interrupted daily life for the better part of two days. Intrepid […]

From OLPC to VC: Africa leapfrogs the digital divide

by Dirk on March 1^st, 2011
Comments (0)

This series on technology in Africa is written by Involution friends and emerging markets experts Niti Bhan and Muchiri Nyaggah.

I reach out
Gather the dust in my hands
Let it sift through my fingers slowly
It […]

Get over it: Silicon Valley remains the international capitol of software

by Dirk on February 24^th, 2011
Comments (0)

I’m in the midst of a four week trip to downtown Venice in Santa Monica, a little enclave amidst the commercialism and sterility in this little part of the world. While driving down Wilshire the other day something inescapable hit […]

Africa: The Next Frontier

by Dirk on February 22^nd, 2011
Comments (1)

This series on technology in Africa is written by Involution friends and emerging markets experts Niti Bhan and Muchiri Nyaggah.

2011 is the Year of Africa

The Economist kicked off 2011 with an in-depth look at the latest reports […]

Check out our fresh Boston digs!

by Dirk on February 12^th, 2011
Comments (3)

Involution Studios Boston is located in Arlington, MA on Mass. Ave., in what was formerly the city’s grand ballroom. When we took it over in late 2008 it was a pilates studio with wild green-and-blue paint and fixtures, along with […]

Facebook Game Design is an embarrassment

by Dirk on February 9^th, 2011
Comments (3)

After a conversation on The Digital Life with Brenda Brathwaite and Soren Johnson about “Social Game Design”, it became clear that I needed to get to know Facebook Games better and see if there was more there than I […]

Involution Principal Juhan Sonin announced as featured speaker at TTI Vanguard Design as Strategy Conference

by Dirk on January 28^th, 2011
Comments (0)

For Immediate Release
LOS ANGELES, CA (U.S.) – January 27, 2011 – Involution Studios Creative Director Juhan Sonin was announced today as a featured speaker at the TTI Vanguard Design as Strategy Conference. Joining other thought leaders such as Frank […]

The Digital Life – out of the nest!

by Dirk on January 12^th, 2011
Comments (0)

Today we launched our new website for The Digital Life show – which is where you will find the latest episode, as well as all future episodes. Bookmark it:

www.thedigitalife.com

TDL – Episode 7

by Dirk on December 22^nd, 2010
Comments (0)

Year-End Spectacular. Special guest Juhan Sonin. Bull Session and It’s News to Me.

[powerpress]
RSS
Subscribe on iTunes

Links to topics mentioned in this podcast:

It’s News to Me
Mark Zuckerberg is Time Magazine’s 2010 Person […]

TDL – Episode 6

by Dirk on December 9^th, 2010
Comments (1)

Social Game Design. Special guests Brenda Brathwaite and Soren Johnson. Bull Session and It’s News to Me.

[powerpress]
RSS
Subscribe on iTunes

Links to topics mentioned in this podcast:

Opening Segment
Patriots vs. Jets game
[…]

TDL – Episode 5

by Dirk on November 23^rd, 2010
Comments (0)

“Design Thinking”. Special guests Michael Dila and Peter Merholz. Face-Off and It’s News to Me.

[powerpress]
RSS
Subscribe on iTunes

Links to topics mentioned in this podcast:

Opening Segment
Design Thinking

It’s News to Me
[…]

TDL – Episode 4

by Dirk on November 10^th, 2010
Comments (0)

Mobile and the Future of Computing. Special guests Jim Leftwich and Luke Wroblewski (LukeW). Bull Session and It’s News to Me.

[powerpress]
RSS
Subscribe on iTunes

Links to topics mentioned in this podcast:

Opening Segment
Design […]

Someday soon, your OS and browser will be the same thing

by Dirk on November 10^th, 2010
Comments (0)

This week’s much-ballyhoed launch of RockMelt is again getting the tech intelligentsia in a lather about a potential new browser. What they seem to be ignoring is that the battle has already been won and lost: the best case […]

Knowledge comes from depth, not breadth

by Dirk on November 3^rd, 2010
Comments (0)

What search engines do best is immediately give us lots of scattershot information. It may be relevant, or it may not. It may be timely, or it may not. It may be useful, or it may not. While search engines […]

TDL – Episode 3

by Dirk on October 27^th, 2010
Comments (1)

Reviews of the iPad, GoWear Fit and Dropbox. Special guest Juhan Sonin. Segments include: It’s News to Me, FTW/WTF, Live From…

[powerpress]
RSS
Subscribe on iTunes

Links to topics mentioned in this podcast:

It’s News to Me
[…]

The Digital Life – Episode 2

by Dirk on October 14^th, 2010
Comments (1)

This week’s theme is Games and Learning.

[powerpress]
RSS
Subscribe on iTunes

Links to topics mentioned in this podcast:

Opening Segment
Involution Studios Boston
Rhode Island School of Design
Harmonix Music […]

Welcome Anne Hjortshoj to Involution

by Juhan on October 8^th, 2010
Comments (0)

Raising the management bar for Design

Anne is Involution’s new product manager focused on bridging all of strategy, design and project management. Introducing the product manager position represents a major step forward for the studio. Anne will support […]

How the Internet made fantasy football stoopid

by Dirk on September 27^th, 2010
Comments (0)

It is with no small bit of wonder that I recently realized my participation in fantasy sports began 20 years ago, in 1991. Originally “Rotisserie Baseball“, within a couple of years I was also playing fantasy football and […]

The Digital Life – Episode 1

by Dirk on September 22^nd, 2010
Comments (3)

We are proud to present our first – prototype! – episode of The Digital Life: adventures in design and technology.

[powerpress]
RSS
Subscribe on iTunes

The purpose of the show is to provide insight into various […]

Business and treating others with humanity belong together

by Dirk on September 20^th, 2010
Comments (0)

I’m perplexed how common inhumane customer service is among large companies. While I’m raising the issue to generally encourage people to design their systems and policies to be human-friendly there are two specific contexts that compelled me to write this […]

Plugging in means exposing yourself

by Dirk on September 15^th, 2010
Comments (1)

The widely-circulated story today that Google fired an employee for reviewing the “private” files and information of users, and even harassed a user based on their “private” information might seem shocking, but it’s really only illustrating something that those […]

Community vs. Connection

by Dirk on September 15^th, 2010
Comments (0)

Remember Classmates.com? Arguably the first-ever social networking website it “connected” each of us to the people we went to school with over the years. Plagued by clumsy and poorly executed “Web 1.0″ thinking, and an absolutely atrocious pay-to-play business […]

A new era of IT consolidation?

by Dirk on September 13^th, 2010
Comments (0)

I don’t use the moniker “IT” very often, typically only to talk about the internal stuff at my company that has to do with computing technology in the vaguest way. Under “IT” falls our hardware and software that runs the […]

Point n’ click, bon voyage!

by Eric on August 30^th, 2010
Comments (0)

I recently returned from a 2 week vacation and my source of digital consumption was with my iPhone or iPad. So for 2 weeks I was only using a touchscreen – and digging it.

Once I settled in back home […]

Implications of a “desktop iPad”

by Dirk on August 24^th, 2010
Comments (0)

The press is reporting today on a patent filed in January by Apple for what amounts to a “convertible” iMac – Apple’s line of large screen all-in-one desktop computers – that also functions as a giant desktop iPad. […]

Losing faith in “UX”

by Dirk on August 3^rd, 2010
Comments (30)

I’ve been slowly backing away from the field of “user experience” for some years now. More and more, I’m beginning to think it is time that I turn my slow retreat into a full-fledged race to the hills. This evening […]

The end of the mouse

by Dirk on July 27^th, 2010
Comments (4)

Leave it to Apple to turn speculation of the future obsolescence of the mouse as a computing input device into present reality. Today Apple launched the Magic Trackpad, a mouse replacement that accomplishes all of the input interactions […]

Involution client Raptr leaves Beta to rave reviews

by Dirk on July 21^st, 2010
Comments (0)

Raptr, an online gaming service that Involution helped conceptualize, design and develop in 2007 and 2008, formally removed its Beta tag this week. The brainchild of gaming superstar Dennis Fong, Raptr is an aspirant “Facebook for gamers”. With over 1 […]

Crowdsourcing creative = cannibalism

by Dirk on July 21^st, 2010
Comments (2)

There are a lot of interesting things happening around crowdsourcing, many of which intuitively seem really good. Companies like Jovoto and Genius Rocket are serving as global connectors of people who want work done with people who are […]

Apple’s real iPhone vulnerability

by Dirk on July 15^th, 2010
Comments (0)

Today the Droid X was released, Android’s latest salvo in the smartphone wars.

I’m taking an interest in Android phones because, as an iPhone user, I’ve been waiting for them to put the white version of the iPhone 4 […]

Google App Inventor: an interesting little app

by Dirk on July 13^th, 2010
Comments (0)

Unveiled yesterday, Google App Inventor aspires to provide everyday people – extensively tested with sixth graders – to easily build their own Android apps using a relatively simple WYSIWYG editor. The interaction model appears based on LEGO toys, taking […]

App design: the shiny new toy for “web” and “user experience” designers

by Dirk on July 13^th, 2010
Comments (1)

It is no surprise that web design companies are desperately trying to get into application design. Web design as a business is highly commodified with small margins and a crowded competitive landscape. Even the top early providers are watching their […]

Involution absorbs Boston company Hot Knife Design

by Dirk on July 1^st, 2010
Comments (0)

For Immediate Release
ARLINGTON, MA (U.S.) – July 1, 2010 – Involution today announced that it had absorbed Boston design firm Hot Knife Design, Inc.

“Jon Follett has successfully built a web design company that is among the first-choice providers […]

Open vs. Closed: A tale of idealists vs. realists

by Dirk on May 13^th, 2010
Comments (3)

Today Adobe launched an aggressive ad campaign skewering Apple’s “closed” philosophy. Retaliation for Apple’s muscling Adobe’s Flash technology off their mobile operating system, Adobe is choosing to take a “high ground” argument by ignoring their specific exclusion and focusing instead on the closed ecosystem Apple prefers.

Apple and Microsoft Need a Love Child: the real future of portable computing

by Dirk on April 5^th, 2010
Comments (0)

I’m one of the fortunate few who has had the opportunity to use both a Microsoft Surface and an Apple iPad. While both are “magical” and “revolutionary” devices in their own unique and incomplete ways, I’m struck by the fact that both of them remind me of the only Palm device I ever had, back in 2003: a novelty that did some things well but most things poorly, and ultimately left me ignoring it in its charger.

Facebook’s ascension reflects general ignorance of the web today

by Dirk on March 17^th, 2010
Comments (0)

For the week ending March 13, 2010, and for the first time in its spectacular ascendancy, Facebook became the most visited site on the Internet. Already, analysts and experts are hailing this as a momentous event, one that validates the power of social networking in the rapidly evolving universe of the World Wide Web.

A Most Unholy Testament: The Crusade of Patient-Centered Design

by Dirk on March 8^th, 2010
Comments (0)

Doctors were once the high priests of health,
oracles whose absolution has diminished.
Now, the gospel of patients is preached.
“Patient centered design”, being flocked to by the masses.
But our path to salvation cannot run through
these seductive false gods and prophets.
The heresy of “user-centered design”
reached digital design decades ago.
At first it seemed enlightened
but rarely did great software come forth.

The Rise of Google, Part III: A decade of leadership awaits

by Dirk on March 3^rd, 2010
Comments (3)

At the dawn of this new decade, Google sits comfortably atop the computing industry. Dominant in search – still the killer app of the Internet, with all due respect to social networking – Google has a variety of other essential and emerging products that put them at the very pinnacle of software.

Where is technology taking us?

by Dirk on March 2^nd, 2010
Comments (0)

Over the last few years the Internet has become an integral part of the lives of a majority of people in the United States. Important to that sentence is integral: while the Internet became a central engine to business well over a decade ago, for huge groups of people – children and adolescents, retirees, houseparents – it is only through the rise of mainstream social networking that we have truly become what could be termed a full-time computing nation.

The Rise of Google, Part II: From start-up to superpower

by Dirk on February 15^th, 2010
Comments (2)

With apologies to Apple and Microsoft, Google is the most important company in computing. Their rise over the past decade has been meteoric: from a struggling start-up operating out of a small office in downtown Palo Alto, […]

Involution-designed McAfee 2010 product suites released

by Dirk on February 7^th, 2010
Comments (0)

McAfee, Inc., the world’s largest dedicated security technology company released their 2010 suite of consumer products today, designed from the ground-up by Involution Studios.

The Apple “tablet”: what to expect

by Dirk on January 25^th, 2010
Comments (0)

Tomorrow is the expected announcement of the new Apple “tablet” computer. Predictions for this device are all over the map, ranging from a “true” tablet computer, down to an oversized iPhone, and everything in between. I don’t have any inside […]

Involution principal speaking at mobile health conference

by Dirk on January 13^th, 2010
Comments (0)

Juhan Sonin, Creative Director of Involution Studios Boston, will be speaking on Thursday February 4 at the mHealth Networking Conference in Washington, D.C. His presentation, Health Everyware, is based on more than five years of experience envisioning and designing a system and artifacts around next-generation health care.

The Rise of Google, Part I: A history lesson

by Dirk on January 12^th, 2010
Comments (1)

This is part one of a three-part series that will detail Google’s rise to becoming the dominant company in the computing industry. Part one will review the history of IBM and Microsoft, Google’s predecessors in this position; part two will […]

System engineering should be integral to the design of your applications

by Dirk on December 28^th, 2009
Comments (0)

Not much surprises me anymore. After more than a decade spent providing boutique services, followed by the last 6 or so years strictly in software, I’ve really earned the increase in grey hairs on my face and head. However, one […]

The trouble with Twitter

by Dirk on December 18^th, 2009
Comments (0)

This week, embattled R&B artist Chris Brown closed his Twitter account after a profanity-laced tirade. This makes Brown just the latest public figure to have an embarrassing meltdown and then abashedly terminate their account on the social networking giant.

At […]

Keep online surveys short

by Dirk on November 13^th, 2009
Comments (0)

Online surveys are one of the most commonly-used feedback mechanisms for businesses. And it’s no wonder: they are cheap to create, deploy, tabulate, report and share. They provide a degree of insight into how customers think and feel about your […]

Why mobile is magical

by Dirk on October 27^th, 2009
Comments (0)

Most of our customers are relatively sophisticated with technology. They either own tech start-ups or are in a role where they are involved in the software, website, IT, digital marketing or some other type of technology within their company. Not […]

Your software is going to take longer than you think

by Dirk on October 20^th, 2009
Comments (0)

Sorry to burst your bubble and scuttle your budgets of time and money. It’s true. I’ve seen it dozens of times: clients come to us saying something has to has to has to be shipped in 12 weeks. We tell […]

Adrift in a ubicomp world

by Dirk on October 12^th, 2009
Comments (0)

It is generally accepted among the design intelligentsia that Apple is designing better software and hardware than pretty much everybody else in the core areas they choose to play. Yet there is one area where they have notably failed – […]

Involution Studios leads redesign of the McAfee Total Protection suite, recently released to Beta

by Dirk on September 10^th, 2009
Comments (0)

Involution Studios today announced the successful Beta release of the completely redesigned McAfee Total Protection suite. McAfee Inc, the world’s largest dedicated security technology company, selected Involution Studios as their external partner on the project.

Involution to host free industry event for Boston community

by Dirk on February 6^th, 2009
Comments (0)

Involution Studios, a software design consultancy headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, announced they will host a free industry event in their Boston-area studio later this month. Titled “Sex, Money & Storytelling,” the event features the talent of industry luminaries Kevin Brooks and Whitney Quesenbery, who are writing a book on storytelling for user experience publishing house Rosenfeld Media. It is scheduled for Saturday February 28 from 10 to noon at Involution’s downtown Arlington studio location.

Involution Studios We design & build exceptional apps.

Company

Portfolio

Practice Area

Raising the management bar for Design