My first and unfounded reaction to this concept was, “REALLY?”
Continue reading “Whirlpool Ships First Robotic Chef for Mass Market”
Year: 2015
Altia Sees Surge in Use of Freescale Vybrid for Medical Applications
Altia’s GUI Development Software Offers Unique Capabilities to Leverage On-Chip Resources
From laboratory instruments to personal medical devices to hospital equipment, use of Freescale Vybrid has surged onto the embedded medical device landscape lately. Altia has had a solution for Vybrid since before the target was publicly available, so it’s a natural choice for those looking to put GUIs into a Vybrid-based product. However, recent activity has been far greater than in previous years.
Continue reading “Altia Sees Surge in Use of Freescale Vybrid for Medical Applications”
3 UX Design Principles You Need to Forget
Modern technology evolves at a rate that is difficult to comprehend, and successful designers and developers must remain hyper-vigilant in order to keep up with the latest trends and advances in UX, but even the best of us occasionally “miss the memo”.
This list of outdated UX design principles will help you determine whether your current design is where it should be and how to fix it if it isn’t.
Continue reading “3 UX Design Principles You Need to Forget”
Future-Proof Your UI Design Using These 5 Rules
We’ve all seen what an outdated UI looks like. In some cases, the technology has simply far outpaced the old design. In other cases, however, it’s the design itself that is behind the times.
Whether it’s an old trend or an outmoded style choice, these old-fashioned UIs stick out like sore thumbs. However, there are other products or equipment with UI designs that maintain high usability and functionality despite being much older.
What gives these UIs staying power? Continue reading “Future-Proof Your UI Design Using These 5 Rules “
4 Fundamental Rules for Building Valuable User Personas
Building valuable user personas is no easy task. Designers and developers must first understand the fundamental process and know what to look for as they create customer persona dossiers.
Follow these 4 unbreakable rules to maximize the power of your persona.
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Understand your audience
In order to build an accurate persona, you must first define your audience on a fundamental level. This is a broad first step, but an important one. Begin simply. Will your design be more widely used by a particular age group, gender, financial class, education level? Gather all pertinent demographic information available for your target audience and begin “painting pictures” of intended users. Once you have crafted a clear idea of who your audience is you’ll be better able to understand what they want and need from your design. Continue reading “4 Fundamental Rules for Building Valuable User Personas “
Altia Announces Code Generation Support for STMicroelectronics STM32F7 Microcontroller
See Altia-Generated Code in Action on STM32F7 at ESC Silicon Valley – July 20-22, 2015
Altia, a global leader in graphical user interface development software, announces code generation support for the new STMicroelectronics STM32F7 Microcontroller. The STM32F7 addresses a broad range of applications and is the first microcontroller on the market to feature the new ARM® Cortex®-M7 processor: the latest and highest-performing Cortex-M core for advanced consumer, industrial, medical, and Internet-of-Things devices. This chip is expected to provide product designers with unrivaled opportunities to enhance application performance, add new functions, extend battery life, ensure security and minimize use of external components to save cost and size.
GUI and UI Design: Balancing Form and Function
GUI and UI design can be tricky business. Both must perform any number of complex functions, all while maintaining an attractive aesthetic that complements a product or application’s overall design. Successful designers understand the importance of striking the fine balance between form and function in GUI design.
The Importance of Branding User Experience
Brand consistency is a crucial component of user experience, whether online or offline. It’s so vital, in fact, that the branding stage should be one of the first steps in creating any UI. Developing an accurate understanding of a company’s end users, business goals and overall vision should largely shape UI design, ensuring that any time a user interacts with a UI, the design clearly reflects the company’s brand, ultimately contributing to increased user loyalty and satisfaction. Continue reading “GUI and UI Design: Balancing Form and Function”
Altia CEO to Speak at Automotive HMI Cosmos Conference in Germany
This fall, Altia will join automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers including BMW, Honda, Porsche and Visteon at Automotive HMI Cosmos. This international conference will be held from September 28 to October 1 at the Hilton Hotel in Mainz, Germany.
Mike Juran, Altia’s CEO, will present “The 3D Instrument Cluster: Frivolous Eye Candy or HMI Breakthrough?” at the event. During his presentation, Mr. Juran will discuss topics like:
- The killer app for 3D in the car
- The reality of performance vs. hardware cost
- 5 common 3D design mistakes
- 3D for the mass market?
For more information about this event, click here: http://bit.ly/HMI_Altia.
For more information about Altia for automotive, visit www.altia.com/auto.
Are Consumers Really Ready for Wearable Text?
The future of technology is ready to be worn. Common accessories such as watches and eyewear are now equipped with powerful processors and vivid displays. And according to the Wearable Electronics Market and Technology Analysis report, the wearable technology market is expected to grow to $11.1 billion by the year 2020. Companies such as Apple are poised to lead the pack when wearable tech explodes in the marketplace—but when exactly will that be? Continue reading “Are Consumers Really Ready for Wearable Text?”
“Time to Market” Advice That’s Pretty Timeless
Recently, we ran across “Time to Market“, a blog post by Jack Ganssle, on Embedded.com which offered some great wisdom about accelerating schedules for firmware delivery. Even though the article was written in 2013, the advice remains true and quite excellent.
We especially liked these recommendations:
“Requirements are hard. So spend time, often lots of time, eliciting them. Making changes late in the game will drastically curtail progress. Prototype when they aren’t clear or when a GUI is involved. Similarly, invest in design and architecture up front. How much time? That depends on the size of the system, but NASA showed the optimum amount (i.e., the minimum on the curve) can be as much as 40% of the schedule on huge projects.”
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“That last bit of advice [“Buy everything you can.”] applies to tools. Buy the best. A few $k, or even tens of $k, for tools is nothing. If a tool and the support given by the vendor can eek out even a 10% improvement in productivity, at a loaded salary of $150k or so it quickly pays for itself.”
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“Never have embedded systems been so complex as they are today. But we’ve never had such a wide body of knowledge about developing the code, and have access to tools of unprecedented power. It’s important we exploit both resources.”
Read all of Ganssle’s time to market guidelines here.
For more information about how Altia can help get embedded GUIs to market faster, connect with us here.