Enterprise App FAQs This time a submitted question via Twitter:  “What are Buttery Apps? What are my developers talking about? Is this Slang?”  For more on buttery apps, one of our go to experts Yousuf Haque. Buttery or buttery smooth in this context means an app or OS is smooth, fluid, and responsive. The threshold for the human eye to perceive motion is about 16 frames per second however the motion is perceived as jerky and non-fluid. As the frame rate increases, the animation will seem smoother to the human eye. The smoothness of an animation thus depends on how many frames a system and app can churn out together continuously. When an application is not smooth, it feels jittery, laggy, and unresponsive. This is often a result of the combination poor hardware and non-optimized graphic software. In summer of 2012, Google announced Jellybean 4.1 along with Project Butter, the fight against lag. They introduced many under the hood improvements like triple buffering and ramping up CPU power upon screen touches. This ultimately resulted in a consistent 60 frames per second across apps and the android system and this made the android operating system seem more snappy, smooth, and quick. Just as smooth as butter. A big thanks to Yousuf and keep an eye on his latest builds...

We all know the hectic life of enterprise app developers. Lots of pressure, caffeine and darkened rooms with the glow of dual monitors. So how do I keep fun and original ways to motivate enterprise app developers? This month, with a crazy deadline Im starting a #Androibeard. This silly idea came after a friend was watching playoff baseball in Boston. Yes – I, Mr. SuperCleanCut, am growing my first beard in 30 years. Not sure if it will be pretty but lets hope my Italian heritage helps out. So keep and eye here and on Twitter for  ::shivers:: some beard “selfies” along the way. The big enterprise app drop is Halloween day so I will be scratchy until then. Hmm ..maybe dye it neon Android Green or Halloween Orange if the team gets it done before hand. Have any hints to motivate enterprise app developers of your own? Let me know on Twitter ::scratch scratch scratch::...

    Enterprise communication is changing and to symbolize this Siemens Enterprise Communication group is now called Unify. Held a events globally in New York and Munich, Germany Teased Project Ansible, a new cloud based communication/collaboration tool. Second half of 2014. Tons of players already in Audio, Video and Web conferencing. Siemens Enterprise Communications was 5 years old Chief Marketing Officer, Chris Hummel said the new branding and messaging were designed to appear “more like a new media company” Links below: Unify’s launch form horse’s mouth.  WSJ’s take. Zeus Kerravala’s take. (good opinionated recap with Siemens Enterprise’s History)...

  The next Enterprise App FAQ deals wit “Holo” Android Apps. I was surprised most have never heard of it. So I found an Android Holo Expert named Yousuf Haque who is quickly rising up the Android charts to answer this. What are Android Holo Apps? To start answering your question, Holo (short for holographic) is the look, feel, and design language for the android platform starting from 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) up until at least 4.3 (Jellybean.)   It is an expressive language that allows a user to learn about the system based on affordances given off by certain interactive elements. For example, buttons all look pretty much the same, the new hamburger menu/navigation drawer all works the same way. It’s a design language developed by android that allows users to jump into new apps and use them without little learning.   Another thing the Holo Design Guideline promotes is visual consistency across the android platform. You can go into the app store and download a handful of applications and while they each have their own unique color palette and feel, their icons and affordances are usually the same. You can tell all these apps are part of the android family. Enterprises: Should we go holo apps or go home? Short answer: probably but not necessarily. As Matias Duarte, the Director of android user experience explains in his google+ post following the Yahoo weather app update, one should follow the android design guideline (and the visual aesthetic of android, aka holo) for the sake of consistency, easing frustration, and reusing learned behaviors. However, if your new version of an interaction, or an alternative visual scheme brings value and uniqueness to your application without frustrating users or completely clashing with the android platform’s look and feel, by all means, go ahead.   Android is meant to be extensible to users via customization and tweaking. It’s design philosophy is also meant to be extensible to designers and developers through their own creative expression. Just keep in mind, as you introduce new elements to your application, users might have to re-learn the interaction. If users spend more time trying to find buttons, or figuring out how to do stuff...