Alchemy by Leban Hyde | UX + Branding

Week 7

Samsung One UI 5.1 demonstrating the multi control feature between Galaxy Books, tablets, and smartphones

One UI 5.1. Samsung announced One UI 5.1 will begin rolling out worldwide. Shipping with the S23 series, the next iteration of Samsung’s Android skin brings enhanced photography capabilities, personalization through modes and routines, and greater integration and connectivity across services and devices. The update will be available for S20–S23 series with coverage for the Galaxy Z 3 foldable line in the coming weeks. Check out this video for a round up of features.

Oppo Flip. The Oppo Find N2 Flip launched internationally (and it’s flippin’ fabulous!). Sporting the clamshell form factor, the Find N2 Flip has a larger external display and a less noticeable crease than most flip models. Although it will be available in the UK, there are currently no plans for the US which is unfortunately considering the reviews it has received so far. For the more committed of the enthusiasts out there, I’m sure you could order it anyway and have it shipped from across the pond.

Web Push. Support for push notifications for Web Apps was added to iOS 16.4 beta. Known as Web Push, this feature brings native-like notifications to web apps that have been added to a users Home Screen. Once a user has granted permission, notifications will show on Lock Screen, in Notification Center, and on Apple Watch and can be managed under Settings. It’s exciting to see features like these reduce the gap between native and web!

In-App Browsers. Android is getting new features to make in-app browsing smoother. Developers will now be able to control the launch height of a tab via partial custom tabs. In addition, users will be able to saved info like passwords to autofill forms within in-app browsers (think SSO sign-in for enterprise apps). Interestingly, Google is also advocating in-app browsers (aka custom tabs) over WebView, claiming the latter offers more functionality with less overhead.

From the Desk of…

Over the past week or so, I’ve been working on a Concept Map with my product partner and other stakeholders as part of problem discovery for an upcoming project. Unfortunately, I cannot talk too much about the project itself nor can I show what we’ve created so far (visual examples are always nice), but I can talk a bit about the process and its benefits. If you’ve ever done a mind mapping or stakeholder mapping exercise, concept mapping is somewhere between the two. It’s a good HCD method to help you and your team wrap your arms around a complex problem.

Getting together with your core team and/or stakeholders, you spend the first 5–10 diverging by creating a list of concepts or ideas (sticky notes) related to a problem statement (“How might we…”). From there, you converge by working through the stickies and grouping theme around your problem statement, drawing connections between the different ideas, describing how they relate to each other and eliminating duplicates as you go. This activity is good for creating shared knowledge, identifying gaps, and giving direction on the next steps of the discovery process.

I’m still in the thick of it, but it has been a positive experience so far, providing valuable insights to the complexity of our wicked problem as well as the potential scope of work ahead of us. I’d recommend considering it as a discovery exercise the next time you come across a problem that feels overwhelmingly massive or complicated.

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