Cafiend Studios

Home of the Creative Misfits

[cafienatedmusings]

Mixed Realities!

(Well, pretending that is...or rather, we filmed a mixed reality thing) 

Apologies for having fallen off the face of the earth for a while! We’ve all been cooking up some madness or other at the studios. 

One of the things we’ve been up to is collaborating with the guys over at VRCollab - and boy, is it fun! We’ve got to try (okay, play with, live in and attempt to go home with) the only HTC Vive setup in Singapore, and of course, we then had to have a go at filming a mixed reality video! 

As you can see...we had a fair bit of fun with the setup - even though at this point the only game we could figure out how to do this with is Fantastic Contraptions (because they built it into their game) . We also had a pretty low-end webcam doing the grunt work this round. 

Here’s some pictures from the setting up of the space! 

We’re working on getting more fun stuff sorted out for it. And I’m working on trying to convince the guys to try the RIPmotion hack (vive controllers in your pants, anyone?) 

And as an added bonus of what else happened during the setup...

[cafienatedmusings]

Nicole Jensen on Periscope: "#socialteashow's first Periscope. Let's talk social media, marketing and tech news!"

Nicole Jensen (@nicolejensen) from Australia. #SocialMedia strategist and community manager. Likes knitting, #LFC, boxing, & shiny ideas. BBus(Events). #cmgr

[cafienatedmusings]

We’re back… and caffeinated.

As I’m writing this I’m sat in the lounge of Manchester Airport’s Terminal 1, waiting to depart from one blustery isle (Storm Gertrude was not kind and weather warnings were squawking) to another apparently vacillating between hot and cold.

It seems fitting, then, that my inaugural blog post for our revamped collective should be written at the start of a journey that will see me back in the land of my birth after being away for close to 18 months. This journey is a necessary starting point for the next stage of my day-job career, and whilst I can’t reveal too many details, please wish me the best of luck – I’ll need it.

Raven and I birthed Cafiend’s predecessor in a matter of days back in 2009; in that iteration it was called Aartwolf. I can’t remember exactly how or why we landed on that name, but what I do remember was a pair of enthusiastic 23-year olds hustling for jobs that we hoped would help propel our business dreams forward. Matters were put on hold when Raven was quite fortuitously sponsored to study creative things in Brisbane. I’d never known her so fulfilled or happy, even over instant messaging. I knew then that creativity was more than just something she was good enough at to get into uni; it was the very lifeblood coursing through her veins. Take away art, design, creation and you take away her soul. She would drive our little venture forward through sheer creativity, pulling other like-minded creatives with her.

Sadly good things tend to come to an end, and Raven had to return to Singapore. We determined that Aartwolf would become Cafiend, officially, and then of course my career took me to the UK. Through a variety of means, Raven somehow managed to pull together a motley skillset that we’ve re-branded into a collective, Cafiend. We’re fuelled by caffeine and twice as potent.

Long story short, Cafiend is ready to go. Taking your brand, business or product to both the digitally engaged and non-engaged markets is our specialty and our delight. Nothing would please us more than if you got in touch and dropped by to chat over a doppio.

[cafienatedmusings]

UI & UX

I have to say, this has been in a rather sore topic for me in the last couple of years. Back when I first re-appeared in the local scene in early 2014, I had high hopes of joining a digital agency as a UX Designer. What happened though, was that I’ve wound up realising that my understanding of UX, and what the local understanding of UX, seems to be drastically different. 

You see, I’m trained to approach user experience from a behavioural science point of view - whether it’s due to my wonderful tutors back in Brisbane, my experience working with the State Library of Queensland, or I’ve been influenced by m previous allied health training, I’m not sure. User experience to me - and those that I’ve had the honour of working with before relocating back to Singapore - is the full package. It’s hard to really explain what it is and to break it down, because, let’s be honest, it is literally - and I’m not exaggerating here - EVERYTHING. 

As such, seeing the job-title UI/UX Designer is both amusing and depressing. Sure, you can be an amazing user interface designer without having an inkling of what good user experience design is, but, if you are a user experience designer, I do believe that you should have at least a good understanding of user interface design. If you can’t design a good interface - I’m not saying that you have to be able to execute and produce the final product - you can’t design a good user experience. So it’s pretty obvious - at least to me - that a UX designer would also be a UI designer. There is no need to specify that you want a UI & UX designer. If the applicant is an actual UX designer worth their salt, they would be a UI designer as well. 

Sadly, it seems like the local populace’s understanding of UX is product-centric design - instead of human-centric design. Which sort of explains why “UI” is always emphasised in the job descriptions for a “UI/UX Designer”. I mean, come on - it’s USER experience, not product experience! We’re suppose to be representing the needs and the experiences of the users, not force-feeding our product to them! 

It’s getting pretty exasperating trying to explain to the laymen what it is that the UX designers do - mainly due to the over-use of the term by digital agencies which basically does user interfaces - not user experience. The default reactions by the laymen seem to be “Oh so you build apps/ websites?” when I explain that one of the things Cafiend does is user experience design. 

So, let me summarise this - 

User Experience Design encompasses multiple fields, multiple dimensions, and multiple senses. It is at once everything and nothing. It is how we shape the world to make it a friendlier place, while making sure that none of it is intrusive or jarring. User Experience Design is all about you, the user, and how a product interacts with you. It is human-centric design. 

And that, my dears, is what Cafiend provides. 

- Raven