Each week, we share the top five articles that caught our attention. Here are your must-reads, published here and abroad, for the week of August 8th 2016.
Naming your band in 2016
The most important first decision any artist can make is picking the right name. It has to be just sticky enough, while still working for a domain name, social media profiles and a Spotify playlist. Not the easiest in 2016! Journalist Gil Kaufman tells how more groups are following the trend started by Flickr, Pixlr and timr and dropping the vowels and capital letters from their names.
→ Read it on Billboard Pocket
The globalization of taste in interior design
Ever experienced déjà vu while travelling? You’re not just imagining things. That coffee shop you visited in Portugal does actually look a lot like your neighbourhood coffee shop. Journalist Kyle Chayka explains the effect that social media is having on the design of our physical spaces and how it may be contributing to the homogenization of interior design.
→ Read it on The Verge Pocket
Nostalgia sells!
You don’t need to be old to feel nostalgic! A recent trend has seen brands reviving retro graphic codes in order to reignite their campaigns and turn memories into profits. What’s surprising is how well this strategy is working with consumers—especially Millennials.
→ Read it on Forbes Pocket
Free mobile games are not so free
Are the games you play on your smartphone truly free? If you’re at all interested in levelling up or having fun, then the answer is no! Geoffrey Delcroix, a researcher at Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (CNIL), explains how game developers are studying the behaviours of players to better understand when they are more likely to spend. Welcome to the confusing world of freemium!
→ Read it on Laboratoire d’innovation numérique de la CNIL (French only) Pocket
Advertisers ❤️ Instagram Stories
Launched about a week ago, the Instagram Stories feature is already causing quite a stir with advertisers. With Snapchat, brands had no way to measure the performance of shared content, but that’s not the case with Instagram. Let’s see whether consumers will take the bait…
→ Read it on Advertising Age Pocket
Are you interested in UX?
#Sponsored
On September 14, Claudel Rheault, a UX designer at Havas Montréal, will be giving a presentation on UX fails and the relationship between product at user. Part of the LAB conferences program. Get your ticket today!
→ For more details, visit viensaulab.com (French only)
In your earbuds: Full Stack Radio
Developers, this message is for you! Programmer Adam Wathan hosts a podcast about the more technical aspects of the trade. Each episode features Wathan and his guest discussing a specific web platform or programming language.
→ Listen to it on Full Stack Radio
This week’s favourite thing
There were more than 10,000 of you clamoring for it and your wish is just about to come true. Lego is just about to launch the coolest set in all the Milky Way: Women of NASA! Designed by Maia Weinstock, this collection features five famous women from various branches of space science: Margaret Hamilton, Katherine Johnson, Sally Ride, Nancy Grace Roman and Mae Jemison. As a famous astronaut once (almost) said, “That’s one small step for [wo]man, one giant leap for mankind.”
