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 January 30th 2017.
My week with a Nokia 3310
Can’t imagine life without your smartphone? For seven days, Anne-Sophie Faivre Le Cadre, a journalist for L’express, Rue89, Libération and Causeur, replaced her beloved personal assistant, an iPhone 6, for a Nokia 3310 from 2000. What does life look like without Siri and all of the world’s knowledge in your pocket?
→ Read it on Rue89 (In French) Pocket
Welcome to the enernet
Forget Tesla, energy is the new, new internet! According to Brian Lakamp, Co-founder and CEO of Totem Power, the enernet is a dynamic energy network built around clean energy that will serve as a foundation for smart cities. Lakamp insists that innovation must go beyond what Elon Musk is doing: there is already a long list of companies contributing to the clean energy and green technology sectors and a growing number of investment opportunities for potential investors. The GreenTech revolution is only just starting.
→ Read it on Tech Crunch Pocket
Reinventing Instagram
Why fix something that isn’t broken? Why continue to add new features and improve existing ones? According to Kevin Systrom, CEO and Co-founder of Instagram, to make the app even more “personal” for users, of course. But how can Instagram reinvent its app without losing millions of users?
→ Read it on Recode Pocket
UX, first and foremost
If 2016 was the year of UX design, then 2017 may be the year of UX writing. Google, Amazon, Dropbox and Paypal are just some of the big names in tech currently looking for user experience writers. New Silicon Valley trend or here to stay? UX writer and designer Kristina Bjoran explains how this new role could change the nature of online experiences.
→ Read it on UX Booth Pocket
How GIFs help you read and retain information
The Swedish telecommunications firm Telia wanted to make sure that employees actually read and played by the rules of its employee code of conduct. Turns out, it was a design problem just waiting to be solved. With the help of Wolff Olins, a branding firm, Telia now has a new code built entirely around quirky GIFs, making it impossible to forget or ignore.
→ Read it on Fast Company Pocket
3 global cities leading AI innovation in 2017
#Sponsored
Silicon Valley is far from the only major hub that’s making waves in tech innovation. Stéphane Mailhiot, vice president of strategy at Havas Canada, highlights three global cities that are leading the way in the development of artificial intelligence: Montreal, London, Singapore.
→ Read it on The Mag Pocket
In your earbuds: Cool Tools
Kevin Kelly, Writer and Co-founder of WIRED magazine, and Mark Frauenfelder, Research Director at Institute for the Future, are truly passionate about uncommon and uncommonly good tools. Every two weeks, they record a new episode about their latest find.
→ Listen to it on iTunes
This week’s favourite thing
Jon Moore, Senior Design Partner at Innovatemap and Co-founder of UX Power Tools, has made a list of guilty pleasures for designers. Calling all makers of beautiful things: do you agree with his list?
Image from Sky Designs
