Campfire Reflections

|| Feb. 13th, 2015 Velvet, leather, dice, switch buttons, they're all things that tech designers have used to imitate in their software. Most notably, Apple. If you can think back to pre-iOS 7 versions and their incorporation of the above mentioned elements, you can remember how Game Center used the velvet to imitate a poker table, which signified "gaming." Leather? Apple had a place for that too.  Other than it being a really long word, (yes, I had to add it to my clipboard so I can just paste it while writing this) skeuomorphism is on the decline- and that’s a good thing. For those of you who don’t know, skeuomorphism, according to a simple Google search states this: “Skeuomorphism is the design concept of making items represented resemble their real-life counterparts.” Simple, right? The most prominent of examples of skeuomorphism, was used in Apple’s iOS. Former iOS genius, Scott Forstall created the earlier iOS’s with heavy skeuomorphism. This included

This past week I ran into a problem many people make. Forgetting their wallet (or purse) at home and needing to purchase food, gas or anything while out and about. Fortunately for me, the merchant accepted contactless payments (CPs), and I went about my day. Often times (call me lazy) I don’t feel like pulling out my wallet, pulling out the card I want, swiping, then putting the card back and putting the wallet back in my pocket- especially when I have to do it multiple times a day. Ever since I upgraded to the Nexus 6, I find myself holding my phone instead of it being in my pocket, mostly due to its larger size. Because of this, a store or restaurant having a contactless terminal makes it that much easier for me to hover my phone and be on my way. With the use of cash transactions on the decline and credit/debit forecasted to overtake cash transactions within the next 5 years , the usefulness of CPs is ever growing. So, to get back to the title. Why do I use it