Category Archives: Mobile

Agency Open House Sydney

Posted on October 24, 2014 | Leave a comment

Register for our free event now: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/web-directions-agency-open-house-reactive-tickets-4776690209

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Next Wednesday afternoon, Sydney will see its first Agency Open House. You can visit and have a beer with people at places like Reactive, Host, Soap, Deepend Group, Digital Arts Network, Reborn, WeAreSocial, Pollen, TheFarm,Small Multiples or The Interaction Consortium.

Check out this Agency Open House microsite for Wednesday October 29 where you can also RSVP to the respective agency events. Rub shoulders with art directors, copywriters, uber-geeks, producers and strategy minds. Learn from their work exhibited, listen to talks, ask questions, make connections. You could score an internship, dream job or your next creative collaboration partner. As it is part of Web Directions 2014, expect some heavy hitters from their international speaker roster like Jessica Hische to maybe make a cameo appearance. Just saying….

Check out the full program to RSVP here

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We at Reactive are excited to partner with Web Directions & Creative Social to open our doors for a Sydney-wide Agency Open House So in particular we would love for you to join us at our office in Surry Hills next Wednesday afternoon (Oct 29), between 4-6pm. You can RSVP by registering online https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/web-directions-agency-open-house-reactive-tickets-4776690209

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What are Web Directions, Creative Social and this Agency Open House?

Since 2004, Web Directions has been Australia’s cutting edge conference that bring together the world’s most pioneering, interactive creative directors, business owners, strategists and other global experts of digital design and development. As a social warm-up for this year’s Web Directions (October 30-31) the aim of our joint Agency Open House is to have a beer and a chat, explore agencies’ work and workplaces and build some new connections. Reactive has been part of Creative Social since 2007 and together with this group of leading agencies, we recognise that collaborating in a digital landscape is how we will advance the whole industry and enjoy the journey.

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What’s the inspiration all about?

Reactive has been a partner of Web Directions for 3 years now. This year is particularly special as we were invited to create the opening title sequence for the conference. The film is completely HTML-generated and plays live in the browser, unlike traditional videos.

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One of our creatives involved, Melissa Baillache, explains the thinking behind the film:

“We wanted to touch on the importance of everyone that come together to imagine, design, create and build great digital products and services. The people, who passionately labour over the tiny details, behind the scenes as well as at the forefront of the digital world. In our film, all these individuals are represented by a ‘pixel’. Their stories evolve into playful geometric structures, yet always keep their original core—the element that binds everything together into a single experience.”

We’d be thrilled if you can stop by Reactive’s office for some beers, food and showcasing and explaining the tech behind the title sequence. Registering can be done by simply replying to this email or visiting the event page below:

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/web-directions-agency-open-house-reactive-tickets-4776690209

We hope to see you next Wednesday arvo, guys!

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Posted in Advertising, apps, art, Convergence, design, interactivity, Mobile, Strategy

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Mobile Masterclass at the Apple Store Sydney

Posted on March 3, 2014 | Leave a comment

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Two of my creative colleagues are holding a Mobile Masterclass at the Apple Store Sydney (CBD). Called ‘Designing for the Mobile World’ it will give you designers and developers some must-have knowledge. Do you want to be able to deliver mobile-centric experiences in a physical environments? Then join David Brown and Gabriel Tamborini from Reactive Sydney on March 12 as they discuss the current state of the mobile space, and how to deliver an inspiring and delightful mobile user experience. During this session, you’ll break out into groups and develop a digital experience that could be delivered on a mobile platform.

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Wednesday, 12 March at 6:00 pm
Apple Store Sydney CBD
367 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000
(02) 8083 9400

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Posted in design, Mobile

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Thoughts on the new Jelly App

Posted on January 13, 2014 | Leave a comment

In a guest post Tim O’Neill, co-founder of Reactive spends a few thoughts on the Jelly app.

This week saw the launch of Jelly, the new start-up from Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. This pedigree guaranteed a certain amount of hype and uptake, with curious early adopters jumping on the Jelly wagon and testing it out, myself included.

Jelly is a blessedly simple concept: you can ask or answer image-based questions.

To pose a question, take or upload a photo and write a question (e.g. “what part of France is this wine from?”). Jelly connects to your Facebook and twitter accounts, and then posts this question to your Jelly-using network.

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To answer questions, swipe through the lovely ‘deck of cards’ interface, find a question to answer and write (or draw) a response.

Many have compared the site to existing services like Quora, Aardvark and Yahoo Answers (which are all Q&A services), however Jelly feels different – in particular with the focus on images. It also has an (almost) gamification aspect, with ‘Thank You Cards’ and ‘Good Answer’ messages when you’ve made a particularly thoughtful, accurate or funny response. This will likely develop over time.

One very cool aspect of Jelly is that it runs as an iPhone app, Android app and also as a mobile site – and you can share questions via SMS or email with people that don’t have the apps installed. This is supremely clever and impressive technically too.

One significant area of improvement is ‘App-store SEO.’ Currently searching for ‘Jelly’ in the iTunes App Store shows a lot of games, but not this app.

Naturally, the chatter on and around Jelly is a) how will brands jump onboard, and b) how will Biz Stone and his esteemed investors seek to monetise it. A good article on this is on Medium.

Right now, only one thing is sure: that this first release of Jelly is just the beginning and will certainly evolve (or maybe ‘pivot’) in the coming months as they learn from user feedback and usage patterns.

There will be the inevitable land-grab for Jelly “firsts” by brands, agencies and the like. Some of these will be heralded as genius, most will be predictable, others will create a customer backlash (it will be irresistibly tempting for a brand to start posting ‘branded questions’ and spamming Jelly).

I would end with “follow me on Jelly,” but currently there is no way to find or follow a person. Instead, download the app and have a play.

Follow Tim O’Neill on Twitter here

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Posted in apps, Mobile

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Digital Future of Oxford Street workshop

Posted on November 18, 2013 | Leave a comment

A few weeks ago we held a nice little workshop at Flyn’s Tractor Design School on  the ‘Digital Future of Oxford Street‘, fusing a an intro to UX and wire framing with a bit of digital creativity in the realm of urban planning. With a mixed audience of partly junior design professionals and some novices we enjoyed our 2 hours of ‘digitally augmenting’ the experience of being on Oxford Street. Here’s the recording of our live video stream, where you can see Flyn, Gabriel and myself.

Our workshop on Ustream

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Oxford Street workshop

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Posted in Convergence, Locative Media, Mobile, Video

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Innovation powers Reactive ‘Code And Snags’ BBQ

Posted on October 28, 2013 | Leave a comment

Take some of the brightest and most cutting edge developers in Australia, add a few high profile international speakers from companies such as Google, Financial Times and MailChimp, throw in cold beers, tasty sausages and a sunny balcony and you got the Reactive ‘Code and Snags BBQ’. As part of the renowned ‘Web Directions South‘ conference (currently underway in Sydney) we hosted an impressive group of technical experts who are busy creating the future of the web.

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Walking through the crowd, you could hear our own Reactive ubergeeks discussing all kinds of questions with our guests, from the most pressing ones to the most decidedly esoteric. When was the last time you were chatting about musical robots, a metadata language for designers, the future of animation, why the Apple Newton lost to the Palm Pilot and finally the Internet of Things, all within an hour or two? Among our most esteemed visitors was Scott Jenson who used to work on the Apple Newton, Symbian OS, managed the Google mobile UX team and also spent time at Frog Design in California. Please check his blog for great thoughts on how to combine on- and offline in the Internet of Things (IOT).CodeAndSnagsBlog02-a4e6c02e-4c66-4e8a-afce-e42a25b32d76-0-400x1215

Drifting through our event was not only the scent of our grilled snags. It was (more metaphorically speaking) the question of ‘what it takes to innovate’. And the answer was present in the group of guests: a lot of experience and skills plus an insatiable appetite for combining things in a new way. And we are curious what these bright minds will come up with next. 

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Posted in apps, Convergence, design, interactivity, Mobile

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