Courtney Hemphill on VR, Augmented Reality, and the Importance of Animation in UX

In this week's podcast, Barry Bird talks to Courtney Hemphill, a partner and tech lead at Carbon Five. With over ten years of experience in software development, Hemphill has done full stack development for both startup and enterprise companies. Hemphill's presentation at QCon New York was entitled Algorithms for Animation. Why listen to this podcast: - Why developers in startups or enterprise firms should care about creating animations - The interfaces we interact with in software are becoming more dynamic - If you don't know what's wrong, you don't know how to fix it - The most common code smells, according to Llewellyn Falco: Clutter, long lines, long methods, duplication, and inconsistency - How do we make- in an agile way- the architectural work visible, and not ignore it? - How do you have an incremental architecture and get measurements? If you say you're going to go away for six months and figure it out, that's not very measurable. Notes and links can be found on InfoQ: http://bit.ly/29kq2ds Why Developers Should Care About Creating Animations 1m:05s - The interfaces we interact with in software are becoming more dynamic. 1m:30s - We are moving closer to natural user interfaces, and this is something software engineers across the board need to consider when they are developing programs. You don't just have a pointer and a mouse and a keyboard- you can squish and stretch things, using your fingers and your hands. 1m:55s - Animations need to feel real, and that is all based in Math and Physics. 2m:15s - The animations you see on websites have always been an opportunity for us to have a more fundamental learning about what the program does without needing a lot of instruction. 2m:38s - Animation functions almost as a way for people to discover and explore an interface so they can interact and engage with it more easily. The Importance of Animation Resembling Reality 3m:00s - If you've ever put on an Oculus Rift and experienced "judder" and felt immediately sick, that's the most extreme version. 3m:31s - If a computer is running slowly and you see frames dropped, you are sensing something underlying that is not right, and you immediately distrust it. 3m:42s - The further away you get from something that is smooth, the more you start to mistrust the platform and the data behind it. Natural Textures vs Cartoon-Like Textures [...] Quick scan our curated show notes on InfoQ. http://bit.ly/29kq2ds You can also subscribe to the InfoQ newsletter to receive weekly updates on the hottest topics from professional software development. http://bit.ly/24x3IVq