Origin Interactive

Shantel joined our team in mid December for her Grade 10 work experience. Although she was only with us for 5 short days, we crammed in as much "fun stuff" as possible.

From design principles and Photoshop basics, all the way through to a high level UX crash course. It was inspiring to see just how eager she is to learn and acquire new skills. Having Shantel in our studio was a great experience for us and we wish her all the best with her Grade 11 studies. Thanks for reminding us what it's all about Shantel.

The highlight of last week for us at Origin Interative was the Tech4Africa 2011 conference! What an exciting and well organized affair! Thanks Gareth Knight

Amidst the high caliber of technology-thought leaders speaking at the conference this year, two stood up for their commitment to the technological advancement of the African continent; Professor Ndubuisi Ekekwe, an inventor with two doctoral and four master's degrees including a PhD in electrical and computer engineering, reminded delegates that technological innovation must not be reduced to the scope of Information and Communication Technology on a continent facing problems that cannot be solved by ICT alone. Ekekwe echoed a recurring theme of the conference - Africa must look within its own borders for solutions to our unique challenge and the time for it is now! By fostering intellectual ownership of these solution, we can capitalize on them more sustainably than imported solutions. Even though much of what Ekekwe said went way over our heads, his passion for driving truly African innovation needed no translation.

Herman Chinery-Hesse, the only African recipient of the "Distinguished Alumnus Award" is the co-founder of SOFTtribe, one of the leading software houses in West Africa and described by the BBC as Africa's Bill Gates. Herman quickly captured a packed auditorium with his charisma and the way he 'gangstered' his way through the emerging African technology market over the last 19 years. He believes that "If Africa misses the current global IT boat, there may never again be an opportunity for rapid wealth creation on the continent."

We were also truly inspired once again by the great work that the Praekelt Foundation is doing in harnessing the power of mobile technology to address one of the world's gravest health crises. Their Project Masiluleke leverages the wide usage of mobile devices in South Africa to help fight the country's clipping HIV/AIDS and TB epidemics through providing a free service to HIV and TB infected people prompting and educating them on better managing their illness.

Their Young Africa Live initiative is a mobile platform aimed at educating and empowering young people to be more proactive in their fight against HIV/AIDS that is entertainment-oriented, fun, interactive, and provocative. The Young Africa Live platform does not simply state the facts and "lecture" young people about the dos and don'ts, but rather create a space where young South Africans could talk about hot topics that affect their daily lives: love, sex, relationships, gender and cultural issues, as well as HIV/AIDS.

On a slightly more geeky note, Robert Nyman's talk on keeping a pragmatic focus on HTML5 and its relation to the open web showcased some of the new opportunities and rich experiences allowed by the development of a standardized web architecture. The Star Wars references didn't hurt either

Other speakers who made a lasting impression for their role in the advancement of User Experience Design were Rian van der Merwe (kalahari.com) and our friends at Clear Left (UK) James Box and Cennydd (pronounced Kenneth!) Bowles.

And so it was two days greatly spent at the T4A 2011 conference! It was a privilege to partner with Gareth and the rest of the T4A team and we look forward to next year already!

Over the last few weeks we’ve been working on an exciting new project! Something that is very different from anything we’ve done before! Project LaunchPad is all about spreading the word of UXD, making it more accessible and giving a wider audience the opportunity to benefit from it…

Driven by our passion for advancing the User Experience Design (UXD) field in South Africa and together with our commitment to social responsibility we created Project LaunchPad, a unique initiative aimed at broadening the South African UX Community, increasing UXD adoption in SA, making UXD more affordable and within reach to a wider audience, helping the less fortunate

Project LaunchPad is our way of giving back.

Through this initiative we aim to:

• Help established businesses and start-ups create a first class digital presence
• Give talented young designers the opportunity to pursue their dreams
• Introduce underprivileged kids to the wonderful world of art and expression

Contact us for more details.

Watch this space for more on this exciting initiative...

Having created all the Tech4Africa branding, user interface and event collateral for their first conference last year we are honored to once again be given the opportunity to design all the event and marketing collateral for this year's Tech 4 Africa 2011 conference (taking place on October 27-28)!

Tech4Africa is the premier mobile, web and emerging technology conference, bringing global perspective to the African context. Tech4Africa brings together some of the most respected people in technology from all over the world to share, teach and interact with Africans, in South Africa.

In the words of Gareth Knight, founder and the driving force behind Tech4Africa "Our hope is that Tech4Africa will play a small role in igniting the talent and skill of generation of Africans who understand the reach of a mobile phone, who realise that the global market is accessible to those who build great products and who challenge the status quo".

Being associated with this exciting brand is especially close to our hearts, as we at Origin Interactive feel very passionate about bringing South Africa up to international standards regarding User Experience and how it impacts our users lives.

Working with Gareth and the Tech4africa team is a real treat!

We have two new members joining our team over the last two weeks!

Nqobile Tshabalala is our lovely new Office Assistant who wears a smile every day and brings a much-needed order to our new office (and our lives)! Nqobile completed her Business Management degree at University of Zululand and after many years of traditional advertising agency experience became passionate about the digital world and all the possibilities it offers…

Dylan Meadon is a very bright and talented new member of our UX Design team. Dylan is in the process of completing his Bachelor in Information Science degree and is driven by furthering his skills, knowledge and experience in the fascinating world of User Experience.

Welcome to the team Nqobile and Dylan!

We do! Yip, she arrived yesterday and has affectionately been christened Matilda. Why you may ask... well as creative’s, our work environment is very important. We need an environment that encourages innovation and ingenuity so that we can “do our thing”. And considering we spend more than 55% of our waking life at work, it may as well be fun or at the very least pleasant. It’s all about how we experience the world around us, and with mirror balls, skateboards, prehistoric creatures and a few eccentric arty types... who wouldn’t want to work here.

Thanks Vera Cruz for making it for us! Check out some more pics of the monster

We are the WINNERS of 2011 WEB DESIGN AWARD!

Founded in 2007, the Web Design Awards' focus is to promote website designers in South Africa, whether by simply boosting their profile or by awarding them for great web designs.

This is the judging criteria for selecting the winner:

• Aesthetic Appeal (55%) - The overall look of the website including colour combinations, proportional spacing, crispness of graphics and visual impact.
• Speed (10%) - How long the website takes to load. This could be affected by how well optimised the graphics, animation and sound and the chosen web host.
• Navigation & User Friendliness (15%) - How easy it is to find the buttons and get around the site, whether the layout is logical and if there is continuity between pages.
• Cross-Browser Effectiveness (10%) - Your site should look good on Internet Explorer and decent on Firefox, because according to the W3C IE is the most used browser, with Firefox coming in second.
• Code (10%) - The amount of errors in the code according to the W3C, and accessibility issues, outlined by the British Disability Discrimination Act.

Maya joined our team on the 3rd May. Maya has a strong Marketing background with over 9 years marketing, planning and project management experience in the Luxury goods, FMCG and Industrial sectors in South Africa, and 3 years of Marketing Strategy and Account Management experience within two of the top Digital Media agencies in London, where she worked with various established brands such as Deutsche Bank, Debenhams, BAT, Sony, and Reed Exhibitions. Welcome to the team Maya!

Seth joins our design team on the 7th March as a UX designer. He's a phenomenal sketcher and illustrator with a gigantic creative mind. Seth studied at the University of Stellenbosch where he obtained a BA (Hons) in visual communication design and has a list of awards behind his name. Welcome to the team Seth!

We've moved to The Village office park, just a stone throw away from Menlyn Park shopping center. Our open plan loft studio is the perfect new home for Origin Interactive.

Now conveniently located close to the N1 highway and with plenty of great lunch spots in the area, why not drop by for a cuppa joe and a chat.

For the past few month we've been working with Softline Pastel to improve the User Experience and visual design of their new 'My Business' application. Thus far Softline Pastel have been very happy with what we've produce and we can't wait till the new WPF application hits the shelves. Watch out for it, and get your hand on a copy!!!

We've just been given an awesome opportunity to be a part of creating one of South Africa's first out of browser Silverlight On Demand media centers. This highly interactive experience is being produced for one of SA's cutting edge brands. more to follow...

Origin will be showing what it takes to transform the Payfine.ca.za site, which is used by millions, into a more pleasurable, easy to use online experience, be there!