Origin Interactive

At Origin Interactive we’re all about collaboration and educating. That’s why we are very happy to welcome Tshepo Lehutjo to our team as intern. Tshepo is currently doing his MA: Digital Arts – Interactive Media at the University of Witwatersrand, studying the Usability of Twitter apps on smartphones. And we have his amazing brain all to ourselves for three whole weeks!

We hope to give Tshepo an internship to rave about, and of course we’ll cram in as much User Experience practice as possible. He has already proven himself to be a quick student and someone we can learn a lot from too. Our aim is that Tshepo is the first of many youngbloods to walk through our doors!

At Origin Interactive, we pride ourselves not only in working at the forefront of interactive digital technology, but also in exploring how technology can be used to enable compelling user experiences and foster meaningful relationships between a brand and its customers.

Origin had the chance to demonstrate how the Natural User Interface paradigm can be employed to offer fresh avenues for interacting with one of South Africa's top four banks' service offerings at the launch of it's first digital concept branch in Sandton Johannesburg.

Yip, we have a Microsoft PixelSense/Surface 2 in our studio.

The Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft® PixelSense®/Surface® is available in South Africa for first time.

The SUR40 enables people to communicate, collaborate and connect using touch and everyday objects. With PixelSense™ technology the thin 40 inch display can "see" and recognize fingers, hands and objects placed on the screen. The 1080p HD LCD display can be used horizontally like a table, or mounted vertically to a wall or stand. SUR40 also supports being embedded into fixtures and furniture.

"Both retailers and consumers are adapting to ever evolving ways of interacting with information and merchandise, and have expressed a desire for technology that delivers information in an engaging and visually dynamic way," said Chua Hwee Koon, IT Head, Southeast Asia, Oceania & Taiwan, Samsung Electronics. "With the availability of the Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft PixelSense/Surface, Samsung is energizing the retail space and anticipates an all-new approach to customer engagement."

The Samsung SUR40 is a collaborative multitouch device that combines Samsung LCD touch technology with Microsoft multitouch and object recognition software, earning it the CES Best of Innovations 2012 Award earlier this year. Microsoft PixelSense™ technology gives the SUR40 the ability to see without the use of cameras, supporting up to 50 simultaneous touch points. The is display is also protected by Gorilla Glass to increase durability and reduce external shock and liquid ingress.

We’ve done it again! We have nabbed another site of the day CSS Award, for the 16 April 2012. There's no stopping…

The CSS Awards is a design gallery that showcases only the most impressive CSS websites. Like most galleries, you can find plenty of design inspiration, but The CSS Awards offers much more by selecting the best websites developed with CSS from around the world. The awards are given to only the best designers and agencies and judged by an international panel of well-known faces from the design community.

To find out more about our exciting win please visit the cssawards website and like us, share and post comments about our site.

CSS Winner, a top-notch connoisseur in its genre, designed this platform to find and promote talented website designers, developers and agencies. They popularize websites designed elsewhere through CSS Winner, increasing competence and coherence in collation and awarding them.

We have been fortunate to be awarded the site of the day award, for the 31st of March 2012 and we’re thrilled! This is an accolade handed only to special websites that excel in the categories of design, creativity, and professionalism.

CSS Winner Awards are among the most prestigious and renowned online award. If you would like to see more of what we do, please don’t hesitate to keep voting for us and post comments about the site.

Origin Interactive attends the UX Masterclass

South Africa hosted the fifth biannual UX Masterclass at the Rosebank Hyatt Regency in Johannesburg on 30 March 2012. The event was organised by international association The UXalliance, a global collaboration of User Experience (UX) experts from 24 countries. The event hosted 22 of the world's leading experts in UX Design, Research, and Strategy, giving South African UX professionals and enthusiasts a unique opportunity to benefit from global best practice in this emerging profession.

The UX Masterclass, tackled challenges confronting businesses who are committed to creating products that consumers love to use, whether in digital or the real world environment. Speakers, who are from countries as diverse as the United States, Denmark, Ireland, Australia and Switzerland, shared recent developments and case studies, while collaborative sessions gave delegates the opportunity to benefit from the speakers' experience, firsthand.

We love working with the awesome people at Softline Pastel. This is what they have to say about working with Origin Interactive.

Working with Mike and his team has been a great experience for us. From the initial brief to the final product, we have learnt more about creating great user experiences and have loved implementing the new designs as much as I hope our users are enjoying them in our new products!

Thanks Debbie, we enjoy working with you and your team! Mike

Check what the Apple iStore Menlyn has to say about our website

Afternoon... Names Morne. I found your site by luck.. Would just like to say.. Very very very nice site.. Quite refreshing... Would love to see more of your fantastic projects go live like the Microsoft WPF application.. Now only if you could make it for  Devices it would really make sense!!!

Keep up the fantastic work!!

Morne Erasmus, Senior Sales Consultant, iStore Menlyn

Designing structures for understanding

The inaugural World Information Architecture Day (WAID) took place on 11 Feb 2012 in 14 cities across the globe. This mini-conference is about bringing the Information Architecture (IA) community together to share information, ideas and research.

At Origin Interactive, information architecture is fundamental to creating exceptional digital experiences. So we decided to jump in and sponsor the event, ensuring SA would be one of the 14 cities privileged to share in this great experience.

Information Architecture may still be in its infancy is SA, yet agencies and organizations are finally recognizing the importance of Information Architecture in the digital space. The event was a great opportunity to mix with like-minded professionals and hear from some of the biggest names in the industry including Andrea Resmini, President of the Information Architecture Institute.

Our mission has always been advance the field of user experience in South Africa, and it’s great that we are no longer alone. Thanks to all the speakers at the event, including our beloved Jason Hobbs and Kath Roderick! Join in next year!

World IA Day, 2012 – Johannesburg SA UX forum

We just won another award, yey!

The SA Web Awards is South Africa's top website review site. Their unique website review model is what gives SA Web Awards credibility and has enabled them to become the number one web award program in the industry. Judges review all submitted websites and give them scores in four categories: content, layout, functionality and overall appeal.

We are delighted! www.webawards.co.za

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!