Group items tagged

This technique especially helps novice users quickly grasp how your application works. Folders are a classic software metaphor. People file things in folders in the real world, so they immediately understand the idea of putting data into folders on a computer.

iPhone OS users enjoy a heightened sense of direct manipulation because of the Multi-Touch interface. Using gestures, people feel a greater affinity for, and sense of control over, the objects they see on screen, because they do not use any intermediate device (such as a mouse) to manipulate them.

An iPhone application is better than a person at remembering lists of options, commands, data, and so on. Take advantage of this by presenting choices or options in list form, so users can easily scan them and make a choice. Keeping text input to a minimum frees users from having to spend a lot of time typing and frees your application from having to perform a lot of error checking. Presenting choices to the user, instead of asking for more open-ended input, also allows them to concentrate on accomplishing tasks with your application, instead of remembering how to operate it.

Your application should respond to every user action with some visible change.

Keep actions simple and straightforward so users can easily understand and remember them

Whenever possible, use standard controls and behaviors that users are already familiar with.

appearance has a strong impact on functionality: An application that appears cluttered or illogical is hard to understand and use.

Aesthetic integrity is not a measure of how beautiful your application is. It’s a measure of how well the appearance of your application integrates with its function. For example, a productivity application should keep decorative elements subtle and in the background, while giving prominence to the task by providing standard controls and behaviors.

An immersive application is at the other end of the spectrum, and users expect a beautiful appearance that promises fun and encourages discovery.

appearance still needs to integrate with the task.

"I'd be really concerned about corporate ideals taking precedence over a non-profit's mission, and I would be equally concerned about the stigma of government money sometimes really limiting what you can do. How can you promote the real, true essence of a non-profit's mission with the restrictions that a corporation or a government might put on that?"

Bryan Ayers, CEO of Great Barrington-based Community Health Programs, said the bonds would offer a new way to fund long-term community-based prevention and health programs, but that to be truly effective investment groups must be willing to wait for results.

Aside from pure monetary donations, however, is a new model that is transforming corporate philanthropy.

Increasingly, corporations are turning to a shared value model, in which companies work in alignment with society rather than against it, producing mutual benefits to both the community and the corporation

It evolves the traditional model of financial and material goods donations, to one in which corporations leverage a range of corporate assets including employee skills, business acumen and partner networks, to drive social change.

Here’s the shift: Instead of viewing it as our responsibility to drive business and social value, view it also a valuable opportunity to rethink existing practices.

The business case for social innovation

there are a variety of benefits for an organization, from brand building, to staff retention, and even improved client stickiness. Shareholders and the investment community are also increasingly considering corporate responsibility when making investment decisions.

collaborations can drive innovation through necessity. Non-profits work in extreme environments, faced with limited infrastructure, connectivity and staff. Operating in these situations exposes corporate staff to new sets of customer challenges, which can often deliver innovations in product design or services into the business.

by working with a non-profit organization, a corporation can demonstrate its expertise to a new audience, expanding its business network.

Increasingly, investors weigh environmental, social and governance  data when making investment decisions. While such data has been a benchmark for European-based companies for some time, we are now seeing a more global adoption and interest in this, which should be another forcing function for more corporations to act as good corporate citizens.

Applying social innovation in practic

A good starting point is to assess the company’s available skills, expertise, partnerships against the touch-points the company currently has within a given community. From there, establish specific goals to achieve and a strategic plan to meet those goals.

Companies that have an expertise in technology, for example, can collaborate with non-profits or social entrepreneurs to provide the infrastructure backbone that turn their ideas into reality. With the social enterprise mPedigree Network, HP leveraged its technology expertise in cloud-based services to design and build an anti-drug counterfeiting service in Africa. Counterfeit medicine is a significant problem in developing countries, causing more than 700,000 deaths each year. The new service helps save lives by enabling patients to validate the integrity of their medicine by sending a free text message.

Gabi Zedlmayer is Vice President of Hewlett-Packard’s Office of Global Social Innovation.