Think mobile messaging on steroids, Honk! mashes together every tool you’ll ever need to communicate creatively from your mobile. Mix IM, texting, drawing, email, LOLs and memes – that’s Honk! You can draw, take photos, image search the internet, use a picture from your library and type endless colourful text with one or as many fellow honkers as you like.

Honk! is a great alternative way to communicate with friends, show them what you’re up to and exchange nonsensical but engaging messages with them.

When you have nothing better to say or do, Honk!.

Honk! is available to download on the App Store and Google Play

Read more HERE

Since launching Rando on iOS three weeks ago, it’s been downloaded over 40,000 times with a total of 600,000 uploaded photos.

Rando is now available on Google Play  HERE

And App Store HERE

For more information read HERE

Take a picture. Send it to someone at random. Receive one back at random from someone else – it’s photo sharing in its purest form.

Free yourself from the constraints of social media. Escape the constant desire to seek ‘likes’ from others. Appreciate great photography.

DOWNLOAD IT HERE

READ MORE ABOUT RANDO HERE

Rando featured in TechCrunch and FastCo.DESIGN

MouthOff McDonald’s is available as a free download for Android and iPhone in the US and encourages fans to have fun with sound graphical fish mouths. McDonald’s also featured the app in its latest TV ads aired throughout America.

The original unbranded MouthOff™ was released in March 2009 and since then has spawned branded versions for children’s brands Ben 10 and Moshi Monsters. In all its guises it has been downloaded by more than 5.8 million people with over 63 million users sessions accounting for a total of 845,867 hours of usage…that’s about 96 years.

Featuring narration by actor and comedian Peter Serafinowicz and music from the single “Whale Trail” by Gruff Rhys from the Super Furry Animals, readers of the e-book can either listen to the narrated story or follow Willow’s plucky tale of mystery and adventure into the darkest depths of the sea at their own pace.

In conjunction with the launch of the e-book, ustwo™ has released Whale Trail Junior, a free and simplified version of the original game designed for three to six year olds.

Whale Trail Junior is a fun and colourful game. Flying through the magical skies of the Rainbow Kingdom as either Willow or one of his friends, players must collect blubbles and stars, avoid electrified thunder clouds, and unlock nine play zones and 12 characters and costumes as they advance through the colourful zones.

Earlier this year Penguin announced it had secured the global publishing rights for all languages across digital and physical formats as well as becoming the global licensing and TV agent for Whale Trail. Penguin Children’s will actively be seeking partners ongoing in various categories including toy, apparel, accessories and stationery as well as TV and film in 2013.

Since launching in November 2011, Whale Trail has been downloaded over 1.6 million times with over a third of downloads from the US.

Download Whale Trail – The Curse of Barron Von Barry HERE

Download Whale Trail Junior HERE

The advent calendar was part of a bigger initiative which has involved other businesses from Hackney including Poke, Mother, Jamie Oliver, elevenfiftyfive and Hackney Picturehouse, all helping Hackney council with its festive programme of special events and surprises set to run throughout December.

Other highlights include real snow canons installed around areas of Shoreditch by Poke, who also created a free app to allow passers by to set off their own blizzard. Ice skating rinks will be opened in St John at Hackney Churchyard and Hoxton Square alongside a magical lights display created by art and design specialist Jason Bruges Studios; Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Street Market will bring seasonal street food to Westland Place, and free film screenings are also taking place at St John at Hackney thanks to film company elevenfiftyfive.

For more information see HERE

We feel pretty strongly about this issue and decided to do something about it. We reached out to as many friends within the design community as possible and decided to create a campaign that would help collectively voice our concerns. The #includedesign campaign is a web based campaign and our aim is to encourage more companies and individuals to get involved and sign the petition to urge the Government to rethink its proposal to exclude Design and the arts from the English Baccalaureate and to add a sixth pillar option for these subjects into the Ebacc.

Together we believe that the innovation that fuels UK growth relies on knowledge, the skilled use of materials and the command of ideas. Design and the arts are vital components of an accessible and varied education system that can provide these skills.

Please get in touch and sign up HERE.

We worked with Channel 4’s Future Media & Technology team to design and build its YouView portal user experience, from front-end user interface and interaction design, through to full stack development and technical integration. Together with YouView and other content partners, we built the portal to detailed specifications to ensure a consistent and quality user experience.

We translated the established ‘lean forward’ experience of Channel 4′s existing web-based 4oD content into a ‘10-foot lean back’ TV experience. We considered the principal design challenges to be the optimum presentation of the vast volume of content, ease of interaction with the service via remote control rather than by keyboard or mouse, and designing a user experience suitable for a national user base of all ages.

The portal also offers easy access to recently viewed programmes via the ‘You Viewed’ section, as well as an information panel designed to act as an onward journey menu for viewing more content or returning to C4 or YouView. Finally the incorporation of a ‘hero carousel’ helped ensure brand alignment throughout the 4oD experience.

Kevin Gallagher, Chief Information Officer at Channel 4 said: “YouView is a major development bringing the benefits of catch up and connectivity to the television. Building on the success of our leading commercial On Demand platform 4oD, we’re grateful for the work ustwo™ have done alongside our development team on the YouView portal user experience to give viewers even greater access to their favourite Channel 4 programmes when they want.”

The Tech City 100 is a series of interviews with 100 people who are shaping the future of tech and digital business in the UK. Tech City Insider has been publishing these interviews on its site throughout the year with the aim of a producing a ‘yearbook’ with excerpts from those interviews at the end of the year. The interviews are a mix of video, audio and written articles.

Jules talks to Julian Blake about the business, our Stateside expansion and about user experience and how our user-centred thinking is part our DNA.

TechCityInsider is all about the people, issues, and companies defining the next generation of digital business in and around London.