Creative Blog Station

Google’s newest app for emerging markets is a service that helps control data usage on a smartphone and get more for your top-up credit. Datally, which is  available for Android devices  worldwide from today, applies granular control to enable a user to monitor use of data on their phone and cut data usage on any app as they please. The app design is simple and it appears to be effective. A pilot test in the Philippines gained 500,000 users who typically saved 30 percent of their data plan using the app. That makes particular sense in emerging markets like India, where the app is primarily focused, and Southeast Asia, where it was trialled, since most smartphone owners have prepaid SIM cards which take them offline when the credit is spent. Beyond helping cut out data-heavy apps when a user wants to focus on a different service or app, Datally also provides an update on how much data each app is consuming — Google calls this a ‘speedometer for data...

As UI design gets more interactive, new skills and faces emerge to give us a lesson on how to get animations and movement right when creating delightful screens for rather little devices. To understand how to achieve these small but effective moments of user satisfaction, we’ve talked with  Johny Vino , one of UpLab’s masters when it comes to sleek animations. If you’ve been around UpLabs for a while, Johny Vino’s name won’t sound new to you. He’s been constantly delivering amazing UI designs since he joined the community. His work is extremely popular:  he’s finished #1 on UpLabs 120 times  (to date!) and he’s ranked as the  #1 designer among the 200.000+ amazing designers contributing daily. You can check his fantastic stats and medals on his profile! Impressive numbers aside, we wanted to explore together with Johny his day to day life and how he keeps his workflow and productivity always high. He agreed to an extensive interview with us and we couldn’t be...