Andy Chung

28 Jan, 2012 - "No more posts here"

Heyo, no more posts here, I’m going to be blogging at andychung.me from now on using Scriptogram.

30 Sep, 2011 - "Onto the next thing"

Today marks my last day as a designer at Mozilla. It’s really strange to think that it has already been two years since I started. I feel like I’ve learned and grown so much over my time here and I’m sad to say I’m leaving this amazing place. I’ve met some of the most inspiring people, made great friends, and had so many awesome experiences while here—I’m so grateful to have been a part of this organization.

With that, I’m also excited to say that next month I will be relocating to the Bay Area to join the product design team at Facebook. I’ll be moving at the end of October, so if you’re down in that area, say hello!

7 Sep, 2011 - "BookClub Use Case"

My brother just started his 4th and final year at ECU today. After class he showed me an assigned reading, a more or less unformatted html version of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. For a piece of that length it was fairly unpleasant to read, so I broke it up into three parts and threw it into the BookClub format. It took about 30 minutes to do (most of which was spent looking for a nice cover image), and I think it yielded a 100% improvement in reading experience.

In my opinion this is a great use case for BookClub - with some ‘app-ification’ it would be a great tool for educators to assign readings in easy to read HTML.

See the unformatted version here (before), and the BookClub version here (after) - and remember to use ‘J’ & ‘K’ keys for navigation.

29 Aug, 2011 - "Thunderbird Conversations"

During the Summer of 2010 I helped Jonathan Protzenko refine the UI for his Thunderbird add-on, Thunderbird Conversations. TB Conversations is a much requested feature which gives Thunderbird the ability to render emails as threaded conversations the same way Gmail does.

This Summer Jonathan visited from Paris once again to work on TB Conversations, during which time we worked together on improving some features of his add-on.

Current Quick Compose

One point of interest is the new Quick Compose we worked on. The current Gmail and TB Conversations Compose shows a singular text box within which you would type your reply. The problem with the singular text box is that it doesn’t implicitly tell you whether you are replying to an individual, or to an entire conversation. Though I’m admittedly happy with my Gmail default of ‘reply all’ 99% of the time, there have been more than a few times I have replied to an entire thread by accident.

gmail Gmail’s compose with a somewhat ambiguous text box

Gmail does allow you to choose individual actions such as ‘reply’, ‘reply all’ and ‘forward’, however these are presented as small targets in comparison to the nice big text box.

Quick Compose Revised

For the revision of the TB Conversations Quick Compose we chose to implement two large, clearly labeled text boxes as the main call to action, with lesser used actions still available on the right. By doing this we avoid user confusion, but still maintain a simple one click composition flow.

The revised Thunderbird Conversations Quick Compose

Demo

There’s a quick demo of the interaction here. The actions above the Quick Reply area are all placeholder in the demo, and in the live version there is an indication as to what you have chosen (reply vs. reply all, with an ability to toggle between the two).

26 Aug, 2011 - "Typecast"

Here’s the letter ‘Z’ I designed for the Typecast show at Also Known As studio. I’ve also added this as a project where you can check out a detail shot and a bit more info.

19 Aug, 2011 - "Updates"

Just a couple notes on some exciting things coming up outside the usual work stuff. Next week I’ll be participating in a show at Also Known As studio called Typecast. The show is a group exhibition intended to showcase type as a creative medium. The show opens on August 25th at 314 west Cordova St. suite 220 in Vancouver BC, Canada from 5-10pm. You can take a look at the poster for the show for a full lineup of artists.

I’ve also been invited as part of a proposed panel on content strategy at next years SXSW Interactive by Amy Thibodeau, a content strategist working for Facebook and living in Vancouver. Panels are accepted based on the number of votes given by the public, so if you’re into it a vote here would be greatly appreciated.

29 Jun, 2011 - "Web FWD"

We just launched a new project I’ve been working on at Mozilla called Web FWD. Web FWD is a startup incubator aimed at accelerating innovation on the open web. I took care of the web design and Sean Martell put together the word mark. The site has a fun scrolling effect that I’m quite happy with.

Check out the page at webfwd.org

24 Jun, 2011 - "Cheaper Show Installation"

Outdoor installations at Broadway and Kingsway

I was lucky to have my work not only shown at the Cheaper Show this year, but also featured as part of a public installation located outside of this year’s venue. The show is this coming Saturday, the 25th of June. Excited!

24 Jun, 2011 - "Iceland"

I just got back from a two week vacation to Stockholm to visit my brother who is studying furniture design at the Carl Malmsten school of design. While there we took a short trip to Iceland for 5 nights to explore and see the place. I just posted a set of photos from the trip on Flickr, you can view the whole set here.

8 Jun, 2011 - "Cheaper Show 2011"

Quick photo of my pieces for the Cheaper Show #10

Just a quick update after a bit of a hiatus. I’ve been working on a couple pieces for the upcoming Cheaper Show #10 here in Vancouver which I’ve been fortunate enough to take part in - super excited to see the whole thing come together. I just finished framing my pieces tonight before I leave for a vacation tomorrow to visit my brother in Sweden and Iceland. Super excited to leave my computer behind and take a few weeks off work. Hopefully when I get back I’ll be able to get some proper documentation of these pieces at the Cheaper Show venue, but until this awful iPhone snap will have to do!