After Apple booted Google Maps from iOS last year, Daniel Graf led the development of a beautiful, refreshed mapping experience that shot to number one in the iTunes store and kicked Apple’s ass on its own turf. Here’s how Graf made it happen—in his own words:
“We have a very successful Android version of Google Maps, so the easiest thing to do was to say, this is super-successful, users love it, so why don’t we just port it over to iOS? But I wanted to challenge the team. While the Android version is a great product, you can also tell it’s been around for a while. You have to access everything via menus—it’s not really best-use-case driven anymore. I said, let’s take a step back—what if we could start from scratch and forget anything we’ve ever done? We have the foundation—the Google data, the mapping data, the local business data, the imagery, the navigation algorithms—it’s a dream to start with.”
Nearly 100 people joined us last Saturday for ONA dCamp at the Washington Post, which focused on using human-centered design to improve workflows and projects.
We’ve pulled together a ton of photos, gifs and Vines from ONA dCamp to show you what design thinking means and how folks applied it to the problems they wanted to solve in their newsrooms.
![The New Yorker has introduced Strongbox, a tool for users to submit documents and correspondence without fear of being traced. Amy Davidson notes in her description of the tool that readers and sources have sent materials to the New Yorker for decades, but now, more than ever, it’s easier to trace where they came from. She writes, “[A]s it’s set up, even we won’t be able to figure out where files sent to us come from. If anyone asks us, we won’t be able to tell them.”
The tool was created by Aaron Swartz and Kevin Poulsen. The image above, created by the New Yorker, demonstrates how it works.
Read more: Introducing Strongbox, a Tool for Anonymous Document-Sharing : The New Yorker](http://24.media.tumblr.com/033a45447c5dc3dcdf3653e884b10517/tumblr_mmuovrOwv81qiw6fso1_500.jpg)
The New Yorker has introduced Strongbox, a tool for users to submit documents and correspondence without fear of being traced. Amy Davidson notes in her description of the tool that readers and sources have sent materials to the New Yorker for decades, but now, more than ever, it’s easier to trace where they came from. She writes, “[A]s it’s set up, even we won’t be able to figure out where files sent to us come from. If anyone asks us, we won’t be able to tell them.”
The tool was created by Aaron Swartz and Kevin Poulsen. The image above, created by the New Yorker, demonstrates how it works.
Read more: Introducing Strongbox, a Tool for Anonymous Document-Sharing : The New Yorker
“At Bloomberg, reporters could sit at their desks and use a keyboard function to see the last time an official of the Federal Reserve logged on. And the Justice Department obtained the records of The Associated Press from phone companies with no advance notice, giving it no chance to challenge the action. The absence of friction has led to a culture of transgression. Clearly, if it can be known, it will be known.” — David Carr, Snooping and the news media: it’s a two way street (via soupsoup)
“In mid-April, we went live with a half dozen articles which we call “stubs.” The idea here is to plant a flag in a story right away with a short post—a “stub”—and then build the article as the story develops over time, rather than just cranking out short, discrete posts every time something new breaks. One of our writers refers to this aptly as a “slow live blog.” —
This Is What Happens When Publishers Invest In Long Stories ⚙ Co.Labs ⚙ code community
The results of Fast Company’s experiment with “stubs” — which allowed them to gradually create long-form journalism — pleasantly surprised the team when it brought a lot of traffic. Learn more about their strategy and check out snapshots of their site analytics from Chris Dannen.
“The DOJ’s actions — gathering two months of records for more than 20 telephone lines, both from major AP bureaus and the home and cell phones of individual AP journalists — is a startling and potentially dangerous overreach of its powers, powers that are strictly limited under the DOJ’s own guidelines for issuing subpoenas to the news media for testimony and evidence.” —
ONA President Jim Brady, Editor-in-Chief, Digital First Media
ONA has joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 50 other media organizations in issuing a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding its subpoenaing of telephone records belonging to The Associated Press.
Read more: Letter from ONA President: DOJ overstepped bounds in AP subpoena - Online News Association
How to keep a student news site updated with RebelMouse | Poynter. -
Useful tips on how to make sure you have fresh content on your student news site over the summer, written by Kelly Fincham, a member of the ONA Educators group.
We’re thrilled that Nate Silver will keynote at 2013 Online News Association Conference this year. The data forecaster at FiveThirtyEight.com will join us at ONA13 for a conversation on data journalism. Read more on journalists.org.
Registration for ONA13 is open, and you should register now so you get the early-bird discount.
[video]
“We knew from the outset that it was incredibly important to foster a really robust and vibrant conversation on these issues, and we knew, also, that it’s really easy for conversations about race, ethnicity, and culture to go off the rails” — Monday Q&A: NPR’s Matt Thompson on Code Switch, covering race and culture, and developing a mobile audience » Nieman Journalism Lab