Lucky Dip Vol 6 — digital & tech showcase
In this edition we learn about Google Team Drive, Yoyo Desktop, tech temporary tattoos, show off two new website projects + new features on sheffieldsu.com
Results and answers are shared from the Lucky Treasure Hunt Quiz with random prizes of wellbeing — including Pin the emoji on the mobile! Plus our albums and books of 2016, compiled into a Lucky List for everyone to glean insight and entertainment into what moves us. *-__-*
Two new, hand built websites
Over recent months we’ve been working on two collaborative digital projects, to design and build new websites for the Students Union.
Our first digital project foundrysu.com is a new event based website built by our very own in house developer, Ayo. She worked with MSL who have hosted our ticketing site for the past 5 years.
The website is focused around students and non-students alike. Showcasing our growing live gig listings, weekly nightclub events, comedy and talks.
The project was lead by SU Entertainments team with Tech Dev supporting from a technical and digital perspective. Mr Karl Cox, one of our favorite freelance designers produced the design which our developer then built the site to.
Our second project sheffieldstore.com is a brand new e-commerce store, enabling us to expand product range and drop ship items.
Early results are extremely positive, with a 200% increase in sales year on year since launch in November 2016.
For this project we worked with Bafta award winning design agency Joi Polloi. They won a competitive pitch to win the work. Their expertise ensured we built a solid foundation to expand our already successful online store.
As part of their work with the Students’ Union we developed a new identity for the store which strongly links to the SU’s core brand and University of Sheffield students. Crucially we achieved more, at a greater speed and with great results by working with an expert partner.
New tricks for sheffieldsu.com
Not to be left out, we demoed some new features we’re now rolling out on our main SU website. All of which enhance the users experience on mobile, including:
- Responsive section headers — For branding and navigation. Feedback to the user where they are in the website. And responsive on mobile, re-sizing to the screen you’re viewing the site on.
- Touch Slider — Users can scroll through slide graphics or images accompanied by editorial and content links.
- Facebook Embed — As we have done with Twitter, we can now embed Facebook pages.
- Inline Accordion — Perhaps the most powerful of our new features. This enables the user to ‘peak’ at content in accordion drop downs. In testing this is reassuring to the user, so they can be confident before committing that they are progressing to the content they need or wish to view.
- Rotating MPUs — Our advertising team have been using this for a few months now as it gives us 3x more content in the same space.
- Pop Ups & Timers — Used for large campaigns such as SU Officer Elections and Sheffield Varsity. We now have the ability to show a ‘pop up’ message to all users when visiting the site. We’ll be using this during voting in the SU Officer Election. You’ll also have seen the ticker timers we use for these campaigns.
Google Team Drive
This is a super useful upgrade to Google G Suite, read all about it here. It eliminates the issues of personal ownership of google files. We recommend your team begin using it, get in touch with Tech Dev for any support:
su-itsupport@sheffield.ac.uk
Nice to Know Dip
MIT developed ‘DuoSkin’ is based on temporary/fashionable metallic tattoos that can interface with tech via your skin. Press your tattoo to turn lights on, change tv channels or switch tunes on your stereo… What would you use it for?
Pin the Emoji on the Mobile
Looking back can often be amusing, we did it with a twist on an old classic. We asked our audience to guess which was each of the Tech Dev teams first mobile phone. How? By pinning an emoji head of each of the team onto the mobile they thought was our first handset. Interesting to note how 4 of the 5 were Nokia, oh how times have changed. Create your own ‘pin the emoji on the mobile’ here. For the quiz results & answers scroll below.
Here’s an interactive timeline of the history and evolution of the mobile phone. Plot your own handsets as you go…
Linking back to a previous Dip where we played with the Amazon Echo, Wynn Las Vegas hotel is to outfit all of its 4,700-plus rooms with the Amazon Echo. “Alexa, close the curtains, turn on the lights…” sounds like the future? Its here for summer 2017.
Lucky Inspiration
“Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.”― Albert Schweitzer
Yoyo Desktop
A rundown of the introduction of Yoyo Desktop, being rolled out across the SU — it’s practically the same as Windows 7 we currently use, in many ways you’ll not notice the difference.
However there are some great benefits to you. Some of the SU staff team will be using Yoyo already, but you might not be aware of the reasons behind the change:
Novell, our old solution, has reached End Of Life and will no longer be supported (no bug fixes, no security patches, no support). The University’s CiCS team are therefore moving away from Novell, towards a Microsoft solution. The change also provides better integration/easier to use desktop (No more black box for U: drive and X: drive for those that use it), smoother integration with future shared drive system.
One of the biggest benefits is access to the new ‘Software Centre’ with such things as free use of Adobe Creative Cloud software and many more software packages. Others include:
- Printing: now linked directly to your login — this means that you can’t log in as one person, then send your print jobs to a different username; that step has been removed entirely
- Security updates — this is good from my point of view, but something to be aware of — security updates are now forced after a certain period of time — if you don’t shut down your computer regularly, it will shut itself down! (It does give you fair warning).
Lucky Treasure Hunt Quiz — the results & answers
As our intrepid Lucky Dip audience shared and discovered what’s new in digital we issued Lucky Quiz sheets for you to complete at each station. The winner of course getting a random prize of wellbeing.
See the answers below and congrats to Lucy for gaining the quiz master crown.
ANSWERS — Questions for the Treasure Hunt
Guess the release year – when were these apps launched into the world?
- Candy Crush Saga – 2012
- Instagram – 2010
- Timehop – 2013
- Whatsapp – January 2010
- Snapchat – Sep 2011
- Facebook – 2004
- Twitter – 2006
When was the hashtag first used on twitter? – August 2007, The hashtag (#), first proposed by user Chris Messina, debuts on Twitter.
‘Pin the emoji on the mobile’ – Like pin the tail on the donkey!
- Ayo’s first phone – Nokia 7110
- Sophie’s Nokia 3310
- Patrick – Nokia 3510i
- Chris – Nokia 2110
- Tony — iPhone 5
When was the first iphone released? – June 29th 2007.
Fun Facts about Tech Dev Team
- How old are the tech dev team collectively -175
- Sophie’s fact – Born in the same year as texting was invented! 1993
- Chris’s eldest child and first iphone were born in – 2007
- What year did Tony get a mobile phone? 2016
- What mobile brand is Ayo’s favourite? Blackberry
- How many times has Patrick broken his mobile screen? 2
Guess which Harry Potter houses we are in (just cos Sophie luv’s Potter)?
You can find out yours here.
- Sophie – Ravenclaw
- Ayo – Hufflepuff
- Patrick – Hufflepuff
- Chris – Hufflepuff
- Patrick – Hufflepuff
Patronus
- Sophie – Fox Terrier
- Ayo – Mink
- Patrick – Osprey
- Chris – Shrew
When was the first iPhone released? – June 29th 2007.
Lucky List — albums and books of 2016
Thanks all who contributed and here we share insight into what moves us. Plus your reading / playlists solved for 2017!
Books of 2016
Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
The life changing magic of not giving a f**k: How to stop spending time you don’t have doing things you don’t want to do with people you don’t like. By Sarah Knight
Peter Rabbit — Let’s Cuddle by Beatrix Potter
The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes
The Seed Collectors by Scarlett Thomas
Skyfaring by Mark Vanhoenacker
Ronnie — Autobiography by Ronnie Wood
Sprint, how to solve big problems and test new ideas in five days. By Jake Knapp with John Zeratsky & Braden Kowitz
Design The Life You Love by Ayse Buisel
Designing Your Life — How to build a well-lived joyfull life. By Bill Burnett & Dave Evans
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
The Huntress Moon by Alexandra Sokoloff (I recommend all 4 books in this series if you like a bit of murder!)
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
The Dictionary
Albums of 2016
A loud bash of teenage feelings — Beach Slang
A Seat at the Table — Solange
Grey Tickles, Black Pressure — John Grant
Starboy — The Weeknd
Hardwired…to Self-Destruct — Metallica
Years and Years — Communion
ANTI — Rihanna
Lemonade — Beyonce
I Cry When I Laugh — Jess Glynne
Made in the AM — One Direction
Currents — Tame Impala
Wildflower — The Avalanches
Mindfulness — Flyying Colours
Run Boy Run — Woodkid
Lucky Dip Library
For all the digital & tech wonders featured visit Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3, Vol 4 & Vol 5 Pt 1, Pt 2
