Multi-device design best practices and pitfalls

Patrick Haney and Jenna Marino take you through the practices to follow and mistakes to avoid when designing for smart devices of all shapes and sizes

Designers today have a number of things working in their favour. They are able to search a vast collection of resources for documentation and inspiration online, they can become part of a community around specific devices and operating systems, and they can easily collaborate and share knowledge with their colleagues.

But with all the technological advances in our society, a designer’s responsibilities have begun to bleed into other areas as well. Design constraints are no longer just about screen sizes and operating systems. Here are some tips and tricks to help any designer in our new, multi-device, connected world.

The future of Content Management

What will tomorrow’s online content look like, and how will we go about managing it? Angus Edwardson explores three key strategies

By the end of the decade there will be 10 times as many connected, content-serving devices on earth as there are humans. This puts a lot of pressure on those of us in the business of serving content. How do we make sure the stuff we’re putting out there actually means something to our users?

Securing your NAS drive

Being able to access your data from anywhere is hugely empowering, but it brings with it an element of risk. We explain how to keep your precious files safe

The key advantage of a NAS drive is the ability to access your data from across your network, and even over the internet - otherwise you may as well just add a few extra hard disks to your desktop system. But making your data visible over the internet also puts it at risk. Unlike additional hard drives in an existing computer, NAS storage won’t be protected by a computer’s antivirus, anti-malware or firewall provisions. It needs protections of its own.

Get smooth video streaming

Have trouble playing movies and TV streamed from the web? Here’s the cure for choppy playback and frequent buffering

If you're a big video streamer, the buffering icon is probably about your most hated thing in the universe — especially when it happens frequently and breaks the immersion in whatever you’re watching.

Fix wireless black spots

Got the wireless blues? Cheer up: here’s how you can eliminate them

Wireless black spots are a problem in a huge number of homes. According to Arris’ 2015 Consumer Entertainment Index, nearly 30% of people are forced to use wireless range extenders to cover their entire home, and more than half (54%) want better coverage for Wi-Fi in their home.

Brother MFC-J4620DW

This Brother model printer is aimed squarely at the small and home office sector. It sits in the mid-level of the SOHO Brother range and offers an astonishing array of features that will keep most users happy for as long as the printer still functions.

Obviously there’s the usual scanning and copying functionality, but the MFC-J4620DW goes a step further and adds printing up to A3 size, faxing and the ability to connect to OneDrive and Dropbox. There’s also support for NFC, AirPrint, Google Cloud Print and iPrint&Sca, and you’ll find 802.11b/g/n wi-fi and a 100Mbps Ethernet port.