Earlier this week I went on Seb Lee's Creative JS course (which I would highly recommend). The course covered the bascis and early advanced aspects of the HTML5 Canvas element and the JS to accompany it.

During the course we started to build the classics Asteroids game in JS. Since then I have finalised my version (completed with a couple of easter eggs - see if you can discover them).

Check out the iframe above (although some OSs wont accept the key depressions via iframe) or click here to be taken directly to my full screen version the JavaScaript Canvas Asteroids.

I would put together a tutorial for this but instead feel that anyone actually interested in learning this kind of stuff would be stupid not to attend one of Seb Lees workshop days.

To celebrate the time of year (and in preperation for a course I'm on with Seb Lee tomorrow) I've been playing around with HTML5 Canvas and come up with this simple snow effect.

Watch it snow here.

This uses some simple randomisations so each visitor gets a unique experience. Next I want to make the snow flakes spin but I may or may not ever get around to it.

So yesterday I released to the world the first piece of API intergration work I've ever properly undertaken*: the Crime Rate Calculator.

This tool uses the police.uk APIs to search their database of recently updated crime stats to find out what the crime levels are like in your local area.

I was just doing this for fun ( / to get better at something I've never really tried before) but was originally inspired when I heard about Youth Rewired State - an awesome project where kids are encouraged to learn how to code and manipulate publicly available data by industry experts.

I've had some lovely feedback on this project already on twitter - thank you all... but would also appriciate any comments that could help me improve - including if you spot any bugs - just use the comments section below.

In the mean time if you've ever wondered what the crive rates or levels are like in your area please visit www.dixign.co.uk/crime.

Soon to come - a how to guide on using the tools available on police.uk.


*excluding adding 'like' and 'follow' buttons to website which, to be honest, doesn't really count.

So I've been away from the blog for a little bit. I have however written an article for Charity Comms on encouaging supporter action using social proof.

I'm going to get a couple of pieces up here over the next week so keep your eyes peeled.

I'm very aware that this is my second 'Coca Cola' orientated article in a row and I don't want to turn this into a corporate blog (although if you're offering??!) but this is pretty damn sexy!

Please see the video above... this was installed at the National University of Singapore by marketing company Ogilvy & Mather.

As Anthony Kosney points out the genius of the campaign is that "In a world where Facebook likes and photo comments are considered  “social gestures,” manipulating consumers to make specific gestures is  top-of-mind for marketers today. This campaign[...] is an incredibly overt version of this trope."

The reason I like it, however, is the physical association of a 'Hug' with Coca Cola. An action is always the most memorable. In a digital landscape users often forget sites they have visited, purchases made, twitters followed and fan pages liked - that’s because the only aspect of that experience that ever changes is a small area of our vision - the patch of screen on the device we're using.

Our minds are wired to remember the physical experiences and journeys. Experience is multisensory (which is often why remember unrelated things when we taste or smell something out of the ordinary). Here Coca Cola are associating many sensory appeals - visual (the brand), touch (the machine) and taste (the product). Get a user to perform this task multiple times and it's not too far fetched (well, maybe a little) to assume that they might remember the taste of the drink the next time they hug their partner, or feel like they're getting a hug when they see the classic Coke brand.

With my digital cap on I can't help but wonder how this might marry up to Coca Cola other social project (CLICK HERE) might work!

After spelling out the virtues of responsive design in a number of blogs now I realised its time to actually pull my finger out and make dixign mobile ready... so I have...

If you aren't already - visit us on your mobile - it works!