Blog
Building collaborative relationships between designers and developers
January 5, 2021
Designers and developers speak different languages, have different needs, yet we are still working towards the same goal. Through my time at Unboxed, I have been working on making the transition of features smoother from design to development. Thi...
2020 at Unboxed: the year in review
December 14, 2020
2020 really has been one of the most challenging years that I can remember, with three things in particular taking their toll on me personally and those around me.
Ongoing Brexit shenanigans carried us into the year with tremendous uncertainty, t...
The joy of journalling
December 7, 2020
Have you ever kept a journal of any kind?
Many of us will have kept diaries at some point in our lives and we might cringe at the thought of the drama of a teenage diary. But keeping a journal, or a to-do list can be a very positive part of dail...
Repairs and maintenance workshop - how it went
December 7, 2020
Effective management of repairs and maintenance is something that can make a huge difference to people’s lives. This is how our workshop with HACT helped produce some innovative, resident-centred ideas
Unboxed has been working with HACT (Housing ...
How we’ve experienced working in a pandemic
November 27, 2020
“I feel extremely lucky - I have work that inspires me, space and tools to work from home, financial security, a team that is self-organising, team mates that are friends too, a business that’s not severely impacted by Covid and lockdown, a family...
Tech Round-up: SpaceX, a monster wolf robot scarecrow, a Pi in a ke...
November 17, 2020
We keep an eye on the latest technology developments so you don’t have to. Here are some of the things we’ve spotted recently that are changing our world - or at least, helping us raise a smile in challenging times.
Crew Dragon certified to carry...
What makes a good Rails upgrade?
October 26, 2020
Recently, Unboxed has been working with a large organisation to help upgrade the various Rails applications that make up their website to Rails 6. Personally, I had done a few upgrades here and there, but never on such a wide scale and such a larg...
Tech Round-up: Remote-control shelf-stackers, Tour de France in AR ...
September 4, 2020
We keep an eye on the latest technology developments so you don’t have to. Here are some of the things we’ve spotted recently that are changing our world - or at least, helping us raise a smile in challenging times.
General Motors prioritises ele...
Tech Round-up: Walking the (robot) dog, painting in VR and electric...
August 12, 2020
We keep an eye on the latest technology developments so you don’t have to. Here are some of the things we’ve spotted recently that are changing our world - or at least, helping us raise a smile in challenging times.
Walking the (robot) dog
Their...
Tech Round-up: A new Russian robot, Google's hieroglyphics translat...
July 24, 2020
We keep an eye on the latest technology developments so you don’t have to. Here are some of the things we’ve spotted recently that are changing our world for the better - or at least, helping us raise a smile in challenging times.
A new Russian r...
Challenges and opportunities: Using the GOV.UK Prototype Kit for ba...
July 21, 2020
Background
The GOV.UK prototype kit is a great tool for creating accessible, interactive prototypes for public services. It ensures a quality of standard when creating coded prototypes that would be harder to achieve if building from scratch eve...
Some ideas for what a user centred planning register could look lik...
July 9, 2020
Yesterday, I published a blog post that questioned whether now is the time to pull local planning register data together onto a national platform. I also shared some of the feedback we’d heard, from planning officers, about the problems with some ...
Tech Round-up: Instant avatars, drones that blow bubbles and Apple’...
July 8, 2020
Modelling 3-D humans from a single photo
The rise of VR - whether in gaming or digital workplaces or learning environments - means that more and more of us will want to transport ourselves into virtual worlds, body and all, in the shape of a real...
Is now the time to build a national platform of planning data?
July 8, 2020
Quick answer: we think it might be!
We’re currently building a new back office system (BoPS) for council planners to more easily assess planning applications from householders.
However, when an application comes into the council it doesn’t ju...
Tech roundup: Digital doppelgangers, diagnostic clothes and process...
June 16, 2020
We keep an eye on the latest technology developments so you don’t have to. Here are some of the digital and high-tech product developments that have been making the headlines over the last week or two.
Lifelike robots take one step closer
Today’...
Promenade: Looking for help to test the MVP
June 15, 2020
A couple of months ago, we kicked off an internal project within Unboxed to create an application that would allow patients to capture Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) and share them with their clinical team. You can read a little more ...
Promenade: Weeknotes #6
June 8, 2020
We’re working on an internal project named ‘Promenade’ — a digital application for non-urgent patients to remotely track their conditions, such as arthritis, away from hospital. Find out more about the project here.
This week, we’ve started addin...
Promenade - Weeknotes #5
May 29, 2020
We’re working on an internal project named ‘Promenade’ — a digital application for non-urgent patients to remotely track their conditions, such as arthritis, away from hospital. Find out more about the project here.
Now that most of the basic fun...
Tech roundup: AR art installations, electric vehicles advance and c...
May 29, 2020
We keep an eye on the latest technology developments so you don’t have to. Here are some of the digital product developments that have been making the headlines over the last week or two.
Augmented reality art installations
Fancy a temporary art...
Put away your fancy tools: running remote workshops for humans
May 28, 2020
During the last few months we’ve all had to make adjustments and working remotely has certainly brought with it a number of challenges.
At Unboxed, we place a lot of value on participatory design, and we try to involve our clients and users of th...
Remote communication fatigue and wellbeing
May 22, 2020
We’ve been working remotely from our homes for over eight weeks now since the COVID-19 pandemic hit and we’ve quickly had to adapt our ways of working and communicating.
Technology enables us to continue working with each other and our customers...
Promenade - Weeknotes #4
May 22, 2020
We’re working on an internal project named ‘Promenade’ — a digital application for non-urgent patients to remotely track their conditions, such as arthritis, away from hospital. Find out more about the project here.
Through a series of holidays a...
UX Healthcare online conference 2020
May 21, 2020
On Thursday 14th March, Melanie Martin (Advanced Physiotherapy Practitioner in Rheumatology at Guy’s and St. Thomas, Topol Digital Fellow and NHSX Clinical Advisor) and I gave a talk at the UX Healthcare 2020 online conference.
Our session for t...
Tech roundup: Cars with eyes, a Lego microscope and an AI with comm...
May 14, 2020
We keep an eye on the latest technology developments so you don’t have to. Here are some of the things we’ve spotted recently that are changing our world for the better — or at least, helping us raise a smile in challenging times.
Cars with eye...
Promenade: Weeknotes #3
May 11, 2020
We’ve just finished the third week of our dive into an internal project named ‘Promenade’ — a digital application for non-urgent patients to remotely track their conditions, such as arthritis, away from hospital.
The current COVID-19 ...
Promenade: Weeknotes #2
May 1, 2020
Here at Unboxed, we’ve been working on an internal project named ‘Promenade’ — a digital application to remotely monitor non-urgent patients with conditions, such as arthritis, away from hospital.
Our project vision:
For people with stable long...
Tech roundup: Living liquid sculptures, flat-pack genius and more
April 30, 2020
We keep an eye on the latest technology developments so you don’t have to. Here are some of the things we’ve spotted recently that are changing our world for the better — or at least, helping us raise a smile in challenging times.
Choose your d...
How we’re making it easier to assess planning applications and why ...
April 29, 2020
When it comes to the UK planning system there are many problems to solve.
It’s fair to say that very few people, possibly nobody, enjoys applying for planning permission. Navigating a myriad of guidance to determine whether or not you need to app...
Tech roundup: Virtual reality and self-generating tyres
April 16, 2020
We keep an eye on the latest technology developments so you don’t have to. Here are some of the things we’ve spotted recently that are changing our world for the better - or at least, helping us raise a smile in challenging times. Harvesting he...
The future planning system for local authorities
April 15, 2020
Planning teams and departments across UK local authorities are currently experiencing a sector-wide problem: the back-office systems being used to process planning applications aren’t meeting the needs of the planning officers that need them to do...