Unboxed Roundup: Our links for w/c 3rd August 2015

Using Slack to work differently and better - Dom M

http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/07/how-7-news-organizations-are-using-slack-to-work-better-and-differently/

Here at Unboxed, we use Slack to democratise decision making and share knowledge across the organisation. This article shares intimate details of how seven news orgs use Slack as a tool to change the way they work.

Sexual disease map of USA - Dom M

https://www.rentapplication.com/these-are-the-most-sexually-diseased-cities-in-the-usa/

This is the perfect intersection of Unboxed's work with SH:24, providing digital sexual health testing 24hrs a day in London, and our love of data...

One Step Forward, Two Steps Slack? - Chris C

www.unboxed.co/blog/communication-one-step-forward-two-steps-slack

I decided to write a post about the way we use Slack, how amazing it is, but also how it should be used with care. We’re not all robots yet, why not have a face-to-face conversation once in a while?

In Agile development, what does a designer do before, during and after a sprint? - Dom M

https://developers.google.com/design-sprint/downloads/DesignSprintMethods.pdf

Here's what Google's UXteam think is ideal designer behaviour before, during and after a sprint. Do you agree?

How UX thinking can influence your whole project, for the better - Dom M

https://www.theguardian.com/info/developer-blog/2015/jul/27/the-user-experience-of-creative-sprints

Here at Unboxed, we know that user centric design is a critical skill in successful project delivery. This neat article summarises why.

Performance boost coming in Rails 5 - Andrew W

http://engineering.heroku.com/blogs/2015-08-06-patching-rails-performance/

Richard Schneeman used the new Heroku metrics platform to provide insight on what are the typical performance and memory bottlenecks in Rails apps and then sent in a pull request that gives a greater than 10% performance boost and a 29% decrease in the number of allocated objects per request. The great thing is that the tools he used are all open source so you can use them to identify areas where you can boost the performance of your app too.

Twitter spats resemble paint splats - Dom M

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/539856/this-is-what-controversies-look-like-in-the-twittersphere/

A new way of visualising Twitter disagreements creates little 'fireworks' from explosive conversations

Chief architect of 'Government as a service' to departs GDS, leaves potent legacy - Dom M

https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2015/08/03/onwards/

Mike Bracken has implemented huge changes in the way the UK Government delivers digital services, winning design awards for minimalistic government sites, and influencing Canadian, Australian, American, other governments in the process. Here's his farewell blog, in his usual low-key style.

Track of the Week - Willa

This is a quirky set of ambient-ish electronic tunes. Not dissimilar to elevator music at times, but with a unique sound that makes you go, "hey, this is kinda cool!"