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Archives for May 2017

An Easy Error Animation for Android

Blog, Development Posted: May 22, 2017

Let’s say a user is filling out a form, and they accidentally skip a required field.  How can we bring this to their attention?  Here’s what we did for a safety inspections app:

Android Animation

Showing a Snackbar is easy enough, but the secret sauce is in the error animation.  As it turns out, this “shake” animation can be built in about 10 lines of xml! The technique is borrowed from StepStone Tech’s awesome material stepper library (https://github.com/stepstone-tech/android-material-stepper).

Essentially, we are modifying the horizontal position of the view using a CycleInterpolator.  All values here can be modified to taste.  Here’s the animation xml we used.


/res/anim/two_cycle_interpolator
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<cycleInterpolator
 xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
 android:cycles="2"/>

/res/anim/shake_error
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<translate xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
 android:duration="400"
 android:fromXDelta="0%"
 android:interpolator="@anim/two_cycle_interpolator"
 android:toXDelta="8%" />

Now to apply it to a view, it’s as simple as:


Animation animation = AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(getContext(), R.anim.shake_error);
view.startAnimation(animation);

Ta da!  Super easy, and a nice user experience.

Inside What? The Start of #InsideHCSS

Blog, Featured, Talent Posted: May 22, 2017

The idea for #insideHCSS stemmed from discussions regarding a separate initiative, which turned out to be our Inside HCSS blog. The blog would be an outlet for our HCSS employees to share their perspectives on the company, providing greater insight for prospective job seekers and customers alike.

However, there was constant discussion on the type of content to be shown. As thoughts such as, “What if it included perspectives at a vendor conference? Is that even relevant?” or “Are we going to restrict it to only culture-related items?” were thrown around, the initiative seemed like it would be shot down. Fortunately, with support from our Director of Digital Marketing, Skyler Moss, the blog was launched.

During the “holding pattern,” I was thinking about alternative options for employees to share their experiences. Daniel Chee, one of our Technical Support Analysts, had already started the Inside HCSS Instagram account. I’ve been part of launching a hashtag campaign in the past, so I thought, ‘Why not at HCSS?” So our hashtag, #insideHCSS, was born. It’s a transparent way to easily organize and showcase content from various social media channels on what life is like at HCSS.

Partnering with our Social Media Intern, Jack Briscoe, and our avid employee ambassador Daniel, we launched a Friday lunch presentation in mid-November 2016 to introduce the hashtag and its purpose to the rest of the organization. We hosted some contests to promote the hashtag and keep it top-of-mind for employees whenever they captured an HCSS-related moment. And as we scale even further, the hashtag also helps current teammates see any fun departmental activities that are going on at all times.

There’s no made-in-heaven company profile here. Currently, our careers website pulls up photos and videos in real time so that anyone can get the insider’s perspective. It’s really exciting to see the movement we’ve created that gives others insight into our culture.

Are we the right fit for you? Check out #insideHCSS and see if we’re your next career home.

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Janmy - HCSS

I love that HCSS encourages continuous learning, which helps me not only be a better UXer but also a 'jill-of-all-trades.' Additionally, if I see a need to improve our processes or products, I'm encouraged to explore solutions to proactively achieve that."

Janmy S.
UX Designer

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