An enormous amount of input goes into every major Affino version release, and Affino 7 is no exception. Front and centre to all our considerations are our customers’ ongoing requirements and feature requests - Affino almost wholly evolves along collaborative lines between the Comrz Team and every single one of Affino’s users.

It’s frequently a tough job consolidating all the different diverse requirements into a single streamlined system, but this is what we do every day. Pretty much every tiny nuanced functionality has been specified for a particular business scenario and activity. For every major release we endeavour to simplify the user experience, which is not always as simple as it sounds as no two Affino users deploy the system in exactly the same manner.

Every consideration is made to imbue Affino with simplicity, elegance and ease of use. It thus follows that the key technological inspirations convey those same values of clarity of purpose, elegance and simplicity:

London 2012 Olympics Look and Feel

The degree of detail and finish of the many elements of the London Olympics are a key influence in the look of the new interface. In particular, we took inspiration from the dynamic keyline pictograms - which elegantly convey movement and modernity. Affino’s Key Navigation Icons are largely inspired by those pictograms - harnessing the same values of forward movement and dynamism

Amazon

Still the benchmark for online retail, now with a vastly improved elegant interface - Amazon continues to inspire with its ever increasing depth and breadth and yet singularity of purpose

Apple

Apple still remains the benchmark for elegant product and interface design, and supreme ease of use. It’s focus on learnability remains a significant design influence in how we consider Affino’s daily usability and overall customer experience

BBC

Despite its detractors, the BBC is a significant pioneer online - with its iPlayer representing the first and the best of the Internet TV Players, and the relatively recent BBC.co.uk update being the first significant move towards tablet-style navigation for the main website interface

Facebook

The world’s most popular people-connector maintains its position for a reason. Despite lacklustre performance on the stock exchange,

Note that the following list is in simple alphabetical order:

Alistair and Jonny Brownlee - Triathlon, Team GB (Gold and Bronze)

2 Yorkshiremen, brothers even! seemingly came from nowhere to bag Gold and Bronze in the Triathlon - held in Hyde Park - in and around the Serpentine etc.. I always thought this was a solo event, but Team GB worked together with 3rd GB athlete Stuart Hayes helping to set the pace on the bikes and stretch out the participants - to give the Brownlee brothers a home advantage - they still had to make it over the line of course - nice to keep it in the family, next time they will no doubt try for a 1-2.

Andy Murray - Tennis, Team GB (Gold)

After the pain of losing to Roger Federer just 29 days before, Andy had the opportunity for salvation - with exactly the same match-up at the same venue - Wimbledon. He was like a man possessed on this occasion, could not be broken down - and won it convincingly in 3 straight sets. We’re just not used to watching such a confident display at Tennis, victory this time was never really in doubt!

Ben Ainslie - Sailing, Finn Class, Team GB (Gold)

Ben becomes the first sailor to win medals in 5 consecutive Olympics, bagging 4 Golds and a Silver in the process.

London 2012 Logo Design

The 2012 Logo Design by Wolff Olins is much maligned, and rightly so by at least a number of applied design criteria. I have warmed to it a little, but I still believe it fails to meet its remit of being symbolic of a fully inclusive Olympics, and its edgy design renders it somewhat illegible. It’s understandable then that most of the signage featured this very much as a secondary brand mark, choosing to lead with the Olympic Rings and ’London 2012’ typography - which was very much Wolff Olins designed too.

London 2012 Torch Airways - The Firefly

Flight BA2012, a gold-coloured A319 named The Firefly - with graphics designed by Futurebrand.

2012 Olympic Torch Relay

Dizzee Rascal heads up one of the 8,000 legs of the Great Britain Torch Relay - accompanied by uniformed ’guardians of the flame’ and followed by liveried BMW and Bus - livery designed by Futurebrand.

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (by EDAW / AECOM, Buro Happold, Arup and WS Atkins)

Following on from my article on Olympic Interiors, public demand has compelled me to do an overview of the Olympic Venue exteriors - that is to say - the purpose-built arenas and structures made specfically for the Olympics - both permanent and temporary features. The overview photograph covers the majority of the Olympic venues which are located on the Olympic Park, just missing off the edge of the picture are the Populous-designed BMX track and the ’Eton Manor’ training centre. I also feature the ’Royal Artillery Barracks’ - a temporary venue located on Woolwich Common.

Gymnastics Venue - North Greenwich Arena (The O2) (adapted by Populous)

Much has been written about the exterior design of the new London 2012 Olympic Venues, Stadium and Olympic Park. There has been far less coverage of the actual interior designs of the various venues - the playing surfaces, perimeter wraps, boundary decorations and signage.

I’m fortunate to live right next door to one of the minor outdoor venues - Hyde Park, home to the Triathlon and 10K Marathon Swim events, as well as the location of the BT London Live venue. I do daily Nordic Walks around the perimeter, and the contrasting 2-tone signage looks wonderful all around the park. Just up the road from me is Paddington Station which has London 2012 welcoming / information booths and bunting, and is peppered with the resplendently uniformed London 2012 Ambassadors,

For some, the colour combinations are a little garish, but watching live via the BBC, they seem to give these spectacles added vibrancy. Where with Wimbledon it’s frequently difficult to see where the ball has landed on or outside the court - the wonderfully contrasted playing surfaces featured in this blog make is super clear this time around. I expect the London 2012 games to have a significant impact on the future indoor / floor / surface design of new sports halls and sporting venues around the world.

No one really likes the Wolff Olins designed ’2012’ logo, which is why the ’London 2012’ typography is the more commonly used brand marker - the typography was designed by Wolff Olins too, as well as the branding guidelines - for the diagonal separating lines, two-tone colour schemes etc. With the various architect firms - Populous, Zaha Hadid, Thomas Heatherwick, Wilkinson Eyre etc.

For the Gymnastics we have 4 island podiums mixing pink, red, pale yellow and grape, quite fitting for the Women’s Gymnastics.