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Photo Safari to the Salton Sea
A visit to the Salton Sea, a desert paradise turned ecological disaster due to human intervention, runoff, and salt corrosion. The Salton Sea features a bizarre climate where each stop on our trip offered a completely unique view. Part apocalyptic, part hippie commune and all bizarre. Captured here in 3 galleries – color, infrared and iPhone using Hipstamatic and Camera + apps.
Deals by Citysearch, my new app on iPhone and Android
I just launched my latest app on iOS and Android called Deals by Citysearch. I designed all of the user interaction and experience as well the visual design on both platforms. Working with Citysearch’s mobile engineering team and sourcing deals through APIs on the CityGrid Network as well as partnerships with Groupon and The DealMap, we built this app in 6 weeks. I created new unique features for engagement using map-based search and touch to bring a simple easy solution to finding deals available nearby the user.
To download the Deals by Citysearch app on iPhone, visit the iTunes App Store or for Android, visit the Android Marketplace.
The press release follows:
Suffering From Deal Overload? Get Deals by Citysearch, the New Mobile App That Instantly Delivers Curated Deals Built Around Your Location and Lifestyle
New Citysearch Mobile App Organizes the Best Local Deals from Leading Providers Including Groupon, The Dealmap® and Others in One Mobile Experience
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Feb. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ – Citysearch, a property of CityGrid Media, LLC (“CityGrid Media”) and an operating business of IAC (Nasdaq: IACI), today launched Deals by Citysearch, its new location-enabled local deals app that aggregates the best deals from CityGrid Media advertisers and third-party content providers including Groupon, The Dealmap® and others. Deals by Citysearch is available today for download on iPhone and Android
“Citysearch knows consumers are experiencing deals overload and want a deals experience built around their needs,” said JP Bedoya, Senior Director, Citysearch. “Deals by Citysearch curates the best local deals and allow users to search based on their individual lifestyle and location whether they’re on the go or at home.”
With Deals by Citysearch, users can:
- Find deals nearby using our location-enabled map-driven application Switch between Map view or List view to see all deals at once
- Drag the map to a new location, or type in a city to search for deals anywhere in the USA
- Get the Groupon daily deal with one touch from the navigation bar
- Access hundreds of thousands of deals including more than 400,000 local and daily deals aggregated by The Dealmap®
- Browse deals by category such as restaurants, bars, shopping, and more
- Save deals for later and sort by expiration or distance from your location
- Share a deal from any offer detail screen
- Use Airprint (iOS 4.2) to wirelessly print offers and coupons
- Personalize the app to store your preferred filters and automatically delete expired deals from your saved list
Citysearch also worked with Skyhook, a leader in location positioning, context and intelligence, to integrate its Location Engine into the Deals by Citysearch for Android.
In addition to Deals by Citysearch on mobile, Citysearch rolled out a new deals section on its website. To view offers online, check out http://www.citysearch.com/deals.
Making the World More Usable
After years of searching I’ve finally discovered the mark I will leave behind on the world.
I will make the world more usable.
You see, we all have things that frustrate us, things that should be easier, simpler to operate. Whether it be a form on a web site, a process for completing a task or a product that we interact with, such as a remote control. Technology has until now made our lives easier in some ways and more complicated in others. And if I could affect any area of the planet it would be here – to make people’s live work better through the things they interact with.
We all know the joy of using something and have it just work, as it should, with ease. And we all know the anger we feel when it doesn’t. More often than not, something needs to be altered, removed, hidden or otherwise just to make it work better and accomplish it’s goals. I want to figure those things out and make it happen. This will make people happier, more at ease and give them more time to do the things they want to. There’s a lot of work to be done here (and a lot of money to be made here too).
That’s my mission, and technology has paved an amazing road to make it happen.
Does The Photographer or The App Make Art?
Thanks to devices like the iPhone and apps like the Camera + and the popular Hipstamatic, budding photographers everywhere can snap beautiful shots right from there pocket and not miss out on extraordinary scenes because they didn’t have their camera with them. The flip side is that anyone who has loaded these apps now considers themselves a professional because their camera applies filters that make mediocre images hip and cool. This is not the case. It still takes a lot of discipline, thought and planning to create artwork with any device whether it’s a $2,000 SLR or a $.99 iPhone app. The apps certainly help but they aren’t teaching their users what makes a great image and therefore millions of people are promoting their “works of art,” when it was more about the developers engineering skills then the photographers.
Here are a few images I’ve snapped with my iPhone.
AFTRA Website Wins ILCA Awards
The website for AFTRA, designed by Jon Fox at Venice Consulting Group won awards from the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA) 2010 Labor Media Awards for Best Design and General Excellence. The press release follows:
LOS ANGELES (Sept. 21, 2010) – The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA, AFL-CIO), a national union of more than 70,000 professional performers, recording artists and broadcasters, today announced its AFTRA.com website has received two first place awards and AFTRA Magazine a second place award from the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA) 2010 Labor Media Awards.
The website, www.aftra.com, was awarded First Award for two categories: General Excellence and Best Design by an International/National union. The editor of the website is Leslie Simmons, National Manager of Communications.
“And I’m very pleased our new website has been recognized for its excellence,” he added. “We’ve worked hard over the years to create a clean design that is easy to view, navigate and search. And we work to fill it with information that is genuinely useful for the entire membership. No doubt we will continue to evolve it to keep up with the needs of a broad-based 21st century media union.”
The ILCA is a nonpartisan, non-profit professional organization for union publications and media production departments for international, national, regional and local affiliates of the AFL-CIO and Canadian Labour Congress. The Labor Media Awards honors excellence in a variety of categories, from print to multimedia and will be presented at the ILCA’s awards luncheon on Nov. 19 in Washington, D.C.
Empty LA
A beautiful and haunting view of the City of Angels.
Running on Empty from Ross Ching on Vimeo. Music by Radiohead.
Running on Empty from Ross Ching on Vimeo.
A beautiful, miniature view of LA, on a Sunny Day.
Love this.
The East Side of Los Angeles on a Sunny Day from clark vogeler on Vimeo.
Welcome to the New JFP
Welcome to the all-new Jon Fox Photo and Design. The site has been fully updated on WordPress to provide a more diverse understanding of my services, interests and expertise.
I have chosen to upgrade to WordPress to better accentuate the services that I use on a regular basis including social sites such as Twitter and Linked In and feeds from sites I find interesting and help spread some of the revolutionary technologies that are changing the way we interact.
Most of all though, this site acts as real showcase for my work. Browse the numerous galleries that I have constructed to see all the different styles of work that I do, from high-end professional web site design to infrared photography. Feel free to leave comments if there are images you like.
Furthermore, this site is meant to be community driven. Over the next few weeks I’ll continue to make enhancements, and add blogs on everything from the latest gadgets, to user experience development and technological breakthroughs. I hope this site proves helpful to you and that you enjoy the content I deliver. Feel free to drop by, leave a comment and let me know what you’d like to see more of.
Thanks!
Jon Fox.


