5 Cool Tech Projects To Check Out In July

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Before I begin my work day I grab a coffee, take my dog for a walk, and review the latest resources on my Panda feeds. Panda is the main way that I find tools and resources to inspire me and aid in design and development. Panda is a free Google Chrome extension that you customize with news feeds from different sites like Product Hunt, Behance, GitHub, and dozens more.

I learn about loads of cool and helpful tech projects each month on my Panda feeds and from my LinkedIn network. Here are 5 cool notable tech projects to check out in July.

1. Take part in a remote escape room with Moonshot

Product Hunt is one of my go to resources on new tech products. That’s where I first came across Moonshot. Moonshot by Try Reason is a “Massive Remote Team Escape Experience.” Try Reason states Moonshot is the “The most advanced remote team building escape game. Incorporating a virtual assistant, remote controllable props, live host over video conference, and puzzles in the real world & the digital world. Moonshot is the only massive remote team escape experience on the planet designed for 10-100 players.” I haven’t personally tried Moonshot but it seems like a fantastic team building idea. 

If you’re looking for a lower budget remote escape room you can try making your own. Create an escape room to teach skills or one just for fun! Check out how this teacher used Google Forms to create a digital escape room on literary skills.

2. Catch up on The Show to view Learning Designer’s responses to briefs

Leading up to The Learning Conference, Cath Ellis and Kim Tuohy run a competition called, The Show. In The Show, 64 participants battle one another to win the Best Learning Designer Award. The learning community chooses who they want to win. Designers are provided with a project brief, submit their solution, the entries are reviewed on camera, and you vote for your favorites via YouTube. I love to watch The Show while I’m doing administrative tasks. It’s a great way to learn while I pass the time. View all episodes of The Show on YouTube.

3. Make sense of AI with The A-Z of AI 

The Oxford Internet Institute partnered with Google to bring us this A to Z guide that, “offers a series of simple, bite-sized explainers to help anyone understand what AI is, how it works and how it’s changing the world around us.” Not only has this resource helped me learn more about AI but it has also provided me design inspiration for upcoming projects.

4. Create a VR experience with Codecademy’s Learn A-Frame Course

I first used A-Frame back in 2017. I created an xAPI enabled virtual reality tour called Scenes Around Seattle. On June 29, 2020, Codecademy released a course to help you get started using A-Frame. I’m super excited to dive into the course and learn even more about A-Frame. A-Frame is an open source, easy to use VR tool. Beyond creating VR experiences, A-Frame will help you learn more about VR and can even be used to prototype ideas for experiences you may create in other tools.

5. Solve problems, make decisions, and understand systems with Untools

Untools is a “collection of thinking tools and frameworks to help you solve problems, make decisions and understand systems.” The tools cover everything from how to use them to examples of them in use and resources. One of my favorite is the Iceberg Model, where you'll uncover root causes of events by looking at hidden levels of abstractions.

Plus: Check out AR Copy Paste, an app that allows you to use your camera to copy images and paste them to Photoshop. And check out Interface In Game to explore a collection of video games interfaces and find inspiration for your designs.

Do you have any examples of cool and helpful tech? Share in the comments!

-Mel

I’m excited to be speaking at The Learning Conference.

I’d love to inspire you through my session on developing a learning experience prior to design and user testing, leads to usability issues and additional hours of unnecessary development. You will learn how to design and prototype a learning experience in order to gain insights from your learners.