This week we talk Snapchat search, Uber news, life-saving jewelry, Olympic bodies and tips for increasing employee morale. 

BUSINESS

You may have heard about Snapchat’s recent acquisition of search app Vurb – a smart move for Snapchat, as search was never its strong suit. From a product perspective, Vurb’s deep-linking and search capabilities could help Snapchat users better navigate the Discover feature. It could also enhance messaging by allowing users to link to songs or videos within the app. The possibilities for improving the user experience are big.

Say goodbye to Uber drivers, and say hello to “Otto”, a Silicon Valley Startup recently bought by Uber that’s designing self-driving trucks. Pittsburg will be the first city to experience Uber’s pilot program. These customers can book autonomous vehicles for a free ride. This is big news because it marks the first time a major tech company will allow just about anyone to ride in fully autonomous cars on public roadways. Does this mean Uber is winning the driverless car race?

DESIGN

What if jewelry could save your life? Harvard business school students, Quinn Fitzgerald, and Sara de Zarraga, came up with an idea for a piece of jewelry. It’ll be able to sound an alarm send out GPS location to pre-set emergency contacts, and start an audio recording. This is useful if a victim is experiencing sexual assault. The startup is called Flare Jewelry, and the designs show just how women can be safe without compromising style.

Speaking about designing for a social purpose…the work of graphic designer and illustrator Wendy Fox embodies just that. Her illustrations of every female gold medal winning athlete at the Rio Olympics serve as a reaction to the low sports coverage of female athletes (note: in 2014, ESPN’s SportsCenter devoted a whopping 2% of its airtime to women’s sports), as well as the athletic potential of women of all shapes and sizes. If you like what you see, you can back her project on Kickstarter.

STRATEGY

We’ve all been there, sitting in at a work meeting that just feels pointless and never-ending. So how do you get your employees to not just come to meetings but actually want to attend? This weird strategy helps Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, keep meetings on task and purposeful.

Whether you’re planning a marketing campaign, building a product, or communicating with your team internally, the best way to convey a message that sticks is through visuals. This medium article explains why a visual reality is worth 1,000 words.

Have an idea on wearable gadgets, thinking about building a product, or simply want to chat about innovative tech?—we’d love to hear your thoughts, get in touch!

As always, check out our blog for more. That’s it for this week.✌️