Inventing Interactive
I’m a fan of BERG, and so was excited to discover this video of Mag+, a digital magazine design concept they created for Bonnier. BERG’s Jack Schulze talks about what people like about printed magazines… things like the of significance the cover (and our long-term memories associated with them), the sense of completion when done […]
The announcement this week of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Series has been getting a lot of attention. And, the reviews have been generally positive. It’s funny how, as designers, we’re so often skeptical about Microsoft. My friend Eric Brown saw the announcement and emailed me, asking, “Am I crazy for liking this?” I feel the […]
Take a look at this “reactive wall” in Montreal in front of La Vitrine. It was created by Moment Factory and Photonic Dreams. Created in August 2009 it was originally intended to be a temporary installation, it’s since been made a permanent part of the club’s facade. Sensors (it looks like they’re in an overhang […]
This morning, looking at the Flickr blog, I read this cool post about Flickr Everywhere. — a collection of new ways Flickr is being integrated into offerings from Apple, Google and Microsoft. The item that really caught my attention was the way that Microsoft is integrating Flickr content into Bing Maps. A type of spatial-search, […]
With TED happening this week, it’s been interesting to follow the buzz of activity around it. Watching Jamie Oliver’s powerful talk, an “all-out assault” on the need to change how we teach children about food, got me thinking… What role can we play, as interactive media designers, to make change and support responsible behavior in […]
In a short but interesting piece in the Harvard Business Review, John Maeda & Becky Bermont provoke with Why Business Leaders Should Act More like Artists. Their three big “ahas” around breaking stereotypes and working like artists are 1) artists constantly collaborate, 2) artists are talented communicators, and 3) artists learn how to learn together. […]
When I first saw Peter Greenaway’s film “Prospero’s Books” I was drawn to the innovative use of layering and multiple images to visualize the 24 books that made up the film’s arc. I was inspired. I wanted to explore ways to create interactive books with the richness and complexity as the books in the film… […]
It’s a beautiful day here in Los Angeles. So going to rainy London doesn’t seem like that much fun. But I think I might change my mind if I could go see the recently opened exhibit Decode: Digital Design Sensations at the Victoria & Albert Museum. The exhibition: “…showcases the latest developments in digital […]
Ever since last week’s iPad launch, the image of an iPad’s web browser with the missing-plugin Lego-brick has been generating a lot of discussion. Is Apple at war with Adobe? Is Adobe’s Flash critical to the web experience? Is Apple’s restriction going to doom the iPad? It’s not only bloggers talking, even the New York […]
Last year I was in London with some friends and we ended up having dinner at Inamo in SoHo. They’ve developed an interactive ordering system that uses your entire table as a display, using ceiling-mounted projectors The basic dilemma with these sorts of restaurants is that the novelty, whatever it may be, is what attracts […]
After my post about the fluidity of using the Symbolics keyboard, I thought Phil Gyford’s recent post about typing speeds on different devices, Pen v keyboard v Newton v Graffiti v Treo v iPhone, was very cool. As an experiment, he entered the same paragraph of text into using six different devices to see which […]
Lukas Mathis, for UX Magazine, recently wrote an interesting article: Realism in UI Design. It takes some of the ideas from Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics” (a book I remember making a big impact in the UI world when it first came out) — and looks at those concepts apply to UI design. The examples he […]
Here’s a great piece on Engadget by Paul Miller: Editorial: 10 outdated elements of desktop operating systems. It’s a very interesting read, not just about the problems of existing desktop operating systems, but pointing out that some of the possible solutions are right in front of us. What’s cool is the degree to which phones […]
If you’ve never seen the work of Yugo Nakamura, known online as Yugop, go immediately to his website www.yugop.com and take a look around. And if you have seen his work, it’s probably worth looking at again. Based in Japan, Yugo’s been doing amazing interactive work since the late 90’s. His work, primarily Flash-based, has […]
I’ve always been interested in high-level design tools as a means for designers to easily sketch ideas without getting stuck in production details. It’s too easy, and common, for a designer to create a sketch in Photoshop, or an initial wireframe, and then be reluctant to make large-scale changes to the design because of the […]
I’m very interested in how we develop the next generation of interactive design talent. Partly because I’ve been both a educator (teaching and developing curricula at Art Center) and an employer (my own studio, Triplecode, and within other firms). And also because my own personal path has covered a wide range of professions. David Malouf […]
The recent earthquake in Haiti is devastation beyond belief. But it’s been so encouraging to see how interactive technologies are playing a part to help those in need. The American Red Cross’ mobile giving program, where anyone can txt “Haiti” to 90999 and automatically donate $10 to Haiti relief, has been a big success. [You […]
Over the past several years I rarely read I.D. magazine. And so when it was recently announced that the magazine was going to cease publication I wasn’t terribly moved. Yes, it was sad to lose an historic design voice. But the magazine had been feeling less and less relevant. Perhaps it was just another casualty […]
Welcome to my new blog: Inventing Interactive. My friend Terry, who runs Sknitter, mentioned that keeping a blog fed is a lot of work. We’ll see how it goes — but if I don’t start I’ll never know. I’ve been involved in interactive media design, in one form or another, for almost 20 years. I’ve […]