Inventing Interactive
Among my new years resolutions is to stop paying attention to UI and UX minutia conversations — things like “how should a hamburger menu work?” Instead I want to focus on the inspiring and future-looking ways that people are inventing new forms of interactivity. And with a handful of sites posting their best-of lists, it’s easy to look back and […]
Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) team recently shared a couple research projects that introduce some pretty amazing new methods of interacting with technology. Two of these projects, presented at Google I/O 2015 buy ATAP’s director Ivan Poupyrev (who I’ve posted about before), look at the relationship between screen size and the level of detail and control that a […]
A supercut is “a fast-paced montage of short video clips that obsessively isolates a single element from its source, usually a word, phrase, or cliche from film and TV.” Last year, I was obsessed by Christian Marclay’s “The Clock” — a real-time 24-hour montage of time-related scenes in movies (clip). And, while not technically a […]
It seems like there’s a crazy amount of AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) stuff happening right now. I recently posted about my experience with VR and storytelling at Sundance. But there’s a lot of other technology out there — and over the past week or so my browser has, apparently, been overflowing with tabs of […]
Ok. Step number one, watch this visualization of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring… Wow, right?! It was created by Stephen Malinowski, using his Music Animation Machine. Ok – it’s not interactive (the alleged theme of this blog) but it’s amazing. I could do a hundred posts on different way to visualize music. I just realized I haven’t yet posted about […]
“This is straight-up blogging, amateur prose written quickly and with neither guiding stricture nor sober editing.” via http://www.ftrain.com/rotary-dial.html Just discovered Ftrain.com and love the tone of it all. I’ve been struggling with what do to on this site — do I post here? tweet? medium? — and this post expressed so many of the thoughts I’ve had […]
I just got back from a long relaxing and inspiring weekend in Paris and thought I’d post a handful pics of daily-life things I caught while was I traveling. First up – the touch-screen in-fight entertainment system on Air Canada. Nice big screens. But seeing a mouse cursor feels like a design mistake. Plus, the […]
Somehow, I’ve ended up with a handful of browser-based links — a mix of retro, low-res, and stuff that made me say “I didn’t know that you could do that.” Google BBS Terminal is what Google would have looked like if it existed in the 80s. PCE.js is a Mac Plus emulator running Mac OS […]
It’s been almost four years since I launched this blog. And it felt like it was time to do a little updating. So, here we are with a new visual theme. It’s nothing too fancy. But I’m hoping that by changing the home page, so that each post is less of a “big event,” it’ll […]
This past week the winners of the 2013 UK Music Video Awards were announced. (Creative Review has a nice summary of the event.) And what’s noteworthy for me was it was the first year they had an Interactive Video Award. This years winner was for the song Kilo by Light Light, and went to Amsterdam-based design studio Moniker. I had […]
Despite the controversy surrounding Ender’s Game, I wanted to share a handful of images of UI from the film. Among the team involved in the work was Ash Thorp, who I’ve interviewed here before about his other work. It’s beautiful, complex, rich-looking infographics and interface stuff. There’s more on Ash’s site, too.
Last weekend, while on vacation, I saw this Surface (or Surface-like) table at the hotel’s concierge desk. The idea of making local information easily accessible to guests is, of course, a great idea. And the dual-interaction possibilities, so that both guest and concierge can work together to explore options, are empowering. But it’s the realities […]
Here’s a great video surveying the creative coding movement from Off Book — a PBS web series about cutting edge arts. What’s especially nice is that the video’s YouTube page includes links to the people interviewed, as well as a Google doc listing every project shown. The video is broken into three sections: Simplifying code with Processing – […]
A couple short films with some eye-catching interfaces… The first film is Lost Memories, by Francois Ferracci, and it has some nice holographic-like projections. For more on the film’s production there is an interview with the director on One Small Window. The second film is Plurality, by Dennis Liu. It’s a bigger film, with a lot […]
Take a look at Connecting — it’s a short film on the current trends in UI, interaction and experience design — and how it’s making us more deeply and richly connected to information and each other. Created by Bassett & Partners, the film is full of great examples of the current state of user experience […]
Sorry for not posting lately, I’ve been surprisingly busy. I’m off to Paris for the long Thanksgiving weekend – and just remembered an old post I had started on France’s Minitel. I’ll include it here. If anyone has any suggestions of interesting interactive work I should check out while in Paris, drop me a note. […]
I may be new to this party, but it sure looks like a cool one. It’s the Leap Motion gesture control system — a $70 device that’s scheduled for release some time this winter. Technology Review described it as The Most Important New Technology Since the Smart Phone. That may be a bit strong, but… […]
It’s not out yet but Prometheus sure looks cool. I’m trying to track down the UI designer (any suggestions?) to learn more. But in the mean time, here are a handful of images of UIs from the upcoming film.
Touché is a system developed by Disney Research and Carnegie Mellon University that allows people to interact with everyday objects via gestures. It’s pretty interesting, and invites not only a whole new type of interaction, but the ability to use almost anything as an interface. Ivan Poupyrev, senior research scientist at Disney Research in Pittsburgh, […]
Here’s a great way to explore a foreign city at your own pace, using local services. It’s the Tram Sightseeing app — created for Västtrafik, the public transportation system in Gothenburg, Sweden. Using the mobile app, you can find the nearest tram stop and get a tour that lasts about 45 minutes. The app uses […]