Inventing Interactive
It seemed like last week, everywhere I turned, another street-view type of map site popped-up. While they may not have especially groundbreaking interactivity, they give the opportunity to experience places that are otherwise inaccessible to most people. And their gentle pacing supports experiences which are more in-tune to what it’s like to be there, rather […]
I’m a dork for liking flying and airports as much as I do. It’s not based on any modern reality, just nostalgia for what it used to be like. And one of things I used to love at airports was, while waiting for a flight, going to the observation deck and watching the planes. So […]
Nike, as part of their Jumpman campaign has created a series of commercials called Dominate Another Day, or D3. And the really cool new blog, Huds and Guis, has posted some background information as well as all six videos. Head-up displays, augmented reality, and transparent screens; They aren’t the deepest fantasy UIs, but they’re still […]
A couple recent discoveries about teaching programming. First, an [older but still] interesting post on Learning to Think Like A Programmer and why it’s important. Next is Codecademy, a really simple, but engaging site, that introduces basic programming concepts in a step-by-step interactive manner. It’s like having a tutor sit with you as you go […]
Qualcomm recently announced the winners of their Augmented Reality Challenge. The challenge was part of a promotion of their AR SDK for iOS. And the winners are pretty cool: 3rd Place: “Danger Copter” by five grad students at USC. It’s a great idea (and my favorite of the winners) — you walk around a very […]
I’d never heard of Daito Manabee before reading this great overview of his work by Joshua Noble on a CreativeApplications.net. It’s all pretty amazing stuff — but I was especially fascinated by “electric stimulus to body + myoelectric sensor test1.” Using the body as both input and output, it may be a little unnerving, but […]
What is it like to conduct an orchestra? The easiest way is find out is to just try it yourself. Which is what this cute project from Magnetic North lets kids do. Wave your arms around and see how the orchestra adapts. It looks like a lot of fun. My only question is if it’s […]
A game that self-destructs — both visually and structurally — as you play it. And once it’s done, the executable file no longer works. GlitchHiker was created for Global Game Jam on the theme “Extinction.” People could play the game at the event, but eventually it self-destructed — never playable again. All that remains is […]
Take a look at Receipt Racer — a microproject by Joshua Noble and undef. Done in just one day, as part of the CreativeApplications.Net OFFF2011 Workshop, the game is a fascinating mix of interactivity and print. Using a thermal receipt printer, a racing track is printed. The racing car is projected onto the printout with […]
Designing for multiple screens brings a wide range of design issues. Take a look at this collection of Multiscreen Patterns from the German design Studio Precious. The slideshare presents six different screen ecosystems. Definitely worth a look. Simple and beautiful.
Nintendo’s 3DS Augmented Reality games look pretty cool. You place AR cards down, and the handheld gives you a magic view. Nothing especially new, but it’s beautifully done and looks quite responsive. The Archery game, shown here, looks great. It makes me want one 😉 (Link via Engadget.)
I’m normally a sucker for future vision videos, but Corning’s A Day Made of Glass, left me cold. It’s pretty, and full of subtle scenario details, but overall the interactions shown are so ordinary that it’s hard to get very excited. Maybe that’s just their point — this technology is becoming a standard part of […]
Johnny Holland‘s reports from Interaction 11 continue to be full of great stuff — and making me sad I wasn’t there. Here’s a fascinating presentaiton by Adam Connor on how film-techniques could be relevant to interaction designers. Particularly relevant as so often UX people talk about how “the story” is the most important part of […]
This video demo of Konkreet Performer, a music control and performance instrument for the iPad, was interesting because it positions itself as a break from traditional mixing-board metaphors for music UIs. I have no idea how usable it is, but it’s great to see the experimentation! (Link via CreativeApplications.Net.) It reminded me of this recent […]
Nice UI concept for a lock-screen — making it easier to respond to alerts, and to quickly activate functions. (Link via MEX.)
Great scrolling on the BeerCamp at SXSW 2011 site. Almost an infinite-zoom… (Link via @remotedevice)
Three interesting lists on the OObject website: Retro Videophones 10 Obsolete Web Browsers 12 Haptic Intertaces With most items on the lists you can click to go to additional background info. Pretty fun to explore…
Welcome to Pine Point is a new site from the National Film Board of Canada (who I’ve previously posted about) and the Goggles — about the town of Pine Point and what happens when a town is literally erased from the map.
Little Big Details is a nice new blog, highlighting the design and usability details that can make an interface or interaction. It’s not necessarily patterns that should become standard, but a reminder that details and refinement make a big difference.
Interesting presentation (by Rachel Hinman, of Nokia Research Lab) on designing for Mobile — full of good advice and recommendations. It’s also an nice reminder that mobile is still open for invention and to leave behind paradigms from desktop design. Her quote from Marshall McLuhan was on “the rear view mirror effect” — “We see […]