Inventing Interactive

The Johnny Cash Project - users contribute frames for the video

Helping The Crowd Effect Change

February 6, 2011 - In Present, Special - One comment

Over the past couple years there’s been a lot of buzz around crowdsourcing. There’s a real believe that it has the potential to transform everything — from how agencies work for clients, to how customers interact with brands. And, as everyone explores how “the crowd” can participate, a wide variety of pretty cool things (can we call them experiments?) have come along… creating new content (The Johnny Cash Project), design contests (BBHLabs logo), to change…

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Quick Post: Great Scrolling on BeerCamp

February 2, 2011 - In Quick

Great scrolling on the BeerCamp at SXSW 2011 site. Almost an infinite-zoom… (Link via @remotedevice)

Siftables & Sifteo

February 2, 2011 - In Present

In February 2009, David Merrill gave a TED demo of Siftables – a project he was working on at the MIT Media Lab along with Jeevan Kalanithi and Pattie Maes. He described Siftables as “an interactive computer the size of a cookie.” But it’s not just a cute phrase, for it also communicates the approachability and playfulness of the devices. Well, Siftables are now an actual product — for sale from Sifteo. And the sample…

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Retro Videophones: Videophone in Metropolis, 1927

Quick Post: Lists: Old Browsers, Videophones, & Haptics

January 31, 2011 - In Quick

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…

Underworld’s DVD-ROM

January 29, 2011 - In Past

In the late 90′s, Underworld was super-popular among my graphic design and new media friends. It wasn’t just Underworld’s music, it was the way they used visual design and motion graphics as part of their brand, and as a central element in their live performances. They weren’t just music – they were media! And it made a lot of sense — Underworld had deep connections with the art/design group Tomato and there was even some…

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Quick Post: Welcome to Pine Point

January 26, 2011 - In Quick

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.

Quick Post: Little Big Details

January 26, 2011 - In Quick

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.

Showing Interfaces to Advance a Film Narrative

January 26, 2011 - In Present

Over the weekend I finally got around to renting “Catfish.” I liked the movie a lot, despite the controversy about whether or not it’s a really documentary. As I watched it, I was especially fascinated by the way the filmmakers used interactive technologies to advance the narrative — and the degree to which audiences can accept these new references. For example, rather than showing an airplane flying over a map, an old-fashioned film technique (lovingly…

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Quick Post: Design Notes on Mobile UX Essentials

January 21, 2011 - In Quick

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 the world through a rear view mirror. We march backwards into the future.” And, her reminder to go outside to…

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Quick Post: Language Translation Apps – Visual and Spoken

January 18, 2011 - In Quick

Two cool ways of doing language translation on mobile devices. The first, Word Lens (which got a lot of press a few weeks ago), uses the iPhone’s camera to overlay visual translations of text. It’s a cool, augmented-reality-like, magic lens. The second is the soon-to-be-launched (ie. still in alpha) update to Google Translate. “Essentially, this allows you to speak in one language into your phone and the app will read it out loud translated into…

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