Inventing Interactive
A couple weeks ago I was at dinner with some friends. At some point, talking about recent trips, people wanted to see pictures. As iPhones ware passed around (always a little worried that swiping to the next photo might reveal something not intended to be shared), we realized that we could exchange photos with Apple’s […]
I’m a big fan of future vision and future scenario projects. And the recent article, The Future (According to Corporations), by Robert Bolton, gives an interesting read on them. The article is a response to a talk by Scott Smith who argued that such projects are watered-down corporate visions, lacking real-world emotions and needs, and encouraging […]
Often, when I work on projects, they’re for a client’s internal use, or otherwise secret, and I can’t share the work. So I was excited to discover that some work that I had helped lead was finally online, and I could post some of it. In 2009 I was working for BMW Group DesignworksUSA and […]
I’ve worked on the design of a variety of enterprise software systems. And I know the desperate desire from their users for tools that feel less corporate, and more consumer. They want stuff at work that feels like what’ve become accustomed to on their iPhones. They want stuff that’s fun! The problem is that it’s […]
Corning continues their vision of the future with “A Day Made of Glass 2.” When I previously posted about their earlier film I wasn’t so impressed, but this one feels more interesting. It’s full of different interactions made possible with a variety of glass displays, from handheld to very large. And, in addition to the […]
There’s lots of design activity around how to bring more digital services to drivers, but the passenger often gets left out of the fun. So, it’s interesting to see this work from GM on how to enhance the passengers’ experience. For their Windows of Opportunity project, they focused on engaging children in the rear seats. […]
There are a handful of relatively new initiatives happening to better interconnect the wide variety of systems that make up cities. IBM’s Smarter Cities (as part of their Smarter Planet), and LivingPlanIT and their “Urban Operating System” are just two. They’re working to harness the complexity and range of data that make up a city […]
Microsoft recently released a future vision video — looking at how people might get things done 5-10 years in the future. It’s a quite beautifully done piece, full of detail and scenarios. They’ve also put up a website which describes elements of the video in more detail. But what’s surprising is the intensity of the […]
Here are three interesting vision scenario projects from Michaël Harbourn, a designer currently studying in Paris. There’s a fascinating aspect to these projects — I’m not sure if the student, foreign (non-US), or product-design orientation is the source. But his use of morphable surfaces, and quiet, almost meditative, presentation style, is pretty neat. Aeon is […]
It feels like this should be filed under future, or perhaps under alternate realities, but instead it’s the present – right now and available today… Oblong’s Mezzanine. For years Oblong has been a fascinating company– doing super-innovative research into gestural interfaces. From their movie UI work, to conceptual demos, and even their vaguely mysterious (perhaps […]
Here’s a charming Augmented Reality vision piece, “Medley,” created by Mattias Wozniak and Björn Svensson as part of their Masters Thesis at Lund University in Sweden. It’s full of great, beautifully delicate, examples how AR could be incorporated into everyday life. A nice contrast to some of the alternative nightmarish advertising or boring corporate scenarios. […]
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 […]
Space Fence is a $60-million future US space surveillance network — claimed to be able to detect objects as small as 10 cm (four inches) at heights up to 30,000 km (15,000 nautical miles). One of the key contractors, Lockeed Martin, recently posted a video (also on their How website) showing a vision of how […]
Last week Microsoft demoed Surface 2, the new version of their Surface table. It has some pretty cool features, particularly a technology they call PixelSense, which lets the table visually recognize and scan almost any object placed on it without using cameras. Interactive Things pointed out the similarity to Starfire — a fascinating project I’d […]
Here’s some super-interesting work from the Nokia Research Center showing five future mobile interface ideas. The introduction film is a charming animated scenario called Morph. It demonstrates some possibilities nanotechnologies might enable in future communication devices. But it’s not just dreaming, there’s some pretty hard-core science going on behind the scenes. Much of the vision […]
Check it out, two new films from BERG — what a great way to start the day. They’re sketches exploring ideas and principles behind Dentsu London‘s communications strategy Making Future Magic. The films don’t feature a lot of interactivity, they’re more about communication and information design. But they are quite beautiful, and calm, visions of […]
Swedish firm TAT (The Astonishing Tribe) has created a future vision of screen technology. Set in 2014, it shows some interesting technologies and use-cases — featuring stretchable surfaces and transparent displays. What’s super-cool is that the film is the result of an open innovation experiment. TAT asked people for input on what sort of inspirational […]
Redesigning the ATM experience is a recurring UI design favorite. They’re something we all use, and we all have thoughts about how they can be made better. A couple years ago, Physical Interface published an in-depth article about Pentagram’s redesign of the Wells Fargo ATM. It was a fascinating view into a very challenging task […]
Recently Philips Design published a report on people focused innovation. It’s a interesting document that not only talks about how they use qualitative research and design thinking, but also shows a wide range of resulting solutions for the healthcare market. And some of the proposals are pretty cool — from ambient environments to a kitten […]
From precisioninformation.org: Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are developing future work environments for the emergency management community called Precision Information Environments (or PIEs). PIEs will provide tailored access to information and decision support capabilities in a system that supports the multiple user roles, contexts, and phases of emergency management, planning, and response. They have […]