May 31, 2007
future is now for DJ's
May 30, 2007
Public
The project I worked on at Microsoft is now Public!
I am elated! I saw the demo that had the designs for the jukebox player I did over three years ago.
This is so satisfying...
I can't believe it.
May 29, 2007
backlight displays
I saw this at Giants Stadium in San Francisco and I had soooo many ideas...
Electronic Tools
I am very excited about the course I will be taking this summer at Domus Academy (Formerly, Ivrea). I wonder why we don't have more courses such as this in the US.
Workshop and intensive course on design of innovative consumer electronic tools in the context of mobility (ubiquitous computing, mobile phone, locative media etc.), considering both tangible qualities (physical manipulation, gestures, etc) and immaterial interactions with social networking functions and services.
Anatomy of a Community
What makes a community thrive and what dooms it to failure?
In my career to help in designing communities and sorting out what things people would like.
I spend a great deal of time on these social networking sites, researching them and considering what makes them successful or "ghost ships".
I think there are two keys to successful community.
1. One is what I call the Beach Ball theory.
In a crowded concert or anywhere there is a mass of people who are likely to get bored and disengage.
The challenge of building thriving online communities and social networks is to find the "beach ball" that will engage potential users.
Giving them something to do, to rally around while they bide time waiting to connect with others. Points of conversation work effectively in the social network sites I audited. For example starting conversational strings for users to provide short, quippy answers. Allowing users to monitor activity on their profile.
more later....
2. The Other is the ultimate goal of true human interaction.
Most online communities at one point or another lcoalize to the point where the users wish to "meet-up" face to face in smaller, more specialized groups.
About Design
About Design
I saw this quote on Printers Row in Chicago:
"The Excellence of Every Art Must Consist in the Complete Accomplishment of it's Purpose"
I think the job of a good designer is not to make things pretty. The job of a good designer is to listen, to synthesize, make things useful, simple, aesthetically pleasing.
4-D Design? What are you talking about?
I often get asked why I am taking classes and going back to school.
What is this thing you keep talking about?
Why do you think you need to go back to school?
To which I always answer: because I want to work on stuff that doesn't (always) involve a keyboard or a monitor or even a computer.
At least in the way we have been used to interfaces thus far.
This could be interacting with a touch screen or a device that has different ways of inputing or retrieving data.
I guess I am a Web 4.0 person living in a Web 2.0 world...
I found a passage from a book that says what I am going to study much more eloquently than I ever could:
"In the next few years, emerging practices in interactive architecture are set to transform the built environment. ‘Smart’ design was once regarded as the preserve of museum exhibits or Jumbotrom advertising screens, but 'multi-mediated' interactive design has started entering into every domain of public and private life as a spatial medium, interactive architecture is revolutionizing and reinventing our work, leisure and domestic spaces.
Fast-changing social contexts are dominated by the blurring of boundaries between work and play, information retrieval and use. Pliable and responsive digital environments raise the haptic and intuitive threshold of public and private space by harnessing physical and mental responses. Will interactive architecture embrace a wider scope of functions and experiences – from sensing mechanisms, to the info-lounge, to the ambient home environment and the holistic hospital – through customizable design possibilities? "
- from 4dspace: Interactive Architecture by Lucy Bullivant
self-check in
After a positively maddening experience at the airport I decided to not just bitch about it but to think about it.
It is a hard-sell to get business to understand the value of experience design.
One of the biggest problem spaces I think is in transport.
I took the liberty of looking at the self-check in process I saw and have provided a solution.
This is just a first stab at the problem and I will be looking into more when I get a chance.
1. There is often an absence of clear signage since the spaces are fluid small placards are used.
2. Traditonal snaking lines imply traditional queue behavior, this allows for customers to shuffle about and rummage through luggage and engage in other potentially time wasting behaviors.
3. If the flyer in the front od the queue is not vigilant, the line backs up. This can be problematic for flyers who do not read English and therefore cannot read instructional signage and infrequent fliers unaccostomed to self-service check in procedures. In addition, Western cultures tend to queue and do not tend to approach podiums until told to do so by an authority figure.
4. Kiosks will jam up if a flyer is waiting for their bag to be checked or is requires interaction with a service agent. North Americans also have a large personal space zone so they are unlikely to approach a vacant kiosk should someone be standing within 2 feet of it.
Suggested Changes
1. Signage improvement - add large overhead signage that will still allow for fluidity of space but be large enough to read.
2. Remove the lines, creating clustered pods of self-serve check ins in circular formation allow for privacy and provide a clear visual differentiation of this space compared to the traditional check in line. Flyers will be unlikely to linger in this space or resort time wasting activity.
3. Employ service agents on hand to collect baggage and answer questions. Agents should also be one hand in the kiosk space to provide assistance.
4. Employ one or two ID check stations, the boarding pass should be in an "inactive" state should the flyer accidentally bypass this check.
User Goals
To collect boarding pass as quickly as possible
To hand over baggage to airport personnel
To have service agents on hand should problems arise
Business Goals
Keep costs dpwn by employing less service staff
Reduce number of complaints and need for additional staff
Other Factors
Airport space is limited
Use exisitng floor space
Security Measures vary at airports
Shamlessly stolen
A quote from a friend's blog:
"if you managed to open a door successfully today, hug your local designer... or at least buy them a cocktail."
_ Erik Gibb
May 26, 2007
Conference Notes : DUX Conference 2005
Experience Beyond The Desktop
Robert Fabricant – Frog Design
presented a deep relaxation device
Define experience
Stress management
The vagus nerve – largest nerve in the body stimulates flight or flees mechanism
Heart rate variability – pacifying nerve
Breathing helps mange those issues
Connect knowledge
Hypothesis –
Touch - feedback
Routine - rhythm
Ritual - reward
Responsiveness
Support behaviors
The Sense Chair – CMU
People and robots for an aging population
Allow elders to live independent life
Elder needs
Perceptions of needs
Concept validation sessions –
NOTE TO SELF:
I don't see how they got from point a to point b.
also I think this product idea is a completely North American idea - the notion of chair as center of the universe for the elderly is not universal.
what about human interaction??? touch?
How can facilitate meaningfulness in interaction??? How can incoporate that sense of belongingness?? is it even possible to do with technology??? I say yes.... How can a chair be an expressive product?
The video was a robotic chair that could sense if someone was falling asleep
Body of knowledge – network media in the college environment
NOTE TO SELF
Time for being a student is finite. College is but a speck in the continum of life why focus on this? Do these interactions make sense in real world
Flew through power points couldn’t understand what the project was about really
Problem definition too long
eMoto
Emotional messaging service
Enhance text messages using color shape and animation
Graphical expressions
Build on cues of familiarity for personality and context
NOTE TO SELF -
Color shape and animation - very cool to explore color theory and who this can realte to expression - changing backgrounds - move beyond theming in IM clients and social expression applications - can they be used to emote harness the transitory nature of emotions and expressions - convey feeling - when is it appropriate? at what point is it too much maintainance? simple way to set mood - think Mood Stats from Cuban Council... can we employ ideas like that to change presence? How about widgets that we can at one-click change a setting on how we want to bsee and be seen to contacts??????
Graphical expression – image boards color theory shape
Co-discover method – 12 persona in pairs
Qualities study
Designing Arabic UE
UXD across cultures
Right to left
Detailed task flow mapping
Color to highlight interaction
Connect visual language with the culture
Culture translation vs. linguistic translation
Coffee making in India – respect love and compassion
All the affordance of this interactions facilitated by device instrument
Cultural norms –objects can become the embodiment of culture –
Cultural language – body language, visual language in an effort to build products
Mugs – western – has personal identity
Grammars – movement grammars idea of respect, anger emotion – products can move like people do.
How does cultural identity match with product design
Hybrids that have elements of both aspects of two cultures
MSR Asia
Excellent project - must ping him later to discuss -- ties into some past projects - v. exciting stuff here....
Designing for the Chinese migrant worker
Huge migrant population – come from villages to work as domestics – do not leave their work site they do not go around the city much
In china layers of literacy
Illiterate > some > dialect> Mandarin > Pinyin (Latinized form)> english
Chinese emotions of privacy are different – people open each others mail – privacy seen very different
Shared phone
No unique identifier – do not have ID many are illegal
Shared displays –
Video Mail Kiosk
Village tel+ name
No password
Messages for 7 days
New messages listed by province and village
Stylus input
Write in the air by stroke order – common body language gesture
Social hierarchy
40% hesitated to use the tablet – 60% got it and stared immediately
50% accuracy – needed to improve UI for correction
Character recognition and stylus input might good for public input methods
30% found their village on a map
100% found on a list.
Harnessing user Needs and Insights
Body storming – technique of acting out full body contextual interactions
wizard of OZ Study
Simulate human-computer interaction no
Personal and Ubiquitous computing – look up this paper
www.cs.berkeley.edu/~anar
http://garage.sims.berkeley.edu
Industry
Umea Institute of design, Sweden
Appropriateness of size for device – how do people really work – mobility is a good thing but what is the context?? Factory setting – need large screens that more than one person can read - large blue prints etc. Focus for socializing and communication
Can “virtually” carry interactive projects and information pieces to a large touch-screen interface – Very cool project
Can bring components into a screen – this is a good idea for ubiquitous computing and solves the problem of display appropriateness and – maybe in the future our devices can work that way in that small devices contain the information and the displays are
All made in flash – experience prototypes
Fireman’s Fund – bring UI to non-UI companies
“Yea for Gray “ campaign – trying to get development to agree to color and visual design
* Check out her slide on process…
Quicken Rental Property Manager – Intuit Suzanne Pellican – Product Visionary and UE Lead
Find market opportunity
Some design principles
1.Limit product scope
- Scope project on the biggest pain points
- Limit expansion based on user feedback
2. Concept First before MRD (Marketing requirements Document)
3. Robust Prototypes early on –
- Used flash
- By third round very high-fidelity prototypes
Mandate Customer Contact
Everyone on the team must have customer contact
Whole team on usability studies
All team members must call customers on the pilot
Define “polish” – customers perception of quality
Exhibition Design – semiotic communication realm of curatorial studies and interaction in cultural institutions – curators are the keeper of the domain knowledge – facilitate
Virtual vs. Physical creating online educational experience through design Kaye A. Polette P
Museums on the we – Museum Informatics, 2004
http://www.archmuse,com/mw2004/papers/kaye/kaye.html
Multi-platform interaction
Phatic Functions and technology
University of Melbourne
Media and intimacy – mediums used to mediate intimate expressions
Objects to express personal relationships
“Tagging” people
How do people tag their loved ones?
People go through extraordinary lengths to reach out to those who wish to stay connected.
Examples of objects
Letter
Cell phone – text messages
Carving name on trees imprint in public spaces (graffiti, writing name in cement)
Cultural probe data – very anthropological approach to the project
Establishing trust in relationships
Slide of dimensions of Intimacy – themes and ideas
Presence in Absence
Connectedness
Commitment
Spending time together without conversation
Phatic Function (Jacobson model of communication)
Do not inform
Do not exchange facts
Do not express facts
Do not support goal-oriented activity
Strengthen Social bond
Establish possibility of interaction
Maintain social contact
Reaffirm connectedness
Phatic Interactions are an often neglected part of communication
Serendipitous synchronous interaction – two people thinking of each other at the same time – magical phenomena
http://www.smartinternet.com.au
Frank Vetrere – f.vetere@unimel@edu.au
Will light up when another composes a message
NOTE TO SELF:
wow!!!!!! Great presentation exactly what I wanna study!!! Emotion and interaction....
ADJECTIVE: Of, relating to, or being speech used to share feelings or to establish a mood of sociability rather than to communicate information or ideas.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek phatos, spoken, from phanai, to speak.
http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/resources/conversation/part1-C.html
is this a western language only concept do other languages have words, cultural traditions that support this idea - physical representations; rings, think of a spanish weddign with the orange blossom ring around the neck, hand-fasting, tattoos....
ASK HIM ABOUT INSTANT MESSAGING non-stand alone device – did their project include investigation into Phatic functions in existing applications
Discreet flirting in awkward places – sending an sexual explicit text message during a business meeting
Can be abused – example of husband really liking to know where wife is and wife feeling that is too invasive
XML and EB system touch screen
Mobility and Sociability
Social interactions in close proximity – enhanced sociability in close proximity
Ethnographic work – immersion in experience and culture
Go into field before you know what you want to learn and/or build
Ubiquitous computer – what happens when it is invisible and doesn’t work – hahaha
Experience of meaning
The where: Public spaces, schools, retail, transportation
The How: typology, blue tooth other hardware enablers, volume
Razor fish/Avenue A
attended iIa – Chicago – check into it
High end retail usage
UPC Code
Physical form factor issues – tablet causes crouching affect interact with the device too much inhibiting ability to use limbs for other uses and affectively use body language to convey the right message. confidence, respectability
Technology converging with environments - architectural
Cognitive models are established for most interactions that mobile will be used – how can one make this of best use?
How to create experiences that do not detract from real world interactions – and create social
Social expression – Nokia research
Exploratory research –
Ideation
Mobile essentials – what people carry and why
Core mobile essential
Payment
Travel support
Medical addiction ‘
Identification
Contact
Entertainment
Appearance
Essentials
Money
Keys
Phone
Provide access to shelter food warmth
Transcends time and space
Strategies of remembering essentials-
The point of reflection
Point when you are leaving somewhere – look for mobile essential
Center of gravity – clustering objects in a centralized location
Women – can be handbag
Sometime as phone charger can be
Not visible when they are away
No longer important
Fatigue
The easier war to never forget it to never have to remember
Delegate to technology
Reminder shelf – physical shelves
Digital reminder
Reminder shelf image based reminder
Can be done on a camera phone
Displays blue tooth upload reminder
Phone finder button on t5hew shelf –
(Make sure to check his stuff out)
MSR – England
Media sharing and social interaction – University of Nottingham Sussex
Orientations with display Dynamo
interactive arrangements that cab facilitate interaction
Social embarrassment – to interact directly with a hung flat surface
Multi user system – personal palette for each user personal device triggers the session
Typography and Mobile
typefaces that work on mobile displays – twice as many pixels bitmapped fonts
What is beyond bit mapped fonts???
Glance
Scan
Read
Avoid predicting user interuptability
- Reduce memory load
- Provide information-abundant interfaces
-Increase automaticity
To avoid the revision death spiral a designer must be proactive
Physicality – Experience beyond the desktop
Emotional expression in mobility – methods and techniques to bridge cultures
Pangram – a sentence or phrase used in typography that show how words join together how rounded corners and straight edges converge and what the space between them is like.
Example:
Wham! Volcano erupts fiery liquid death onto ex-jazz Bo Kenny G.
Nokia – Helsinki Finland
Process
In public spaces people utilize mobile technology to prevent approach from stranger, and as a protective gesture to avoid contact with others and prevent boredom.
In order for a technology it must be pervasive – enough people must have adopted the technology in order to make it worthwhile to use, a collective experience.
In society we are learning to live with interruption – cell phones, IM clients, email
Emergence of social meaning **** Idea for paper submission****
Social Proximity Application that can enrich social behaviors
Connect with existing contact – and create new social connection
Emotional Exploartion
1. Ice Breaker with new aquaintance at a party
2. Location of desirable social contact
3. Faciliate topic of disscussion
4. Reflect on social interaction
Perception these feature idea insult ones social skills.
