Aligning audience goals with technical goals can seem daunting. Oftentimes, it is necessary to approach a solution from the highest level and then drill down. By using Activity Models, Interaction Designers can drill down into audience goals by starting with a high-level activity statement (e.g., Compose Music for Piano), then identify actions that comprise that activity (e.g., improvise on a melody, define the theme, find an introduction, establish a phrase and chorus). These actions begin to define (more…)
Remember that really cool operating system that Tom Cruise used in Minority Report? Well, a company based in Spain called Oblong has made it a reality. Judging from the demo videos, it is extremely versatile and responsive. My main concern is that Oblong wants to provide a complete solution for spatial interaction whereby we use their wall, their table, etc. The reality of ubiquitous systems is that devices and services must integrate with each other in order to satisfy daily business activities. For example (more…)
Disassembled Rubik
I am now actively engaged in redesigning a website for a government entity that in its current state is nothing short of a Rubik’s Cube. I am now in process of breaking the cube apart in order to put it back together again. Here is an outline of my plan to improve the website user experience:
Principles Based Audit – “Walk” through the existing website and identify interaction issues by qualifying them against a list of design principles. The design principles are adapted from (more…)
Since the introduction of the iPhone SDK last March, the observable number of business apps for the iPhone has increased at mind-staggering rates. This affords Interaction Designers a new solution-space in a multitude of existing domains (healthcare, logistics, finance) and new areas where mobile apps and ubiquitous computing combine to create new product domains. Well-known names like Oracle to small Seattle startups have jumped onto what appears to be (more…)
I recently discovered one of the most beautiful quotes about the human condition as we make the transition from mobile touchscreen user interfaces to TUIs:
Reactable: tangible multi-touch interface
“At the seashore, between the land of atoms and the sea of bits, we are now facing the challenge of reconciling our dual citizenship in the physical and digital worlds. Our windows to the digital world have been confined to flat rectangular screens and pixels, or ‘painted bits.’ While our visual senses are steeped in the sea of digital information, our bodies remain in the physical world. The vision of Tangible Bits is to provide seamless coupling between these two very different worlds of bits and atoms.” — Hiroshi Ishii
Source: Tangible Bits by Howard Rheingold
