TaskFlo.ws

Click Happy

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:21:00 -0400

Most users on the web are “click happy”: they tend to rapidly click on the most eye-catching action item without paying much attention to the rest of the site.

I see this happen during the usability tests I conduct at Pearson. More often than not, participants end up clicking the first link or “next” button they see whilst missing information that is relevant to the goal they are trying to accomplish.

Here is what I find interesting about this “phenomenon”: despite the fact that part of my work as an interaction designer involves observing this type of behaviour and making sure that participants don’t miss important information on screen, it has now been proven that I am just as vulnerable as anyone else.

Thank you, James Cunningham.

Earlier this week, Twifficiency —a web site that offers to calculate your “efficiency” on Twitter based on your interactions on it— spread across the Twitterverse posting the scores of those who wanted to know their… “twifficiency”.

The problem with this site is that once you click on the big “calculate” button (and after you allow Twifficiency to connect directly with your Twitter account, of course), your percentage is not only shown on screen, but automatically tweeted on your behalf for all your followers to see.

This came to me as a rather unpleasant surprise. The first thing I thought was: how dare this site tweet for me without my permission?

Then, the “usability specialist” in me kicked in (after the fact) and decided to go back to Twifficiency’s site to make sure I had not missed anything that would have prevented me from spamming everyone with tweets like these.

And there it was. In red (the “warning” colour):

I don’t know how I missed this, but it sure reminds me of what Jakob Nielsen once said about how little users actually read on a web page.

From a user experience standpoint, one of the biggest problems here is the way this site offers its “service”. The red text reads: “Twifficiency will tweet your score in your behalf. Do not use this app if you don’t consent to this”.

Besides being presented in a rather small font, this message is teling me: “use this app exactly how I want you to use it, or don’t use it at all”. This was done to make sure Twifficiency would spread rapidly and efficiently across Twitter —and it did.

Jimmy’s goal here is evident. Unfortunately, this resulted in a less-than-gracious user experience and many annoyed Twitter users.

Having to abide by deliberate constraints in order to get the “benefit” of the end product being offered is indeed frustrating.

Twifficiency has since changed. The site now offers an “opt in” tick-box (which comes pre-ticked, mind you) next to the calculation button. This gives you control on whether you want your score tweeted or not.

I reckon enough people must have complained in order for this happen.

So, what did I gather from this “Twitter Spamaton” experience?

-It is still easy for most people to miss informational text around actionable items on a web page.

-The layout, presentation and location (e.g. proximity) of relevant information are all important things to factor in when designing a web page. How do you make sure users pay attention to any relevant text that is directly related to a link or a button? Clearly red text doesn’t quite cut it.

-Forcing users to use your product in a specific, undesirable way (with ulterior motives, like Twifficiency) ultimately results in many people not wanting to use your product. At all.

Taking these things into account when designing web apps or services can prevent us from situations similat to that of spamming our Twitter feeds. Reciprocally.

This is, of course, as long as you don’t fall prey to sites like Twifakes: this one doesn’t show any warnings at all that it will tweet on your behalf how many fake followers you’ve got (as it sure does), despite the reassuring message at the bottom promising “not to abuse your account”.

Faking it with Fake

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 05:55:00 -0400

I like using You Tube to listen to rare versions of my favourite songs, but I don’t like to constantly have to reload a page if want to listen to anything more than once —gladly, I have found a solution: it’s called Fake.

Fake is a web browser for Mac OS X that allows for easy web automation. It comes from the same creator of one of my favourite Mac applications: Fluid.

The list of things you can do with Fake is intriguingly long. Anything from placing focus on a specific HTML input element; executing various combinations of else/if statements; dispatching specific mouse events, and even the ability to run any AppleScript script is possible with this application.

Evidently, you can get some really complex actions accomplished with this browser —or really simple ones, like having a video on You Tube play as if it were on “Repeat 1”. Here you can see how easy this is to achieve using Fake.

First, a video showing how this works:

Now, the steps:

1. Open the Action Library panel (the button with the book icon)

2. Search for the Repeat action and drag it into the workflow panel. If you are like me and love to obsessively play the same song over and over, this action will let the entire workflow repeat itself as desired. There is not “unlimited” option here (as it only takes numeric values), so enter the number of times you wish for this process to be repeated.

3. Find the Delay action and drag it directly below the Repeat action. This is where you determine how long will the workflow be delayed for before the next action takes place. In other words, this is where you enter the duration of the video you want to have played repeatedly. The Delay action only takes values in seconds, so calculate how many seconds long is the video you are watching and enter that value inside this action.

4. Find the Reload action and drag it directly below the Repeat action. This will simply reload the web page once the Delay action is done counting however many seconds you entered in it.

5. Finally, find the End Repeat action and drag it directly below the Reload action. This “closes the loop” and makes the Repeat action on top active again.

Voilà! —it starts all over again.

Here’s a image showing how this workflow looks inside the workflow panel:

Simple, right?

This is just a brief example of how you can use Fake to accomplish a rather easy (yet useful) automation on a web page. I hope you find it as useful as I did.

Unfortunately, Fake did not behave flawlessly at all times. The most common glitch in this particular workflow was the Delay action not “delaying” for the exact amount of time I had entered. Many times, delay would jump to the Reload action halfway through the video; sometimes near the end or sometimes after only a couple of seconds of playback. The application does seem to get updates rather often, so hopefully these issues will eventually stop occurring.

Nevertheless, I suggest you give Fake a try and see how you can make it work towards your needs. (Did I mention it’s free?)

If you discover another fun/useful workflows with this browser, please share them in the comments. I’m interested to know what you can come up with using this great tool.

Now that you have a way to turn “Repeat 1” on You Tube, what do you fancy listening to now?

HelTweetica: Twitter + iPad made simple.

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 01:09:00 -0400

(I wonder if Gary Hustwit approves of this app)

HelTweetica is a free Twitter app for the iPad that caught my attention a while back —mainly due to it’s simplicity.

Initially, I didn’t think much of it. Then, one day whilst watching a World Cup match, I decided to use my iPad to see my Twitter stream as I worked from home with the laptop -and the match- both in front of me. If you are one of the many who experienced the biggest sporting event in the world with Twitter by your side, you know how important it was to keep up with the Twitterverse during matches.

I started by opening my iPad client of choice: Twitterific. It crashed after a while. Then I moved to Twittelator for iPad: not the best client as far as readability goes. Then I moved to TweetDeck: somehow it crashed as well.

Then I remembered: “…oh yeah, there’s that other app…”

Here’s a Twitter iPad app that is simple. Really simple —in fact, too simple at first sight. Once I found that it won’t let you upload images, or shorten links or many of the other things more robust apps like Twittelator for iPad let you do, I knew I’d never use it regularly.

Bur here I was, trying to watch the World Cup and none of my other apps were working, so I decided to open this one and try it during “heavy traffic” time.

I was impressed: it didn’t crash once and it felt very “live” —meaning, it felt like it updated instantaneously. More so than all the others (which is casually one of the many reasons I chose Seesmic Desktop over Tweetie for my Mac).

I guess it lives up the philosophy behind Helvetica: simple and clear. You get a broad view of tweets: it’s not too crammed, yet not too spacious. Each tweet has a section on the far right to let you do the basics: reply, direct message, favour o retweet.

I find HelTweetica to be a great alternative to mostly consume tweets. It can be a great way to see your Twitter stream go by as you watch your favourite match or television series. Whenever I feel like having the stream “in the background” as I do something else at home, I tap on the HelTweetica icon on my iPad and off it goes.

HelTweetica does have one thing other apps don’t: the “All Stars” mode, which turns your iPad into a WWDC-like “app wall” of sorts, made out of the avatars of the people you follow.

Tapping on a small button on the top right corner generates a red square that travels randomly through all the avatars until it chooses one and displays that person’s tweet in full screen rather nicely —using Helvetica, of course.

Here’s one of my tweets after I tapped on my own icon in this collage:

What I don’t know is why HelTweetica (after a number of attempts) chose to display this World Cup-related 22-day-old tweet when it generally displays the latest tweet of any of the other people I follow.

This may not be a “killer” feature, but it sure puts a spin on the Twitter experience I had not seen anywhere else. Think of it as a good wait to distract the mind for a minute or two.

All in all, you should give HelTweetica a try (it is free, after all). It’s a simple, yet unique Twitter app for the iPad that should at least serve as a reliable alternative to any of the others you may have downloaded so far.

Coming up with ways to deal log in, creating new accounts, and...

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:23:45 -0400

Coming up with ways to deal log in, creating new accounts, and preventing for duplicate accounts in a Higher Education Self Registration process.

You can find more of these “Random sketches” on my Sketch Notebook Flickr set.

Reeder: Single-handedly the best Google Reader iPad app.

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 02:31:00 -0400

Google Reader is without a doubt my central location for reading RSS feeds. I use it to subscribe, organize and read feeds. I usually alternate between using Gruml (Google Reader client for Mac) or simply using the web-based version.

When it comes to the iPhone, no one does it better than Reeder. This application gathers all of your feeds, folders, starred post…etc —all exactly how you have it setup on Google Reader and presents them beautifully (in a paperback-like sepia colour). Besides looking great, this application has a particular way of allowing you to navigate through post, by either using a set of arrows, or swiping and holding (up or down) to see the next one, and so on.

It is the only application that has ever made it desirable to read RSS feeds on such a small screen.

Then, the iPad came. With it, came a number of iPad-specific RSS Reader applications (some of them available even before the iPad went out on sale).

Out of the few applications available on launch-day, I decided to try Feedler (free) without being really impressed. Then I purchased Headline ($5).

Worst waste of 5 US dollars. Ever.

I won’t go into much detail with Headline. I’ll just say that it’s the best example on how to utilize the iPad’s screen real state in the most inefficient of manners.

Quickly, I realized that Google Reader on the web (just using Safari) was my preferred way of reading RSS feeds for a few good reasons. It displays posts nicely, fonts sizes are readable and utilizes the iPad’s screen real state well. When you tap on a post, it snaps to the top of the page and everything else collapses. There is clear visual indication of what has been read and what remains unread —among other things.

But the thing I like the most about using Google Reader on the iPad’s browser is that it allowed me to read feeds by mostly using one hand (more like one thumb).

Generally, I like to read RSS feeds whilst sitting back in a sofa or leaning back on my bed. Often times I have a cup of tea or a Diegoccinno (Soy Latte à la Diego) in one hand as I am trying to navigate through various posts. Sometimes I’m simply leaning back with one hand behind my head…etc.

Whether I’m using a second hand at all whilst reading RSS feeds or not, the key thing is that I usually don’t feel comfortable dedicating both hands to holding the iPad when going through my feeds. It doesn’t feel relaxed. This is part of the reason why I prefer eBooks to regular books: I don’t like having to keep a book open (using both hands) in order to read it.

It was shortly after I had decided to only use Google Reader via Safari when the creators of the Reeder iPhone released the iPad version of the application (iTunes link).

The creators of Reeder managed to impress me once again with this. Not only it keeps the unique user experience from the iPhone version, but it allows me to do what I could not do before with any other app I had tried: navigate using only one hand.

The following video shows Reeder in action (and why I like it so much):

It is amazing how pleasurable it is to read just about anything using this application. It offers the ability to navigate through post by pushing all the way up or down at the top or bottom of a post to got to the next (or previous) one. This is as easy to do with one hand as it is on the iPhone. Clearly there is more room to “swipe over”.

But this is where the arrows on the left com in. They allow me to grab the iPad with my left hand and simply touch up and down to see all the different posts (as seen on the video above). This is excellent for feeds that are composed of only titles (Craigslist is a good example) or when you simply care about reading the title as well as the first few lines in the first paragraph in a post.

Reeder also add some nice touches to the user interface of this application for the iPad. Tapping and holding on the post’s title offers a great number of ways to share or save the post:

Tapping on the the title alone, opens the post in a browser inside the app. You can click on anything within the browser and navigate as if you were using Safari, whilst only displaying a rather unobtrusive bar on top. When you are ready to go back to Reeder, simply tap on the arrow on the top left:

One of the features I like the most of Google Reader is how it allows me to organize groups of feeds by folders. These folders are represented in Reeder for iPad in a similar manner that Apple displays photo-albums with the iPad’s Photos app (link to Apple’s guided tour videos). Much in the same way the Photos app lets you peek to see what photos are in an album, Reeder allows to see what feeds are inside each folder. You can either tap on the folder to read all the combined feeds, or you can pinch/expand to display all the feeds inside the folder and explore them individually.

(“Lolcats” looks great using Reeder for iPad, by the way...)

Much like anything —nothing is perfect. Reeder for iPad has ~~some~~ very few things I’m not particularly fond of. One of them is how sensible post can be to getting swiped to the left or to the right (in portrait mode) when the finger is trying to swipe up or down. I see the idea behind allowing post to be swiped ~~to the left or to the righ~~t only to the right, but it would be nice for this to be a feature that can be switched on/off.

Despite the one or two things I would change on this application, Reeder for iPad is a true joy to use. It has made the iPad my preferred device to use for reading RSS feeds for the way it looks and the way it allows me to interact with the news I want to read.

I like this application so much that I felt compelled to write this (rather long) post to share with you the reasons why I think this is, “single-handedly” the best RSS Reader app available for the iPad.

I May Have Found a New Passion

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 03:27:00 -0400

Thank you, iPad.

I feel a good chunk of my new-found free time* is going to be spend trying to mix/make/play music on the iPad.

iElectribe, Looptastic HD, Beatwave. These are only some of the applications made for iPad that will allow anyone to become a pseudo-DJ for microscopical fraction of the price it would cost with the physical counterparts of these devices.

I decided to grab a camera and record my first interaction with the KORG iElectribe application (an iPad version of the same physical artifact). I grabbed a simple “naked” beat and added various different sounds, pitches and effects as I went. Looking back, I can hear myself trying to emulate some of the beats in Justice’s “Let There Be Light”.

Have in mind that applications like the iElectribe were crafted before anyone had the chance to have an iPad in their hands. Imagine what will come next.

I believe the next thing for me to do is get my hands on a simple DJ Mixer and, if at all possible, another iPad —why not?

For the time being, I plan on using my iPhone as my “second” device. I already have invested quite a bit in music-making applications for it, and I think they complement the applications I’ve recently downloaded for the iPad nicely.

Well, some better than others.

Let’s see what else comes from this new bug that has bitten me. It’s exciting.

Now I’m wondering how awkward it would feel to have a “less-than-organic” version of a Monome 64 on the iPad…

[*My new-found free time refers to the fact that since January, 2010 I haven’t had to spend my free time trying to finish the my thesis in Human-Computer Interaction at Indiana University. Graduation comes in a couple of weeks: 9th May.]

The N900 & Me: From Dawn to Dusk

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 03:24:00 -0400

Not too long ago, I was extremely excited to get a Nokia N900 in my hands. I had been reading heaps about all the things it could and just how open and versatile of a mobile device this was.

The impression I gathered was that the N900 is a hand-held computer that just happens to make phone calls. In all honesty it was all that —and more. Many people asked me “Why? Don’t you have an iPhone?”

Indeed, I do. Nevertheless, one of the reasons that drew me so much to the N900 was just how open and malleable it was. With Maemo 5 as it’s operating system (which is all Linux based) and Nokia’s reputation as the best mobile device maker in the world, this was something that just felt right.

I didn’t take me long (even before buying it) to realize that the experience of downloading applications for the N900 would be diametrically different than that of the iPhone’s AppStore. We all know that Apple reserves the right to approve or reject any application available for the iPhone (unless you “set it free”). This was also rather appealing and refreshing —especially after being an iPhone user from the day it came out. I never wanted to be one of “those” people who carry two mobile phones by choice.

With the N900, it was different…

This scaled-down computer is so intrinsically different when compared to the iPhone that I never felt like I was “overdoing it” by owning them both. After all, the N900 is sold worldwide as an unlocked device, so I knew I could use my AT&T sim card with it. Don’t get me wrong I was never not going to get another phone/data plan just for the this phone.

I finally got the N900 in my hands and began exploring it, days passed as I got more and more familiar with it. I read countless forums; downloaded repositories to be able to download even more applications being developed by open source enthusiasts; took it to SXSW Interactive; even had the chance to personally thank Cali Lewis for making this informational video which aided my decision of getting the N900 in the first place:

After 6 weeks with the device, I had enough time to come up with a number of well-defined conclusions about what I liked and what I didn’t. This is primarily what I want to share with you here. Needless to say, these conclusions are based solely on my own experience with the device. For a extensive and thorough review, check out what Engadget had to say about the N900. What I Liked:

With the Nokia N900, there’s certainly “an App for that”. I was often surprised to see what I could find app for in the various repositories available for Maemo-based devices. Among the most interesting applications I downloaded are: Joiku Spot (turns the N900 into a mobile hot spot); One that allowed the N900 to be a bluetooth track pad/keyboard, another one that made it possible to use the N900 as a PS3 or Nintendo Wii controller; WebKit-based browsers; NES and SNES emulators; a Speedometer; DUKE NUKEM; and a Python-based Pandora application that magically did away with the advertisements and the song play restrictions (you know “…in an Absolut open source world….”)
I didn’t pay for any of the aforementioned apps.
Firefox. It was great to be able to have a solid browser with tabs, add-ons and even a download manager. It didn’t allow for zooming in and out as smoothly as the browser that comes installed with the N900 (also Mozilla-based) but it was nonetheless good. Did I mention it even had an awesome bar?
Customizable to the core. I loved being able to apply any themes, colours, even fonts to fit my style/mood —and of course, there’s the multiple desktops feature.
The FM Transmitter. No need for extra cables if you need your sound amplified through a radio. It worked flawlessly with the stereo in my car. I played music and even watched a few episodes of one of my favourite TV programmes (whilst waiting for Best Buy to open on iPad day).
Full DivX playback
The LED flash for the 5.0 Megapixel camera. (If only the iPhone had one of these —the Apple logo in the back would be an awesome location for a small flash!)
Full Flash capabilities. I was able to use Grooveshark, Hype Machine, YouTube.com and many other Flash-based sites successfully. Sometimes it would be “slow” (some of this sites are clearly very demanding for a device of this calibre), but overall the N900 delivered when it came to allowing the internet to be experienced the way in which it was intended, as opposed to the way Apple forces you with the iPhone.
It had a cursor! (as in the one the you move using your mouse or track pad). How many mobile devices you know can do that?
The ability to make contacts into shortcuts on the desktop to quickly call/IM/SMS (similar to Android phones).
Ovi Maps. Never really got to use it, but the idea of having free, turn-by-turn capabilities for the entire world was nice.
Sharing. I liked it because it was effective, seamless and different from what I am used to. For example, you take a photo and then you can give it whatever tags you want (so you can find it on your phone later) or quickly send it to one (or many) services at the same time: Flickr, Facebook, Evernote, Pixelpipe or sure, why notÑ Ovi Photos. If the service supports tags, they all get transferred as well.
Multitasking. Simply put: a luxury I just can’t enjoy now will have with my iPhone this coming summer. I could be surfing the web and get a message from Google Talk, an SMS, or an Email and respond to either one of this whilst listening to music and looking at photos. Brilliant!

What I Didn’t Like:

The Ovi Store: There was nothing wrong with it —except it hasn’t got much to offer. I hope it grows in the near future, for Nokia owners’ sake.
Syncing with a Mac. It was indeed possible, but it required a number of workarounds. This has nothing to do with being a Mac user and being spoiled into Apple product’s “ease of use”. It really should not have been that hard. At least I’m glad it was possible to (eventually) sync all my contacts, iTunes media and calendars.
(visual) Transitions. Overall, transitions between screens whilst surfing the web or with some of the applications looked a bit “segmented” (I will acknowledge: this *is* indeed a result of being spoiled from just how smooth the experience with the iPhone is).
Battery life. It simply didn’t seem like it lasted very long at all.
Installing and uninstalling applications takes ages. Once you do either of these, it appeared as if I had to wait for the entire list of applications to “refresh” for a couple of seconds.
Two-hands vs. One. The N900 was clearly designed to be used in landscape view, which is not necessarily bad. Nevertheless, one of the things I love about my iPhone is that I can easily interact with it by using only one hand. I find my self constantly using my iPhone whilst eating, typing something on the computer, having coffee or in bed right after I wake up/before I go to sleep. I am rather accustomed to this and sadly, the N900 doesn’t allow for that unless you’re making a phone call.
The virtual keyboard. Being an iPhone user I’m clearly not against it —but does it really need to occupy the entire screen whilst typing?
The screen. I didn’t mind that it was resistive touch screen (as opposed to the iPhone’s capacitive screen) but it seems to scratch more easily than that of the iPhone.
The speakers. They were loud enough, but depending on how you hold the phone, your fingers will most likely cover the sound coming out of them. *FAIL*.
TWITTER! This was one of the big deal-breakers for me. Just as I have noted an increase in my use of Twitter thanks to the iPhone, I found my interaction with the Twitterverse virtually crippled by the available Twitter channels in the N900. I tried Witter, Mauku, PowerTwitter —all horendously-looking (take a look yourself!) TweeGo was perhaps the most “decent” of them all (even when in sub-alpha stages at the time of this post). As Twitter gains user and uses, someone will have to develop a more compelling way to experience Twitter. If I have time, I’ll be more than glad to share my own ideas with the world (now that I actually have some experience with Maemo)

These are some of the main and most salient conclusions I was able to come up with, given my short time with the N900. I say “short” because it was only slightly over a month and sadly, it has come to an end. Less than a week after I put the N900 for sale on Craigslist (small scratches and all) it found a new owner. Gladly he was a self-proclaimed Nokia-lover. I have sold it because despite all the good things it offered (and how different it was from the iPhone), I simply could not justify having another “smartphone”. It didn’t fill a big gap in my digital life and it didn’t exactly do anything than the iPhone doesn’t do in such an impressive manner for me to consider making it my main communication device.

In the end, this was an interesting experiment. It was exciting to be excited about a product again (since I haven’t felt the same since the day the first iPhone came out). I wasn’t even near as excited with the iPad that Saturday morning, days ago.Despite the anticipation I had for the N900, it couldn’t find a proper place for it in my media-consuming, productive or social life.

I knew buying this device was a gamble and I don’t seem to have gone all too well in the end. This is one of the risks early adopters like me usually run. Getting on board with a new and unknown gizmo can be expensive, time-consuming and nothing guarantees that you will get back all you have invested in it. Nevertheless, it was great fun and I don’t regret my “investment” in getting to know the N900 the way I did. Take it as a non-for-profit service: “I do it, so you don’t have to.”

The iPad: The 30+ Hours Review

Sun, 04 Apr 2010 03:24:00 -0400

I may have “hinted” I was not going to get an iPad quite yet —and here I am: writing a review of my experience with it in the last 30 hours or so since it came out on sale. (If you don’t want to read the story leading up to the acquisition of the iPad, scroll down to “After the Purchase”)

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BEFORE THE PURCHASE A bit of context around the last-minute decision: it all came to DJing applications like Mixr, Wireframing tools like iMockups, and quite frankly, the Origami option for slideshows in the Photos app in the iPad. This is all in addition to the many application in my iPhone I knew I could also use with the iPad (mostly sequencers and music-controllers).

Sometime after Stone Temple Pilot’s free concert in Indy, I decided to prepare myself with food provisions, laptop, and a good book (on my Kindle app for the iPhone) and departed towards an undisclosed and remote Best Buy location at nearly 3 am, following the various rumours that every Best Buy store with Apple Solution Consultants would be carrying a total of 15 iPad per store.

I must say I had never, ever, camped out or attempted to queue for dreadfully long hours before for a consumer product —until now. I thought I would want to do it at least once just for the experience and “to say I’ve done it”. Period.

I arrived at Best Buy… to an empty car park and not a soul to be seen anywhere around. I started to think perhaps I was at the “wrong” Best Buy location, but I couldn’t be bothered to go to another one. Clearly, I seem to have overestimated people’s enthusiasm for the new “magical & revolutionary” device in this part of the country (perhaps they didn’t know about Best Buy carrying in them?).

I managed to sleep for a great chunk of the time I was there. It wasn’t until 4 am that a couple of Best Buy employees arrived (to set up the iPads for display, I imagine). The first Apple fan-boy car arrived shortly after, followed by just another one by 7am. At least I knew I wasn’t the only one there early for the new iPads, but nevertheless, it was nothing like I expected it to be.

Finally, around 8 am the Best Buy’s store manager came over to meet the few of us waiting and asked us which iPad version we wanted (I went with 64Gb) and gave us 1 pre-sale ticket each, good for the purchase of the iPad of our choice until 5 pm that day:

Eventually, they opened the doors at 10 am. By then, there were only a total of 7 people (including me) waiting for an iPad. I’m thinking whoever walked into that Best Buy location with lost hopes for an iPad might have had a rather pleasant surprise.

After playing with the iPad on display for about 3 minutes, it was time to go home and play with mine —no matter how tired I was from the painfully boring wait that preceded this moment.

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AFTER THE PURCHASE

After opening the box, it was all the regular procedure of plugging the device to the computer, connecting to iTunes…etc. It took longer in my case, as I still needed to update iTunes so it could actually recognize my MaxiPad (as I’ve affectionately —and officially— named it on my Mac).

Once the first sync was complete (music, info, iPhone apps that work well in the iPad) I was able to finally start making it my own, going through the App store…etc. This is practically what I’ve been doing up to this point. What I will do is then just simply mention short bits of the good the bad and the ~~ugly~~ weird of my experience with the iPad so far.

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THE GOOD

-First off, being able to decorate it with some the best photos I took in Lisboa this past December, both for the lock and the home screen.

-Twittelator Pad: Not only it’s one of my favourite Twitter clients on the iPhone, it’s now my Twitter client of choice when it comes to the iPad. This app redefines the way you can interact with an application made for this operating system. It takes great advantage of the screen real state and although it might take a bit of time to really get used to it, it simply leaves all the other (currently existing) Twitter applications behind. It even let’s you define your own background image, as you can see here (I’ve chosen this beautiful photo I took of a temple in Chaing Rai, Thailand).

-The Amazon Kindle application. It was one of the few that updated immediately after I ported my iPhone applications to the iPad (along with Pandora, Evernote and a few others). It is truly stunning. Not only it looks better than Apple’s own iBooks application, but thanks to WhisperSync, you can start reading a book on you iPhone, continue on you Mac and pick up where you left off on your iPad —or Kindle (if you have one). The background image even “fits” with the time of day you are using the app. For example, here the sun was setting around 7 pm —and so it was on the Kindle app. Brilliant! (I really don’t think Amazon has much to worry about with the iPad in the market: keep all these books widely available for us to read wherever we please and we will continue buying them).

-The BBC NEWS iPad app is breathtaking. Just get it: it’s free. -Google Reader: I’ve downloaded Feeddler for free, but simply going on Google Reader using Safari looks and behaves very well (even though it looks the exact same way as it does on the iPhone). I haven’t tried Google Reader’s Play yet, but I’m sure it will make for a very engaging experience. I’m thinking about a couple of paid RSS applications I’ve seen around the App store, but Google + Safari have made it difficult to pay *any* money for a dedicated application so far.

—————

THE BAD

-It is definitely heavier that I thought it would be. After a while (and specially whilst holding it with just one hand) you start feeling like putting it down on a table, a bed or on your lap if you are lying down. -Smudges-galore! The image speaks for itself:

-Somehow, when I try to turn down the volume (by pressing & holding the “volume down” button) it goes all the way down automatically (as in mute). It doesn’t happen if I press & hold the “volume up” button or if I continuously press “volume down” button to achieve the desired sound volume. Is this happening to you? Is it just me? if your iPad does not behave this way, please let me know so I can go exchange it as soon as possible! Update: Some people have told me it is in fact, true. I was rather hoping this was a defect on my iPad. I don’t see the point —was it too difficult to include a “mute” button like on, say, the iPhone? -Screen shots taken in landscape mode are saved in to the iPad in portrait mode —sideways. I’ve tried several times and I always end up with a landscape photo “stading on it’s left side”. For example, that Twittelator Pad photo above was rotated using the Photoshop app for iPhone, on the iPad.

-NO FRONT-FACING CAMERA! (we all know it’s coming… but I’m still shocked about the decision not include it “to reduce costs”). This became even more apparent after downloading the WebEx iPad app… or just think about Skype… Pity. -Facebook. I’m sure it’s a matter of time, but I’m quite surprised to not have seen a dedicated iPad app on launch day. At least the full site looks great on Safari —as do most other sites. -iPhone Apps: I’ve come to find very few of my iPhone apps look decent in 2x. I can see now why there will be an iPhone “HD” with twice the resolution. Now that I’ve seen how pixelated most of these apps look on the iPad, it will be interesting to see how the adapt to both environments. This is quite loss just thinking about not being able to properly use my absolute most-favourite RSS Reader application on the iPhone.

—————

THE WEIRD

-I’ve come to find my favourite position (so far) to play with the iPad is to leave it flat on top of my bed, with me lying sideways, holding my head with one hand and touching the iPad with the other.

-“Not Charging” — When I plug it in to my MacBook Pro, I can sync it, use it as intended…etc. But on the top right of the screen where it should have the percentage of battery left or an indicator showing the battery is being charged, it simply says “Not Charging”. The same has happened with some of my portable chargers. This is strange, because it so happens that this is in fact not entirely true. The iPad is indeed being charge but at a rather slower rate than usual and most likely only if it’s on “sleep mode”. I came to discover this by draining one of my portable chargers with it, with a small increase in battery life in return.Others have indeed noticed that this is the case. I hope this gets fixed soon, because it is simply unsettling to even “think” that your iPad is not being charged (and think about it? how many of us charge our iPhone plugged in via-USB to a computer?). It only seems to “charge properly” when plugged in to an electrical outlet. It is then evident the iPad simple needs some more volts to charge as intended.

-Typing. I can type using my thumbs on portrait mode somewhat comfortably. Any other way, it is a awkward as many people had predicted.

—————

Finally, I’m still trying to see how this device fits into my life. So far, I see as one of the coolest, most innovative yet most unnecessary toys I’ve ever purchased. I don’t think I would even really take it out of the house.

This doesn’t come as a shock to me, but it must be said: The iPad is certainly NOT a laptop-replacement. Those looking for an iPad as way to replace (or get out of buying) a good laptop or even a netbook will be greatly disappointed.

I’d like to know your experiences with the iPad. Do you share some of this opinions or first impressions so far? If you haven’t purchased one yet, will you now?

These are only some of the few first impressions I’ve gathered over the weekend. I am certain this is only the first iPad-related post of many to come. Good or bad, this “magical & revolutionary” device will give me (and many others) plenty to talk about.

Review: Creative EP 630i headphones for iPhone

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 03:22:00 -0400

By now, I’m convinced any pair of headphones cable manufactured by Apple is purposely design to break or fall apart after some determined amount of time. It’s a pity to have such good quality products with such poor quality accessories. ç

Do you own an iPod? iPhone? Does your USB cable start peeling off from both ends? How about your earbuds?

On my way back from SXSW Interactive last week, I came to realize my iPhone headphones had stopped working —full stop. Not the most pleasant feeling to have mid-air when you just want to sit back and relax listening to M83.

On our stop in Houston (TX), I decided to look for a pair of iPhone-friendly headphones anywhere I could, and I found a great looking pair by none other than Creative: the EP-630i.

(something you should know about me is that I am, always have and most likely always be a massive fan of Creative for anything sound-related.)

I decided to buy these almost blindly (because they are made by Creative), despite the fact that they were in-ear headphones: something my ear anatomy has never really allowed for.

To my placid surprise, these headphones sound and feel great! They claim to be noise canceling and indeed they are, which is something I never really believed was possible with in-ear headphones.

As I mentioned before, the pre-requisite was to find “iPhone-friendly” headphones and these meet the one basic requirement: a microphone/button combo.

The EP-630i go a bit further. They may not be going with the minimalistic approach that Apple is know for (by having a “white block” that serves as microphone and a button if you squeeze it). Creative has included an actual button you can feel and press with confidence. Answering phone calls, pausing and skipping songs back and forth simply feels better with these headphones.

I constantly had one problem with my Apple earbuds: when wanting to skip a song, the “button” would stick and made the iPhone believe I was in fact pressing and holding the button, which resulted in Voice Control being activated far too often. The frustrating, interrupted experience I never thought possible with my iPhone had become a reality.

And the sound quality? indeed far superior than what the Apple earbuds can offer. Not even the U$80 in-ear Apple earbuds deliver the quality of sound Creative offers (and I know because I did buy Apple’s in-ear headphones. They were returned roughly 5 minutes after the transaction had taken place).

Simple, functional, comfortable and great-sounding headphones that work with any iPhone for U$49.99? Yes, please.

The only thing I don’t like about these headphones cannot be attributed to Creative, but to in-ear headphones in general: because they are noise-cancelling, listening to whoever I’m talking with on the phone sounds great, but once I start talking, I can hear myself uncomfortably loud. It feels weird: I don’t know if I’m talking loud enough and I’m simply not used to hearing my voice so close to my head (if that makes any sense).

Despite this, I highly recommend the EP-630i if you are looking for a non-bluetooth, iPhone-friendly pair of headphones as an alternative to the iconic-yet-poorly-built earbuds that came with your beloved iPhone.

Qualitative Research Methods + Mobile = Innovation

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 03:21:00 -0500

For lunch today, I decided to enjoy my recently-mastered Indian dish once more and finally give a closer look to the latest Interactions magazine instead of going out. Reading Interactions is one of those things that I wish I had more time to do: I want to dissect and take in almost every article, every time. I like to treat each issue like required reading for university.

Looking for an article to pick, I came across “User Research-Driven Mobile User Interface Innovation: A Success Story from Seoul” by Jay Chaeyong Yi. Clearly, the word “mobile” caught my attention immediately.

The article describes a study done in South Korea regarding the use of SMS and Instant Messaging in mobile phones between various groups of users. These include teens and young adults; those who are “born to talk” and “not to talk”. The author highlights the differences between text messages (SMS) and mobile instant mesagges (MIM) in terms of their nature and context of use.

It is clear that SMS usage is not as “continuous” as MIM, meaning that the user can send an SMS, put the phone away, do something else and go back to it if there is a reply. On the other hand. Instant messages require users to be signed in to a service, having to enter a username and a password (or create an account, if the user hasn’t got one) and of course, the user must be signed in at all times in order to engage in conversations. This is not a problem on a computer —but on a mobile phone?

SK Telecom wanted to solve this problem for one of their mobile instant messaging products, the NateON, and asked the PXD UI Consulting Group to conduct user research to discover target audiences, their preferences and dislikes in regards to real-time chatting. The result was the creation of mMessenger, which ultimately managed to combine the benefits of SMS and MIM into one. You can read all about the research behind the study and the specifications of the resulting product in the article. I highly suggest you read it, specially if you are interested in qualitative research methods.

(Quick parenthesis — It’s was particularly interesting to see how the mMessenger treated either SMS or MIM message conversation as “threads” —the same way the iPhone does with its SMS application. Clearly, this is interesting because it existed *before* the iPhone. But, of course, most of us didn’t know about it in the West. Sounds familiar?)

It’s true: I feel passionate about mobile devices and everything from their user interfaces to their industrial design. I’ve mentioned how this article caught my eye because it had the word “mobile” in the title, but what I found most interesting once I was finished reading it was the research methods used in this study. Jay Chaeyong Yi and his team used a number of qualitative research methods such as personas, contextual inquiry and affinity diagrams to help inform the design of the mMessenger. I find this particularly interesting since affinity diagramming was the principal research tool I used for my Master’s Thesis Project in HCI at Indiana University. My education and experience with it allowed me to see how useful it was, but I had never read about it in an article unless I had purposely looked for examples of applied affinity diagrams.

I’m glad to see qualitative methods making a great impact in the real world with real products. Some us know about the never-ending debate of qualitative Vs. quantitative methods in research and the arguments on which one is “better” and “for what” purpose. Clearly, the answer is that one is not better than the other. Nevertheless, for those who feel the need to be cautious about utilizing qualitative research methods in research, Jay Chaeyong Yi’s article is a great example of just how powerful they can be in user interface, interaction and experience design.

Testing my music knowledge with Sonicspree

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:13:00 -0500

Sure, this game may be prone to potential injuries, but it was nonetheless great fun to experience it.

Produced by Ergonomidesign and developed for the Microsoft Surface, Sonicspree is a music quiz game in which players are presented with many upside-down album covers of various artists (rotating around the edges of the Surface). As a new song starts playing, players have to swipe the covers towards the middle of the table to reveal the cover-art of each album. Once the right cover is spotted (the one according to the song playing at that time) players must drag the album cover back to the “container” in front of them to collect that cover. Once someone manages to do that, a new song starts playing and the game continues.

I had the chance to play with this (as well as having my first encounter with the Microsoft Surface) at Interaction 10 in Savannah, Georgia (US).

Take a look at the actual gameplay to get a better idea:

(those random comments in Spanish you hear… yes, that’s me).

As you can see, the game itself can be loads of fun —especially when a really popular song comes up (e.g. Min 2:17).

This game ended up consuming a considerable chunk of my time that night. I played with it during one of the evening gatherings/parties taking place after the regular scheduled programme at IxD10.

As a audiophile myself, I can see myself playing this game for hours with friends (I reckon I would win in *most* music categories… except maybe Country or Hip-Hop). Nevertheless, I don’t think I’ll ever be in the market for a Microsoft Surface, so I’d be interested in seeing if the same game could be exported to a different platform.

The iPad?… maybe if there is a way to hold it in place. Maybe a way for multiple iPhone or iPad mini iPod Touch devices to be connected via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi as everyone sits around in a circle could render a similar experience.

You can read more about the Sonicspree game (and music store) at Ergonomidesign’s web site.

Apple's "latest" Vs. me, The Consumer

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:09:00 -0500

(To clarify, “Latest” is purposely within quotes. I’m sure is not quite the “latest”)

By now, many have seen the much anticipated “Apple Tablet”, in photos, videos, or have read about it in your favourite blog/news source. Maybe you are burned out with the topic from skimming your Twitter feed alone.

But the device everyone had been talking about for weeks/months has been shown, and despite the various rumours about the names it could have been given (and the names some people were “so sure” would never be considered) it’s called the iPad.

(even the “female hygiene product” jokes seem overdone already… and it’s been only 2 days since the announcement.)

It’s a thin, gorgeous-looking mobile device that looks and behave much like a current day iPod Touch, or an iPhone. Yet despite having 3G capabilities, Apple has built the iPad without the chance of making/receiving phone calls. The similarities with the previously mentioned devices saves you some paragraphs to read in this post.

Nice, isn’t it?

Well, I’m mostly disappointed for a number of reasons —purely personal and based on timing. Others not. But let’s begin with what I reckon are *WINNING* points about this device:

Most iPhone/iPod Touch applications already work on the iPad (Massive!). If you own an iPhone or iPod Touch, you already have quite a bit of “software” ready to be installed in your new… “Pad”.
For the previous reason, a lot of people “already know how to use it” (hardly any learning curve).
iBooks. These eBooks on the iPad make the Amazon Kindle and just about every other e-ink based reader look 10-years old (monochromatic is so 3 days ago…). Plus, the eBook reading interaction? unprecedented.
Same goes for photos. Pinching albums slightly to “peek” at them = cool.
Split screen view for some applications. It needed to be there…
The price. Starting at $500 for the cheapest version many of us people will have a hard time saying “no” to awkwardly trying to type with this thing in your lap —whilst crouching on a sofa.
Quick access to everything. No waiting for the “computer” to boot. “Slide to unlock” and you’re there.

Brilliant, right? Well, I’ll try not to repeat many of the things people are not happy about with the iPad. I’ll let Adolf explain in a way only he could:

My take on the bad missing things is primarily based on the fact that I happen to be in the market for that “gadget in the middle” between my glorious iPhone and my home computer. Call it a “netbook” —more like a “reliable-yet-powerful/portable computing device”. I was hoping the Apple “tablet” would be that. It’s not. So, on the negative side:

No OS X? That is one of the advantages (in a way, like previously mentioned) but being based on the iPhone OS makes this “tablet computer” rather limited, which reminds me…
No multi-tasking? deal breaker for many.
Only up to 64 GB. For a device that was made to perform well “especially at interacting with music, photos and video” this device falls short in capacity to actually store such files. Still seems like a device engineered “for the cloud” (which is great —except I can’t have cute little animated photo-slideshows whilst playing Randy Newman music using Safari… unless you could play songs from the iPod and view a website at the same time— oh right: no multi-tasking).
No camera? I was actually hoping for a front-facing iSight-style camera. I’m sure Skype users where tearing up as the announcement went on and there was no mention of a camera —anywhere.
(I won’t even go on about the Camera Connection Kit.)
No phone calls? well, I guess the iPad Nano doesn’t make phone calls either.
No Flash? There are encountered opinions on this: from those who claim that Flash is the Internet to those who hide behind the HTML5 excuse to disregard Adobe’s flagship product. This is, I believe, one of the “hairy” issues. Whether Flash eventually disappears or not, there are loads of things on the Internet today that are indeed based on Flash. So, anyone promising to bring “The Web to the palm of your hand” like promised with the iPhone when it first came out and not supporting one of *the* most widely used technologies in the web today is hard to comprehend. I could go on, but this seems to me as Apple telling the world:

“We have devices people really want and really like. You (third-party software makers) design around us!, We don’t design around you…”

Whether there are good intentions behind this behaviour or not (or whether it is ultimately beneficial for the user), the Flash restriction seems stubborn and childish, which reminds me: ultimately, we won’t be able to really experience the whole web (at least as it exist today).
…and the NAME? (sigh)…

There are more negative points enthusiast are going on about, but I’ll let appropriately-named site like this inform you better.

As a regular, average consumer, it would be a lie for me to say I’m not somewhat disappointed. I foresee this device sitting somewhere in my living room, where it will stand casually next to my Colors Magazine collection on my coffee table as a really nice-looking photo-frame (I say this because it’s almost a given I will get one).

What can I say? I do love the iPhone…

But the disappointment comes not only from not being all it could have been, but not being all I wanted it to be —right now.

That being said, I think I might just wait for the second iteration of the iPad. Having (placidly) purchased all 3 versions of the iPhone, I know this one will be revamped, updated and improved. I had no problem (against all logic) with updating to the latest iPhone every time a new one came out because, well… “It’s Everything”… and “there’s an app for that”.

And watch: I will probably still update to the new iPhone again (within reason —of course).

But as awesome as this new Apple device may be, it clearly falls on the category of “not-truly-essential” in my life right now. This is why there are compelling reasons not to get it just yet. In other words, it’s worth the wait for the new *NEW* iPad. Even solving for the lack of a few things will be a gain —even if prices stay the same. This is why I question the term “latest” in this gadget. I’m know Apple knows this is not the best they could have come up with. The also know how to successfully sell the same device to people a couple of times over. Keeps them profitable, I guess. That’s Apple’s biz for you.

Final answer? NO(t yet) Apple. ~~even though I will get one eventually, I promise~~…

Now it’s probably time for that MacBook Pro 13-incher I’ve been putting off…

One More Example Showing The Browser Can "Be" The OS

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:00:00 -0400

Just in case there are people who still doubt that Google’s Chrome OS may just be all we need in an ultra-portable computer, here is yet one more example showing that more and more things that previously required a proper desktop application running on a conventional operating system, can now be done through the web browser.

My professor and thesis adviser Dr. Davide Bolchini sent me the link to this video today, and I have to say I was rather impressed. Not entirely by the transition of the slides or the choice of Bruce Springsteen as background music (as it was on the original video —The video above was “enhanced” with music by music mastermind William Orbit). I was really impressed with the fact that it was apparently done in less than 10 minutes using something called Stupeflix Editor: an online video tool.

Davide inserted some of the images that were published with the paper we co-authored for the July-August issue of ACM’s Interaction Magazine called “Paper-in-Screen”. Sure, it’s not exactly iMovie ‘09, but think about it: the ability to make quick slide shows or videos (music and all) this quickly? Brilliant!

Just about the same way I was impressed with Meebo, Google Docs, Adobe Buzzword and various other online “white board” web sites when they came out, this is yet another compelling example of where we are going currently are with personal computing.

I played with the interface whilst trying to change the Springsteen song and it was really easy to understand. Uploading William Orbit’s “Radioharp” was lightning fast. Just about everywhere I clicked generated an expected response —overall a highly interactive UI, even on apparent “white space”. Think about how someone may try to move something using a finger on an iPhone and… it moves! Same feeling.

Generating Mp4 videos (both large and medium) crashed almost immediately after I started to “compile” them (although this may have been because I was using Safari at that moment —it’s been crashing on me heaps lately.) Generating an FLV video, on the other hand, was a breeze.

If anything, this could be a tool anyone could use to get an idea across quickly and simply. I could see Stupeflix being really useful in prototyping, experience design, or simply short online, embeddable presentations.

Give it a go and see what you think. Not only it’s got great potential —it’s indeed great, as is.

"Paper-in-Screen", in Interactions Magazine

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:57:00 -0400

I’m proud to announce that the current topic of my Master’s thesis at IUPUI’s HCI programme, has been published as an article in the current issue of Interactions magazine.

The article was co-authored between my thesis adviser, Dr. Davide Bolchini and myself, under the supervision of Dr. Anthony Faiola, executive associate dean of the school of informatics at IUPUI.

The topic? It’s about mobile user experience. More specifically, it’s about how to anticipate it with the help of simple paper prototyping —a familiar concept to most practitioners in the fields of interaction design and usability.

“Paper-in-Screen” in itself is a prototyping technique that allows practitioners to anticipate the mobile user experience without the need to create high-fidelity, interactive prototypes (which are generally time/resource-consuming).

The origins of this prototyping technique were within one of my independent studies from the past Autumn semester at IUPUI. Dr. Bolchini gave me the freedom to work on any design-related project of my liking. With “mobile interaction design” being one of my most salient interests, I decided to design an application for the Apple iPhone. That application is called Vertsumption.

In the process of prototyping the application, we discovered (practically by accident) the ability to anticipate certain aspects of the mobile user experience that otherwise, would have required a couple of lines of code and some time with Adobe Fireworks.

I will go into more detail about the technique itself and the results from testing it with practitioners when I’m finished with my thesis project (the topic is the same as the article). I still need to do some more affinity diagramming with the obtained results for it all to come full circle.

If you are a subscriber of Interactions magazine, you shall see the July-August issue soon in your post box. The article is also available in PDF format at ACM’s Portal web site.

I’m really glad to see this article in a publication like Interactions. I consider it the “norm” for people in my professional field. It is an honour in itself to be featured in the same magazine where Don Norman has a regular column.

If you are a practitioner in UX/IxD, I hope you find it useful, but regardless of your field of expertise, I hope you find it interesting.

Design... Thinking?

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:45:00 -0400

Here’s an article I came across thanks to my (sometimes neglected) daily email Google Alerts on “Interaction Design”. It’s an article on Design Thinking by CEO and president of IDEO, Tim Brown. It appeared on the June 2008 issue of the Harvard Business Review. I was lucky enough to come across a link to the article in PDF (Thanks, ideo.com).

Harvard Business Review? Yes. That may be because design thinking seems to be just as valuable and applicable to business, marketing and product-development as it is to user experience an interaction design.

Tim Brown provides a couple of simple examples to illustrate what design thinking is:

[design thinking] - a methodology that imbues the full spectrum of innovation activities with a human-centered design ethos.

This speaks directly to the need to go beyond the salient issues of a design problem or product requirements. It’s about more directly observing people’s lives, their wishes, their needs, their likes and dislikes about whatever is being designed.

That sounds rather compelling. And it should be. After all, user experience and interaction design never stops at the end-cycle of that mobile phone, that controller or that alarm clock.

This next example seems more concrete, in relation to a “real-world” example:

Put simply, it is a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity.

It brings “constraints” to the mix —something that every designer has to take into account, regardless of the project.

Other points I found particularly interesting were:

It reminds us yet again, that design is something that used to be introduced at the end of the production cycle of products, to make thinks appealing and more desirable. Advertising, mostly…
Design innovation doesn’t come from the “lone, genious inventor”. It’s a team effort. The article recalls how Thomas Edison surrounded himself with number of gifted tinkerers, improvisers and experimenters.
On “experimentation”, it highlights the importance Edison gave to continuous rounds of trial and error. There is something great to be learned out of every “iterative stab” in design. This approach towards innovation seems as relevant as it was today as it was for the inventor of the electric light bulb.
Mentions of the main components of a design thinker’s “personality profile”: Empathy, Intergrative thinking, optimism, experimentalism and collaboration.
Great examples of design thinking in action with Kaiser Permanente’s reengineering of nursing-staff shift changes, Shimano’s introduction to their famous “coasting” bicycles, Aravind’s eye-care outreach in rural populations in India and Bank of America’s “Keep The Change” savings programme.

Overall, this article provides great examples of real people and real companies who have successfully worked around the constraints involved in various exceptional projects. It proves how no matter the what the goals in mind are, they are all achieved through hard work, powered by human-centered processes and iterations composed of prototyping and continuous testing. It shows the extent of the impact design thinking can have, which (again) goes well past the GUI of a computer screen or the package of the latest portable digital camera.

Visit this link to read “Design Thinking” by Tim Brown, in full.

Objectified [Film/Doc]

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:41:00 -0400

By looking at this trailer, you might understand why I’d be so interested in Gary Hustwit’s documentary:

From the Objectified’s web site:

Objectified is a feature-length documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. It’s a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It’s about the designers who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability.

Clearly, this pertains almost any kind of designer: visual, industrial, web…

The sole thought of going deeper inside the mind of those who think about “what is going to happen” (quoting the trailer) and the reasoning behind the associations we make with the products we engage with are some of the key selling factors for me. They speak directly to my Psychology background.

I’m looking forward most particularly to the pieces featuring IDEO’s Bill Moggridge (responsible for making the term Interaction Design meaningful) and Apple’s Jonathan Ive (… —no explanation needed).

This movie should be coming out in DVD or online, after it’s select-cities tour around the world.

The State of Interaction Design [Video]

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:29:00 -0400

If you have had some sort of difficulty in the past trying to define what Interaction Design is (specially if you call yourself an Interaction Designer), this video shall help get you closer to that answer.

IxDA’s co-founder David Malouf leads the over 70-minutes long conversation, alongside fellow Interaction Designers Ted Booth and Jennifer Bove.

This video doesn’t only address where Interaction Design currently is, but mostly importantly, it attempts to provide a clear(er) idea of what is. I found this very helpful for various reasons. I think Jennifer Bove says it best during the video when she asks “Have you ever tried to explain to your mum what you do?”. My easy way out is to say “I design web sites”, but if you are reading this, you are likely to know that it’s not as easy to define your profession compared to Doctors and Lawyers.

The discussion touches on various topics that I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who had questions on. What is our clay? What is our tool? (Illustrator? OmniGraffle? Flash?); where do we land in the scheme of the product (or services) development? (Is interaction design more marketing? science? creative force? business analysis?) What exactly are we borrowing form Human-Computer Interaction? Ergonomics? Industrial Design? The discussion even brings in Agile Development into the mix —exploring how exactly interaction designers are placed within this new and widely implemented development process.

This video leaves you with many things to think about.

Go With The Flo.ws

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:13:00 -0400

And voilà —the first post. I finish this welcome message with a rather appropriate song —made even more appropriate, as these Norwegian pair does it all through instruments + computers.

Welcome.