More messin' with QuadCamera/QuadAnimator

From a Viacom conference room looking down on times square...

30 Interface Control Patterns

Another nice diagram from the authors of the O'Reilly book: Designing Web Interfaces.

Does the Woot model work for women's clothes?

I'm a huge fan of the ecommerce site Woot, which offers one product per day, until it sells out, at super low prices. Woot has a strong nerd/gadget focus--TVs, laptops, things to plug into your usb ports (no, that's not a euphemism...). They've expanded the model to wine, and t-shirts, but there's still a whole lot of testosterone over there. Now it looks like someone is trying out the woot model with women's clothing. What does everyone think about RedTagCrazy.com? Does the model still hold up?

Playing with QuadCamera

and QuadAnimator...

Fun fun fun.

12 Standard Screen Patterns

This fabulous diagram is from a blog post about different screen patterns from the authors of the O'Reilly book: Designing Web Interfaces.

Looks there are more interesting articles to come...

Things I Covet: QuadCamera for the iPhone

QuadCamera is basically a Lomo Action Sampler for your iPhone.
Check it out. Very cool.

Anyone other than me fascinated with Bug Labs?

I love how open source, customization, and the Maker aesthetic is being applied to hardware now...

Of course I'm not the only one. Looks like IDEO is too. They've just posted a great case study of work they did with Bug designing e-ink displays for BUG modules. Really beautiful design work, for a suite of really exciting products.


BUGlabs + ideo concept 3 - LCD display with segmented backlight from Jeremiah O'Leary on Vimeo.

Quick and dirty mockup of a system menu

Quick mockup of an application (media player)

The logic behind our custom segmented font system for E-Ink

Layout of an E-Ink segmented display for the BUGbase

Real-life prototype of our display at expected actual size

More-real segment layout with spacing (for production feasibility/cost estimates)

Layered PSDs from a screen capture...

This looks like a really nifty tool.



Layers for the Mac, captures your displays as a Photoshop layered image. Press the capture hotkey or customize your capture in the inspector and you'll obtain a full fledged PSD file with one layer per window, including menu and desktop icons, dock and menubar.

Found by swissmiss

This poster campaign looks like so much fun!

“Every Image has a Sound”

Designed by DM9DDB to promote Saxsofunny, a sound production company from Brazil.

I was going to say, I especially like the bubble wrap one... but that's not true. They all rock! I think what I really love about these posters is that they are interactive design in the physical world. Well, that, and I think Foley sound effects are AWESOME.

Thunder

Typewriter

Bonfire

Found on NOTCOT

I dig this

Things I Covet: Graph Paper Napkins

Thanks NOTCOT.

US Air River Langing in NYC

Friend of a friend of a friend of a friend took this photo.

Yikes.

A chart to help you determine which chart to use

By Andrew Abela... can you say meta? (and you know how much I love the meta)

And once you've decided which chart to use, check out chartchooser.juiceanalytics.com where you can download chart examples in Excel and PowerPoint formats...

Now on Sprokets is the time when we...

re-edit the film live on stage...



Fascinating project from a Brazilian filmmaker getting her Masters degree. An open source tool that enables on-the-fly editing. Nifty stuff. Wonder what it would be like writing a script for this kind of narrative experiment.

An idea: LGBT Product Seal of Approval

I just watched MILK. Liked it, didn't love it. But it really got me thinking. I'm straight. I'm progressive. I gave money to Obama. The DNC. MoveOn. I'm elated by the election. But it wasn't until today that I became truly horrified by Prop 8. Not to sound like a horrible stereotype, but my best friend is gay. The reality of her circumstance, and her treatment as a second class citizen didn't really hit home until this evening. I'm not sure why. Partially because I didn't want anything to harsh my buzz. Partially because I just don't understand the current opposition to homosexual marriage, and to gay rights. I have no way of understanding why the opposition feels the way it does, and so it just seems... almost... I don't know, fictional. Like something from a bad bio pic.

I realized tonight that I've been ignoring something that is important to me. Personally. As important as it is important to us, as a society. Prop 8 is a black mark on a year when we all should be celebrating.

Honestly, I felt a little helpless. I didn't really know what to do about it. Then I had an idea. The most power I have as an individual is with my wallet. I can donate money to causes. And if I know of companies who supported Prop 8, or any anti-gay organizations, or legislation I can choose not to purchase their products or services. Seems that in our current economy not spending money could be a powerful tool.

My idea:
What if there were some kind of LGBT Seal of Approval for products and services. Companies who had a good record on LGBT issues, who hadn't donated money to causes like prop 8, could be issued the seal, and they could choose to place it on their packaging, websites, marketing materials, etc. (see my lame attempt at a seal above... a plea to my designer friends--you and I both know you can come up with something a million times better than that... *ahem) A website could track all companies that were issued the seal. Perhaps grade other companies on their LGBT friendliness. Issue big fat red Fs for those who donated to the Yes on 8 campaign, and we as consumers could choose, with our wallets, to show them that their bigotry has consequences.

So, it's nothing radical, or new, and may already be being done, but, well, it's something...

What do you think?
Comment to post your thoughts, ideas, or designs.

Thanks.

Making "beautiful women" is hard *$)_@# work!

Bilboard Adbusting in Berlin.
Show the Photoshop:

I think this is brilliant. Making "beautiful women" is *$)_@# hard work! It's about time we acknowledged it.

The Web Estimator

Found via swissmiss

The Web Development Project Estimator is a simple tool that allows web designers and site developers to quickly and thoroughly estimate the time and materials required for a proposed web project.

Useful. Even if it is just a simplified excel spreadsheet on the web. The design is clean and focused, and there is a lot of utility here.

What's more interesting to me is this idea of "giving away" as part of your marketing strategy. Astuteo is the developer of the Project Estimator, and they are also... well, as they put it "more than just a design studio." Content producers are definitely exploring this. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog springs to mind. It's great to see designers/developers playing with the idea as well. I hope it's successful for Astuteo.

Micro Sites are so 2004 - Let's go Nano!

I've been thinking a lot about a new concept I've started calling Nano sites.

The web is less and less about destinations, and more and more about services, connectors, and ubiquitous information. It started with RSS, and continues with Facebook Connect, and OpenSocial. In this new world the idea of driving a customer to a site to perform a function, and then keeping them there and coming back just seems more and more outdated. And yet, for most sites that's still the model. Sure, plenty of successful sites syndicate. But the two primary purposes are to grab eyeballs, or drive traffic to the site. And, right now, only content sites (YouTube especially) are able to do this effectively.

SO, what if a non-content site--say an e-commerce site like Amazon, or Zappos--embraced the syndication concept? What would that look like?

I've been thinking a lot about this. Imagining a series of nano-sites, built within the footprint of a standard IAB ad size--say the medium rectangle--with enhanced functionality. Product browse. Even check out. RIAs or Widgets basically.

These sites could be placed just like ads, living on blogs, news sites, etc. They could serve up mini selections of products based on the content of the site they are posted on--the adwords model--and could include enough functionality for someone to complete an interaction (browse, select, purchase) all without requiring the customer to leave the site.

Forget CPC, how about CPActualPurchase.

And, of course, the concept of Nano Sites applies to more models than just e-com. As already stated, YouTube is already doing exactly this with the embedded player.

So, what do you think? Can anyone else think of why this might or might not work?

I mocked up an example. Can't help but think it's a nifty little idea.

Great design for user scenarios

From wireframes:



I really like how these scenarios capture more than just the interactions with the device-- the environment, time, other people, etc., but also how they are aesthetically pleasing, and do such a great job of telling the scenarios diagrammatically.

I often write fairly complicated scenarios as a starting point for experience strategy work. I find that telling the story of a person, starting with a motivation, and including not just digital touch points, but real life interactions is very helpful when attempting to determine hierarchy, priority, etc. I'll include an example at the end of this post. But I find that I run into problems presenting these scenarios to customers. They can sometimes be tedious to read through, and for clients who are very visual (or a little ADD ;-), it can be tricky to get them to focus long enough to see the value. A diagram like this could really help.

A sample scenario: (you can see what I mean)

Lauren is 14. She loves The Hills. She’s followed it ever since season 5 when her namesake, Lauren, finally got serious and told that bitch Heidi where to get off.
Lauren is an addict. First thing she does in the morning is log on to her dashboard and see what’s happened during the night from The Hills’ live webcams. If she sees a particularly juicy clip, she tags it for mobile so she can watch it on her way to school.
Lauren also checks to see what her friends have been up to. Katie and Anya are still having an argument about whose more of a bitch--Audrina or Lo. Normally Lauren wouldn’t get involved, but last night she found this awesome clip (Lo totally going off on some poor waiter) on her dashboard that this oh-so-cute guy down in Florida shared. Lauren tagged it “juicy” so she could find it later. She brings it up, and sends the clip to Katie and Anya as a reply.

Time for Lauren to get to school. She quickly snags some clips she’s been meaning to watch and tags them for mobile.

Lauren loves watching Hills clips on her mobile. She’s about to do just that when she sees the most awesome Mullet she’s every seen in her entire life! Perfect for her friends’ mobile scavenger hunt--Best Haircuts Ever.

Lauren sneaks up behind the guy and videos a full 5 seconds of his gorgeous mullet blowing in the breeze. She shares it to her scavenger hunt group with the message, “beat that, bitches!” Lauren sees that a bunch of new clips have been shared to the group. She rates a few of them, tags a particularly funny one, and replies to another mullet with her clip: “Nice try. Choke on this!”

Lauren’s about to get on the subway when she gets a notification of cool new “locals-only” content from a nearby bluetooth enabled ad. She checks it out--it’s a preview of a new show from the producers of The Hills--The Valley. It’s premiering tonight. Lauren tags to DVR it, and to send her a notification. She might just want to watch it live. Especially if her friends are watching too. She shares the preview to Katie and Anya, and invites them to watch.

Down in the subway, Lauren’s finally ready to watch some of the night’s Hill’s webcam clips. But before she does she gets a personal message notification.
Her friend Griffin has left her a location tagged personal message here in the subway. Lauren watches his video message. He totally asks her to go on a date! by lip-sinking to this stupid song he got off of MTV. He’s such a dork. But in that super cute way. Lauren privately shares Griffin’s song to her friends, with the message “what a dork!”

Seconds later she gets a reply from her friend Kimmi--”I know right! Are you going to go with him?” And there’s a proximity alert. Kimmi’s totally near by. Lauren searches for nearby friends. Turns out Kimmi’s just down the platform.
No Hills clips for Lauren today. She tags to watch them later when she gets home from school.

Lauren and Kimmi jump on the subway. They video each other, and leave totally goofy location message clips for their friends to find.

That night, after her homework, Lauren’s finally ready to watch her Hills webcam clips on the good ol’ TV. She’s about to start when she gets the notification that The Valley is about to start.

Lauren decides that she’ll watch it later, until--DING, DING--she is notified that both Katie and Anya are watching now. Lauren flips over to The Valley.

She and her friends IM each other trying to decide if they like the show or not. At one point Lauren gets fixated on Chaz, one of the guys on The Valley. She’s sure she’s seen him before. She googles/IMDBs him on her set-top, and finds some great old clips. He used to be this Nick show she used to watch when she was a kid. Lauren shares some of the clips to her friends. “What a spaz!”

This starts a contest to see who can find the dorkiest videos from when they were kids. Soon shares are flying all over the place getting tagged to key moments in The Valley. Their friends who watch the show later may have no idea why, but Lauren is sure they will totally crack up.

The Show ends. Lauren decides it was worth watching. She rates it, and types in a quick review. Lauren’s mom tells her it’s time for bed. She still hasn’t watched those Hill’s webcam clips. Lauren saves them for later, quickly checks her dashboard to see what’s up, and heads off to bed.

That night under her covers, Lauren finally watches the webcam clips. She’s about to nod off when she sees something crazy on one of the clips--LO TOTALLY MAKING OUT WITH SPENCER!

Lauren tags it for later. She can’t wait to drop this bombshell on her friends tomorrow morning...

My favorite crappy 80s sci-fi movie takes one more step to reality...

That's right folks, thanks to Japanese scientists, Brainstorm could become a reality. Someday soon we may be able to experience what another person sees (or dreams??) It's amazing (if low fi) stuff:

From Boing Boing:

Scientists extract images directly from brain

Posted by Mark Frauenfelder, December 11, 2008 2:45 PM | permalink

Pink Tentacle reports that researchers at Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed a system that can "reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor."

The scientists were able to reconstruct various images viewed by a person by analyzing changes in their cerebral blood flow. Using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, the researchers first mapped the blood flow changes that occurred in the cerebral visual cortex as subjects viewed various images held in front of their eyes. Subjects were shown 400 random 10 x 10 pixel black-and-white images for a period of 12 seconds each. While the fMRI machine monitored the changes in brain activity, a computer crunched the data and learned to associate the various changes in brain activity with the different image designs.

Then, when the test subjects were shown a completely new set of images, such as the letters N-E-U-R-O-N, the system was able to reconstruct and display what the test subjects were viewing based solely on their brain activity.

Playing with molten glass is addictive...

I'm jonesin' for a fix...

Transparent Concrete?

I love new materials! Check out this amazing new transparent concrete, by mexican students joel sosa and sergio omar galván, 30% lighter than normal concrete and lets through 80% of the light.

Found on NotCot.