Since the iPad has been released, it’s been interesting to see how application designers are taking advantage of the generous screen real estate. The recently released Twitter app, for example, is a miracle in interface innovation for the platform — it packs a huge amount of content into a smoothly multi-layered and very flexible interface. One of the things that makes using the iPad so unique, is how it draws you in and focuses your…
 
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When I was a kid I loved watching the 1970′s tv show Space: 1999. For some reason it was only on around 11 or 12 at night, and so I had to stay up late, which gave watching it a kind of other-worldly experience. A few months ago Sean Adams did a great post on the show’s fashions and interiors — and I’ve been meaning, since then, to post something on the show’s computer interactions….
 
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Using a timeline slider to scroll through video to find the moment when an object is at a specific position is awkward and never very precise. Dragon, a project from the Media Computing Group at RWTH Aachen University, looks like a very cool solution. Dragon lets you directly manipulate objects in a video. With the system, you can touch any object in the video and drag it. You can only move them along the path…
 
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There’s no reason I can’t talk about my own projects on this blog, right? Just keep in mind that this story starts in 1999, when the web was mostly just html pages, some Director/Shockwave, a little Flash, and mostly dial-up modems. The social web didn’t yet exist. Napster was being sued by everyone. And the idea of selling music online was considered crazy. But lots of companies saw that something was about to happen and…
 
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The power of gaming to engage is something I keep running into lately. Specifically: the idea that gaming is an effective way to get people to understand issues, or to motivate them towards specific behaviors. The examples here may be lacking in their visual and interaction design sophistication, but they show the value of, and opportunity in, restructuring content to support richer interaction. The Atlantic recently excerpted the upcoming book “Newsgames: Journalism at Play,” and…
 
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Stephen Fry‘s new iPhone app MyFry has already received a lot of blog coverage… but I wanted to quickly post it here because it looks like such an interesting experiment in publishing. The app’s content is Fry’s new book “The Fry Chronicles” — but it’s been made non-linear. The primary navigation of the app/book is a large circular wheel. Readers can scroll around the wheel’s spokes for the different sections, which are color-coded by themes…
 
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Jodi.org may be best known for their web-based artworks, but I recently found these images and thought they’d be interesting to share. They’re from a Mac-based project done some time between 1998 and 1999. Much like how full-bleed photos on early Quokka websites caused a kind of freak-out when people saw them, Jodi.org’s early work generated a lot of unease. Users didn’t feel totally safe that these were “just” art pieces. The simulation of computer…
 
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Swedish firm TAT (The Astonishing Tribe) has created a future vision of screen technology. Set in 2014, it shows some interesting technologies and use-cases — featuring stretchable surfaces and transparent displays. What’s super-cool is that the film is the result of an open innovation experiment. TAT asked people for input on what sort of inspirational video they should make, and for suggestions on the features and capabilities to show. Screen Technology was the winner, and…
 
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Take a look at these photographs by Rosemarie Fiore. Each one takes a video game and captures one gameplay as a single exposure. It’s a fascinating way of looking at the overall mood of an interactive experience. Plus, they’re beautiful! The photos are all from 80′s games — played on Atari, Centuri, and Taito platforms. It’s interesting to see how the technical capabilities and limitations of the machines give the images such a particular feeling. Doing the…
 
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Just released is “Form+Code,” by Casey Reas, Chandler McWilliams, and LUST. It’s a great book — a beautiful examination of the role of programming in making design. It organizes a surprisingly wide range of examples into five categories: repeat, transform, parameterize, visualize, and simulate. What I especially like is its historical, and cross-disciplinary, approach. It reminds us that there’s an incredibly rich history of programming’s role in creating design and art. It’s very inspirational. The…
 
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