rb.log » Humor

Henchman’s Helper

rbanks — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 09:51:45 +0000

The perfect evil layer.

Star Wars ABC cards

rbanks — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:45:24 +0000

A beautiful set of ABC cards for kids (really?) based on the Star Wars universe. There’s some serious obscurity in some of those names.

X is for Xam(s), the medical team who deliver a set of important twins at the end of Revenge of the Sith.
Y is for Yaddle, a little seen *female* Jedi of the same species as Yoda.
Z is for Zutton, need more be said?

Royal Mail Games

rbanks — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 08:16:21 +0000

Really liked this project by Harriet Russell testing the capabilities and, to some extent, sense of humour of the Royal Mail. She sent 130 envelopes each of which represented an address in some cryptic way, from crosswords (see below) to anagrams. Only 10 didn’t get through.

“Despite fears of a Royal Mail backlash, Russell found the system more than willing to play her game. The crossword edition was returned completed with the comment “Solved by the Glasgow Mail Centre”

Mail Games: Testing the System | PSFK – Trends, Ideas & Inspiration

Close button

rbanks — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 09:38:19 +0000

Lovely example of real world user interface use, this time to vent against unsightly street advertising.

“Through their blog, the leaders of the movement (which started in France) give instructions on how to order the little red “X” boxes, designed to look just like the click-out boxes in the corner of pop-up windows. Participants are encouraged to stick these pop-down stickers on posters, billboards, vehicles – basically on any advertisements or otherwise unsightly items in the public space that they wish they could control-W out of. Pictures of successful pop-downs are then shared on the blog.”

Pop-Down Project: Closing the Window on Real Life Pop-Ups | PSFK – Trends, Ideas & Inspiration

A media experience

rbanks — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 09:59:48 +0000

Amusing, if slightly wince-inducing, clip from the Family Guy highlighting some of the “issues” with modern media recording…

The world’s best creative tool (video)

rbanks — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 16:07:42 +0000

You can’t argue with the fact that it’s used by a lot of people, though. . .

User Interfaces in movies

rbanks — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 09:10:41 +0000

A thorough-seeming overview of a lot of UIs featured in movies. Some dumb. Some inspirational. Some achievable. I didn’t see my own personal favorite – the drag and drop UI from Independence Day. Drag and Drop using a touch screen seemed an odd choice by an alien species with talons.

Link to Human Computer Interaction in Science Fiction Movies

Please identify the usability problems

rbanks — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:59:38 +0000

Sorry. Looks like the video which was here has been pulled.

Thanks to Gavin.
Stick with the subtitles. It really gets quite funny.

~~Now, the questions is, what would you, as developer of technology products, do to help this guy out? Undo? Some kind of history list? Some way of auto-page-turning? A help book?~~