Putting the craft into technology
June 16th, 2008 by rbanks
Radios made in Indonesia by local craftsmen from sustainable sources of wood. Really like this idea of hand-crafted technology objects
THE ECO ZOO
June 12th, 2008 by rbanks
I’m really blown away by the Eco Zoo as the first very compelling example of the use of 3D in a Flash website. The art style is lovely, very reminiscent of the shots I’ve seen of the forthcoming Playstation 3 game, Little Big Planet.
Tag Galaxy
May 27th, 2008 by rbanks
I’m a bit of a 3D UI sceptic. I just have some history in the area, and it’s left me thinking that 3D interactions are often cumbersome and rarely have a life beyond what their cool factor gives them. Case in point is this Tag Galaxy search. I really find it compelling. I’m not sure why. And I’m not sure what it has beyond that initial, emotional reaction…
LEBBEUS WOODS on Lines
May 6th, 2008 by rbanks
Poetic entry on drawing from Lebbeus Woods.
“Even though I am best known for my drawings, and have spent many years as a teacher of architects, I have never taught drawing. The reason is that each person who wants to draw should devise his or her own way. It makes no sense to teach a method or style of drawing, because drawing is a way of thinking, and it would be wrong to didactically teach a method or style of thinking. Each person must learn from the drawers—and the thinkers—who appeal most to them, and then devise their own ways. Originality—in drawing and thinking—is important, for the same reasons that individuality in all matters of existence is important: it confirms the wonder, and the terror, of the human condition.”
News visualizations
April 30th, 2008 by rbanks
A couple of really nice, back to back posts on visualizing the news from Visualcomplexity.com.
The first is a visualization by Dave Bowker of a week of news from the Guardian newspaper. Dave attempts to connect the dots between sets of articles.
The second is a little harder to get into, since the content is in German, which I don’t speak or read, but this is a whole set of news visualizations presented as a newspaper by Stefan Brautigam.
Microsoft: Touchscreens Old and Busted; Force Sensitivity Is New Hotness
April 23rd, 2008 by rbanks
Great bit of coverage on Gizmodo for some force-sensing work coming out of our team in Cambridge.
Microsoft: Touchscreens Old and Busted; Force Sensitivity Is New Hotness
“Researchers have come up with a prototype of their force-sensing tech that’ll let you apply different kinds of force to a device, like twisting or bending, to do stuff like flip through document pages or swing through applications.”
The snaps of strangers
April 12th, 2008 by rbanks
One of the articles in Issue 28 of The Plug shows the results of tying a disposable camera to a bench in Atlanta, leaving it to strangers to fill the roll. The results show the street life around, friends, strangers, dogs. All kinds of stuff.
I don’t quite know what you’d call this research method, if it is one. Maybe a randomised ethnography? I’m not serious, but I do like this approach. We had an intern at the lab a couple of years ago from Dundee’s Innovative Product Design course called Murray Sim who had employed a range of these kind of approaches in the design of a park bench that you could send text message to. He left magnetic letters and magnetic poetry on one metal bench, for example.
From The Plug:
“I tied a disposable camera to a bench with a sign that read:
Good afternoon,
I attached this camera to the bench so you could take pictures. Seriously. So have fun. I’ll be back later this evening to pick it up.
Love, Jay / The Plug
When I retrieved the camera that night, I was happy to find that the entire roll of film had been shot. Below are the photos that were taken.”
HCI 2020 report on the radio
April 11th, 2008 by rbanks
A little bit of coverage of the HCI 2020 report launch on the World Service’s “Digital Planet” radio show. Here’s the points during the show where our coverage begins:
14:10 - Being Human segment begins
14:49 - Interview with Gary Marsden begins
15:50 - Interview with Abi Sellen begins
19:40 - End of segment
“Digital Planet speaks to Abigail Sellen from Microsoft Research Cambridge, one of the authors of the report, about her work in designing a clock that tells where people are in real time; at home, at work or in transit.”
Here’s a link directly to the broadcast. I think. In typical BBC style it may “age gracefully” and not be available in a week or so.
HCI 2020 report launched
April 2nd, 2008 by rbanks
A year ago Abi and Richard helped organize a gathering of 40+ “luminaries” from the field of Human-Computer Interaction to debate how the relationship between people and technology might change in the next decade. That event has resulted in a really great read, a report entitled “Being Human: Human Computer Interaction in the Year 2020“. It focuses on the changing nature of technology and how that enhances or in some cases conflicts with the value systems of individuals and groups. It makes recommendations for how to put people and their values at the centre of the design process in product development.
We had the launch event for the report today, at the Science Museum in London, with a small panel that included Bill Buxton and Bill Gaver, a gathering of the press, and a few demos of work from my team.
It’s cool to gradually watch the results of that make it out into the world. First up is a really great article from the BBC that clearly communicates many of the goals of the report. It’s accompanied by a video of Gary Marsden presenting Big Board, and Richard Harper presenting Epigraph.
`The panel (minus Richard Harper)
Phil Gosset showing off Kitchen Postcards.
Green objects
March 13th, 2008 by rbanks
There’s an irony in green product design that we may just never get passed since you need to purchase new stuff, and creatively recycle/throw out the thing you’re replacing, in order to follow your ethics. Sometimes it just feels better to keep going with what you’ve got until it “naturally” comes to the end of its life, before replacing it, like waiting for all your incandescents to die before switching to CFLs.
Regardless, some of these product ideas are really nice. I like the plug socket with a pull chord for setting the length of time you get electricity. Shades of Fukasawa’s Muji CD player in the design, but the fact that it is tied to time is cool.
Other designs I like are the notebook that flips over to become a post-it note pad after one side has been filled, and the multi-use pads of paper with rulers and speakers along their edges.
