Smarcos project aims to help users of interconnected embedded systems by ensuring their interusability.
Nowadays, many products connect with web services (media players, refrigerators). This distributed computing is becoming the norm in embedded systems. Smarcos allows devices and services to communicate in UI level terms and symbols, exchange context information, user actions, and semantic data. It allows applications to follow the user’s actions, predict needs and react appropriately to unexpected actions.
LaserOrigami is a rapid prototyping system that produces 3D objects using a laser cutter. LaserOrigami is substantially faster than traditional 3D fabrication techniques such as 3D printing and unlike traditional laser cutting the resulting 3D objects require no manual assembly.
A nice representation of the various disciplines of User Experience Design, by Dan Saffer and Thomas Gläser. It’s a good conversation starter for sure, but I’m not convinced we can successfully extract or infer anything from it. Anyways, it’s good to have such visual to reflect and think about.
Huge congrats to UID students Maxime Dubreucq, Doris Feurstein, Shivanjali Tomar, Natalie Vanns for their Best Concept and Best StudentIxDA awards!!! Bravo :-)
Microinteractions are contained product moments that revolve around a single use case — they have one main task. Every time you change a setting, sync your data or devices, set an alarm, pick a password, log in, set a status message, or favorite or “like†something, you are engaging with a microinteraction. They are everywhere: in the devices we carry, the appliances in our house, the apps on our phones and desktops, even embedded in the environments we live and work in. Most appliances and some apps are built entirely around one microinteraction.
The ever amazing Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction at Interaction-Design.org recently added two new chapters: 3D User Interfaces written by Doug Bowman, and Industrial Design written by the late Kees Overbeeke and Caroline Hummels. This last chapter is Kees Overbeeke’s last publication and is a tribute to his career.
OpenXC is a combination of open source hardware and software that lets you extend your vehicle with custom applications and pluggable modules. It uses standard, well-known tools to open up a wealth of data from the vehicle to developers.
The OpenXC, initially supported by Ford Motor Company and Bug Labs, is now out of beta and publicly available. It runs on a combination of Arduino and Android platforms. The library taps into OBD-II, a vehicle diagnostic standard mandatory for all cars sold in the United States since 1996.
Here you go IxD people, you can now build great projects leveraging sensor values like “windshield_wiper_status” and “door_status”. I’m already expecting a suite of car synthesizers, car as controller and other weirdo four-wheeled interface contraptions.
The Creators Project and Kill Screen, a leading gaming magazine, are making a five-part video series on the creative processes behind today’s most anticipated game releases. These videos offer great behind the scene information on the design and other technical challenges of developing great game and user experiences.
Not too long ago we saw OUYA, the Android powered game console, getting funded in a day through Kickstarter. They offered a small, open and novel type of product for $99.
It is a new year and this time around the people over at GameStick are pitching a new, open, but portable console running on Android. The company is asking for $100 000, which is a tenth of the goal of Julie Uhrman and OUYA thought they could develop their product for. Keep in mind this portable product will be much smaller than the OUYA was ever planned to be.
The GameStick, like the OUYA, got funded very quickly and they still have a bit less than a month to pick up some extra pledges. In the last post about OUYA there was some concern about what happens next? Well, a part from the rather poor attempts from Julie to keep up the pulse of her funders. As a backer it is hard to understand how far they are in the process, since they seem to have left the idea of _only_ focusing on indie games. This is a personal interpretation by someone who has not studied strategy/product marketing, but it seem they are playing safe by placing the eggs in many baskets. When did this ever become a way to create novel products?
But this is not about the OUYA. Let us give the GameStick the benefit of the doubt and end with the same quest… So what happens now?
The WarMouse Meta, former OpenOffice Mouse, is an 18 button mouse recognized in 2009. It is fair to say it never penetrated any market due to its unique functionality. The mouse ships with a custom built software to bind OS or application behavior to the 18 Buttons (including double click), scroll wheel and joystick.
Engadget reviewed it in 2010 and were less than impressed. Short version, Joanna Stern holds it by its tail like an animal, followed by binding a button to load the Engadget website in Firefox (who would ever do that?) to later play a bit of World of Warcraft (as she likes running around from time to time in this virtual world). Long version can be found here.
In all seriousness, this mouse was designed to play world of Warcraft, but would off course allow other games too. Let us assume it worked really well for WoW (not really), the chance of success would still be very slim as Razer secured this niche when they released the Naga. They realized most gamers does not use their thumb to its full potential and added a grid of 12 buttons. This prevents the keyboard hand from using complex key bindings like Shift + Alt + T or mistakably hitting Alt + F4 while mashing those upper rows. However, adding 16 buttons on top of a mouse makes the WarMouse’s ‘behind’ a bit too crowded.
So why write about something that maybe should not have been created in the first place? Well, not too many of these were made and one would think the few survivors now live in a boxes or is getting wedgied by its relatives in the Buxton collection. This is not all true, because one of them are now traveling with air mail to the Swedish north! After receiving an email from eBay’s tracking function and landing a £30 bid there is now a very proud owner of one of these badboys.
For a few years it has being a privilege to be able to combine a fascination for devices with work and school projects. While learning to prototype with input devices it became more clear that they are just packaged components, hence not bound to specific media. Think, what you do with a game controller if you did not need to make a game? This also resulted in developing Kaliber with Jules.
If one thinks of the WarMouse as an off-the-shelf product it is quite possibly the worst designed mouse we never used. As a platform of multiple components it is a gold mine of potential applications and stupid experiments. If Kaliber recognizes it as an HID it could possibly receive around 30+ variables (positioning, buttons, scroll and both directions of the joystick). If it does not work it will be donated to Bill or someone with a severe condition of Polydactyly.
A new name, a new visual identity, a new website and more. Read all about it at http://www.tii.se/media/our-new-look. A great deal of IxD UID students and employees have been (and many still are) working at Interactive Institute Swedish ICT on pretty awesome interaction design projects. It’s worth keeping an eye on their latest accomplishments, or even get in touch with them for collaboration.
Designed to make all your phone content easier to access and your apps more immersive – every edge has a specific purpose, making all your apps, content and controls instantly accessible, without navigating back to the home screen every time. And the Ubuntu phone fits perfectly into the wider family of Ubuntu interfaces, alongside the PC and TV. It’s a uniquely, beautifully converged experience.
