"I think that the current emphasis on STEM—science, technology, engineering, and math—needs a "D," for design. Designers need to learn STEM (where S includes both the hard and the soft, social sciences). But similarly, engineers need to learn D: after all, the point of engineering is to develop things for people and society."-Don Norman
"...the creators of good products and services also must have a working knowledge of everything from the technical underpinnings of microprocessors and programming to the policy aspects of information security." -Don Norman
"This video showreel provides a walkthrough through the "Playful Interface Cultures" exhibition at the Ars Electronica Festival 2010. The works shown were created within the Master and Ph.D. program at the Interface Culture Lab, University of Art and Industrial Design in Linz, Austria." http://www.interface.ufg.ac.at/
"The exhibition design has been based on traditional Austrian tobacco brands in reference to the historic venue of the former tobacco factory built by the German designer and architect Peter Behrens." -Interface Culture Lab
When I get a bit more time, I'll follow with my comments related to Catalina's column-- I'm a school psychologist and HCI techie, so this one of my interests!
I'm happy to share some information about the topics of upcoming theme issues planned for Personal and Ubiquitous Computing. The information below was taken from the PUC's Facebook page. I added links to information about most of the managing editor for each theme.
"PUC is currently working with some of the leading researchers, research groups, conferences and workshops to produce theme issues around specific topics. Here are the issues we currently have in progress:"
Measuring behavior and interaction – methods and new application domains: E.I. Barakova
"For more details, check back in our Facebook Notes or contact the editor managing the theme issue." - the editor's email addresses can be found on the PUC Facebook site.
Note: Ubiquitous Computing was one of my favorite graduate courses and I still can't get enough of it. In my dreams, I would be happy just playing around with emerging technologies and experimenting with new applications, and nothing else, for a year or two, in and out of the lab.
The following video about the Bifocal Display concept is an interesting look at how a set of ideas unfolded in the early 1980's. These ideas took flight and influenced many of the design concepts we view as "new" today.
The video was posted on the on-line Interaction Design Encyclopedia, a free, open source multimedia resource that includes a range of chapters written by leading researchers and practitioners from fields related to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Interaction Design (IXD), User Experience (UX), Information Architecture (IA), Usability, and more.
"People want to see context...." -Robert Spence
1980's Paper Prototype of Carousel Concept (screen shot from video)
"Let's apply this idea to my in-tray, an information that is quite varied, and often full of surprises..." -Robert Spence
Also take a look at the recent videos from InteractionDesign.org related to this topic. What a great way to gain insight about the design and development process!
From Justin Micklish's Vimeo site: "Named "Belle of the Ball" at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show, the Toyota Vision Wall is a large-format interactive installation leveraging a great deal of UX intelligence and bleeding edge technology."
This project was a collaboration between a team at PUSH Offices and Juxt Interactive (lead agency), GPJ (experience marketers), and Hush (motion graphics).
Toyota Vision Multi-Touch Wall Case Study: A good explanation of the "how and why" of this project:
From the JUXT Interactive Vimeo site: "In January, Toyota debuted the largest digital multi-touch installation ever seen at the 2011 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. GPJ and JUXT Interactive created the digital touch wall experience to deliver a feast for the senses, allowing consumers to explore videos, photos and custom content through a larger-than-life, interactive surface."
RELATED PUSH "PUSH is a marketing & design research firm based in Venice, CA. We shirk labels and defy classifications. We have been called strategists, writers, technologists, marketers, typographers, entrepreneurs, and designers. Above all, we are curious. We make a living creating compelling experiences with our clients. Recent collaborations include work with Yahoo, West, and Sony."
Juxt Interactive "JUXT is a company that creates from the ground up, top to bottom, or even sideways. It kinda makes sense since we were started by a couple of architects....Lots of people ask us if we only do digital work. Well we like to think and play where people are, and these days that just happens to be the Internet. That suits us just fine because the online space has far less restrictions and barriers than other media. JUXT does not take kindly to limits, or being put in a box." GPJ: George P. Johnson "GPJ is the world's premier experience marketing agency, working with leading companies who are looking for innovative marketing solutions that motivate their audiences and activate their brands through live experiences." Hush "Hush is a design and direction studio crafting stories for digital, broadcast, mobile and physical installations. Whether using the latest technology or the most classic of techniques, we unifyu stories for agencies and brands alike."
Comment: This post was revised on 2/11/11 to reflect a clarification from Justin MicKlish. He's a partner and producer with Push and worked on this project with others in the role of technology consulting and software development.
I just got back from a meeting of the Charlotte UX Book Club. The group meets in the loft office of the Charlotte branch of Atlanta-based Macquarium, and provides a great opportunity for like-minded folks to socialize and toss around informed ideas.
Tonight's meeting featured Cennydd Bowles and James Box, the authors of Undercover User Experience. They joined the group via Skype, on a large screen TV. After a minute or so, it was as if they were right in the room, even though they were in the UK. What a delightful experience!
Cennydd and James both work at Clearleft, a team of designers and creative technologies that provide user-experience consulting. They are bright, insightful, and know their stuff. The book packs in a lot of good information in an easy-to-read, concise, and thought provoking manner. The author's address tools of the trade within the context of how work gets done across disciplines in organizations.
In my opinion, this book would be useful to people working on traditional projects as well as those who focus NUI design & development for emerging technologies.
BTW: Cennyd Bowles will be the closing plenary speaker at the IA Summit 2011 in March.
"Deliverables are a step on the journey, not the end of the line" -Undercover UX Design
Here are a couple of quotes from the Amazon.com editorial reviews:
Product Description
"Once you catch the user experience bug, the world changes. Doors open the wrong way, websites don't work, and companies don't seem to care. And while anyone can learn the UX remedies usability testing, personas, prototyping and so on unless your organization 'gets it', putting them into practice is trickier. Undercover User Experience is a pragmatic guide from the front lines, giving frank advice on making UX work in real companies with real problems. Readers will learn how to fit research, ideation, prototyping and testing into their daily workflow, and how to design good user experiences under the all-too-common constraints of time, budget and culture."
From the Back Cover
"Once you catch the user experience bug, the world changes. Doors open the wrong way, websites don't work, and companies don't seem to care. And while anyone can learn the UX remedies: usability testing, personas, prototyping and so on unless your organization 'gets it', putting them into practice is tricky. Undercover User Experience is a pragmatic guide from the front lines, giving frank advice on making UX work in real companies with real problems. Readers will learn how to fit research, ideation, prototyping and testing into their daily workflow, and how to design good user experiences under the all-too-common constraints of time, budget and culture."
"Hi, Google. My name is Johnny" Johnny Chung Lee announced on his Procrastineering blog that he's accepted a position at Google as a "Rapid Evaluator". I'm not sure what he will be doing in this position, but his title is intriguing!
Here are some of my previous posts devoted to the work of Johnny Chung Lee:
The deadline for submissions to the CHI 2011 Child Computer Interaction: 2nd Workshop on UI Technologies an their Impact on Educational Pedagogy has been extended to February 18, 2011.
The workshop will be held on May 7, 2011, Vancouver, Canada, in conjunction with ACM's CHI 2011 conference. Interested researchers should submit a 4-page position paper in the ACM CHI adjunct proceedings style to the workshop management system. Note that the best 3 papers will be pre-accepted for a upcoming for a theme issue of the Springer Journal Personal and Ubiquitous Computing on “Child Computer Interaction”.
Note: Deadlines for several other CHI 2011 workshops have also been extended to February 18th. (Pictures and links from the CHI 2010 workshop are located at the end of this post.)
CALL FOR PAPERS
IN CONJUNCTION WITH CHI 2011
Child Computer Interaction: Workshop on UI Technologies and Educational Pedagogy
in conjunction with CHI 2011, Vancouver
May 7th, 2011
Topic: Given the emergence of Child Computer Interaction and the ubiquitous application of interactive technology as an educational tool, there is a need to explore how next generation HCI will impact education in the future. Educators are depending on the interaction communities and to deliver technologies that will improve and adapt learning to an ever- changing world. In addition to novel UI concepts, the HCI community needs to examine how these concepts can be matched to contemporary paradigms in educational pedagogy. The classroom is a challenging environment for evaluation, thus new techniques need to be established to prove the value of new HCI interactions in the educational space. This workshop provides a forum to discuss key HCI issues facing next generation education. We invite authors to present position papers about potential design challenges and perspectives on how the community should handle the next generation of HCI in education. Topics of interest include: • Gestural input, multitouch, large displays, multi-display interaction, response systems • Mobile Devices/mobile & pervasive learning • Tangible, VR, AR & MR, Multimodal interfaces, universal design, accessibility • Console gaming, 3D input devices, 3D displays • Co-located interaction, presentations, tele-presence, interactive video • Child Computer Interaction, Educational Pedagogy, learner-centric, adaptive “smart” applications, • Empirical methods, case studies, linking of HCI research with educational research methodology •Usable systems to support learning and teaching: Ecology of learning, any where, anytime, (UX of cloud computing to support teaching and learning) Submission: The deadline for workshop paper submissions is February 18, 2011. Interested researchers should submit a 4-page position paper in the ACM CHI adjunct proceedings style to the workshop management system. Acceptance notifications will be sent out March 15, 2011. The workshop will be held May 7, 2011 in Vancouver, Canada. Please note that at least one author of an accepted position paper must register for the workshop and for one or more days of the CHI 2011 conference.
The best 3 papers will be pre accepted for a upcoming for a theme issue of the SpringerJournal Personal and Ubiquitous Computing on “Child Computer Interaction”. Other authors are also invite to submit/ resubmit their work. We will send a separate call for paper for this special issue soon.
In this article, Gerd Waloszek provides an overview of traditional usability principles and shares his thoughts about broadening the concept of clarity to include mental states and models. His article includes charts/concept maps as well as links to great resources.
If this topic interests you, plan to block out some time to read this article and explore the links.
Adaptive Path, a User Experience company, submitted two concepts to Slate's recent Classroom Redesign challenge. As part of this project, Slate asked students and teachers to take pictures pictures about their schools. The pictures were part of the "Through Your Lens" exhibit. The project highlights the fact that many of our schools simply aren't geared for what is required of learning and teaching in the 21st century, as many were built to meet the demands of a society from a long-ago era.
I think that Adaptive Path's "User Experience of Education" spin might generate some innovative thinking about what we need to do differently in our nation's classrooms, including the process of teaching and learning. I especially liked Adaptive Path's Touch Screen Desks of the Future. Here is the concept overview, taken from Kim Cullen's Adaptive Path blog post, "The 21st Century Classroom, from a UX Perspective":
"Our futuristic concept focuses on the students’ desks, and emphasizes the importance of being able to quickly reconfigure the classroom for different activities. Each student has his or her own square desk, the entire surface of which is an edge-to-edge touch screen. Each desk connects to the wireless network, allowing the teacher to distribute digital lesson materials from a handheld device.
The desks operate independently to support individual student work, or can be combined in groups of two or four. In a group setting, the combined desks form one large screen to support collaborative work. To support certain activities, the desks can also interact with physical objects when placed and moved around their surface.
The surface of the desk is hinged, so that a student can store his or her personal items inside of it. Additionally, when a desk is opened to a fully vertical position, it functions as a stand-up workspace for delivering presentations. If multiple desks are opened to this position, they form a large contiguous touch screen wall."
In schools, flexibility is key, and I think that Adaptive Path's concept for connected is right on target!
Here is a challenge for Adaptive Path and other folks involved in UX: Design a system to support teachers and learners as education "information architects". I am sure the cross-pollination between UX, IA, and Ed Tech would be fruitful.
I'm thinking about getting one of the new "internet ready" TVs. I have a serious reason to do this. I'm working on some interactive video projects, and a couple of my projects are geared for teens and young adults who have autism.* My hunch is that many of my students would like to watch- and interact with-content optimized for Google TV and Vimeo's Couch Mode. The content is designed to look good on larger high-resolution flat-screen displays, and I'm sure it would be great on my school's newer SMARTBoards. I need to learn more about developing applications for this purpose.
(Currently I use my HP 22-inch TouchSmart PC to view web-based video content, and to evaluate websites that provide "touchable" and interactive content that might work well on interactive whiteboards.)
At any rate, I've been looking for great videos that have the potential for use at work with older students who have autism. I'm also looking for effective ways that the students can use to interact with multimedia and video content. This is important, since the students have minimal verbal communication skills, have limited reading ability- if they can read at all. They learn about their world through visual means, and are capable of learning much more - but not through traditional means.
Since our school is focusing on globalization and learning about the cultures of other countries, I've been on the lookout for some interesting videos that might appeal to our students.
Today I came across a great find- Philipp Geist. Who is Philipp Geist? According to his bio, Philipp works internationally as a light and multi-media artist in the mediums of video, performance, photography and painting. Some of his work focuses on architecture, history, and cultural heritage. A good example of his work is the installation he created for a festival in Thailand in 2009:
"The one-hour show is the central part of the celebrations and will be seen by thousands of visitors. It interprets artistically the king's life and his work dedicated to public welfare. The art installation combines images of the kings and his social projects in the past and present with 3D animations of Thai natural and cultural heritage and abstract painterly passages." (from the Vimeo site)
HIGH-RES MULTIMEDIA WEB CONTENT ON LARGE PANEL HD TV!
This might boost holiday gift sales and in turn, give a little jolt to the economy. To do my duty for my country, I will continue to research Internet TV as I narrow down my selection for my new Internet-ready TV.... Below is some Information about Google TV, Google Leanback, and Vimeo's Couch mode that I've recently gathered to share with my IMT followers:
GOOGLE TV: "The web is now a channel"
"With Google Chrome and Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Google TV lets you access everything on the web. Watch your favorite web videos, view photos, play games, check fantasy scores, chat with friends, and do everything else you're accustomed to doing online. Plus, the world's best websites are now being perfected for television -- check out our Spotlightgallery for examples." "The worlds' favorite websites are being tweaked and perfected for the television." -Google TV
I'm not too excited about the design of the application that transforms your Android phone or iPhone into a remote control. I hate most remote controls. According to Google TV, multiple phones can control the same TV, and you can use your voice to search, which seems like it would be a good thing... I wonder if they tested this out with real families, not just families of Google TV techies .
GOOGLE LEANBACK Video (Integrated into GoogleTV)
Google Leanback When I visited the Leanback website, I encountered the following screen with a suggestion that I type in what I was looking for. I typed in "lynnvm", the name of my YouTube channel. Apparently Google provides you with a randomly generated featured video that appears in the background that has nothing to do with what you are looking for.
In this screen shot, my YouTube channel offerings are in the foreground. "Maleficent Halloween Tutorial" is what played in the background:
VIMEO INTRODUCES COUCH MODE: Vimeo's version of Google's Leanback is Couch Mode. It is optimized for use on Google TV, so that makes things less complicated in the world of videoviewingland. According to Ryan Hefner's article on the Vimeo staff blog, "Couch Mode is a special new section of Vimeo that allows you to watch collections of videos (such as Staff Picks, your inbox, your videos, etc.) completely uninterrupted like a TV channel." Couch Mode works on computers, but since it relies on HTML5 and CSS3, without Flash, it only works with Chrome and Safari browsers. For more information, see the video below:
"A few of our favorites include Net-A-Porter, which lets you watch runway videos and shop for high fashion; Meegenius, a place where you can read and customize children’s books; TuneIn, a personal radio for your TV; and The Onion which always gives us a good laugh." - Google TV Blog
MeeGenius If you are a teacher, parent, kid, or lover of children's books, visit this interactive website ASAP. It is optimized for Google TV and works nicely on touch-enabled screens and devices.
As I was wrapping up this post, I came across information about Viewsonic's new 3D, glassesless pocket camcorder. I'll update information about this new gadget when I have a chance to learn more about it. !
Comment: The idea of developing interactive multimedia apps in 3D intrigues me. At this point, the technology is too new for an "armchair technologist" like me to pursue with my incredibly busy work obligations. I don't have the money to buy a 3D video camera. But I might try this out, if it is true that it only costs $238.00!
* About me: I presently work full time as a school psychologist at a high school and at a program for students with more severe disabilities, including autism. The students I work with have made amazing gains through the use of interactive multimedia applications, and also have responded well to video presented on the large IWB screens.
I went back to school to take computer courses, initially so I could make interactive multimedia applications and games. I continue to blog about interactive multimedia, emerging/ new technologies, and topics related to post-WIMP HCI/UX/ID/IA. Although my "spare time" is limited, I try to keep up my technical skills whenever I can by working on projects that can support the students I work with.
