Things we like

Shaking cows around is such a brilliant idea. I smile every time I see it. This looks like a wonderful toy. To be able to render the scene in correct perspective, they use some kind of magnetic head-tracker mounted on a pair of headphones.

This drawing app is just full of novel interaction design. It may be the first time I see commands issued by crossing the edge of the screen. I’m sure you could do lots of other things with that.

It’s the first time I see the circular ruler in a paint program. The gesture is interesting for that one, because it differentiates between a two finger rotational gesture where both fingers move, vs two finger rotational gesture where only one finger moves. Interesting.

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I always thought the idea of multitouch on tiny screens was kind of ridiculous. So I kind of laughed when I heard Apple was going to but multitouch on the iPod nano, because it’s really no bigger than a stamp.

But Apple got the last laugh, because they found a really nice use for it. Instead of having an accelerometer guess what orientation you want, you use two fingers to rotate the screen, and you get what you want. Simple to learn. Easy to remember.

I thought the automatic switch would be the best, but I’ve learned when living with the iPad and iPhone that it often rotates when I don’t want it to. Stopping the guesswork and just using two fingers to rotate the screen is a step in the right direction. I think.

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Holographic Interface – round interface – Ringo from Ivan Tihienko on Vimeo.

Circular user interfaces are very futuristic. I think real interfaces are often square because it’s more space efficient than circular shapes, and space is always at a premium. But when you project on the ground, you have lots of space. Pico projectors are just around the corner so it’s time to start thinking about what’s different about a projected interface.

In 2010 and 2011 there will be a device explosion in the Tablet space. We can expect to see a wide variety of new devices ranging from 5 to 12 inches on operative systems such as MeeGo, Android and Windows 7. What kind of user experiences will these devices offer? How do you design astonishing tablet interfaces?

On one hand we have companies that scale phone UIs to tablets. On the other hand we have companies offering the full blown desktop experience scaled down to tablet size. We believe that both of these approaches will result in crippled user experiences. For example, the tablet form factor is perfect for media consumption and this could be manifested in the UI. TAT recognizes tablets as a radically different type of device – personal and mobile yet powerful and creative. We are now on a quest to design fantastic UIs that are optimized for this device space.

Follow the link to check out Velvet – a playful concept UI for MeeGo tablets by TAT and Wind River. With full support for 3D graphics and shaders, TAT Cascades enables astonishing UIs on MeeGo, Android and other tablet OSs.

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One of the things that you really miss when you design for touch screens is tooltips on mouse-over. Nobody wants to look stupid, and mouse-over can really help users avoid pressing the wrong buttons, by providing more information about what they do.

A physical keyboard with real keys could still have a touch sensitive surface. Then you could have tooltips when you rest your finger on a button. This is not included in the Microsoft Prototype, but I like to dream. It’s nice to finally see some serious adaptive keyboard hardware. Although I think I would prefer an e-ink screen instead.

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There are a number of new challenges for dual screen devices. One is how to solve interaction between the screens, such as moving windows between the screens. Here is one solution. I don’t know if it’s the most elegant one, but it seems to work.

I like the fact that they placed all the heat generating components behind the top screen, to avoid burning up your lap. With my current Macbook, I usually have to have an extra book in my lap to shield my legs from the heat.

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While new to me, this video is already two years old when I blog it. Things are really happening with the rollable displays for e-readers. The promise of the rollable display is: Pen sized in your pocket – book sized in your hand.

This e-book reader is also a phone. If anyone has a chance of disrupting the mobile phone industry, it’s someone coming from a different angle. I think the rollable e-book reader is a dangerous angle.

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This seems like a neat technology.

Say that you want to create a music player for a car. Then you want to know if your design is safe for use while driving. One criteria for an unsafe design is:
“The driver needs to look away from the road for more than two seconds at a time.”

The Tobii glasses should be able to provide you with that data in a jiffy.

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Wireless in the world 2 from timo on Vimeo.

From Timo Arnall, this is a visualization of the invisible.

It feels like science fiction. Partly because we don’t have the kind of technology to overlay networks in the world with that kind of precision. Partly because it feels like we’re invading someone’s privacy. These things take some time to get used to. Just like public diaries (blogs) were kind of scary when they came.