Gestural interfaces changing the way we work and play

Jeff Han and Phil Davidson demonstrate how a multi-touch driven computer screen will change the way we work and play. The Wii uses another kind of gestural interface (with a device) that is already making people interact and play games in a different way and winning customers through that.


If you want to play with something like this you can make your own DIY Hand Gesture Interfarce.

January 31, 2007 | Tags: | Leave a Comment 

Book: Founders at Work

Founders at Work is a new book with interviews with founders of famous technology companies. People like Steve Wozniak (Apple), Caterina Fake (Flickr), Mitch Kapor (Lotus), Max Levchin (PayPal), and Sabeer Bhatia (Hotmail).

Founders at Work

There’s a very interesting free chapter interview with Joel Spolsky from Joel on Software.

There whole interview is great but there a few special parts:

“There’s a bunch of people out there doing certain types of things and they seem to be pretty incompetent, but they’re getting huge valuations. Surely if I did those same things, knowing that I am less incompetent—merely semi-incompetent as opposed to extremely incompetent—I should be able to achieve at least their level of success.”

“That’s nice, but consulting is a business where your revenue is just a multiple of the number of people you can hire. Software is a business where your revenue can grow much faster than the people you hire.”

Livingston: Why do big companies get it wrong?

Spolsky: And if they are lucky, they get a good programmer, but they will torture that programmer until that programmer wants to cry and leave.

Certain features—flying first class, Aeron chairs, double monitors, the best computers that money can buy—these are things which might be considered extravagant, but it’s nice just to be able to do things the way that we believe they should be done, without having to have a big argument educating other people as to why we know how to develop software and they don’t.

January 31, 2007 | | Leave a Comment 

The User Experience Honeycomb

In my search for User Experience evaluation tools I found the User Experience Honeycomb. I think a it’s visually nice and useful concept so I’ll share it.

What is it ?
It is a simple diagram that visually organizes a couple of facets that help explain concept of User Experience.

The User Experience Honeycomb

What is good for ? (from the original post)
The honeycomb hits the sweet spot by serving several purposes at once. First, it’s a great tool for advancing the conversation beyond usability and for helping people understand the need to define priorities. Is it more important for your web site to be desirable or accessible? How about usable or credible? The truth is, it depends on your unique balance of context, content and users, and the required tradeoffs are better made explicitly than unconsciously.

Second, this model supports a modular approach to web design. Let’s say you want to improve your site but lack the budget, time, or stomach for a complete overhaul. Why not try a targeted redesign, perhaps starting with Stanford’s ten guidelines as a resource for evaluating and enhancing the credibility of your web site?

Third, each facet of the user experience honeycomb can serve as a singular looking glass, transforming how we see what we do, and enabling us to explore beyond conventional boundaries.

What are the components ?

Useful. As practitioners, we can’t be content to paint within the lines drawn by managers. We must have the courage and creativity to ask whether our products and systems are useful, and to apply our deep knowledge of craft and medium to define innovative solutions that are more useful.

Usable. Ease of use remains vital, and yet the interface-centered methods and perspectives of human-computer interaction do not address all dimensions of web design. In short, usability is necessary but not sufficient.

Desirable. Our quest for efficiency must be tempered by an appreciation for the power and value of image, identity, brand, and other elements of emotional design.

Findable. We must strive to design navigable web sites and locatable objects, so users can find what they need.

Accessible. Just as our buildings have elevators and ramps, our web sites should be accessible to people with disabilities (more than 10% of the population). Today, it’s good business and the ethical thing to do. Eventually, it will become the law.

Credible. Thanks to the Web Credibility Project, we’re beginning to understand the design elements that influence whether users trust and believe what we tell them.

Valuable. Our sites must deliver value to our sponsors. For non-profits, the user experience must advance the mission. With for-profits, it must contribute to the bottom line and improve customer satisfaction.

If you’re interested in using the honeycomb as a tool to evaluate user experience there’s a UX Radar tool. Excel downloadable.

ps: I’m reading the book Findability by the same author, Peter Morville.

January 30, 2007 | | 1 Comment 

4 years old

This blog is now 4 years old (online since Jan 19th, 2003). I started it by playing with blogger. I soon discovered that I need a proper domain so I registered delaranja.com and moved the blog to blog.delaranja.com which gave it’s name.

orange cotton
(photo by batixa who writes at cor.delaranja.com)

I had been (sort of) blogging before. In December 1999 (yes, 7 years ago) I started a chronological reversed list of short posts. I didn’t call it a blog at that time, but it had all the ingredients.

A lot of interesting things happened to me because of this blog. I met people with whom I would never have talked to otherwise, I have prepared conferences, I made complaints, I made announcements, I expressed my opinions (several times) and a bunch of other interesting stuff.

Overall it’s been great having a place to express myself in place where my message is as easy to reach for other people as any other. It’s been wonderfully rewarding to engage in a conversation with other people through and from this blog.

I imagine that for people that didn’t know me, this blog has probably been a place where they could get to know more about me. It may even have influenced the level of trust they have on me.

I wish to keep blogging. It’s has been a great experience that has helped me (and others) in a number unimaginable ways.

Thank you to all of you for visiting, reading and participating.

January 30, 2007 | Tags: | 3 Comments 

Blog changes to improve user experience

Some people have complained that this blog is too slow to load and too cluttered. It has too many bells and whistles that are not really needed and end up adding no value to the user experience.

delaranja logo

From feedback I can tell that there are 2 things that bring people here: posts and photos. Stats confirm exactly that.

So I did a few changes to improve findability

- I created an Archives page with a list of all the articles at blog.delaranja.com.
- I removed a lot of unnecessary stuff from the sidebar: the latest posts list, the recent comments list and daily posts top list.
- I redesigned the tag cloud. Instead of color and size prominence, popular tags now have only font size distinction.
- Search box is not on the top of the first sidebar column.
- Important links have a separate list. There are 4 links. The list of all articles by date, the RSS Feed, a link to who links to this blog and a special link to the article A small guide to Lisbon
- The list of links to blogs I read is now called Conversation.
- The photos are now more visible in the space left empty by the previous links.
- There’s a new sidebar section called Familyvertising where I give back some link love.

I hope it improves the experience of reading this blog. What do you think ?

January 30, 2007 | Tags: , | 1 Comment 

LIFT07 is next week

LIFT is next week and I’ll be there again. Like last year it’s freezing cold in Geneva ( currently -1ºC ) but Laurent and the team have done a great job in keeping people busy inside the International Conference Centre Geneva where the conference will take place.

LIFT07

The program is finished and is full of interesting stuff to do.

Day 1 - Wednesday 7

Wednesday 7 is workshops day. I’ve registered to participate in Designing the Future workshop, suggested by Bill Cockayne and Nicolas Nova. During the afternoon I’ll participate in Building Social Applications by Stowe Boyd.

A pre-conference drinks gathering will be a great opportunity to meet some people I’ve met before and get to know new people.

Day 2 - Thursday 8

The first day of talks is looking very interesting. With such topics as The social web, Beyond conventional interactions, Post-industrial worlds, Technological opportunities for society, Mobile technology practices, Perspectives on Ubiquitous Computing and New technologies: impact and opportunities it will be very difficult to make a choice between them. I hope videos of the talks will be available afterwards.

I still hate cheese but registered to the cheese Fondue dinner at the end of day one. It was a great experience last year.

Day 3 - Friday 9

This day has a keynote on Collective Intelligence and Collaborative Creativity, a panel on The new economics of creation and an Open Stage where 8 winning speeches (proposed and voted by LIFT attendees) will be presented.

The end of the second day of a conference like LIFT (or reboot and SHiFT) has been a time where people usually feel tired and stay in the lounge talking to each other. This year LIFT won’t have talks during that time but a series of 3 panels. Dealing with technological overload (coordinated by Stefana Broadbent), Facing the digital divide (coordinated by David Galipeau) and The user/citizen centered society (coordinated by Robert Scoble). Hopefully with such interesting topics the panels will be full of people wanting to talk.

A wild party will end the conference.

LIFT+

10 installations outside the conference’s rooms: you draw, you run, you have fun, you relax, you talk, you discover. Bread-and-butter is behind this project, prepared with amour and joy for LIFT.

LIFT+ will happen during the conference and I’m specially looking forward for this very interesting concept.

A few notes
Pedro and Hugo (SHiFT organizers) were at LIFT06 and they too are coming this time. It was during a conversation at LIFT that the idea for SHIFT came up so I’ll be interesting to repeat the experience a year after that.

LIFT is presenting itself as one of the most interesting conferences of the year (and it’s just February). If you want to go, hurry up, there are only 50 seats left.

January 29, 2007 | Tags: , | 7 Comments 

Lovely Wii

The last console I owned was more than 10 years ago, a Game Boy which I really enjoyed playing with. I mostly played Tetris and at the time it was a real revolution to be able to carry that console with me all the time.

That was in the 90’s. Since then I rarely played console games and, when I did, I felt no attraction for the whole gaming world.

Last Christmas I got curious about the new Nintendo device called Wii. I felt it was interesting to buy one but resisted the urge thinking that it was probably just another impulse purchase (which I almost always avoid).

Wii logo

A few weeks later I finally decided to buy one. Why ? There are a couple of reasons.

  • Several friends have bought Wiis which will in the future allow me to play with them.
  • The wii is from a new kind of devices that are pushing mainstream gestural interfaces which I really like. See the Wii Remote Wikipedia page for more information.
  • I have mostly a sedentary lifestyle. I usually do some walking, but is not enough. The Wii will help me do a bit more movements that I did before. It still hurts from the first few days so I can tell you that it really makes you move. Some people have gone a bit over the edge and actually hurt themselves which caused some wiinjuries.
  • Some people are already doing fitness with the Wii and tracking the results. I don’t really need this but it’s definitely a plus point in an industry where computer games are usually associated with obesity.

A video is the best way to show you what Wii playing is really like.

As a product it’s interesting to try a kind of game console that has been able to attract attention from people that don’t usually play that kind of games. In that sense it’s revolutionary.

People are naturally playful but tend to let that go when they grow older. The Wii brings back some of that playfulness in a simple way. Its graphics are not super, it’s speed is not marvelous but the way anyone can simply interact with the Wii is something I have never seen before. Nintendo has been able to bet on a simpler console that is already taking prime space (near the TV) in some people’s homes. And it has internet access movie download could be an option too in the future.

Overall the Wii is a lovely interaction design product that is already making me think of all the interesting art installations that can be based on this technology.

January 24, 2007 | Tags: | 7 Comments 

Markets are conversations

“Most marketing programs are based on the fear that the market might see what’s really going on inside the company.”

This statement is from the The Cluetrain Manifesto and represents the way marketing is done.

Thomas Madsen-Mygdal used it in his latest presentation called Welcome Back on the Town Square. It’s a great presentation on how marketing is evolving and the new transparent customer/company relationship.

If you have a project / company you should read this, your customers will love you for it.

January 19, 2007 | Tags: | 1 Comment 

Social entrepreneurship through search

GoodSearch has found a nice way to do some good while still running a business. (via Read / Write)

goodsearch logo

GoodSearch is a Yahoo-powered search engine that shares 50% of it’s revenues with a charity you can choose. You define which charity you want to support and then you just use it like a normal search engine.

They’ve basically removed barriers from the process of contributing. I ofter that often people want to contribute but end up not doing it because it’s usually not simple. GoodSearch has made this easy and it still lets people take some value (search results).

I hate the idea that many companies are using social responsibility as a way to promote themselves and not to do any good. There has to be some kind of transparency in the process. By allowing charities to register for the program and all users to choose who to contribute to, GoodSearch has found a better way to do some good.

It’s a smart way of doing social entrepreneurship.

January 12, 2007 | Tags: , , | Leave a Comment 

Affordable Europe: Lisbon

Through my daily read of Londonist I found a New York Times article on affordable London. A bit more reading and it was nice to find out there’s also one on affordable Lisbon.

Lisboa
(photo by ohcaptain)

Despite the small size of the article they have a good description of what a visit to Lisbon can be.

It’s easy to vacation on the cheap in Lisbon, which remains very inexpensive by European standards. On the price-entertainment continuum, restaurants are reasonable, taxis are cheap, a memorable night out won’t leave you broke, and churches are free. Mysteriously (and marvelously) chain stores like Zara charge less in Lisbon than they do in New York or Paris.

The most interesting is the Best Things to Do Free paragraph.

Walk. Everywhere. Just bring comfortable shoes to navigate the hills and cobblestones. For the best views of the city, start in Bairro Alto, cross over to Chiado along Rua Garrett, down to the pedestrian-only Rua do Carmo and up the steep hill to Castelo de São Jorge. (Yes, the bridge that spans the River Tagus does resemble the Golden Gate.) To finish your tour, stroll to Alfama, the city’s oldest and best-preserved neighborhood, which still bears traces of its Arab past. Or, if you’re feeling lazy, simply hop the vintage No. 28 tram for the same effect.

When I’m visiting a city I always like to walk around. It’s the best way to visit a place. You get to see many more things that you wouldn’t if you’re taking public transportation.

Last year, I’ve also written a A small guide to Lisbon which guides people through some of my favorite Lisbon places.

January 5, 2007 | Tags: | 3 Comments 

Next Page »