William Lidwell: Universal Principles of Design: 100 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach Through Design
A good reminder of 100 things to check when designing. (****)
Christopher Alexander: The Timeless Way of Building
Revisiting the themes put forward in this first of three books in a series by Christopher Alexander.
Thomas L. Friedman: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
NEIL POSTMAN: Technopoly : The Surrender of Culture to Technology
A classic gut check for those enamored with the technology pervading our lives. (****)
Barry Schwartz: The Paradox of Choice : Why More Is Less
Trying to choose wisely.
Independent
Ambient Generation: Icebreaker: Breakbeat Infused Electronica
Whitevoid's website does a nice job of maintaining visitor's orientation. As you move through the site, stacks of content unfold and as you move back up levels in the site hierarchy, they zip back up before you are taken to your destination. Engaging and informative. The work is strong as well. Thanks goes out to Martin Kay for the heads up on this one.
Keen to add a visual element or some serendipity to your web searching? Try oskope.
Troika's playful Newton virus, which raises awareness of Apple's MacBook Pro built-in tilt sensor technology, is now being shown at the MoMA's Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition.
The Tango!, an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) device created by Blink Twice, helps children who are speech or hearing impaired with communication and self-expression. Users create and customize sentences using touch screen pictograms and text. The device then reads them aloud. Vocabulary can be built upon through the use of a built in camera. The device is also useful as a tool for teaching English.
The device also has a USB connection for expanded functionality, CompactFlash, and SD, with the option to use a keyboard. Cellular conectivity is planned for later models. Current princes for the units are still very high at approximately $6899. Blink Twice hopes to get prices more accessible through meeting quantity orders in the future.
This stylus based interface prototype allows users to browse, group, and manipulate file tiles in novel ways. One wonders how well the interface would actually stack up against current graphical user interfaces when more description file icon images, instead of things like generic PDF icons, were used. Still, the clever use of implied physics that the tiles have and the fluidity of the impressive prototype bring the BumpTop prototype towards the top of the pile in the bivouac interface hall of fame.
Ever find yourself feeling nostalgic about something you saw long ago on the web? Well, thanks to the folks at the Internet Archive you may be travel back in time with "The Way Back" tool. You can visit many cached versions of sites dating back more than a decade in some cases. With millions of new pages coming on line every day, thankfully, someone is writing all this internet stuff down...or at least backing it up on servers somewhere.
Special thanks to Kimberley Cane for um...reminding me of this site...and to the "Way Back Machine" for the trip down memory lane. While you are there, why not take a peek at what Yahoo! was up to back in 1996? Greatgooglymoogly!
During a recent trip to Los Angeles, I was reminded of all the hours I once spent creating and learning with Sim City 2000. These memories are timely given that this month's Wired Magazine special edition entitled "The New World of Games" is Guest Edited by Sim City's creator Will Wright.
There will always be a special place in my heart for the Sim City 2000 release. While the game title has evolved over the years, the particular release with its meticulously detailed, pixel-pushed, dimetric city views gained my respect from the moment that I first launched the game. Although Sim City 2000 may now be considered “old school”, I sometimes wonder about the benefits it could offer to the “new school” students of today.
While we continue to debate the merits and potential negative effects of gaming particularly on our youth, the Sim City series serves as a beacon indicating where we should be focusing more of our “gaming” development efforts. Through using Sim City 2000 in classes, students could learn by building something rather than destroying, which is all too often the focus of too many gaming titles these days. They could explore cause and effect relationships and do so quickly, thereby reducing the repressive effects associated with the fear of failure. By resolving infrastructure tensions that arise as new commercial zones require larger power plants or underground pipe systems need to be modified to accommodate underground subway stations, students build something else. Something which is particularly important in today’s “who shall we blame next” society. That something which they build is empathy for those in civic service.
After recent events like the Katrina disaster and the California power crisis, developing empathy for the scores of government workers who are indeed doing a good job is sorely needed. By allowing students to experience even a small part of what it is like to build and manage a functional city, we are training through play. Bonds must be passed to balance the books. Citizens must be placated through the addition of green belts and amusement parks and other services as cities grow. Weighing decisions like inviting military bases (a potential source of income) to a city must be carefully considered. For those who find it most engaging, perhaps a spark will be ignited drawing them into public service. And there is something magical in that process. Aligning youth with the skills and interest to serve is key to recovering faith in our public institutions. It gets those who are passionate and skilled into positions that can make a difference. And who would have thought this could all begin with a simple game.
As I looked down during the approach to LAX, I smiled inside as I wondered what the city beneath the city really looked like. Knowing it was there and thinking about all the small and large decisions that have gotten the city to where it is today is something I have to thank Will Wright for. It is so easy to question why things are the way they are but reflecting upon the cities I built reminds me that urban planning is tough business, even in the virtual world. I can only hope that Los Angeles Version X.X is on its way to being incrementally better and stronger than the current version…just like each successive Sim City I built turned out to be.
Need spoken word prompts in your interface? Check out AT&T's Text to Speech Generator. English, Spanish, German, French, and UK English dialects are supported and the interface quickly converts what you type into a QuickTime file.
Check out AT&T's Text to Speech interface.
Thinking about the classic Broderbund title "Just Grandma and Me" reminds one of the simpler days of interactive media. Hypercard-like in its simplicity, this clever and engaging title leverages delightful animations and sounds which encourage kids to explore all of the nuances and details in the interactive illustrations. The written text of the story is interactive as well. Sentences can be read to children or they can click on those tricky words to have them sounded out individually.
There are many learning websites for kids today to be sure. However, this title, produced in the days before SpongeBob Squarepants and the like, is notable for paving the way for all that have followed while keeping the quality bar high. There is little doubt that even Grandma would approve of this one.
Tags provide an intuitive overview of what content is most frequently viewed. Also, by providing users with the means of creating and managing tags, they can be a community managed and regulated interface element.
Explore tags further via: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags
