I am sure every designer would need this cream 🙂
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The SMS Guerilla Projector is a home made, fully functioning device that enables the user to project text based SMS messages in public spaces, in streets, onto people, inside cinemas, shops, houses…
Its unpredictability creates a very special and disturbing experience for the people who watch the projection, and invites them to reflect on the content or the implications of the message.The images below show actual examples of projected messages.
If you are interested to use the SMS Guerrilla Projector, please visit Troika Communications
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Flare is a collection of ActionScript 3 classes for building a wide variety of interactive visualizations. For example, flare can be used to build basic charts, complex animations, network diagrams, treemaps, and more. Flare is written in the ActionScript 3 programming language and can be used to build visualizations that run on the web in the Adobe Flash Player. Flare applications can be built using the free Adobe Flex SDK or Adobe’s Flex Builder IDE. Flare is based on prefuse, a full-featured visualization toolkit written in Java. Flare is open source software licensed under the terms of the BSD license, and can be freely used for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.
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Here’s the embedded slide deck from Slideshare, but I would recommend downloading the Powerpoint slides as some of the text isn’t legible in the Flash conversion.
Different views of self: We expose different views of self. Our home self, our work self, and each of the services we use provides a different view into our lives, different relationships, different interests. Our Facebook profile, for example, shows a different window into our social network than our LinkedIn profile does.
Interesting question: if all of our online profiles were added together, would it be representative of the *real* us?
(this is a very pertinent question given the recent claims that Facebook is trying to map *the* social graph…it’s not clear at all that anybody but a single individual knows the extent of their own social network. In my own case, I have many more parts to my life than exists on Facebook. None of my high school friends are there, a couple college friends, mostly professional colleagues. My wife promises she will never join Facebook. It will never consist of my entire social network)
Facebook mapping the social graph is similar to Google mapping the web of documents.
Social software question: “How do you add the human element into software?”
Lots of the talk was leveraging the major axes of social software, starting with Stewart Butterfield’s building blocks. These include Identity, Presence, Relationships, Conversations, and Groups. Gene Smith then took these a step further and created a honeycomb diagram out of them, a useful starting point to introduce the topics. Also includes Reputation and Sharing.
“You no longer own your message” – referring to the idea that your customers/audience will find ways to talk about you even if you’re not listening – GetSatisfaction
Big idea: “by designing the environment thoughtfully, you can get the behavior you want” follows Lewin’s equation: Behavior = a function of personality and environment. (you can’t change people, but you can change the environment they’re in)
As an aside, lots of social psychology research, with Milgram’s Obedience Study being the most famous case, suggests that the notion of “roles” is powerful. When we are placed in roles (environments play a big part of roles) we tend to act the role. We can pretend easily…it’s easy to give up our personal opinions and act the role. To this end, Milgram started his research in part because he wanted to know the answer to the question: “Could it be that (Adolph) Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?”.
Strategy: “Strategy is knowing what not to do” – Michael Porter
This is probably the most important quote from the entire talk. Instead of trying to build the next MySpace or graft the features of YouTube into a non-video site, it’s important to realize how people’s motivations are affected by the actual interface they’re using. So knowing what not to do, where not to spend a lot of energy, is crucial to success. Christina’s talk was a great overview of the issues involved, and a lot of what not to do.
Chris Messina of Citizen Agency has put together a great gallery of interface designs. Everything from 404 pages to calendar views, footers, navigations, tab designs etc.
Bloomberg is undoubtedly one of the biggest players in the financial industry offering a wide range of products for people in and around Wall Street. One of their products is the Bloomberg Terminal. It is a 17" dual screen setup that displays the financial information from Bloomberg Profession Services – all in one tightly packed system.
…and it looks like this:
Design is extremely important. It is the tool you use to energise, inspire, empower, and encourage your employees to do better. A good working environment can transform a workplace.
The redesigned Bloomberg Terminal
Last month, Portfolio.com asked three top design companies to redesign the Bloomberg experience. These companies were the well renowned IDEO, thehappycorp, and Ziba – and this is what they came up with:
Note: See high-res images and an interactive presentation over at Portfolio.com
IDEO:
Thehappycorp:
Ziba:
Take you pick as to which works the best ?
RFID-enabled posters for the first time, at JR Shinjuku Station. They are called SuiPo. When passengers show their RFID tickets (SUICA cards) to the posters, they get relevant info/ads on their cell phones.
RFID readers are between the posters.
First time users need to associate their RFID ticket IDs with their mobile phone email addresses, using this kiosk terminal.
Japanese theremin maker Mandarin Electron has embedded a pitch only theremin inside a Russian matryoshka doll dubbed "Matryomin" as a means of creating art with art. For those of you who don’t know, the theremin is an old-timey electronic instrument that can be played without actually being touched. Apparently, Matryomin can be "easily manipulated" to produce sounds that seem to emanate from the doll as a singing voice. If you don’t believe me, groove on the bizarre orchestra in the video above. Crazy japs.
After Apple fanatic Nick Haley posted his homemade iPod Touch commercial to YouTube last month, a few ad execs at the Cupertino based company saw it. But rather than send him a cease-and-desist letter, they bought his ad, flew him out to Los Angeles to reshoot it in high def, and will be broadcasting it during the World Series this weekend. THAT’S how you love your customers, people!
Everything : Design 