Just Simple

I recently found an interesting film about industrial design. It talks about how we have interacted with objects over the years and how it may change within the future as we draw away from archetypes. The documentry is interesting and worth a look if your interested in interaction.

Objectified does bring up some good points about bad design. I often wonder why we put up with bad design in programs such as mircosoft word and excel. Although both programs come from the same family neither follow a pattern I can easily understand. Everytime I have opened the software a new menu always seems to come up instead of the same menu I am use to.

This documentry made me think about the objects I use everyday in my life. Most seem seamless, such as my bag and wallet.

Here’s a small clip from the movie about Apple:

“User-centered design means understanding what your users need, how they think, and how they behave – and incorporating that understanding into every aspect of your process.”

-Jesse J. Garrett

Since the announcement of the apple ipad there has been a huge argument over what is better HTML5 or Flash. While the ipad has had it’s fair share of bashing it’s not the real issue. Products improve with time and user testing. The ipad is meant for the average user or designer, not a technology nut. Which is where apple have been very successful, in time the ipad will succeed whether it will be through e books or by some other means.

Apple have announced that they will chose not to support flash and since then numerous blogs have popped up arguing for either side of the debate. Examples of these examples can be seen below.

Don’t want Flash

The Flash Blog

While I believe that it’s fantastic people are showing this type of passion, is this really the right argument or discussion? This argument is coming from a coder’s point of view, rather then the consumers point of view. Which is why I believe this argument is invalid.

As a designer the argument over which is better is irrelevant to me. As a coder the argument is relevant, however I am a designer first, coder second. Design should be all about the end user, not what we prefer to use as coders. I believe the real discussion should not be about HTML5 vs Flash but should be about “Rich Media Content”.

As designers we aim to make interaction easier for the end user. Questions we should be asking ourselves should be:

What does the end user want to interact with?

What does the end user want from their media content?

Design and coding should not be we as developers / designers want. It should always be about the end audience, perhaps if we discussed Rich Media Content instead of arguing about HTML5 vs Flash we could grow as better developers / designers.

While at tafe I never really had a good look at youtube videos, something I regret doing now. I have found some videos to be a great resource in understanding and remembering the fundementals of design.

Below is a video of interaction design which has been broken down into 3 parts. I found this easy to understand and will build on this knowledge.

Early last year I wrote an article on intuition. I went into some detail on what is intuition and how it is used on interface design. I will post the article on this blog at a later date.

The other day I was watching “Cloudy with a chance of meatballs” and this clip:

Although it is meant to be an amusing parody of what a first time might be like using a computer it might not be so far from the truth.

Even 23rd beings from the future who come back in time might not know how to use a computer.

There are a million ways to interact with products. The company mobile art lab have combined an old technology that users are familiar with, with a new technology the iphone. This allows for a interaction with books on a whole new level. A book no longer becomes static, the book allows interactive explanations for methods and theorys.

Currently the technology is being developed for children’s books but could have multiple uses in the near future. I’m excited by this type of technology and hope to see more of it in the future.

I was once told “the best interface is no interface” which put me in a dilemma. If there is no interface then how can I design or develop an interface for users to interact with? As a designer we strive to make an interface more simple and easy to use, which is not always an easy feat.

Enter Pranav Mistry who may have come up with a solution to human interaction. Most of his ideas come right out of science fiction novel, think “Minorty Report”. His ideas, I believe could be the next evolution of the interface.

The word interface means to interact with a face and Mistry’s ideas allow the user to become the interface as well as receiving the information they want. It’s allow the user to gain real world data though simple actions.

This project goes to open resource fairly soon so I’ll be interested in having a look.

A link to the TED site (it’s worth looking at the comments too to see what other people think):

TED

Design in Crisis from We Love Inc on Vimeo.

One of the reasons I decided to get into multimedia is the potential it has for future developments. Interactive design is still in an infant stage and any new development is exciting. Above is an example of interactive display involving the user. I personally find it quite exciting to where it could go next.

Another example of interactive display is VW’s campaign “fun theory”:

Piano Stairs from Ibrahim Nergiz on Vimeo.

Here they are using everyday objects to create interactivity. I think it’s a creative ad and hope to see more of it in the future. Marketing is now having to look for new ways to gain an audience’s interest. Hopefully we will see more of these fun inviting ways rather then the invasive type ads we have seen in the past.