Archive for the ‘Interface’ Category

BumpTop, an Ephemeral Space?

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

Whilst searching the new features available in Windows 7 I happened across BumpTop, showcased at the IBM sponsored TED conference. It works in a Windows 7 environment so I downloaded the free version to see whether it a gimmick or a more transient way to organise workspaces. What attracted me to BumpTop was not the 3D environment, but the way items on the desktop are given emphasis and hierarchy through making them small or large. They may also be grouped into piles too just like stacking sheets of paper on a desk. This doesn’t mean you then have to destroy piles of items to retrieve files; piles can be fanned out, flipped through like a book or displayed individually within a container whilst choosing a file. As well as being able to delete items to the trash can, in BumpTop files can be screwed up into balls and thrown about the space. Whether I will use this feature much is to be seen. It may provide a secondary way to store those small notepad files that I may need to keep but not too certain about yet.

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Tags: 3d, bumptop, desktop, file management, gestural interface, Interface, TED, touch screen
Posted in Interface | 2 Comments »

Sorry my content pages are lame…

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

I listened to a boxes and arrows podcast episode yesterday entitled ‘Content Page Design Best Practices’ which is a recording from a conference talk hosted by Luke Wroblewski. It was a real eye-opener. Over the coming weeks I am going to be optimising my content pages so that they are more efficient in the context of the broader web as a whole. My content pages aren’t usually accessed through the home page, most of you search for something and my website shows up in your results on that search term and then you land on one of many content pages.

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Tags: content, content page design best practices, luke wroblewski
Posted in DigiKev, Interface, Web design | No Comments »

Iterative process and the need for play making in design

Monday, June 8th, 2009

Traci Lepore has just written her article Putting Together a Production: A Rehearsal Strategy for Design for UX Matters. Intelligently, in a captivating and easy to follow manner she likens design iterations and the need for an iterative process to her own personal accounts of being an actress. She has to learn the lines while getting over her own shyness and discomforts in order to work through the initial stages of what is required of her. Soon the shyness disappears and the acting refined over several iterations. The iterations are play making, trying out new ideas and discarding those that fail. This creative space for trial and error is essential to the refinement of the final play. This cycle, as she depicts through flow diagrams, is a helical process rather than linear. The steps in taking on board what is required, learning the script and refinement of acting are completed over several iterations, it is then up to the director and audience to judge.

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Tags: comic prototyping, ia, information architecture, interface design, traci lepore, User Experience, ux, ux matter
Posted in Interface, Prototyping, User Experience, Web design | 1 Comment »

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