Such a historic day for men/women on earth. We landed on Mars. I cannot begin to imagine the amount of planning and resources it took to pull this off. I am coming from the software design industry, and I know how many times we have great intentions and throw an exuberant amount of resources at a business problem only to fail in the execution phase. And this group of very talented individuals have pulled something off that spans both software, hardware and a terrestrial planet. I cannot begin to imagine the amount of pride this group must feel right now. Thanks Nasa!
It’s not very often that I read the Harvard Business Review, but this article really caught my attention. It’s titled, “How Successful Leaders Think”. The article suggests that we should examine what goes on in a successful leader’s mind —particularly the way they creatively build on the tensions among conflicting ideas.
This practice of balancing two competing ideas and drawing a third conclusion is the heart of design. And what most designers face on a daily basis. Whether it’s balancing between the following:
As I was procrastinating last night, I was reading a blog entry that Ryan had posted on The Universal Desktop titled, “Cynergy unveils Cynergy Labs and Project Maestro“. In short, Project Maestro, is a multi-touch less (Ryan used the term “multi-touch”) interface. And I stress “touch less”, as the user interacting with the system really never comes in contact with a physical interface. In fact the the user needs to wear a pair of special gloves to invoke an interaction.
This is most certainly a very cool experiment in hardware and software. And I must mention that this was not built on the Flash Platform but rather on WPF. It’s good to see that WPF is coming along as a technology platform and more importantly that people are experimenting with it in this manner.
This experiment reminded me of an interactive artist that I followed during my collegiate years. David Rokeby created the “Very Nervous System” in 1986. And I am going to quote directly from David’s site as to the description of the system.
“The interface is unusual because it is invisible and very diffuse, occupying a large volume of space, whereas most interfaces are focussed and definite. Though diffuse, the interface is vital and strongly textured through time and space. The interface becomes a zone of experience, of multi-dimensional encounter. The language of encounter is initially unclear, but evolves as one explores and experiences.”
Now if we could lose the need for the “special” gloves… That would open up this type of experience to the masses.
I am not sure how much information is out there for the everyday designer about designing RIA experiences. So I will be putting together some material on some sample project templates and worflows (with the associated skillsets required) to be successful in designing engaging RIA’s. So enough with the hype.
“Graphic design which fulfills the aesthetic needs, complies with the laws of form and exigencies of two-dimensional space; which speaks in semiotics, san-serifs, and geometrics; which abstracts, transforms, translates, rotates, dilates, repeats, mirrors, groups and regroups is not good design if it is irrelevant.” -Paul Rand
Is it me or do clients really perpetuate design trends? I will explain this later, as I have to hit a deadline. But while I am working let me remind us of the very core principles of design:
