If you like a combination of the following: design, user experience, technology, games, art, travel and the internet let me provide you the news. Yes, I actually enjoy sifting through the news, so that you don’t have to – and I bet I’ll do a better job than your news reader (that is if we have similar interests!).

Let’s take a look at what I can provide. According to Google Reader:
From your 444 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 4,536 items, clicked 48 items, starred 1,156 items, and emailed 1 items. I’ve cut 75% of the fat right off. Let’s take a closer look:

Here’s the number of items posted in the last month vs. number I selected to share:

Here are the number of items posted vs. shared over the days of the week:

And the hourly breakdown – notice the before work, lunch, and after work spikes:

Where do my most shared articles come from? Here’s my top 20:

Since I started using Google Reader on October 7, 2005 I’ve read a total of 184,524 items. That’s around 80 articles a day.

Before Google Reader shut off the sharing feature in the web interface and moved sharing to Google Plus I had a number of people following me – with most of my friends declaring RSS bankruptcy – unable to read it all. But now with some great magazine-style tablet and phone apps, you can browse at your leisure, and enjoy a great selection of curated news.

Here’s my curated content feed – ready for any RSS reader, or magazine app: bit.ly/jeremyfeed – you can preview my feed here: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/jeremyj

This feed works great with not just RSS readers, but it can be transformed into a magazine, ready to browse:

Using FlipBoard you can add a specific RSS feed (it’s a little tricky). The easiest way is to use a Google Reader account – connect it to Flipboard, then select Google Reader – then select “Jeremy Johnson’s shared items in Google Reader”, then “Add +”. There you go, instant curated news.

(Some Flipboard screenshots around adding specific RSS feeds)

So if you find yourself losing interest in your news, let me sift through and find some interesting stuff. And if you’re on twitter, I also cross-post my curated content there as well.

Enjoy!

I’m Gowalla user #91. They’re at about 2 million now. But, alas… they are no more. I’ve been easing into the idea for months now – my slow decline in usage started with a series of events: taking away my (yes my) icons, demoting check-ins, and my social graph moving on to other apps/sites. Gowalla is one of my first true “must have services” that have disappeared. Why am I sad, because Gowalla was meaningful to me.

Others are trying to leave me as well, like Google Reader’s removal of sharing (to move to G+), or Flickr’s possible buyouts from a mismanaged Yahoo – I’ve been pretty lucky that my virtual web apps, have for the most part stayed intact over time. There is no track record here. No shelf-life for a beloved app or service. It’s not like film, which we know will last a 100 years if stored properly, it’s something that if you picked up a mobile device in 10 years, I guess I’d be surprised if instagram works – or facebook for that matter.

But like a film, Gowalla had meaning for me. Gowalla’s offices started in Southlake in the shadow of Sabre/Travelocity where I was working at the time. We’d see the guys at lunch, had Josh come present at local events, and ran into Gowalla team members in various meetups around DFW. After they moved to Austin and over the years at SXSW we were luckily enough to attend some of the most sought after Gowalla parties – including last year’s Matt & Kim concert.

As they became a fixture in Austin (one of my favorite cities), you’d see Gowalla stickers on the windows of all our favorite shops and restaurants. We’d know what hangouts were hot via Gowalla, I’d know where my friends were via Gowalla, and more than once would serendipitously run into people I knew well, or wanted to know better.

I had a record of my travels and locations that had meaning for me. My wife called it “the husband tracker” (now who knows where I go during the day). It added interest to mundane tasks such as going to the grocery store – would there be a new icon to add to my collection? I was less than 10 short when they retired the feature… I had over 1,200 checkins, almost 100 pins, and a 100+ friends.

Not only was Gowalla invaluable during SXSW letting me know where everyone was, and where to go, but they’d have promotions running that would get me to go out of my way to check in. NASA, incase, Sweet Leaf Tea, just to name a few.

Then Disney… Which just happened to be weeks before I had a trip planned with my son. I was able to collect stamps virtually, which made it easier to remember which rides we’d gone on, and which we’ve missed. Again, collected memories.

And even as late as last month with Tintin. If you don’t know I’m a Tintin fanatic, and to my delight that Tintin actually chatted me up during my checkins on Gowalla.

Meaning came from: friends, memories, and fun. As well as a smart dose of gamification: limited duration, collecting, delighters, status – the list goes on. This meaning lead to my friends having ceremonies around moving Gowalla off their homescreens. It was like losing something big.

Am I ok with the core Gowalla team going to facebook? Yes, of course – they deserve to be with some of the best designers in the world, effecting many millions. Will SXSW be the same? No. Will I love other app like I loved Gowalla? No. Was creating Gowalla just a long interview for facebook? No, but it just worked out that way.

What do I want now that Gowalla is no more? They’re hinting at two things: 1) letting you access your data (which I hope to be able to import into my facebook timeline), and 2) something is going to happen with the company. Maybe another company will swoop in and keep it going at it’s current trajectory – but it won’t be the same.

What’s really interesting is the speed which my social graph moved – after the latest Gowalla update, there was a bit of a void, until Path showed up with a stunning updated app – now it’s roughly back to similar usage during the height of my graph’s Gowalla usage.

When Path came out, I found that I actually missed checking-in. I like to see where my graph is hanging out, where they’re visiting, what they’re up to. In my busy life, sometimes this is my only connection to people I enjoy.

Path is great, and really combines some of the best services into a single app, be how long before Path gets bought? Can anyone compete with facebook if they decide to get into something? We’ll see where Path goes, and then hopefully have a place to move on to after.

Gowalla, here’s to years of interesting times. Thanks!

P.S. I think Josh should fly the first 100 Gowalla users out to SFO for a tour of facebook ;-)

Last week I gave my Gamification 101 presentation to the local Refresh Dallas meeting. This was the second meeting since bringing Refresh back, and I was glad to see around 40+ Designers, developers, and other creative types attend.

Here was the description for the talk:

Gaming is at a tipping point, never before have games effected our day-to-day lives in such a substantial way. From entertaining yourself on the subway with Angry Birds, to solving the world’s greatest problems – gaming is quickly becoming a mainstream way to explore, communicate, connect, and work. See how these trends are effecting e-commerce, entertainment, and even non-profit organizations.

Jeremy will be presenting the latest trends and news around Gamification – updated from his Big Design presentation earlier this year.

Here’s my presentation:

or view on speakerdeck to download PDF.

And here are some photos from the event:

See all photos of last weeks Refresh Dallas meeting.

When talking about Gamification in regards to UX/UI Design there are two sides: the surface UI view of Gamification – where you add elements to your project to make them more game like, but without the underlying understanding of “why” an element may or may not work. Then there is the very deep psychology understanding of what makes us tick. Why we do what we do, and how to effect us to do something different. You can do one without the other, but you’ll end up with something that fades quickly.

Ready to dive in to the world of Gamification? Stop by Refresh Dallas for some good conversation!

Refresh Dallas

Thursday October 13, 2011
7:00PM to 9:00PM

Improving Enterprises
16633 Dallas Parkway, Suite 100
Addison, Texas 75001

Hope to see you there!

The first thing I’ve really been excited about in facebook for some time – the timeline. I’ve always been interested in showing my data in more interesting ways, and as the owner of much of my data, facebook is ripe to take advantage of it. While others have been trying to visualize parts your life, you really won’t need to look much further any longer. Let’s take a look at what my data looks like in the new timeline.

When you first hit a profile you see a “half view” of the new cover, along with the start of your timeline:

This makes you wonder some of the more interesting things people will do with an image that “folds up” as you scroll back up to the top.

You get all the basics – timelines (with month or year segments to jump to), about, friends, photos, maps, and likes.

Maps do something like I’ve always wanted Gowalla to do – show visited spots, and let you segment them by time:

As you start to scroll down the timeline you get a sticky header, with the profile name, and a “+” to add events to the timeline.

Some events now are very specific:

And it looks like facebook is going to allow others to build on this to create custom modules. I could imagine – a gaming module that asks: Just played… Just bought… Just won… – here what travel looks like:

There are automatic modules – like photos:

Friends you’ve made in a specific timeframe:

Places you’ve been:

And major life events, like marriage:

And work:

Overall, polished, slick, useful – and just fun.

There are others that do very simular things – memolane – my lane: http://memolane.com/jeremyjohnson does a great job – just quickly enter a couple of your social media hangouts, and instant timeline!

Dustin Curtis had lifepath.me – and just wrote about some of the similarities here: http://blog.dustincurtis.com/facebook-timelines-and-lifepathme

Or something like vizualize.me that takes your linkedin data and makes it more visual, and useful.

There are more and more tools out there that take your data and give you something more useful in return. As well as sites dedicated to visualization like: http://flowingdata.com/ and http://infosthetics.com/.

While I think this is a very useful display of the data facebook collects from me, I do wonder about people who will be growing up with facebook – and have a couple years they would rather forget, or maybe dated throughout – will you be able to “hide” specific years/months? Do you really want to have all your past a very quick and visalbe click away? I’m lucky facebook didn’t really take off until I was a “professional” and married – so I don’t mind everything being exposed to my friends or even the public. As always with facebook, privacy is key – and very granular options are needed.

Looks like everyone will be getting this view on the 29th, so get ready to have your life laid out for all to see!

The word this week from the Wall Street Journal (of all places) that Amazon.com is redesigning – for the tablet age. And while there may be some truth to that, I think it’s funny how modern, clean design – automatically equals designing for a tablet. Design trends are always informed by the dominate devices in its time, and mobile is where our trends for today are starting. And since I’m now in the e-commerce space, I’m obviously interested, and took the new design for a test drive.

Amazon did the right thing, unlike Target – that shot out recently with a BIG BANG – so big there are instructions all over the site on how to use the site (nice design BTW) – amazon is modernizing in pieces, a little at a time. Here’s what’s new:

All your buy options are now in one single location.

Overall – it’s a very minor redesign, and they’ve gone in the right direction – modernize what they can, when they can, keep moving forwards towards a new, updated, clean design. While not as sexy as target’s big band redesign, you also won’t need an instruction manual.

Two weeks ago HP dropped their TouchPad by $100, Staples had a coupon for an extra $100 off that. A 16GB Tablet for $299. Sounds like a pretty good deal… The next cheapest option would be to get a Nook for $249 – but I really like WebOS. I like the attention to the design details, the gestures, the notifications – I could go on. But in the end, and as the events of this weekend showed – only when at the bargain price of $99 does it beat out the iPad in buzz and sales for a short time before its demise.

There’s not only the cost, or the details, but what I wanted the TouchPad for. Yes, I’m a gadget geek, and yes, I like to tryout new things, and I also believe in consuming as much as I can online and off to inform my own designs. But, I wanted the TouchPad to be my productivity machine. See my iPad has been commandeered by my 7 year old as a gaming console, and TV. There are also opportunities for educational uses: math, spelling, BrainPop – but overall it’s a consumption device. And that’s how I use it as well – games, movies, reading, surfing – occasionally email, etc… but never any real production. Not that it’s not capable of doing so – professional records, novels, websites, presentations – all can and have been produced on an iPad, but for me it’s just not natural yet.

So it depends on what you want to use this device for.

Gruber recently posted about Seth Clifford’s experience buying an Android tablet:

Case in point: when I went to Staples, I asked the sales guy for the 10.1 and the first thing he said was
“What are you buying it for?” When I replied, “development”, he said “Ok, because this thing isn’t going to replace a laptop for you”. No problem, I assured him, we’re app devs, and we know what we’re doing.

Then, the manager came over to verify the coupon I had and asked the same question again. Again I replied “development” and he asked “Of what?” rather indignantly.

“Uh, Android apps?” I replied incredulously.

“Oh, ok, because we’re selling a lot of these things, and we get a LOT of them back. People buy them thinking they’re getting rid of a laptop, and they all come back returning them.”

And I agree, most people think a tablet will be a laptop replacement, or something that will increase their productivity, it won’t. Or it won’t for most people. There are just certain tasks that are more difficult – typing without a keyboard (not that you can’t add one) – getting files from one place to another, managing your photos, multitasking (when needed), etc… If there is not an app specifically for what you’re doing, it’s probably not going to increase your efficiency.

Then why is the iPad selling like gangbusters? Because of what it does well, and how it fits so well in the entire Apple ecosystem. I love buying universal apps – where I get the benefit of purchasing once, and getting it across multiple devices. It does the reading and viewing all types of media well – and if you’ve experienced an iPhone, you know what you’re getting. I think it’s a wonderful entertainment device, that can help with work in a pinch.

I also like iPad’s interaction model with it’s focus, and I like that Apple is bringing that full screen, single-app-at-a-time focus to OSX with Lion. Is Apple purposely helping our distracted minds focus on one task at a time? Or are they just taking an interface that seems to work with millions (the iPad), and moving it to the desktop to get people to move up from an iPad at some point? I’d like to think this is Apple’s genius design – helping us get back some focus in our work – removing the distractions – which has been so popular as of late (IA Writer for example).

That brings me to the MacBook Air. I wanted something portable like a tablet, but used not for entertainment, but to create. And in my opinion nothing can beat a Mac for this – no matter how small. And small it is, the 11inch MacBook Air is small, light, powerful, quiet, instant, and besides the whole “it’s a laptop” thing, it’s great for portable, anywhere creating. And that’s what I’m looking for in the end: portable, quick, anywhere creating.

Lion really helps with this, with just my limited experience, it works well with smaller screen devices, again provides that focus, and has a tablet OR desktop feeling, that’s actually pretty nice.

So while I may of flirted with a TouchPad, and had extensive time in with an iPad – I’ll see if this MacBook Air increases my productivity. Like most purchases, we’re looking for something to entertain, show status, or increase our productivity in life – this purchase was about productivity. Let’s see what the iPad 3 has, and then I’ll check back.

Anyone using an iPad exclusively? Can it/did it replace a desktop/laptop?

Did you know many of the games you play – from core shooters, to super casual iPhone and Facebook games were created, designed, or supported by Dallas area companies? Games like Duke Nukem, Rage, and Words with Friends?

D Magazine recently wrote an article titled “Video Games Score Big For Dallas-Fort Worth” where they say gaming adds around $490 million to the Texas economy – much of that in Dallas.

Dallas is also home to a masters degree program at SMU for digital game development where since 2005, they’ve been sending game developers to some of the top companies in the industry.

And lets not leave out game sellers ;-) GameStop is located in Grapevine, TX – and has over 6,500 stores across the globe and has an awesome website!!

Most of the companies below speak for themselves – many of the games produced by these companies were some of my favorites growing up – amazing how long companies can stay relevant in such an evolving industry.

And here’s the list:

Newtoy, inc
Chances are if you’re reading this, you play Words with Friends, and did you know they’re here in the DFW area? They were also recently purchased by Zynga, the 800 lbs gorilla of social gaming:
http://www.newtoyinc.com/wp/

Bonfire Studios (aka Zynga Dallas)
A collection of game designers with titles like Civilization, Age of Empires and Halo Wars on their resumes make up this game studio acquired by Zynga. They released the iOS title “We Farm” in July of 2010.
http://venturebeat.com/2010/10/05/zynga-buys-bonfire-studios-and-sets-up-dallas-game-studio/

3D Realms (legal name Apogee Software, Ltd.)
Heard of Duke Nukem? The originators of this iconic series – now working with also local game publisher Gearbox Software to release Duke Nukem Forever
http://www.3drealms.com/

Apogee Software
As they say “Back in action” – Apogee is really the originator of independent game from the days of getting your gaming via floppy disk. They’re currently working on Duke Nukem for the Nintendo 3DS. Duke Nukem is a big deal to Dallas.
http://www.apogeesoftware.com/

Gearbox Software
Home to Borderlands, Counter Strike, Half-Life, and… wait for it… Duke Nukem Forever! This local game studio even has ties with the original Halo franchise.
http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/home/

id Software
One word “Doom”, and how about another “Quake”, and don’t forget Wolfenstein – transforming the gaming industry is what id does best. Their current project Rage, is an upcoming next-gen console release – with a preview game already available on both iPhone, and iPad – but it’s also a new gaming engine that will power games for years to come. They also run the yearly free Quakecon conference here in Dallas.
http://idsoftware.com/

Mumbo Jumbo
Billed a “Premium Casual Games” – both a publisher, and creator – they created the Luxor series of games which can be found on iOS devices.
http://www.mumbojumbo.com/

Robot Entertainment
Currently working on Orcs Must Die, robot has roots in games like Age of Empires Online and Halo Wars. Not only do they have a rocking website, their studio looks like a great place to work!
http://www.robotentertainment.com/

Terminal Reality
All I need to say is “Star Wars for Kinect” – there done. Based in Lewisville, their last two games were Def Jam Rapstar, and Ghostbusters (which I loved!). Again “Star Wars Kinect” here in my backyard!
http://www.terminalreality.com/

Nerve Software
They’ve recently released Burnstar for the iPhone, but also worked on last years #1 selling game of all time Call of Duty: Black Ops.
http://www.nervesoftware.com

Barking Lizards
Working with some great properties like Shrek and Spongebob, it looks like they’re currently working on some mobile games.
http://www.barkinglizards.com

Method Solutions
Focusing on Facebook games and mobile casual gaming – they’ve created some great mobile games from EA, like Yahtzee HD and Sim City Deluxe. They’re currently featuring Viva Mall for Facebook.
http://www.method-solutions.com/

Windstorm Studios
With titles like Hydro Thunder, and Offroad in their past – they’re currently working on a new MMO.
http://windstormstudios.com/

Controlled Chaos
A new game studio working on iOS games like the popular “Texting of the Bread”.
http://cchaosmedia.com/

I know there are probably more – please leave anything I missed in the comments.

Last, this year’s Big Design Conference will have a gaming theme running through many of the tracks – with gamification a very popular UX topic – gaming in general is getting more and more important to what we do as UX Designers, where the lines between games and tools we’re creating blur at times.

Today I gave a short presentation on “Taking Your Content Mobile” at Open Camp here in Dallas. It’s now easier than ever to quickly create a mobile specific version of your site using a few simple tools/plug-ins. If you’re not ready now, you’ll need to start thinking about it – and I’ll show you your options.

Surprisingly when I asked how many people had a mobile version of their site, less then half raised hands. And this is coming from a more tech focused audience at Open Camp. I should of asked what’s stopping everyone, and it could be the “why?” – why go mobile?

While Apple continues the marketing of the iPhone viewing “the real web”, many sites are easier to navigate, view, and scroll around when modified for the small screen (not to mention load faster).

The options breakout something like this:

• hosted
• plug-ins
• custom dev
• themes / templates
• style-sheets
• adaptive-layouts
• auto-generate

In my presentation I go over each of these, with examples and links:

If you haven’t gone mobile before today, now is your chance!

O’Reilly Radar recently put it as “…is iOS then still to be judged primarily as a communications device platform? Or, as a low-end gaming disruptor to Microsoft Xbox or Nintendo Wii in the living room?”. And I agree, if we’re seeing a shift to a more casual gaming scenario where more and more people will pick up a game if it’s easy and natural what better platform then the one in your pocket? Or the one on your current laptop? This reduces the barrier of entry to gaming to zero, or at least .99.

“For One Quarter of Users, the iPad is a Game Machine”, which I again agree with. Not only is it capable of great visuals – it’s convenient, comparably inexpensive, and touching is a great way to interact with games “naturally” (like a Wii remote or the Xbox Kinetic). The article goes on to say “38% of iPad owners responding to the survey indicated that they had no desire to purchase a different mobile gaming device.” – and for some, I’m sure this is their only gaming device.

Gaming apps continue to take the top spots on mobile devices: “Gaming apps once again took the number one spot for and accounted for 41 percent of apps on the network in June” – this article also mentions iOS growing 36% to 56% of the total US smartphone mix.

Titles like “mobiles are the consoles of the future” are becoming more common, “by the end of this year, there will be 120 million iOS devices in circulation – only 20 million shy of the most popular console of all-time, the PS2, which has sold 140 million units.” – again, not everyone is playing games on their mobile devices, but with these numbers comes great potential!

Data from Resolve Market Research shows that after owning an iPad, you’re 38% more likely to NOT by a portable gaming device (like DS or PSP). Which makes iOS devices like iPad and iPhone prime targets for Nintendo and Sony (as if Sony isn’t already going after Apple).

I think the iOS devices have shown that they’re not just for Snake and Tetris. First person shooter games like Archetype, show how “console like” online mobile gaming can work. And Words with Friends, and other turn based games excel on mobile “go with you anywhere, always connected” devices.

When Google announced the Chrome App Store, a majority of the non-Google app were games. Even demoing “Lego Star Wars”, which is a pretty rich console game. While I don’t think it’s total clear yet, Google is moving to a web app strategy – and we’re already seeing HTML5 gaming engines – like Aves, show some promising demos. And games like Pie Guy have been out for awhile now, showing some basic HTML gaming on the iPhone.

What’s also interesting is Apple’s “here’s the platform, let’s see what people do” attitude – and people gamed, and now they’re releasing their “Game Center” hub that will better connect players to their games.

Personally I love gaming on the iPhone, and iPad – and just last week was excited about, and waiting for a game to come out – Star Wars: Battle for Hoth. But then happy finds, like Helsing’s Fire shows me innovation with touch based gameing is far from over!

A lot of these smaller, fun games also bring down the cost, from million dollar blockbusters to something that can be made in 72 hours, with a small team.

My 5yo also really enjoys games, and has recently been enjoying Monkey Island on the iPad, and Star Wars on the iPod. With a busy lifestyle – riding in the car, small chunks of time here and there, a mobile gaming device is perfect.

We have, and love the Xbox 360 (check my raptr account!), but our leisure time is being shifted from console, TV, movies, and more to mobile, and what we have on our devices.

So what does the future of gaming hold? Probably something in your hand.