Starting in 2005 when returning from SXSWi a coworker and I would put together a trends presentation talking about up-and-coming technologies, patterns, websites, etc... and 2008 is no different. The presentations keep getting longer and longer, as innovation keeps building on the previous year, moving faster and faster. This year ...
As a Designer, I sometimes need to evaluate different technologies and platforms from a Designer's perspective. Why is it important to get a Designer's view? As Designers we can quickly be boxed in with inflexible UI layers, unusable sets of standard patterns, and the inability to create a great experience. ...
If you're an Interaction Designer, I'm sure you've noticed a new design pattern in the past year - one that doesn't really seem to have a proper name yet. In fact, you're probably already incorporating this pattern into your designs. It seems like almost every major redesign is leveraging ...
I'll be speaking to the Refresh Dallas group about the Mobile Web this Thursday (10/11) at IMC2. Over the past year I've been lucky enough to be involved with a couple different mobile projects, and in the process have learned a great deal about the mobile space. I've had to ...
Yesterday I got to hear John Maeda speak at Sabre as part of the Wundermind series of speakers. I've read John's book (The Laws of Simplicity), and really enjoyed it. He gave a great presentation - it's rare to hear someone who really gets both technology and design (and he's ...
When creating an online desktop experience, as Designers we want to choose the most interactive medium possible - then weigh that with the audience we're designing for and make a decision. XHTML/AJAX? Adobe AIR? MS Silverlight? With each of these options we can create a highly interactive experience, with real-time ...
Awhile back I posted my "Universe of User Experience", where I wanted to show all the pieces that needed to come together to create a great experience. This was very helpful in educating people on what User Experience was and why all the pieces were necessary. But this did not ...
SXSWi has come and gone again, this was my fourth time to attend and it just keeps getting bigger every year. When I first visited in 2003 (or was it 2002?) Bruce Sterling was still throwing SXSWi parties at his home and FROG Design hosted everyone in their office, ...
Recently a developer was going over the browser baselines for a project, they listed them as: IE 6.0, Mozilla 1.5, Netscape 8.0, Opera 9.02 and Safari 1.2. I saw this and thought WAH? Mozilla and Netscape? No IE 7? Safari 1.2? Opera? Let's take a look and see what should ...
Even if you're not a comic collector and could never pass for "comic book guy" on the Simpsons, that doesn't mean you don't read comics. How about how-tos in home improvement books? Instruction manuals for various electronics, or even the calm as a "hindu-cow" passengers showing you how to evacuate ...
I know we probably don't need another post describing the chasm between Marketing and Design, but here we go ;-) In recent years I've seen Marketing destroy good experiences for political reasons, timelines, advertising, and turf-wars. Of course these are the things that bother us Designers most. We want ...
Yes, I just happened upon a Wii the other day (and by "happened upon" I mean waited in line for 45mins at a Best Buy last Sunday). The verdict? Pretty cool. I've been a fan of gaming since my Dad's Atari - you know the kind that took the 5 ...
In web design there are a couple things that are for the most part consistent across sites to provide a more uniform experience. Things like most logos tend to be on the top left of a page (as well as link to the homepage) and the search goes somewhere ...
User Experience has been defined and visually demonstrated many times before, but I've never really seen the "nuts-and-bolts" of a User Experience project listed in a way that's easy to understand. I've come across many people who just don't know what goes into a UX project, and also don't ...
While Microsoft and Sony both iterate on proven designs for traditional video game systems, Nintendo (which has been loosing ground in recent years) decided to innovate. Some say it's a gamble, but Nintendo needed to do something - or it was going to be left behind by hard core ...
