Author Archives: gusepo
UX on smartphones and tablets by Martin Belam
UX designer Martin Belam gives some interesting thoughts about designing apps for smartphones and tablets on its blog. First of all designers needs to understand that mobile phones and tablets are used much more and in many different situations from … Continue reading
Neuroscience in web design
In 2010 I discovered the book Neuro Web Design: What makes them click? By behavioral psychologist Susan M. Weinschenk. I was intrigued by the idea of learning some psychology to provide better on-line experiences. I have to say the book … Continue reading
Posted in technical
Tagged Information architecture, interaction design, interface design, paper, UX, web design
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Picup App and file upload on IOS Safari
The other day I realized that Iphone and Ipad have the HTML <input type=”file”> disabled. It means you can’t upload any file from your IOS device to a webserver through a web site or a webapp. I guess that’s one … Continue reading
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Tagged interaction design, ios, ipad, iphone, mobile, tools, web design
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Wget could save your web-developer life
From Wikipedia GNU Wget is a computer program that retrieves content from web servers [...] It supports downloading via HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP protocols. Its features include recursive download, conversion of links for offline viewing of local HTML, support for … Continue reading
Posted in technical
Tagged internet traffic, ios, ipad, iphone, mobile, tools, web design, wordpress
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Crowdsourcing language translations with Duolingo
Luis von Ahn is an associate professor in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. He is the inventor of CAPTCHA and RECAPTCHA, CAPTCHA is a annoying method used on many websites to check if a form is filled by a … Continue reading
Posted in experimental
Tagged collaborative, crowdsourcing, interaction design, talk, tools, web design
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Social media in web design the good and bad
As a web designer I believe we are in the social media nightmare era. From big companies to small business everyone knows he has to be social. The result is they ask me to put as many as share, like … Continue reading
Cubiq
Matteo Spinelli is a freelance web developer with good communication skills. On his blog http://cubiq.org/ he explains his personal projects giving details about trial-and-error process and giving away useful snippets. Reading his posts on html5 games for iPad makes me … Continue reading
UI design for touch devices
Interaction designer Josh Clark explains on netmagazine.com some rules to take into account when designing for touchscreen mobile devices. Since interaction on touchscreen happens through direct on-screen manipulation the physicality of the device have to be taken into account. That … Continue reading
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Tagged interaction design, interface design, ios, ipad, iphone, mobile, web design
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Skeuomorphism love or hate
Reading a post celebrating the genius of Steve Jobs, I discovered the concept of skeuomorphism. Wikipedia defines it as a derivative object which retains ornamental design cues to a structure that was necessary in the original. Skeuomorphs may be deliberately … Continue reading
Posted in infoviz
Tagged GUI, infovis, interaction design, interface design, ios, ipad, iphone, mobile
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Microsoft get rid of interface metaphors
I found the editorial on April 2012 issue of Creative Review quite inspiring. Patrick Burgoyne argues that Microsoft is a step ahead of Apple for what concern interface design. I already apreciated the unconventional approach used by Microsoft mobile interface, … Continue reading
Posted in infoviz
Tagged infovis, interaction design, interface design, ios, iphone, microsoft, mobile, windows phone
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Dynamically change speed and timeout in Jquery Cycle
Jquery Cycle is a very good plug-in. It turned out usefull in a lot of different situations thanks to the many options and customizations, check the option reference page for the complete list. I’m using Cycle to have some sliding … Continue reading
“TapSense: Enhancing Finger Interaction on Touch Surfaces” Paper
Chris Harrison, Julia Schwarz and Scott E. Hudson from Human-Computer Interaction Institute and Heinz College Center for the Future of Work at Carnegie Mellon University presented an interesting paper about the use of different parts of a finger to perform … Continue reading
Posted in experimental
Tagged GUI, interaction design, interactive surfaces, interface design, ios, ipad, iphone, mobile, paper, tangibles
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The hype of responsive web design
One of the latest trends in web design is responsive templating. Responsive layouts use the finest techniques to arrange page elements according to screen size. In this way a web page should perfectly fits any screen resolution from a mobile … Continue reading
Posted in technical
Tagged GUI, Information architecture, interaction design, interface design, ios, ipad, iphone, mobile, web design, wordpress
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projection mapping
Yesterday I attended a Projection Mapping workshop held by Giuseppe Torre. Projection mapping is based on projecting images or videos on non-flat surfaces creating fake geometry or visual effects on top of real geometry. One the most relevant examples is … Continue reading
Posted in technical
Tagged augmented reality, interaction design, projection, video, webcam, workshop
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Deb Roy on TED – The birth of a word
MIT researcher Deb Roy gave an ispiring talk on TED about audio-video data analisys aimed at understanding language learning process. Roy registered 90.000 hours of video and audio in every room of his home for 2 years since his son … Continue reading
Posted in infoviz
Tagged advertising, context aware, infovis, interaction design, talk, webcam
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Journey to the End of Coal
Journey to the End of Coal is an interactive documentary made by 2 freelance journalists, Samuel Bollendorff and Abel Sègrètin. The documentary tells the story of chines coal miners and their sacrifice to satisfy their own country’s appetite for economic … Continue reading
GestaltLines
GestaltLines are a new type of data visualization presented by Ulrik Brandes and Nick Bobo from University of Konstanz at VisWeek 2011 conference. GestaltLines are inspired by Tufte’s sparklines, Gestalt theory and Multivariate glyphs, they can be used to display … Continue reading
Gamification
Gamification is the use of game elements and aesthetics in non-games context. The practice is gaining increasing success on Internet based services. Some of the most common examples of successfull gamification are Foursquare with its badges and Stack Overflow reputation … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged games, GUI, interaction design, interface design, web design
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information navigation on body
One of the strangest navigation I’ve found so far on a web site. The information scattered on human bodies is quite engaging and relevant to the message and the brand (the product is half way between a pair of socks … Continue reading
Posted in experimental, infoviz
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BLABLA a film for computer by Vincent Morisset
A well crafted interactive story made with flash and different traditional techniques. The story is about human communication, I like the minimal interface and I the way the artist balance discoverability with randomness in the interaction. blabla.nfb.ca
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How Browsers Work
Israeli developer Tali Garsiel analyzed the source code of the 2 main open source web browsers: Firefox and Chrome, in her article she explains in details how browsers different engines work, how web pages are rendered and how bad formed … Continue reading
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Context awarness in driving
Waiting for the time when cars will drive themselves, there are some interesting experimental apps around aimed at assisting drivers in various ways. One of them is Wikitude Drive, its Augmented reality view allows driver to check directions without losing … Continue reading
Posted in experimental
Tagged augmented reality, context aware, interface design, ios, iphone, mobile
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PHP Typography
Compared to printed world the web is typographically a lot poorer, PHP Typography is a tool aimed at helping web developers enrich paragraphs with hyphenation, spacing control and stylizing typographical symbols such as ampersand, quotes marks etc. There’s also a … Continue reading
Interface details in Google+
Chris Palmieri analyzed some Google+ details that make a difference from similar interfaces. There are some interesting considerations about the use of language. The name + is an unusual decision, it is quite good at explain you “take part at … Continue reading
Pringles banner
Quite unusual example of banner, it doesn’t have external links, it only invites you to go on clicking, thanks to a good copywriting work it succeed. http://www.bannerblog.com.au/2009/06/pringles.php
Feedback loops on Wired
On US Wired there is an interesting article about feedback loops, a psychological theory on which many interactive tools are based on. The idea is that if you have a realtime feedback about your action and the opportunity to change … Continue reading
Brendan Dawes
I discovered Brendan Dawes through his book Analog in Digiatl out I like the apparent simplicity of some of his projects, like Play doh as interface or the terrific Cinema Redux, I love the insight it gives into a movie. … Continue reading
Posted in experimental, infoviz
Tagged cinematic, infovis, interaction design, interface design, uk
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France 24 – The Birds
Nice spot for a international news channel, showing the power of Twitter in spreading revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. I love the (non) use of colors and the hitchcock movie mood. source: creativereview.co.uk
Tesco subway virtual store
That’s a smart campaign run by Tesco in South Corea, a way to promote on-line shopping simulating a virtual supermarket experience in the subway. via ninjamarketing
Posted in advertising
Tagged advertising, interaction design, interactive campaign, qr code
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Launchlist
Very simple yet effective web app aimed at checking that everything is ready to launch a web site http://lite.launchlist.net/
Immaterials, RFID and WiFi visualization
Thanks to long exposure photography and some LED it was possible to display two invisible phenomenon: The spatial quality of RFID WiFi signal strengh in Oslo Both projects were developed by Timo Arnall
Burger King Whopper Sacrifice
Even if 2 years old that’s the only interesting Facebook advertising campaign I’ve seen. In a time where everything have to be “shared with friends” or “liked” Burger King provocatively ask people to wipe out their friends to obtain a … Continue reading
Wordle
Wordle is a very nice piece of software written by an IBM researcher as a personal project. Worlde creates word-clouds from user provided text or URL, I used it several times I find the resulting image beautiful most of the … Continue reading
Aaron Koblin
Aaron Koblin defines himself as “an artist specializing in data and digital technologies“, he is the head behind many interaction design innovative projects such as The Johnny Cash Project The project asks Johnny Cash fans to paint a frame of … Continue reading
Regex tester
Regex are quite hard to understand, so a quick tester is almost necessary. Just type the rule and the text to be tested, if the rule is met your text becomes yellow. There’s also a handy quickreference. http://regexpal.com/
I Owe You project
IOU is a project aimed at engaging people in the production and distribution process of clothing. Every clothe has a unique identifier usefull to get information about the weaver that handwoven the fabric in India and the artisan that produced … Continue reading
Bill Buxton input and interactive devices collection
Bill Buxton is a researcher at Microsoft, on his personal page he gives the opportunity to browse his collection of input and interaction devices. Each piece has a note where Buxton explains why he find it interesting. The collection includes … Continue reading
Position fixed on mobile Safari
Due to usability reasons Apple disabled position fixed on IOS Safari, that’s a reasonable behavior when visualizing 1024px layouts on the small iphone screen since a fixed bar could take all of the screen space. However if you need to … Continue reading
“Days with my father” by Phillip Toledano
That’s one of the most emotionally immersive web site I’ve seen The photographer Phillip Toledano documents the days spent with his father after his mother died, the old man suffered of short memory loss. The layout is a photobook, I … Continue reading
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Conditional design manifesto
[...] We live in a dynamic, data-driven society that is continually sparking new forms of human interaction and social contexts. Instead of romanticizing the past, we want to adapt our way of working to coincide with these developments, and we … Continue reading
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Mochibot flash games analytics
Handy tool to get some stats about flash files, games or whatever. Just include mochibot library and add 1 line of actionscript. And the service is free. mochibot.com
Planetary by Bloom
Beautifull Ipad app to browse music using a planetarium metaphor, artists are stars, albums are planets, and tracks are moons. Planetary web site via infosthetics
Skittles low tech interactive video
Sometimes you can have a nice interactive experience without tons of lines of codes. Skittles Touch teh Rainbow
Sky catcher
Project by Luna Maurer, every 5 minutes a digital camera take a snapshot of Amsterdam sky. On the project website it is possible to browse the archive filtering the images by various parameters. sky-catcher.nl
Webcam based collaborative projects
Since the widespread diffusion of webcams embed in laptop and desktop computers there are many web-based projects asking people to take part with their own images. Persuade people in front of a computer to turn on the webcam and gift … Continue reading
Posted in experimental
Tagged augmented reality, collaborative, interaction design, interactive campaign, webcam
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“Working with the Chaos Monkey” on Coding Horror
Considerations about Netflix “disaster survival” philosophy:, to say redundancy. The idea is to offer reduced services (instead of no service) when you have server problems or a server is down. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/04/working-with-the-chaos-monkey.html
Code writing best practice
Top 15+ Best Practices for Writing Super Readable Code Some standards used in code writing to have a maintable code. thanks to tecnocrazia.com
“iPhone keeps record of everywhere you go” guardian.co.uk
Privacy fears raised as researchers reveal file on iPhone that stores location coordinates and timestamps of owner’s movements By Charles Arthur, on guardian.co.uk
Yahoo smush.it
Smush.it is a losless image compression service, do not expect to have a significant reduction in weight but in some situation reducing even few Kbs can help >http://www.smushit.com/
Try IOS apps in web browser
Pieceable viewer promices to transform your Iphone app in a web viewable swf object. I haven’t tryied it yet, but if it works.. good job! via thetechlabs