design stories in everyday things
As a follow up of my previous post about shrink-wrapped dinner set and disposable items, here is a video of the toilet seat cover rotator in action. It rotates the disposable plastic sheet cover with a couple pushes to the handle. You can visit this company to read more about the components of this system. It might make your life easier and more sanitized, but how sustainable is it? What do you think about it?
Posted in Uncategorized
Stumble on this blog post from Engadget:
Locus OS concept video shows the future of computing… right now, which mentions about a UI concept video created by Barton Smith (Vimeo, Behance, Twitter). Although the visual is quite appealing, what interests me is the following ideas:
3D interactive desktop with physic engine is not a new concept. BumpTop is an application that is already available with a free version and a pro version for $29. However, it is still using the desktop/icon analogy, just making it more visually appealing.
image source: BumpTop. See video at the end of this post.
On top of the Locus OS, Barton Smith has an industrial design concept called Stream way back at 2008, which is a mobile device designed for such context based usage. Some of the visions in this design seem to be realized by Apple’s iPad.
Speaking of iPad, it is indeed an interesting device that is technically capable of creating this kind of location-awared, task oriented workflow experience. Unfortunately, Apple only ports the existing iPhone OS to it, which is still very application-based. Furthermore, the tens of thousands of apps available in App Store, which Apple considered the strength of iPhone/touch OS, can be seen exactly as a weakness too. The current SpringBoard app launcher only limits user to have 9 pages of apps in it. User must also remember the page number in order to correctly locate the app that he/she has manually placed, if not randomly dropped to an empty spot by the App Store. Yes, there’s a Spotlight search feature built-in to the OS, but user must remember the correct app name to be able to find it. Thanks to some creative app writers, some of the application names are just impossible to remember. (Shazam, Chomp, Echofon…these are not English!)
Also, Apple locks down the hardware so that no one can develop such a third-party OS. The only possible ways would be to either make it for jail-broken iPad, or an big app that sits on top of the native iPhone OS.
Further thoughts on the task oriented OS and file organization method:
PersonalBrain – a file/resources/knowledge organizer that uses non-linear, mind mapping technique. The same file can be linked from different parent node, as well as having multiple child nodes.
iPhone SpringBoard 2.0 Concept by AskTOG, Nielsen Norman Group – an improvement on iPhone SpringBoard app launcher that allows user to group apps based on context: home, work…etc. This is resonant with Locus OS’s multiple desktop profile.
Locus OS concept video:
BumpTop video tour:
Posted in Design, Experience, Usability
I find sketching on the iPhone not too fun nor precise. The Pogo stylus, which is currently being used in Apple store iPod-touch-based checkout device, allows you to write on the touch screen with the pen form factor. It’s shiny and elegant, but I would rather hack some existing materials that I already have, especially a pen with the right balance and grip size.
Inspired by a blog post in Makezine about DIY iPhone Stylus, I decided to make one with my Staedtler mechanical sketch pencil.
Few technical notes:
Materials:
Voila, iPhone Stylus it is:
I am really interested an further testing my DIY stylus on a Macbook and Inklet, an application that turns the Macbook trackpad into a drawing tablet. If the system works, it would be much easier for people to draw sketches without buying a separate Wacom tablet. One example is that, designers can meet with the client in a coffee shop and sketch their ideas on the laptop without any extra drawing tablet.
Posted in Experience, Usability
Spring is almost here in Vancouver. Looking out of my office window, I notice that there are already flower buds sprouting on the leafless tree branches. It’s slightly drizzling and cloudy out, but I don’t see much pedestrians walking with their umbrella in hand. The weather is relatively mild, or even considered really warm to those who’s been living in Vancouver for many years.
Human responses to the environment autonomously: if it is cold and raining harder and more windy, more people would carry an umbrella with them. Or walk in covered area. Or pick the shortest route to reach the destination. Living organisms pick the easiest path to reach their goal, that is understood as a law of survival.
Tree is also an amazing living organism too. Every aspect you see from a tree is related to survival: the radial distribution, optimal accenting angel, distance between each split, strength/flexibility of every part of the tree, how to grow around obstacles and shades, how to fight externally and internally against bugs, physical hazards, weather and other competing plants. There are millions of things happening in that one tree that no human designer can ever engineer them in perfect harmony.
I saw this notice one day when I took my afternoon break walking around my office building, near Marine Drive Residence, UBC. The notice is trying to beg people not cut corner and walk on the lawn, which eventually created a diagonal bald path on the rectangular green field.
I can’t help but wonder, how effective can this notice be? Despite of it’s small page size and unattractive layout, how can you convince people to change their natural behaviour with just a passive notice. So how about we take a different approach, and try to exploit human behaviour instead? Make it FUN.
Some great examples – Urinal Fly makes aiming fun:
Photo by PSD. Visit Urinal Fly: http://www.urinalfly.com
(2) Piano Stairs make walking the stairs fun:
Link: The Fun Theory: http://www.thefuntheory.com
Posted in Design, Experience