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Design the invisible to tell better stories on the web

TechDept — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:30:00 +0000

For design to be meaningful we need to tell stories. We need to design the invisible, the cues, the messages and the extra detail hidden beneath the aesthetics. It’s all about the story.

From verbal exchanges around the campfire to books, the web and everything in between, storytelling allows us to share, organize and process information more efficiently. It helps us understand our surroundings and make emotional connections to people, places and experiences.

By Robert Mills for 24 Ways, 14 Dec 2011.

Designers behind facebook timeline: 5 keys to creating a UI with soul

TechDept — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 16:25:57 +0000

Nick Felton and Joey Flynn say that when creating a page to tell someone’s life story, you have to throw out the UI rulebook and study how people recount memories.

For most of computing history, interfaces have been about function. Word processing programs help you compose documents. Banking websites help you make transactions. Sites like Flickr help you display and share photographs.

But Facebook’s Timeline (the new version of the user profile which is slated to be released to the general public “in the next few weeks”) wanted to do something more: It wanted to convey a feeling. Two feelings actually: The feeling of telling someone your life story, and the feeling of memory–of remembering your own life.

By E.B.Boyd for Fast Co Design, 19 Dec 2011.

Gravity-defying goats

TechDept — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 09:32:20 +0000

Using moves that would make any rock climber jealous, Alpine ibex cling to a near-vertical rock face of a northern Italian dam in summer 2010.

This and other pictures of the goats have been circulating online recently, particularly in emails claiming the animals are bighorn sheep on Wyoming’sBuffalo Bill Dam, the rumor-quashing website Snopes reported in September.

In truth, Adriano Migliorati snapped the pictures at the 160-foot-tall (49-meter-tall) Cingino Dam (see map of the region), the Italian hiker told National Geographic News via email. The goats are attracted to the dam’s salt-crusted stones, according to the U.K.-based Caters news agency. Grazing animals don’t get enough of the mineral in their vegetarian diets.

By Christine Dell’Amore for National Geographic, 01 Nov 2011.

The 45 most powerful images of 2011

TechDept — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 09:12:19 +0000

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By Matt Stopera for Buzz Feed, 03 Dec 2011.

The sketchbook of susan kare, the artist who gave computing a human face

TechDept — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 09:00:01 +0000

Point, click.

The gestures and metaphors of icon-driven computing feel so natural and effortless to us now, it seems strange to recall navigating in the digital world any other way. Until Apple’s debut of the Macintosh in 1984, however, mostof our interactions with computers looked more like this:

How did we get from there to here?

By Steve Silberman for PLoS Blogs 22 Nov 2011.

Little big details

TechDept — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 09:00:37 +0000

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For those who have heard Dan talking about social objects for beginners (and those who haven’t)

TechDept — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:00:52 +0000

As y’all will know, I’m fond of talking about “Social Objects” and how they pertain to“Marketing 2.0″. Even so, some people still get confused by what a Social Object actually is. So I wrote the following to clarify some more:

The Social Object, in a nutshell, is the reason two people are talking to each other, as opposed to talking to somebody else. Human beings are social animals. We like to socialize. But if think about it, there needs to be a reason for it to happen in the first place. That reason, that “node” in the social network, is what we call the Social Object.

Example A. You and your friend, Joe like to go bowling every Tuesday. The bowling is the Social Object.

By Hugh MacLeod for gaping void, 31 Dec 2007.

Truly amazing: quantum levitation

TechDept — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 09:00:55 +0000

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By the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC)Videos posted on YouTube, 16 Oct 2011.

The invisible side of design

TechDept — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:00:48 +0000

As designers, we tend to get distracted by aesthetics of our designs, and often do not pay enough attention to the other, invisible side of our creations.

This talk discusses the value of functionality, storytelling and thorough editorial work in Web. It argues about the significance of purpose, context and quality in our decisions. It also provides personal insights and practical examples of invisible design being used in practice.

By Vitaly Friedman for Speaker Deck, 11 Oct 2011.

Steve Jobs wasn’t a god, but let’s give him his due

TechDept — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 09:00:55 +0000

“Humour is the politeness of despair”, an approximate, Google-ish translation of “l’humour est la politesse du désespoir”, a saying attributed to noted post-WW2 Left Bank jazzman, writer, and engineer, Boris Vian, So, let’s start with the reverent, despairing humour of Chris Calloway in Wired magazine’s memorial to Steve Jobs:

“Heaven got a major upgrade today…”

Yes, I can see the dear leader in his new abode. Having climbed his last mountain, he summons Saint Peter and utters the words that he has heard throughout his life: “You’re doing it all wrong.”

“Look at the name above the door, the typeface sucks, the kerning is off. The furniture is out of style – get something cleaner, fresher. And the stairs … We need something airier … I don’t know, glass? Come to think of it, one of the founding partners of the architecture firm that designed the Apple Store moved in here a few months ago. Bernard Cywinski; look him up get to work.”

By Jean-Louis Gassée for The Guardian, 10 Oct 2011.