Category: Links

A presentation by Cabel Sasser at C4[1]. He’s the chief designer at Panic, probably the best-known independent Mac software developer. Amusing presentation (he freaks out about a button being a few pixels off in a screenshot of one of his first apps, for instance) and a rare sneak peek into their design process, which seems to happens almost exclusively in Photoshop… (Via Ianus.)

“Fritzing is essentially an Electronic Design Automation software with a low entry barrier, suited for the needs of designers and artists. It uses the metaphor of the breadboard, so that it is easy to transfer your hardware sketch to the software.” Clever, another piece of the puzzle found.

“it’s my feeling that experiences can’t really be designed. You can only provide the resources for people to have an experience; then it’s the people (users) themselves who create the experience” Right on.

Well, well, an actual review of Spore. I wondered if I’d ever see the day. It sounds like worth picking up: “while there is a lot to do, you’re prepared for it, thanks to what’s arguably Spore’s greatest trick: the hours you’ve spent up to now were an elaborate combination of character-creator and tutorial masquerading as a game”.

Some interesting bits on the gaming of social software. Whenever I read discussions like this, I am reminded of children accusing each other: “You’re playing the game wrong!”

“WirePod is a grey power pod that begins with a wall plug and branches out into four curled arms, each ending in a three-prong socket. The pod rolls and unfurls as needed to accommodate different functional requirements.” Being a person who’s annoyed by all the wires lying around his house (I suspect I am not alone) this is a nover approach. It’s a bit telling that all product shots I’ve seen so far have noting plugged into the device itself though. That would make for an aesthetically less pleasing image, right?

A fascinating indie MMOG, with a focus on social colaborative play, and procedurally generated environments and characters. Via Bart.

“superDraw is a platform for visual expression using drawing. At the most basic level it is a simple line drawing program. The aim is to give the artist super powers by enabling them to do things impossible with pen and paper while retaining the basic idea of a drawing interface. superDraw explores the idea of storing animation within a single line. The artist has complete control of all aspects of the line and it’s visual representation.” The web version alone is lots of fun to play with.

Getting Scott McCloud to make a comic that explains your product? Smart move. (Although parts of this were, quite frankly, a little boring.) For me, the most notable bit was that they’ve put Quicksilver into the address bar. That’s cool.

Looks like I’ll be able to have an Availabot on my desk soon. Yay!

Another Stamen visualisation has gone live and as usual, it rocks. Some interesting changes from previous work, though: “We’ve historically shied away from doing work that’s overly predictive and analytical, preferring to focus on the lyrical and metaphorical aspects of visualization. This is the first time you can make a decision based on something we’ve built, and I’m glad we seem to have crossed that barrier without fretting too much about it.” I am particularly interested in the thinking that went into the predictive part — future data does not look that different from past data. Deliberately so?

“Kokoromi challenges you to create a game that uses red/blue stereoscopy in an innovative, experimental, and/or integral manner. Why red/blue? It’s free, it’s simple, it’s fantastically retro, it puts the focus on your gameplay rather than complicated technology, and a room full of people wearing 3D glasses is just so damn awesome.” I might just have to join in with this. (Via Hessel).

A wonderful project by Julian Bleecker, a machine to make dérives, more or less: “The Drift Deck (Analog Edition) is an algorithmic puzzle game used to navigate city streets. A deck of cards is used as instructions that guide you as you drift about the city. Each card contains an object or situation, followed by a simple action. […] The action is meant to be performed when the object is seen, or when you come across the described situation. […] The cards also contain writerly extras, quotes and inspired words meant to supplement your wandering about the city.”

Now this guy can draw. His sense of humor isn’t half bad either. Make sure you check out his “200 Bad Comics”.

The WarioWare Touched! team generated around 300 game ideas, each of which was described on one Post-It note… “The way the games were created was that each person had to come up with their own games. So what we did was we wrote down the game ideas we had on Post-It Notes – you know, those notes with the sticky adhesive on the back of them – and we attached them to the director’s table. Then we went through all of them to decide which games were good and which ones weren’t.”

This had me laughing out loud. Somehow the YouTube compression adds to the impact. Via Tom.

PICNIC is starting to look more and more appealing with things like this service design lab by 31Volts et al.

“Approach this by starting underneath the surface.” I love how Mike compares all the little bits and pieces on early Star Wars SFX with texture – evidence of activity – in social software. Both are required for credibility.

“So, where *did* the wireframe go? I think the role of the architecture diagram, user flow, and wireframe belongs very much after the fact, after we’ve sketched and prototyped an experience. Those are tools to document what has been agreed through sketching and prototyping. They are not the best means for solving challenging design problems.”

AP should have done the whole Aurora concept video like this: Sketches on a whiteboard. Would have left much more up to the imagination.

Graduation project of a graphic design student wherein Processing is used to map the negative effects of drug use in an Amsterdam neighborhood. Some good-looking and interesting visuals here. (In Dutch.)

Mr. Saffer’s new venture, apparently. Heard this through the grapevine.

Alexander upstages me by visualizing a multi-touch interaction using a cool motion graphic in stead of those boring sketches I do. Some interesting considerations here as well. Now to figure out my next move…