Category: Links

Not safe for work, but pretty interesting: an interview with the guy / girl who set up a museum in SL exhibiting screenshots of avatar’s privates.

Joshua Porter points out that a lot of stuff that’s known under the name of web design is actually more like web development. Designing for the web should be about designing for end-users not (like development) about solving technical problems.

Colleague Peter contemplates on what happens when you add process attributes to patterns. This could potentially be a very powerful way of doing bottom-up planning.

A first look at the future internet of things. Questions the prevaling optimism around the new sociality between objects and humans. Good even handed criticism.

About the educational value of games: “[V]ideo games are [not] good teachers, but […] playing good video games is often good learning”. Also contains some interesting thoughts on games being at the fore front of IxD.

Dan Brown describes how he went about changing a company’s attitude towards content management and a new CMS. Short but sweet, nice and practical.

Almar van der Krogt asks in what ways we can allow users to change the space of a site, similar to sliding doors in Japanses houses.

Een kort verslag van de HKU fac. KMT eindexamenexpo. Ik kon er niet bij zijn, wat me spijt als ik deze interessante projecten zie. Volgend jaar beter. Via Iskander.

Overview of the Dutch Game Days’ conference. Some content is sloppily produced but it still looks promising, I might attend.

Glowing review of Dan Saffers book in interaction design. Regardless, the book comes accross as too broad and shallow for my tastes.

In depth and critical review of Saffer’s book on IxD. The reviewer has clearly read the book from cover to cover and gives some even handed criticism.

Impressive photoseries by urban explorers. Lots of deserted building and industrial chique goodness here. Via Bart.

Another co-created marketing experience. This time it’s Mini that seems to be getting it right. Via Peter.

Great example of co-creation at work in financial services. This post describes Garanti Bank’s Flexi Cards, which aren’t just visually customizable; the underlying services can be tweaked by the customer’s heart’s content too. Via Iskander.

Heathcote argues for the allowance of multiple accounts or devices per user in online services. Makes some good points on how people use these to say something about the context of their content or identity.

Damn handy tip from the other Dan Brown on how to create a box in Visio that adjusts its size to the contents. (Strange that it doesn’t offer you this function out of the box…)

Zooomr evangelist Thomas Hawk reviews Flickr’s geotagging functionality and comes out with two thumbs up. Nice overview.

An interview with urban fantasy author Tim Powers whose books inspired the excellent TV show Carnivàle. Haven’t read any of his books yet; but I really should judging by this piece.

A pretty cool manifesto (slightly dated but still on topic) on the transformation marketing will have to go through if it wants to remain relevant in an open source world.

An introductory piece on making the most of your personas. Good overview / checklist.

Sony introduces a device aimed at teens that allows voice, email and IM over WiFi. It reminds me a little of Nokia’s 770. Interesting to see where this niche is going…

Spool argues that not underlining hyperlinks in your design is cruel to users. I can’t help but agree (most of the times)…

Robert Reimann maps Donal Norman’s book Emotional Design on the work of Alan Cooper. Nice and practical look at creating solid personas.

I enjoy making sushi now and then. Uramaki are some of the trickiest to pull off. This friendly chef makes it look too easy!

Nintendo does not deem the new Zelda suitable for kids. This news item mostly points to the knowledge of earlier Zelda titles as a likely reason.

Coates can’t wait to get his hands on the new Mac OS X Leopard. Many of the new social features can be realized right now with a number of tools, but the point is of course ease of use through integration.

Stunning photos of libraries around the world taken from a must have book, safe for work and absolutely gorgeous (if you’re into books).

An excerpt from the upcoming book Communicating Design by the other Dan Brown. Accessible piece on how to set up a competitive analysis.

“Captain Obvious” Powazek gets worked up about the poor navigation design on the web today, and rightly so. For all those stubborn designers, here’s a good overview of what you should take into account.

Mann recommends you dial back the amount of labels you apply to your action lists. Good IA advice for personal productivity.

Slightly superficial piece on the direction Apple is apparently headed with the next version of OS X. Sure it’s social software, but they still seem to think in terms of walled gardens.

Peter Molyneux warns against the new Wii controller – physically controlled games are too tiring, he says. That may be the first thing Molyneux mentions I wholeheartedly disagree with. What’s more, physically controlled games such as Dance Dance Revolutio

“”The trouble with normal is it always gets worse” That’s what horsepigcow.com is all about for me. Making certain that normal doesn’t get worse.”

Merholz discusses Tufte’s new book, chapter by chapter. This post is on chapter 3 and leads Merholz to ponder the ways in which we can tell stories through diagrams and the need for unambiguous notation.

“are we as a culture starting to construct toys that are too effective and end up hurting people?” — Coates ponders the addictive nature of WoW.

Elaborate site dedicated to graffiti in the city I live in: Utrecht. Via Bart.

Emoticons for in your car’s rear window. Nice idea.

Pretty cool piece on how Gmail and Firefox have come to effectively replace Apple’s paid for .Mac service. With links to some handy tools.