Minority Report science adviser and inventor John Underkoffler demos g-speak — the real-life version of the film’s eye-popping, tai chi-meets-cyberspace computer interface. Is this how tomorrow’s computers will be controlled?

G-Speak is a really interesting concept. Right now I do not feel it is where it should be to be adopted on a broader scale: You need a certain environment with at least 2-3 square meters of space in front of a quite large screen.

I wonder if Microsoft will offer a extension to its Project Natal sensor some day — so that voice commands, body language and hand gestures create an immersive UI.

I can imagine that one day displays will cover complete walls so that you get a pretty cave-like situation. It is maybe time for another Display seminar?

Related posts:

1. Project Natal – the first true innovation from Microsoft I have been thinking about Project Natal over the weekend....
2. Project Natal Obviously Microsoft feels the need to claim back some market...
3. Project Looking Glass fallacy Sun released a public version of their 3D desktop Project...

The prototype was shown last year — but there was a live demo at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelone last week. Obviously the company that also created the polarrose.com service wants to turn this in to a real application.

The implications of this is shown in the video: when looked through the “eyes of the app” people virtually carry logos, brands, name tags and messages around.

Related posts:

1. Nokia Lifeblog Nokia Lifeblog is a PC and mobile phone software combination...
2. Mobile photo blogging I recently switched to a new mobile phone with SymbianOS....
3. Project Looking Glass fallacy Sun released a public version of their 3D desktop Project...

The video demonstrates the potential advantages of navigating within a desktop interface with up to ten fingers, rather than via a single cursor:

[More on fastcompany.com]

Related posts:

1. Project Looking Glass fallacy Sun released a public version of their 3D desktop Project...
2. Multi-touch screens Tobias Jordans pointed to a new astonishing video of a...
3. 3D desktop? Not again! Ingo Hinterding pointed to the SphereXP project and Sun’s Project...

Related posts:

1. Mighty Mouse not so mighty Tim Bruysten forgot his »Apple Mighty Mouse« after his presentation...
2. The Longhorn crisis Well, I am personally tired of debating why to choose...
3. Design for discovery One of the most interesting topics for information architecture is...

NearestWiki for example displays WikiPedia entries about buildings and places in the vicinity.

NearestWiki is not the first augmented reality app for the iPhone, but it is the first that is not tied to a specific region or city (like Metro Paris)

Next versions of the iPhone may feature more precise sensors and a lower latency – giving a much better feeling (e.g. labels not jumping around in the scenery).

Related posts:

1. Reality & Real time I can receive MSNCB Europe and CNN Europe on my...
2. The iPhone principle Yesterday Apple introduced the new iPhone. It features a very...
3. Competing with the iPhone Ingo Hinterding wants to have a Plam Pre. The multi-touch,...

Introduction to HTML 5 from Brad Neuberg on Vimeo.

Related posts:

1. Introduction to Apple Software Design Guidelines Apple posts some notes on developing software for Macs. Brent...
2. 10/GUI & con10uum 10/GUI (by Clayton Miller) is an novel approach to human-computer...
3. Copenhagen UI concept Via blogblog: Here is a user experience concept study that...

(see a demo on their site)

Google Wave is an integrated set of technologies (with protocols that allow semi-synchronous editing of outlines and their federation across several servers). With this approach Google Wave solves some difficult technical and infrastructural problems.

But it also generates some new problems that need to be solved to make Google Wave a success — otherwise I think users will not adopt the system (which in case of Google will set the seal on this project I suppose!).

1. Misty horizon

Google Wave is a frameworked solution for things people did not ask for and communication processes that no one is practicing yet (but no one has really “asked” for the mouse as input device either!). It is hard to see where Google Wave is going to be. This breeds creation, but it also challenges the non-developer. There will be best practices, but it will take a lot of time to identify use cases that people can learn “to wave” with.

So Google Wave challenges the imagination – and few people will be able to answer the “What is it all about?” question easily. The horizon is schrouded in mist.

Possible approach: A potential solution to this is to start with guided tours (a LOT of them) showing very common and powerful use cases for different scenarios. This is probably going to happen when Wave gets closer to the public beta.

2. Asynchronous patterns

We have learned to communicate in a turn taking fashion. It is polite to let someone speak until he has finished before starting to respond. It is not polite for everyone to speak up at any time. Waves allow people to reply or edit without obeying to the turn taking pattern. This can cause “stress” and also a lot of misunderstanding. People could reply to a text, that is going to change without them noticing that. Their reply suddenly become nonsense – the playback feature could become the only way to percieve a conversation properly. But playback is new – people have learned that the threaded view is a chronology – but in Google Wave it is not (or not necessarily).

Even with the playback feature, people need to become aware of the asychronicity in Google Wave – and learn how to recap conversations correctly.

Possible approach: Find a very good way to understand the chronology of a wave (e.g. making the playback as fundamental for navigation of a wave like scrolling)

3. Information (over)flow

While Google Wave may integrate many messaging systems – it also generates a lot of density. Means of communication that were apart from each other – using different URLs and applications for each – are now combined. The crucial part of that is to understand which option is suited for what purpose.

With Waves being set to “updated” by displaying them in bold typeface and sorting it to become a top item in the inbox, this also means that things are brought to my attention that should remain buried for a good reason. Google Wave users would have to learn how to manageund understand the “Inbox” and the “Active” areas properly, to be able to get the most out of it.

Possible approach: Allow users very powerful and fine grained control over the way they are informed about updates.

4. Scattered spaces and framgmented scopes

One of the things that really can make things too complex to be comprehended properly is that people can read & write to waves – but replies can extend or narrow the scope (e.g. who may read and reply to a new item. Who is reading? Who am I replying to? Is this part really private or not? Am I releasing a secret to the public accidentally?)

With a view from a different angle: What I can see within a wave may be different to what someone else is seeing. To make my communication appropriate to the situation I need to be able to “read” from a different standpoint. It is required to understand when communication could fail on the recieving end.

Whenever I want to understand the perspective of someone else – in need to be able to represent his/her view in my mind. The change of scope for parts of a wave within that wave can make this difficult.

Possible approach: Make any changes of the scope (e.g. recipient list) within a wave very visible and allow users to navigate them.

Related posts:

1. Google Talk A lot of rumors about Googles new instant messaging application...
2. Google Maps Google Maps really seems to take off after offering their...
3. Google Maps via Flash Paul Neave shows how to integrate Google Maps with Flash....

You need to download a nightly build of the browser to see it working.

There are quite a number of applications for this I can think of. I wonder if this approach will be adopted by the W3C for a new CSS standard.

Related posts:

1. freshmeat.net adds Mac OS X section This is very good! Versiontracker and MacUpdate were the sources...
2. Updgrade to Tiger I upgraded my PowerBook to the latest Tiger release. In...
3. contentEditable in Safari 2.0 Dave Hyatt – the core developer for Apples WebCore that...

Project Natal may be the first true innovation with an Microsoft stamp on it. Fifteen years ago I have seen programmers trying to recognize 2D movements of arms and legs from a video – with results that were respectable – but never a game changer. Too much CPU power was required back then to be relevant in the consumer market.

To include the 3rd dimension in the motion detection is such a game changer. Combined with voice and face recoginition, this takes away the controller out of the control: your full persona is represented in the system – not just your fingertip. This is radical – and it has been a dream for many many years.

Just look at this example from game designer Peter Molyneux from Lionhead:

The device is so complex that a developer will have to have access to an SDK that allows simplified communication with the sensory system of Natal. Frameworks could provide automatic recognition of gestures to programmers – even in combination (so I you wave your arm, that would call another function than waving your arm and saying “Bye!”).

The level of precision could increase with future revisions. It could be combined with classical controllers. Maybe one day even finger positions, fluctuations/timbre of the voice, body temperature or point of view will be detected as well. Simple “lite” versions specialized on facial parameters could replace webcams in laptops.

So I do not look at Natal as a game controller – I see it as a complete new interface generation coming up.

Hats off to Microsoft!

Related posts:

1. Project Natal Obviously Microsoft feels the need to claim back some market...
2. Project Looking Glass fallacy Sun released a public version of their 3D desktop Project...
3. Former Microsoft employee switched Here is a little story of a former Microsoft employee...

The video is more a vision than an actual feature presentation. But it is clear what the goals are.

Here is another Video from the demonstration that shows what is possible right now:

Related posts:

1. Project Natal – the first true innovation from Microsoft I have been thinking about Project Natal over the weekend....
2. Project Looking Glass fallacy Sun released a public version of their 3D desktop Project...
3. Publishing a project weblog John Udell: »A couple of years ago I predicted that...

Looks good. Would love to see more. I hope Microsoft comes up with some UI innovations in Windows 7 that really serve the user.

Related posts:

1. The concept of presence This is an interesting article about presence. A number of...
2. Copenhagen Consensus This week there is a conference in Copenhagen where scientists...
3. Former Microsoft employee switched Here is a little story of a former Microsoft employee...

• Better and more intuitive devices interaction
• Everyday devices connected to the Internet
• Multi-touch, without touching the screen
• Interactive and intuitive user interfaces for better browsing
• Gesture based interfaces
• Interfaces aware of context
• New materials that will influence UI

While I agree with the list in general there is something I do not like about it: this list is purely determined by technological advances.

We will see changes in almost all areas of society: how we shop, how we love, how we go about politics, what we regard as value, etc.

So I add some other (very speculative and spontaneous) ideas that are not so much based of the hardware innovation:

• Laws that require users have ideal control over privacy issues (hopefully!)
• Programmable operating systems on any device with good scurity
• Redundant storage on different locations that “logically cloud together” in a personal and searchable environment
• Working culture that permits more work “on the road” as before (specifically regarding the social aspects involved in this)
• Affordable plans for wireless connectivy and low-priced roaming
• Architectural advances that integrate media and new display/projection technologies into the interior environments

Related posts:

1. The future of computing I am currently busy to finish a presentation about the...
2. The future of broadcasting Doug Kaye (host and producer of IT Conversations) suggests that...
3. When user interfaces fail Some people like to do “designer bashing” from time to...

Here is a demonstration of the most important features by someone that thinks the Palm Pre can compete with the iPhone:

I have written about companies that tried to kill the iPod. And I rightfully predicted that they are not going to make it. I think the Palm Pre will fail for similar reasons.

The Palm Pre may be competitive from a UI perspective (although I personally do not like the shape of the device). But there is more to it than having a device and a UI:

Like with the iPod Apple does not just provide a slick device but rather a complete ecosystem. The iTunes Application Store seems to become a success and it is as easy as can be to get certified (secure) applications installed on the device. The OS on the iPhone is MacOS X, so it is quite simple for existing MacOS X developers to jump onto the iPhone and develop applications with their know-how. Steve Jobs learned from his biggest mistake at NeXT: while NeXTSTEP was a superior system there were not enough applications available and developers were not interested because the NeXT market was tiny and they needed to learn a complete new system.

Palm would have to compete with that as well. I suspect the missing developer base will inhibit the wider adoption of Palm Pre in the market. The Palm ecosystem needs to be complete and all players in that ecosystem need to have provisions and ready made options to enter that domain at a low cost. Palm could make the Pre a success by offering it at a very aggressive price: there are enough people that would like to have an iPhone of they could afford one.

But Palm needs to do more than copying: They need to innovate. I do not see an innovative marketing story that really beats the Apple offering, yet.

Update 1: Apple executives hinted Wednesday that the company might legally contest the multitouch technology found within the Palm Pre. (Source: PC Magazine)

Update 2: Engadget reports over potential patent war between Apple and Palm.

Related posts:

1. The iPhone principle Yesterday Apple introduced the new iPhone. It features a very...
2. iPhone SDK – a complete solution? Apple has released the iPhone SDK. The 2.1 gigabyte download...
3. iPod killers? I don’t think so… Here is a very detailed article about concurrent products for...

The reason is that the author uses rather weak definitions of the core terms. The article proposes three components: 1. Aesthetic Design, 2. Interface Design and 3. Information Design. These terms are not very specific in their application to web design – and yet the article uses rather narrow definitions.

But a better terminology for the core question the article is raising would be

1. Visual Appearance
2. Interaction Design
3. Information Architecture

With these terms a reader would find much more useful information.

Content, structure and form

Any design problem can be spearated into questions of content, structure and form. This is most simple approach is to reflect them (even web design). A given design task touches three domains:

• Making sense with given CONTENT
• Creating appropriate STRUCTURE
• Finding the optimal FORM

And this is how these three domains relate to the terms I proposed above:

1. Visual Appearance
   asks »How does FORM interact with CONTENT?«
2. Interaction Design
   asks »How does STRUCTURE interact with FORM?«
3. Information Architecture
   asks »How does CONTENT interact with STRUCTURE?«

PS: While I have concerns about that particular article I think the PSDTUT website offers a lot of very good tutorials. The site even offers a $9/month plus membership with additional material for people with professional ambitions. I think that is a very fair deal!

Related posts:

1. Design for discovery One of the most interesting topics for information architecture is...
2. Fast Company: Is Information Visualization the Next Frontier for Design? This article asks wether or not Information Visualization is a...
3. Domains of Design This document defines the three terms information design, interface design...

Very interesting!

Related posts:

1. Open Source software lacks good interface design Michelle Levesque contemplates about the role of Interface Design in...
2. 2D interface for spacial design One of the most challenging issues for software user interface...
3. Future of Interfaces DesignReviver (via @blogblog) has compiled a categorial list of aspects...

One of the distinct experts in the field of Information Architecture is Peter Morville. He gave an interesting one-hour talk at Google about »Ambient Findability and the Future of Search«:

He talks a lot about the problem of search in general (he is speaking at a search engine company). How to enable better search and findability is a question of a) metadata and b) representation.

It is the representation aspect of searching and finding, that is still a huge area for design innovations. While improving the Google search result page may be too difficult, there are a lot of very specific problems where searching and navigating an information domain gets a very interesting and particular design issue.

A designer needs a good understanding of the fact that users have different approaches of locating things depending on

• the nature of the information,
• the structure and relations,
• the quantity of data,
• their habit of solving things systematically and
• the prior knowledge about the domain.

Related posts:

1. 3 components of good web design Actually the site PSDTUTS has great tutorials for Web Designers....
2. Desire (Design and Democracy) I think the current Privacy/We-blog seminar (see blog) is turning...
3. Design podcasts As there are more and more programs offering podcasts I...

If you don’t believe me this video will hopefully bring this discussion to an end:

And don’t miss this Second Life parody:

Related posts:

1. Constructivism, Education, Science, and Technology Moses A. Boudourides: “The purpose of this paper is to...
2. Multi-touch screens Tobias Jordans pointed to a new astonishing video of a...
3. When user interfaces fail Some people like to do “designer bashing” from time to...

»Design is starting to change who succeeds and who fails. A few years ago that wasn’t true. If I had a better algorithm, I would win!«

I had a conversation about this yesterday. Users are fed up with lousy interfaces. Whenever I do a research into a UI field – mobile phones, websites, software applications – I run into these strange situations, that the user is left alone with an error message and litterally no practical advice what to do. It really baffles me, that obvious pitfalls are left open until release of the software or product and kept unadressed for month if not years. So if Design comes a market driver, that is a very good sign!

Example: If you are a Macintosh Users (and some are indeed) and you go to hi5.com – a music/video community website with 50 million users (!) and you want to upload a video file (one of the core features), you will be presented with a form where you can enter title, tags and category for your video. Fine.

But after clicking you will see this error screen (above) telling you that someone named VideoEgg (What by the way do they have to do with it?) does not support the browser you are using and that you need to go to videoegg.com to check a list of supported browsers.

While I wondered that I was not presented with that list (or at least a link to that list) directly (Again when were Hyperlinks introduced to the World Wide Web??), I almost got angry after unsuccsessfully trying to find such a list anywhere on the proposed site. Remember: Hi5.com claims to serve 50 million users!

I took me half an hour to try all browsers available on my system – costing me time and quite some nerves AND money. And the effect of this really obvious and simple UI problem: I won’t give hi5.com a second shot on me or recommend that site.

What does that mean? Maybe the “web 2.0″ market is one where idiots happyily buy stuff from slightly smarter idiots?

Related posts:

1. Impact of design on stock market performance GUUUI.com has news on the economic value of design that...
2. Designing success and small companies Maish R Nichani on elearningpost.com: Yet another article on the...
3. Blogging the Market “The most complete exploration of blogs in corporate environments I’ve...

The video makes evident, that the interaction feels continuous and natural. And since Apple has shown with the iPhone that multi-touch can improve small interfaces as well, I think this technology could replace the mouse one day.

There as an article at Fastcompany.com stating that Jefferson Han was already approached by media companies and intelligence agencies to partner.

Update: There is also a short presentation in February 2006 by Jeff Han on The TED 2006 conference.

Related posts:

1. New Webmondays ahead! (Webmontag) There are new webmondays ahead in different cities in Germany...
2. Facetop video conferencing Now that’s a nifty idea for video conferencing: The video...
3. Information Visualization Companies Marian Steinbach has collected companies specialized on information visualization: This...

The business numbers were impressive. Apple sales and market share is growing. That is a change. Apple always had a small market share. The machines were said to be unstable, expensive and slow. Gimmicks for design geeks and fashion victims. I think this image changes. The hardware is top notch, capable of runing Windows if needed and comes with a very robust operating system and pre-installed software. The other applications of Apple are offered at fair prices. The new machines are priced very aggressiveley. Apple is now offering the best price/performance ratio for those that want to run Windows (see this blog post). The Mac Pro is a bargain.

The only thing I found pretty low during the Keynote was the Vista bashing. I takes more to compete with the market leader than picking few screenshots and claim Microsoft is ripping off MacOS X. This kind of “comparative marketing” is lousy.

But in any case people have to admit that Apple does in fact innovate. If Time Machine is as easy to use as it seems, this really a breakthrough to fight loss of data on your drives.

The new feature I personally like most is iChat 4. It now allows lecturers to give live presentations to remote audiences with Keynote. Lecturers could be invited to give presentations without the need to travel to remote places. This is very attractive for higher education.

How wonderful it would be if a presenter could stream this video to a QuickTime Streaming Server for viewing by a large audience?

Related posts:

1. OS X Tiger preview I just had a look at the WWDC 2004 keynote...
2. UI Browser Preview and MacOS X GUI Scripting “Enter GUI scripting. The release of OS X 10.2 brought...
3. I work, you work, we all work, with iWork I am doing almost all of my presentations with Keynote...