Impressive list of trends for the new year, compiled by J Walter Thompson.
“Usability is not everything. If usability engineers designed a nightclub, it would be clean, quiet, brightly lit, with lots of places to sit down, plenty of bartenders, menus written in 18-point sans-serif, and easy-to-find bathrooms. But nobody would be there. They would all be down the street at Coyote Ugly pouring beer on each other.”
- Joel Spolsky
Awesome quote found on UX Myths (although not 100% accurate)
It seems like turntables are becoming more and more like a distant memory. Here are two examples of the amazing potential of multi-touch technologies for DJing.
This lovely website measures the buzz around current movies on Twitter. Each movie is rated based on the amount of tweets it has received. Brilliant.
Patently Apple reports that Apple has recently received approval on some new and exciting patents.
1. New multi-touch gestures
What’s interesting here is that these gestures distinguishes between neutral and spread-hand performances.
“With these neutral and spread distinctions, a two-handed gesture set can be packed into a one-handed touch surface, or for two-handed touch surfaces, twice as many intuitively customizable gesture command sets can be accommodated.”
2. Adjust tempo with Nike+
As a runner, this is functionality I can appreciate. This new Apple patent enables joggers to adjust playlists per tempo. So if you want an intense work out, you can easily use the toggle to set a higher tempo.
Lovely multi-touch doodling application by Bryan Roman.
From the people I know in the financial industry, the Bloomberg terminal is a big deal. Getting your own terminal earns you bragging rights. However, the system is expensive (around $1,500/month) and the user interface is seen to be overwhelming and tough to master. According to UX Magazine, what’s really interesting from a user experience perspective, is that Bloomberg is not looking to evolve the interface much, because the mastering of the interface is seen as a status symbol.
“Bloomberg isn’t looking to do a major overhaul of its terminals’ graphic design anytime soon. In fact, company executives see the Bloomberg terminal’s unique presentation as a status symbol and a selling point. ‘We have to be religiously consistent’ to satisfy users who become attached to terminal’s look and feel, says Bloomberg chief executive Lex Fenwick. ‘You can see a Bloomberg from a mile away.’”
Quote from Portfolio.com
This iPad application produced for Dutch car magazine Autoweek shows the mindboggling potential of iPad applications for magazines. The traditional banner advertisement has got some serious competition.
Developed by Sensory Minds, this is the world’s biggest multi-touch wall situated at Nürburgring, one of Germany’s most known race tracks.
More than 80 users can simultaneously interact with the 425 square meter (4,574 square feet) total surface.
Twitter / mcastenfors