We’ve officially submitted a bunch of talk proposals to the IXDA conference taking place February 4 - 7 in Savannah, Georgia. Stay tuned to the IXDA site to learn what talks are selected.
Visit the talk abstracts below and let us know what you think.
Until recently, the parts required to build NUI devices were expensive, but higher volumes and technology advancements have enabled lower production costs and retail availability/selection of touch-based devices is no longer a barrier to consumer adoption. Does that mean it’s just a matter of time before NUIs become mainstream? According Sabrina Boler at Artefact, the answer is YES.
With Sabrina’s experience as the Design Manager for Microsoft Surface, where — as one of the original team members — she built a team that brought to life the potential of Surface’s capabilities, she can discuss Microsoft Surface as a key example of a NUI. Microsoft Surfaces uses a unique NUI which includes touch screen, multi-touch gesture and object recognition capabilities — but where is it headed next? [Link]
Demand for interaction designers is growing — even during the recession. Additionally, technology is evolving at a phenomenal pace from touch screens to cloud computing to sensors. And all types of companies and industries — from software to mobile to retail to entertainment — are looking for ways to enhance the user experience of their products and services. This demand for interaction designers, evolution of technology, and changes to the market are outpacing the educator’s ability to stay relevant to students. Design educators who are focused on teaching static graphics and pure three dimensional form are becoming less relevant to technology companies. Educators who focus on experiences over form will remain relevant. [Link]
Hollywood continues to fantasize and provoke us UX designers to imagine more dimensional user experiences. Perhaps for the first time however we are witnessing a bit of a critical mass for real working 3D UI’s. There are a number of factors influencing this trend from the change of perception of console gaming as a popular consumer activity vs. niche hardcore activity.
Rob will demonstrate that there is something viscerally compelling about 3-D movement and 3-D visual style, which he believes is commercially undeniably successful. When designers take the time to understand and master the new visual levers at their disposal (depth, lighting, animation, cameras, physics and materials) really exciting and delightful experiences can be created that give user experience designers new ways to engage and delight users as they interact with digital products of all kinds. In addition he’ll argue that various technologies are going to bring 3D UX to the mainstream in the very near future so we’d better start some kind of discourse about them. [Link]
Jennifer Darmour, would like to offer a sneak peak at what the future holds for retail user experiences, particularly as retailers attempt to bridge the gap between online and in-store purchases. Artefact believes that in-store and online shopping experiences will become much more integrated — especially for shopping experiences that involve a great deal of research.
In addition, Jennifer will speak about how many companies, particularly retailers, are looking for ways to create relevant/personalized feeds for their target customers that go beyond Facebook and Twitter. Jennifer can speak about what companies need to consider when developing personalized feeds for its target audiences, why they have become a point of interest particularly for retailers and what makes feeds one of the most relevant and effective ways to reach target audiences. [Link]
Dave will share multiple audience activities and demonstrations of perceptual abilities and limitations paired with their related rules of thumb. He will address the use of dimension, color, motion, symbols, and contrast for design, e.g.:
How detailed images of our retinas show us the best uses of color and contrast
How we direct our gaze and attention and what it means for interface layouts
Our “sliding window” of temporal processing and implications for motion design
What optical illusions teach us about 3D and eye movement
How low-level processing of certain visual attributes make them “pop”
How we process depth and which are the strongest cues
Why your volume and brightness adjustments use a non-linear scale
We need to challenge our assumptions about emerging economies. We must take a harder look at the unique cultural characteristics. We need to learn from the good design examples already being used.
From this talk, you’ll walk away with surprising examples of good design and an understanding of why these products succeeded in emerging markets. Learn about techniques for uncovering insights that will foster new design ideas and innovation. And lastly, become familiar with exciting technology innovations that demonstrate hot opportunity areas…..from mobile banking to matchmaking. [Link]
Technology is rapidly changing the way we interact with our world. It is becoming woven into the products and environments all around us — cars, devices, clothing, accessories — even in the surfaces of homes and public spaces.
Speaking to Artefact’s experience and collaborations, Olen will present examples of these future interactions as well as opportunities for UX design methods — active research, experiential prototyping and multi-sensory design — to define these experiences. [Link]
Martijn will delve into what these conversation trends mean for the mobile phone industry and the interaction design community, as well as how the phone can become the integrated center and unifying element for communication and collaboration, creating a much more positive user experience.
Martijn will also share future concepts and demos illustrating how interaction designers can help combine all types of conversations on the mobile phone in a user friendly manner. Lastly, Martijn will show how the phone, specifically the “address book” can become the integrated center and unifying element for communication. [Link]
How are Industrial Design and Interaction Design different? Is it true that Industrial Designers drink more during work hours? Are Interaction Designers better looking?
Tomorrow night: Artefact will be presenting with Carbon alongside frog design, Microsoft Hardware, Fluke, and Hornall at frog design in Seattle. If you’re a fan of game shows, in flight entertainment, or Christopher Konrad, then you will love this event.
Learn more about the “soft” and “hard” sides of product design. See work that was designed by Artefact and Carbon working together.
Event Details When: Wednesday, July 22nd. Doors open at 6:30, presentation starts at 7:00. Where: frog design at 5th and Pine in Seattle - 413 Pine Street, Seattle, WA 98101 [map link] Fee: Free!
Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter for the play by play @artefactgroup
This last Thursday (October 23, 2008) a bunch of interaction and game designers made the trek across 520 or across campus to the IxDA’s local monthly meeting hosted by Office Labs.
The theme this month was “Lessons from Game Design” with three speakers who have worked or participated in the game design industry to present on their experience and insights. Microsoft was kind enough to host the event in their building 33 Conference Center and also provide hungry designers with free dinner, er, i mean hors d’oeuvres.
But enough about food, let’s get on to some good gaming… can you figure out how to rescue the princess?
Daniel Cook first spoke on “Prototyping and Sketching” by describing how to apply game design methodology to software interaction design. He did so by attempting to rebuild the common “Rescue the Princess” game scenario as a general software or productivity application.
This little gem (figuratively and literally) above is the “Web 2.0” newly improved version of “Rescue Princess Enterprise 2008.” (Although that one button design may descrease the time needed for users to complete the task, it’s probably still not as fast as these guys). Through these and many other examples he described how the secret ingredient to game design is “Exploratory Learning.”
Exploratory Learning provides that:
You are given a goal
You aren’t told how to reach it
You can fail
You can succeed
Delight comes when you figure it out on your own
and most importantly:
The designer has to believe the user is smart
In game design where the user is constantly rewarded in the game and pulled through a narrative story (usually with a healthy dose of jaw-dropping visuals) this makes sense and works. It reminded me of a typical “Usability Study” where a piece of software is tested to see how well the user can use it on the first try. Typically, success (or failure) rates are measured in how long or how many tries it takes the user to figure it out, with 0 being the ideal. But in game design, failing is part of the experience and provides greater reward when the user figures it out on their own.
Purposeful failing is typically something that is avoided at all cost in software applications, where the user’s goal is to accomplish a task quickly rather than blow off some steam shooting space aliens. Dan proposes that both can be possible - that the use can accomplish tasks while having fun at the same time. It’s something to think about.
All of this reminded me of a TED Talks video (part 3, timecode 16:40) I watched recently about a educationally-challenged student who became self-taught in computer programming because it was “fun” and “rewarding” as opposed to learning to read which didn’t seem to have any value to him.
Next up, Mark Long, founder and co-CEO of Zombie Studios, spoke on the role of “Narrative in Game Design”, and how it then may apply to software interaction design.
In particular, Mark descrbied how games like Grand Theft Auto IV have built on the narrative rise and fall in classic story telling, tying the user’s interactions directly into that story. But he also wanted to show that game design is, can, and should develop beyond the current “grammar set” that has been established and used since the early days of film (reaching its full vocabulary with Citizen Kane) by debunking 2 faults of typical games:
using rewards as a way of dragging the user through a mediocre story
fixating on telling a story from a single character “hero’s” perspetive
He proposed that games, or some iteration thereof, will become the defacto entertainment of the future and, like the Nintendo Wii, will incorporate more advanced methods of interation.
At the end of the evening, George Amaya, User researcher at Microsoft Game Studios, spoke on his work conducting usability studies on local multiplayer (social) games like SingStar, and others while developing the Xbox 360 game “Lips.”
Among the interesting findings, they discovered that karaoke and karaoke games is very different between Japan, the US, and Europe (Germany in particular). Totally different dynamics and style of play were discovered in these different regions via these user research sessions. They also discovered interesting dynamics within groups - different behavior and interaction between the performers and the observers.
The one universal take-away? Karaoke games like Lips are a lot more fun when you’re drunk.
Amen, brother.
Note: It was stated that a copy of the slide decks and a full video of the session would be posted at some point on the Office Labs blog. So far, we haven’t seen it but will update this when it comes live.
Just wanted to give a friendly reminder that the Seattle IxDA October Event will be hosted by Office Labs in Building 33. Three speakers will join the event to discuss how interaction design can learn from the challenges game design face everyday. It is also a great opportunity to network with other designers in the area who are passionate about what they do.
This month’s topic is ” Lessons from game design”
this is a chance to learn where the fields of interaction design and game design overlap. It’s a chance for IxD to learn more about how games challenge, reward, and engage players. We’ll hear how game designers use prototyping and sketching (Daniel Cook), about User Research on Social/Party Games(George Amaya ), and how narrative and storytelling immerse players in experiences (Mark Long).
If you haven’t already, RSVP through Upcoming now!
Join us for our monthly IXDA meeting - hosted by Microsoft’s Office Labs on Microsoft’s main campus - Building 33.
This month’s topic is Lessons from Game Design
This is a chance to learn where the fields of interaction design and game design overlap. It’s a chance for IxD to learn more about how games challenge, reward, and engage players. We’ll hear how game designers use prototyping and sketching (Daniel Cook), how usability techniques are used to fine-tune casual game play (Mac Smith), and how narrative and storytelling immerse players in experiences (Mark Long).
Details
Thursday October 23, 2008 at 7:00pm
Microsoft Convention Center - Building 33
16070 NE 36th Way
Redmond, Washington 98052
The Seattle Interaction Design Association group would like to officially invite all members and students to the next event! We’re very excited to announce that the theme of this event will be on natural user interfaces (NUI) and the future. We will spend some time exploring NUI interactions and the implications for it in the future five years and beyond. To help us with this discussion, August de los Reyes, Dennis Wixon and Sabrina Boler will kick us off with a talk on their insights on their experience with Surface and other input technologies. Following will be an open floor for conversation, networking and some hands on experience with NUI related stations. Please join us for this exciting occasion where we will discuss, learn and story tell the next generation in user experience!
RSVP with Chrish or Kevin [at] artefactgroup [dot] com
This will be a catered event with light snacks and beverages (alcoholic and non alcoholic).
Parking is available on the street as well as across the street in a paid lot.
The event is also free.
RSVP: Contact Chrish or Kevin [at] artefactgroup [dot] com including any additional information regarding number of guests or questions about the event.
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