I'm hearing more and more about how people are worrying about the explosion of information that analysts and executives must consume, as well as the increasing variety of sources from which that information comes. However, I've always thought it's not the amount of information that's changing, it's how we filter it to find what's relevant.
This article from The Aporetic states:
"People often argue that we have too much information and too little attention; that this is a condition of being “modern.” But the opposite may be true: that attention is a human constant and that it constantly seeks new forms. Where there’s “surplus attention” we always come up with things to occupy it."
via The Aporetic
and Boston Globe
"I sometimes worry about my attention span, but not for long" - Herb Caen
Further reading into this subject has revealed that this is not a new problem, it is years old. It's procrastination in disguise, and it is incredibly addictive and slows us down.
"Always-on, multitasking work environments are killing productivity, dampening creativity, and making us unhappy."
Further reading here
If you're concerned about how you consume information and how it might be changing your behaviours, I strongly recommend that you do nothing for 2 minutes.
Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow has written a fantastic Guardian article on this.
Organising and Categorising
A large part of UX is about categorising different types of items and structuring them in a logical and visually pleasing way. Many industry-famous User Experience experts confess to an almost unhealthy obsession to have to lay out objects on a table in order of size, alphabetically order their collections, or group household items in categories. If you find yourself getting annoyed when you next find a fork in the spoon section of the cutlery drawer, spare a thought for User Experience Architects and how frustrating badly structured content on a website is.
This lovely blog, ThingsOrganisedNeatly pretty much sums up what I'm talking about.
via ThingsOrganisedNeatly
This lovely blog, ThingsOrganisedNeatly pretty much sums up what I'm talking about.
via ThingsOrganisedNeatly
Russian Domed City
A Russian company has unveiled plans to built a 100,000-person domed city in an abandoned Mir diamond mine in Siberia. The city named Eco-city 2020. The Mir diamond mine is the second largest excavated hole in the world, quarter-mile wide and over 1,700 feet deep, the mine would be completely covered over with a glass dome to protect the city from the weather in Siberia, and the solar cells embedded in the dome would power the city. Designers AB Elise explained:
"The new city is planned to be divided in 3 main levels with a vertical farm, forests, residences, and recreational areas. On of the most interesting aspects of the proposal is the glass dome that will protect the city and would be covered by photovoltaic cells that will harvest enough solar energy for the new development. "
An estimated 100,000 people would be able to live in Eco-city, and architects are hoping that it would help to attract tourists to Eastern Siberia.
Whilst this is not a very realistic project, and is unlikely to actually happen anytime soon, there are tantalising conversations going on about how this type of construction would be perfect for colonising craters on distant planets.
via AB ELISE
Future Media Surfaces
“We look at the near future, a universe next door in which media travels freely onto surfaces in everyday life. A world of media that speaks more often, and more quietly.”
“In contrast to a Minority Report future of aggressive messages competing for a conspicuously finite attention, these sketches show a landscape of ignorable surfaces capitalising on their context, timing and your history to quietly play and present in the corners of our lives.”
"Each of the ideas in the film treat the surface as a focus, rather than the channel or the content delivered. Here, media includes messages from friends and social services, like foursquare or Twitter, and also more functional messages from companies or services like banks or airlines alongside large traditional big 'M' Media (like broadcast or news publishing).
All surfaces have access to connectivity. All surfaces are displays responsive to people, context, and timing. If any surface could show anything, would the loudest or the most polite win? Surfaces which show the smartest most relevant material in any given context will be the most warmly received."
via Berg
Media surfaces: Incidental Media from Dentsu London on Vimeo.
“In contrast to a Minority Report future of aggressive messages competing for a conspicuously finite attention, these sketches show a landscape of ignorable surfaces capitalising on their context, timing and your history to quietly play and present in the corners of our lives.”
Media surfaces: The Journey from Dentsu London on Vimeo.
"Each of the ideas in the film treat the surface as a focus, rather than the channel or the content delivered. Here, media includes messages from friends and social services, like foursquare or Twitter, and also more functional messages from companies or services like banks or airlines alongside large traditional big 'M' Media (like broadcast or news publishing).
All surfaces have access to connectivity. All surfaces are displays responsive to people, context, and timing. If any surface could show anything, would the loudest or the most polite win? Surfaces which show the smartest most relevant material in any given context will be the most warmly received."
via Berg
Movie GUI's
A graphical user interface is often shortened to GUI (or 'gooey') and is used to provide the user with a set of on-screen controls so that they can interact with a program or computer. These are very carefully considered and developed with incredibly thorough user research on a foundation of established best-practice guidelines. Simply put, GUI interaction should be seamless and there should be no obvious stumbling blocks that would annoy a user off to the point that they give up and find an alternative solution. Consider this the next time you're using a touch screen to buy your train ticket.
When it comes to movies, all the decades of usability principles go straight out the window. Movie GUI's are thoroughly unrealistic from a usability point of view, but are incredibly fun to look at. Their one job is to get the message across to the audience that something integral to the plot is happening. If you're wondering what is it about movie GUI's that's so unrealistic, check out Jakob Nielsen's rather comprehensive (and super nerdy) article.
Since the 80's, movie GUI's have come a very long way, and this awesome blog captures some of the great retro ones from classic movies that you may have seen.
Creating futuristic user interfaces (or FUI's) has become a job for some lucky people such as
Mark Coleran who gets to build cool futuristic GUI's all day long. Check out his portfolio to see what I'm talking about.
via Access Main Computer File, Jakob Nielsen,
Mark Coleran
When it comes to movies, all the decades of usability principles go straight out the window. Movie GUI's are thoroughly unrealistic from a usability point of view, but are incredibly fun to look at. Their one job is to get the message across to the audience that something integral to the plot is happening. If you're wondering what is it about movie GUI's that's so unrealistic, check out Jakob Nielsen's rather comprehensive (and super nerdy) article.
Since the 80's, movie GUI's have come a very long way, and this awesome blog captures some of the great retro ones from classic movies that you may have seen.
Creating futuristic user interfaces (or FUI's) has become a job for some lucky people such as
Mark Coleran who gets to build cool futuristic GUI's all day long. Check out his portfolio to see what I'm talking about.
via Access Main Computer File, Jakob Nielsen,
Mark Coleran
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