London had tons to offer during my visit and as a designer a hunt down of the shops was a must. I didn’t take pictures of everything, but I’ll post a few things that caught my attention. Thanks to Superfuture.com I had a quick map to guide me abouts the Soho and Covent Gardens area. Otherwise, a mindless trek abouts town seemed to do the trick for finding hotspots. Above is a sick set of belts prints found in the dpmhi  store (maharishi store) More pics and finds after the jump… (more…)

Do you wash your hands properly? Have you seen people flick their hands in water with a dab of soap, dry themselves off, and consider their hands CLEAN, without ever really scrubbing their hands?

Well, I’ve seen wayyy too many people do this and can’t stop thinking how dirty their hands are while eating. I’ve seen people walk out of restrooms without washing their hands! It’s makes me sick sometimes. YUCK!

Anyhow, Seth Godin points out to SquidSoap that proves that going a few steps backwards can make one huge step forward. SquidSoap is a simple idea that frankly makes tons of sense for kids and probably for us rushing think-we-know-it-all adults. Basically, the soap dispenser has an ink marker that stains your hand once you pump out some soap. The stain marks your hand until you thoroughly scrub and wash your hands clean of all germs including the new stain(which acts as a layer of germs). This somewhat forces your to actually SEE something and scrub it away. Most kids and some adults think getting their hands wet will get rid of most germs.

This reminds me that seeing dirt or even making things dirtier before we clean then can be good. Dyson made us all happy by letting us see what we vacuumed up with a clear collector. Toilet paper is white, letting us see when we are clean. Hands are considered dirty when they have crap on them, but bacteria is transparent, and not many acknowledge this. We need a soap that just stains your whole hand until you scrub for at least 8 seconds.(Yar, I’m looking at my keyboard now…time to clean it)

update: a mouth wash that stains plaque on your teeth so you know where to brush.

Did you ever want to figure out where people clicked on your GUI webpage and where people did not? Clickdensity documents a users every click on your webpage allowing you to monitor and understand your audience more in a information visualization format (heat map). What is clicked on the most, what is not, where do users come from, how long are they on, what are usability issues, etc. You can filter the clicks by browsers, screen resolution, dates, time of day, source, and a few other things. It’s the digital finger grease!

This reminds me of my post on Google Eyed and how Googles changed the way we view webpages. It’s also much like those elevator buttons that obviously show major use on certain floors. Same for cellphones, keyboards(the shiny keys..my f1-f10 buttons seem untouched), remote controls, etc. We’ve all seen the heat maps on weather channels, but why not turn your webpage into a weather channel of usage! Be a fun piece to make art out of from your website.

This was my last exhausting day walking around Siggraph2006.

Pictured above is a textile piece by Joanna Berzowska.

“The KraKow weaving is an electronic, color-changing Jacquard weaving that integrates conductive yarns, thermochromatic inks, and custom control electronics. The weaving illustrates a scene from Joannas childhood in Poland. Over time, the ink overprinted on the figures in the weaving changes color from black to transparent. Like our memories of them, the people in the textile disappear over time. As populations are displaced, the traces of their presence in place and time are similarly erased.

More pics and projects after the jump. (more…)

Day 2 at Siggraph2006 was another round of animations, techy art, some weird music, and a return to the emerging arts gallery. The exhibits hall also opened up, but, it was just a mini version of CES.

Pictured above is EON Realities Touchlight system, which was very much like Jef Hans Multi-Touch screen, but different technologies and some applications. The cool portion was the ability to transfer any image onto the screen simply by pressing the image up against the screen for about 8 seconds. Zooming in, rotating, moving, and other actions were pretty intuitive, though glitchy. The resolution was not the greatest, but the system had a magical air like feeling.
More projects and pics after the jump.

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Some more pictures and notes on another brief visit to the Siggraph galleries. More after the jump.

Pictured above, is an art piece with temperature controlled plates that changed temperatures based on what was projected. (Snow=cold, fire=hot) (more…)

Siggraph 2006 kicked off today with some great animations and a peek at some emerging art and interactive technologies. In short, Siggraph is a super hub conference of computer graphic animations, interactive techniques, and lots of computer related robotic tools and applications. It’s where technology meets creativity. For a glimpse at what Siggraph has to offer, check out these video briefs: Art Gallery, Emerging Technologies, and computer animations.
I watched a bunch of great animations today and had a peek at the galleries. As usual, I was asking a bunch of questions as these kind of conferences are more about what’s possible, rather than whats desirable. More Pics after the jump.
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My phone alarm sounded off this morning and as usual it turned itself off after 30 seconds, while the outside screen still flashed “alarm”. Now I’m not sure about anyone else, but I’d usually just sleep through this or being the sleepyhead that I am, I’d probably just smile in my sleep knowing that the buggy noise would turn off within a few seconds which has happened. Now, I’m not sure who decided to have the sound turn off automatically before I even touched the phone, but from my perspective, this is broken, which also reminds me of a wonderful website, THIS IS BROKEN.com.

This is Broken is a website run my Mark Hurst at Good Experience which also runs the awesome GEL Conference (Good Experience Live) which I have attended for the last few years. Everyone should subscribe to their newsletter and blog as well here.

One such submission I made to THIS IS BROKEN is pictured above. In short, I went to best buy to buy paper, the only paper was behind this metal column, and I had a hectic time crawling behind the tower to this stack of paper. Read the post and comments about it here.

During my visit to Chicago, I got to experience Millennium Park. One project that stood out was Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa. You can read more about it at their site, but what I want to point out was how happy, joyful, and excited kids were to interact with, play, and to get wet at this particular piece. Kids would run around, line up, learn the art pieces routine. At times, kids would start talking to the projected faces, telling them to hurry up(get them wet). Kids lined up in anticipation right where the fountain would hit. The projected images would hint and tease onlookers of the next event. Once the water started to spill outwards, kids would scream, run around, smile, and be in such delight.

One thing I noticed however was that the only people doing all of this were kids… parents and others would just watch, with an occasional couple treading through the water. Why were there only kids having such fun. Why do we as humans lose our sense of play as we age. I’m not saying all of us lose this amazing ability to play with anything, but many do.

In design, play is one of those things that keeps me inspired, it’s an excuse to rip apart, throw, and crash products together, and I’m allowed to be goofy, cause that’s where great ideas usually come from. On the other side of things, perhaps we as adults do not like to get wet, as tons of adults would act goofy around the big bean(cloud gates, or pics here) mirrored sculpture. Anyhow, this is just a brief thought and reminder of how curious, goofy, and joyful we are, especially as a child. More fun pics I took at this fountain after the jump! (more…)

Here’s an interesting set of laws for innovation. I know there are tons of lists out there, but it does’nt hurt to read another one.

Power Law 1: Don’t think “new product” – think social value.
Power Law 2: Think social value before “tech”.
Power Law 3: Enable human agency. Design people into situations, not out of them.
Power Law 4: Use, not own. Possession is old paradigm.
Power Law 5: Think P2P, not point-to-mass.
Power Law 6: Don’t think faster, think closer.
Power Law 7: Don’t start from zero. Re-mix what’s already out there.
Power Law 8: Connect the big and the small.
Power Law 9: Think whole systems (and new business models, too).
Power Law 10: Think open systems, not closed ones.

via core77
doors of perception

I was talking to a friend the other day questioning if good design cost more money. Well, in many cases it does, but in this post I’d like to show you that it does not have to with a book by Paola Antonelli, design curator of New York’s Museum of Modern Art. The book, “Humble Masterpieces” sites some very simple everyday objects that most of us take for granted such as the post-it note, paper clip, lego blocks, and q-tip. Everyone can buy these products, and pretty much everyone has. Is it good design? You bet damn right it is! So damn good that everyone uses them. Some may argue that these objects are not designed, and moreso inventions, but in my world of design, inventing products that millions of people need and want because it solves a problem is great design. Now, there is the question if mass consumers and affordance equals a successful design, but I’ll post about that later on as it is a blurry topic to cover, though I’ll say yes it is for now. Anyhow, if your interested in this book, here’s a short article on it or you can buy it at Amazon. Enjoy!