Dupont sent designverb an iPod Touch to test out their new MySurface app which has a catalog of Corian and Zodiaq materials. It’s a pretty simple app with a library of images to flip through and a gallery of environments. Though I personally find materials like Corian and Zodiaq very tangible, a quick glance at colors and texture visually with this app can be quick filter in selections before grabbing real samples to feel their weight, temperature, light refraction, and vibe.
And yup, I’m giving away a brand new iPod Touch (thanks dupont) to a reader that sends me the best improvement for this app or any other general cool design must have app that does not exist. Send ideas to designverb (at) gmail.com . I’ll pick a winner in a few weeks.
I’ve got a few suggestions for this particular app:
1. For iPhone users, let them use the camera, and augment the materials in their real space.
2. Let the materials be custom adjustable to augment onto their cameras view like a table.
3. A details page about the material like hardness, texture, cost, colors, uses, weather, etc.
4. Options in sorting, not just by color, but by hardness, texture, weight, grain, cost, etc.
5. Have a gallery of images for each material, not just a separate gallery.
6. I know Corian has some translucency . Maybe show what the material looks like when thin and back lighted.
7. Add an adjustable bar to have light go across the material. See how it reflects, moves, changes.
8. Maybe add some filter options… dark, marble like, textured…search.
A few pics of the app after the jump of the app. (more…)
Gadgetoff 2009 unleashed an intense series of kabooms, zaps, chomps, and kerplurks rattling 400 attendees on the beautiful 83 acre Staten Island grounds September 25th while slinging Lenovo laptops with a trebuchet, cooking hot dogs with Telsa Coil Towers, riding jet fueled 5g merry-go-rounds, writing code drunk for autonomous cars legally, and thrashing a series of incredible lectures and demos throughout the day! Welcome to the Gadgetoff 2009 Experience: Boom!
Robots rumbled in every corner ranging from dancing tai chi robots to tiny micro toy hex bugs that jittered their way into everyone’s pockets. The gigantic mechanical Mondo Spider chomped it’s way through the lunch gardens while on lookers enjoyed delicious alcohol infused sorbet. Dean Kamen of DEKA brought his breathtaking and ingeniously engineered “luke” arm (video) and toy inventor Brian Walker tinkered with large crossbows and rockets made to launch humans 20 miles across the air! Invisible inks, toys, gadgets, art, fire, illusions, magic, and disruptive ideas scorched the island while participants roamed in excitement and curiosity!
Just as I experienced last time, Gadgetoff invited the coolest hand’s on creatives to celebrate the Smart and Useless for an unforgetful day in disruptive goodness!
My adventure brief after the jump! (lots of pictures and videos)
Chris Lefteri has some of my favorite books on materials on plastics, wood, ceramics, metals, and many others. I’m not as aware of his books series called Ingredients, but as Ingredients No.4 is released September 24th, it seems his previous ones are FREE to download! How awesome! If Ingredients is anything like his other materials books, be prepared to be floored both visually and with information about each. Download the other 3 here:
“Practicing good nutrition keeps your mind sharp, your body fit, and your life long. The same could be said for consuming media. (Seriously, knowledge is power.) When you add it all up, the average American spends roughly nine hours a day glued to some kind of screen, and like your diet, quality is as important as quantity. Here are Wired’s suggested servings for optimal media health.”
“There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does. And here is what science knows. One: Those 20th century rewards, those motivators we think are the natural part of business, do work, but only in a surprisingly narrow band of circumstances. Two: Those if-then rewards often destroy creativity. Three: The secret to high performance isn’t rewards and punishments, but that unseen intrinsic drive. The drive to do things for their own sake. The drive to do things cause they matter.
And here’s the best part. Here’s the best part. We already know this. The science confirms what we know in our hearts. So, if we repair this mismatch between what science knows and what business does, If we bring our motivation, notions of motivation into the 21st century, if we get past this lazy, dangerous, ideology of carrots and sticks, we can strengthen our businesses, we can solve a lot of those candle problems, and maybe, maybe, maybe we can change the world. I rest my case.”
I love Craigslist but I’ve always wondered about their interface. Do I like it, hate it, or is it just right? As a designer I’ve always craved images, but also as a designer I love the directness in raw text. They’ve made subtle changes over the years but if they launched with a more visual design would they have been more successful, worse, or the same? What role does design actually play a part of in our society for sucess, what do people latch onto, what makes it work, and is great design about differentiating from the rest of the world?
Anyhow, I’m not sure what I’d do to improve Craiglsit since it’s just that good, besides all the spam which often becomes part of the culture.
Thought: Whoever taught us wine taste better in a glass container over plastic, paper, or styrofoam container? Did we learn, or just observe and accept the norm? Do we drive our own opinions, or just accept the norm?
The TED conference has transformed dramatically over the years thanks to the launching of TEDtalks which I’ve posted on several times. This past year, TED launched another brilliant event called TEDx which allows individuals to host their own local unofficial TED like events. Since March 2009 several events have taken place around the world. How awesome!
A few weeks back, I attended the TEDxBoston event which I wanted to post about, but had no videos to share. As of today, TEDx videos from around the world can be viewed and shared on the TEDx YouTube Channel as well as play lists from each location like TEDxBoston. I’ll post the TEDxBoston videos after the jump, and make sure to watch the last video with our favorite Ben Zanders conducting the Youth Orchestra of Americas.
Awesome. If you can’t afford it go use it at the Apple store! Computers, Programs, the Internet, Cameras, etc! Nicholi created several Youtube Videos and probably all his graphics using equipment inside the store on 5th NYC. Nothing like a young entrepreneur figuring out how to get things done, now getting him spots on TV shows. Watch the video above… I love the public’s reaction in the background.
“This little dude Nicholi has shot dozens of lip sync videos at the 5th Avenue Apple Store. And why not? Plenty of desktops. Free wi-fi. Solid tech support.
These are the same reasons model and self-marketer Isobella Jade wrote her entire memoir in the SoHo Apple Store. (Sound uncomfortable? Consider that Hemingway also wrote while standing up.)”
I’m off to San Francisco for a Weekend Wedding, so I’m posting my weekend links a bit early. If ya’ll have any must see, eat, go to events in SF this week, please let me know.
“Alternative packaging for supermarket produce, highlighting the distances that some foods travel from and the resultant carbon dioxide released during the journey. The receipt features a boarding card style tear-off strip.”
Awesome! I’ve always wondered when food labels would change my buying decisions. Some receipts tell you how much to tip , but none have been more eco-educational than this concept. Forget calorie counting, lets count carbon miles from food transportation. I’d definitely buy something for a bit more, knowing it used less carbon miles than another product. Think how the word Organic or Local has become such a buzz… hopefully one day, the carbon food miles will do the same =)
