One of the best reads on tangible interactions I came across lately is a paper from Standford Univeristy HCI Research group. It is titled: How Bodies Matter: Five Themes for Interaction design. In it they use theories from psychology, sociology and philosophy to come up with five themes for designing tangible interactions. Because they bring all these sciences together on one subject, it offers some interesting insights in the field of tangible interactions. … »

Current business conditions are unforgiving, and seem to be taking their toll on the social media industry, whether it’s in the mood on Sand Hill, in the decline of online advertising, or even in the prognosis for Web 2.0 at large. I’d like to attempt to capture the basics of social media user experience. For the business all of us are in, at the end of the day, hangs on the participation of users. … »

Not only games are a healthy source for innovative interface design. Hollywood also always tries to look into the future and create impressive interfaces in their sci-fi and action movies. Most of the times the interfaces only have to look cool, and any professional would immediately spot the errors. But sometimes they are really impressive and cause jealous interaction designers, like in The Island and Majority Minority Report. A lot of these interfaces where designed by Mark Coleran. Check out what he creates … »

Three weeks ago I attended a usability test at a big Dutch museum, testing a new mobile application we developed. The company performing the test needed three people for guidance. One person was guiding and doing the interviews. Another carried a complex construction, with a Macbook Pro on top, to observe and collect data throughout the museum. And the last person was just needed for making video footage. It was complex and caused a lot of attention in the museum.

This is propably one of many examples which shows that mobile usability testing is still very unpractical. And since mobility is getting more important it’s good to look for solutions. And today one such solution happened to pass through my mailbox: the FieldCREW. … »