Category: English Articles

Future Shock

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There are a couple videos in the public domain space now where I take credit to have preserved them from fading away. The first is Future Shock by Apple 1988.
Future Shock: gesturesFuture Shock: gesturesFuture Shock: glasses with subtitlesFuture Shock: e-learning

I saw it first on an Apple promo CD while working at BBDO in the early 1990s. It was a tiny QuickTime movie. But it made a huge impression on me. Gesture and voice interaction, as well as an early predecessor concept of google glass – didn’t know that at the time 😉

A decade later I stumbled upon the CD at the library of the IZHD, made a backup copy, and uploaded it to my site. From there it went to Mac Essentials’ magazine site, and eventually to youtube.

The poor quality is still due to the original QT version. I would be very interested to get a hires version…


Future Shock, Apple 1988 from mprove.

uxHH facelift

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I was in the mood to update the design of uxHH.de

See the two screenshots before and after to get an idea of the changes; i.e. new and larger fonts improve the legibility and character of the site, more white space for a better balance between text and background and a less “bloggy” appearance.

 

enjoy
–Matthias

Hello FB, where is my stuff?

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I hate to waste my time on facebook because almost all my activities are lost for me. In general, there are two important feedback cycles: one is social – the other is between me and myself. If a platform makes it impossible for me to build an external knowledge base (or gossip, or fun, or photos, you name it) that is of use for me then I question myself why to put any energy into it. Hello fb, where is the stream or even better rss feed of my likes and other contributions that I could reuse and review and enhance as I like and whereever I like?
// in response to https://www.facebook.com/euan.semple/posts/10151607490499567

Arrow Key Navigation

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I was curious to figure out how e.g. flickr or facebook have implemented the behavior to move to the next image by simply pressing the right arrow key. Well, I do not really know down to the bleeding fingers, but here is my solution to move to the next page in a sequence of pages:

The mediathek of the Raum Schiff Erde offers a chronological tour for all sessions ever. The link to proceed to the next page in sequence has the attribute rel=”next”.

Then the head section needs a short jQuery/JavaScript to catch the right arrow key w/o the Ctrl/Cmd modifier pressed, identify the first link with the relation ‘next’ and trigger the link:

$(document).keydown(function(e) {
  var arrow = {left: 37, up: 38, right: 39, down: 40 };
  switch(e.which) {
    case arrow.right:
      if (e.metaKey) {return;}
      document.location.href = $(“a[rel=’next’]”)[0].href;
      break;
    default: return;
    }
  e.preventDefault();
  });

Have a look at the source code of the example above how to include the jQuery library.

I want to finish this little tutorial by mentioning that I did not invent the link relationships (‘next’ and ‘prev’) – but usually browsers do not make any use of this kind of semantic information. Heck, why not?! It would be cool if all web pagination would support this semantic behavior. Amen.

PS: A few more examples where I have applied the script:

// Photo cc by Craig

5 inspiring talks

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Here comes a set of 5 videos that have (at least) one thing in common. To me they mean a lot – which is in fact already the second thing that they share.
-enjoy

Hermann Maurer at Cognitive Design, Lübeck 2005


Technological Dreams & Nightmares – An Outlook To The (Near) Future, Hermann Maurer, 2005 from mprove on Vimeo.

Joe Weizenbaum at MEDICHI, Linz 2006


Joe Weizenbaum, MEDICHI 2007 from mprove on Vimeo.

Ivan Sutherland at Sun’s SEED Summit, Menlo Park 2006


Ivan Sutherland on Leadership, Sun 2006 from mprove on Vimeo.

Paul Pangaro at coThinkTank, Berlin 2011


coThinkTank 2011 Keynote: Design for Conversations & Conversations for Design by Dr. Paul Pangaro from newthinking on Vimeo.

Ted Nelson at The Future of Text, London 2013

Apple does not do Design Thinking

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A quick comparison between Design Thinking Principles and Apple reveals…

Design Thinking Apple
Fail early and often …but just internally.
Leave titles at the door Do not come in if you do not contribute to the meeting.
There are no good ideas Either it sucks or it is insanely great.
Do! Don’t talk.
Build on ideas of others Yes, but turn them into something insanely great.
The quantity is it. The quality is it.
Avoid criticism. “This is shit”
Stay focussed. Stay hungry.
Dare to be wild! Stay foolish.
Think human centered. Think details oriented.
Be visual. look and feel contributes to the user experience
Let’s have Fun. Never take the same elevator with Steve. You do not have a job anymore.

q.e.d. Apple does not do Design Thinking. Nonetheless, Apple products are still best of breed.

à propos

[Update 2-Nov-2022]  I am not saying that either way is better or worse than the other. I just like to fight dogmatism (in any area). Take your team – build your team in a way that is best for your users, your customers (not necessary the same as your users) and your business. Enjoy your work and the stuff that you are building for the sake of all.