Susana Vilaça

Another great example of Microsoft Kinect usage, and how it can be used to create new and different user experiences!

Chaotic Moon Labs’ “Board of Awesomeness” is intended as a technology teaser to show how perceptive computing can turn around the way we look at user experiences. The project utilizes a Microsoft Kinect device, Samsung Windows 8 tablet, a motorized longboard, and some standard and custom hardware to create a longboard that watches the user to determine what to do rather than have the operator use a wired or wireless controller. The project uses video recognition, speech recognition, localization data, accelerometer data, and other factors to determine what the user wants to do and allows the board to follow the operators commands without additional aid.

So I found this new project by Craig Damrauer where he translates everyday concepts into mathematical formulas. The project is called New Math.

Mixing some humor and common sense, some formulas really make sense and translate the real meaning behind the concept.

I was going through my feeds and on a post from Playfool I saw this new online gaming experience from kijjaa!, where you control your ship using your iPhone and your computer screen as the display device. Tough this concept is very interesting I completely agree with the blog author when he says this type of gaming isn’t going to replace the tradicional console system we have today. I like to play on my DS or iPhone when on my way to work/home. At home or when I invite friends I usually play on my home consoles. It’s a completely different experience. I wouldn’t like to replace that experience with one where I have to spend my iPhone’s battery, and power my laptop just to play some game.

Recently Nintendo as been struggling with some difficulties due to poor sales, and many have claimed that mobile gaming will be the future, especially for the casual player (one of Nintendo’s main targets). I think mobile platforms need to be considered as a new gaming platform, especially when videogames like Angry Birds or Cut the Rope have such a success. But when it comes to true video game lovers nobody likes their consoles and their videogame collection more.

source: The future of gaming – Playfool

Adobe launched an Android app that makes wireframes and prototypes. It works on tablets and it seems to be very useful to work in a collaborative environment, with your team. Wish I had an Android tablet so I could try it.

Here’s a video demo:

Nokia presented, at the Nokia World 2011, the Kinect Device. The Kinect Device is a very flexible device and we can navigate through its UI by bending and twisting it. It’s built out of plastic and doesn’t contain any phone, camera GPS or touch functionalities.

Take a look at the video below. For such a raw device interacting with it seems to be very pleasing and its responsiveness seems very reliable. I’m curious whether this type of UI as any future in the mobile universe, ruled by touch based devices.

Design the new business is a documentary project that intends to show how design and business can be put together to solve problems in creative and ingenious ways.

See the trailer below.

I’ll keep this project on my watchlist The world is needing some solutions…

The video below is a new commercial, launched by Microsoft, about the XBox Kinect sensor. Kinect is a motion sensor for the XBox console and was initially intended for gaming purposes, however people started using it in various ways including in the fields of medicine, education and music.

This type of technology sure brings lots of challenges in the UX field. The gaming industry is still struggling with some interaction problems this sensor brings, and there are not many interaction patterns defined yet. Lets see where this takes us. For me, I believe in this technology, and I think there is room for evolving and improving.

Being a huge fan of videogames and having played them since childhood I’m an apologist that video games can really help boosting a child’s learning and educational curve.

At the Summit on Science, Entertainment, and Education Will Wright (game designer of video games like The Sims or Spore) talks about this subject and makes some interesting points:

Basically Will Wright summarizes the main aspects of what is learning and explains how videogames are useful for a good education experience.

Resuming, video games:

• allow identity
• offer a reason to do it (clear objectives)
• allow and mitigate risk (controlled environment)
• encourage failure
• problem solving: allows you to think outside the box´
• empower creativity and imagination

Of course, I think that playing outside with other children is also important but the fact that some healthy video games’ playing can bring many advantages cannot be denied.

So what are your thoughts on this? Would / Do you let your children play video games?

*image by Guild Grinding

Following my lastest post I present here some ideas for Portuguese parties to improve their online presence.

1. Clearly identify their view on which are our nation’s main problems

Ok, we have a problem with money! We need it but we don’t have it and no one wants to loans us money. The Portuguese people understands this, however we need more. We want to understand the problems. The whys and hows of our situation.

I think the main questions here are where and why. Where are the main problems and Why are we in these situation.

Political parties could use the web to explain the crisis to the Portuguese people using for example infographics, video infographics, podcasts or even Slideshare presentations. I saw this great video explaining the crisis of credit and I really think this type of resources are very helpful.

2. Present solutions for the identified problems

So here are the problems and here is how we plan to solve them! That’s pretty simple but unfortunately is where political parties fail most.

The electoral program is presented through something like a press conference and then a huge document is made available online. First in this press conferences only the main issues are presented, second the huge document presents some astonishing unclear and fuzzy proposals, and third the majority of the Portuguese people only ears the proposals through the media that, well, only show what they want.

So my message here is present your program directly to the voters. Make videos, podcasts, and speak with no intermediares. And also but no less important present clear and concrete solutions.

3. Provide means of direct contact

This is where social networks like Facebook and Twitter are really useful. Political parties should use these tools to speak and listen to their voters and not use it as a news feed or calendar.

Provide means for conversation and interaction with the party and mainly with the Prime Minister candidate. Make it personal, collaborative and inspiring.

4. Inspire change and optimism

And at last but not least use the Web to let people know you are committed. You want to change our situation and you have a clear vision of how.

Inspire people and make them really believe that coming out from this situation is possible.

We need solutions, not accusations or empty words.

In about one month (5 June) we’re going to have elections in Portugal. The 5 major political parties are already starting their campaigns which involves the traditional travelling around Portugal, speeches, travelling around Portugal, more speeches and hopefully live debates between candidates. So this is the pretty standard offline political party presence, plus all the media coverage.

For me, and I believe for the majority of the Portuguese people, I won’t see at least one full live speech from one of the candidates. I will watch the news and pay attention to what others (critics, experts) are saying  but I want at least one way of contacting directly with each one of the parties so I can get information about their proposals for the new mandate. I immediately thought “I’ll go to their websites. They must have what I’m looking for.”

So I went to all major parties websites:

1. Partido Socialista
2. Partido Social Democrata
3. CDU
4. Partido Popular
5. Bloco de Esquerda

Parties nr. 2 and 3 have made specific websites for the elections. The others have just created new areas in their existing websites.

As I visisted these websites I had three main questions in mind:

1. What are this party proposals for the new mandate
2. What’s your plan of action against our nation main problems
3. How do you intend to deal with the presence of the International Monetary Fund

As I visited website by website I was disappointed with what I saw when I first entered, which is News, answers to fights between parties and, in the corner, deep in the page, a link to the electoral compromise.

When I visited the electoral compromise, well, another disappointment… They presented me with a huge page or a PDF document (about 40 pages) to read! I still don’t know if my questions are answered in these pages because I haven’t read them yet…

Regarding the presence on social networks only found parties 1, 2 and 4 Facebook pages and they seem like a news feed…

I think political parties need to step up their game in the online field. The web and social networks are an excellent place for a more direct communication with the voters, with no intermediaries. Making videos or writting posts about one specific subject, or about one problem and what they think it will help solve it would be a step in getting people more involved and helping them decide their votes.

We don’t need more lines like:

“Portugal is this situation because José Socrates is a lousy Prime Minister! Portugal needs a strong and honest hand, and we are that hand!”

Failure, Serendipity and Change are the main ideas I take from day #2 at SWITCH. Day #2 was not as great as day #1, however I saw some great talks like:

1.S… Happens in life and businesses and it should by Ana Silva

Ana talked about serendipity. I must be honest, I knew the word but I didn’t knew what it meant until I saw her presentation. So according to Ana, serendipity is about you looking  for something and instead finding something else. It has an intrinsic randomness which I love .

She also talked about serendipity being a factor  that drives us in our social lives (stimulating connections) and in our work life (when we create new experiences).

2. To change or not to change, by William ShakesFear by Zé Pedro

This was the last talk of the conference and, I must say, it was a really good way to end it! This talk was about embracing change and don’t letting yourself be ruled by fear. Here are some points he highlighted:

• You often stick to some labels that don’t allow you to change
• Life runs fast and when you notice “life has decided for you”
• You don’t depend on the world, you have to adjust yourself
• Everybody is running (that’s why they call it the human race)
• What you need to do? Accept the change, respect it (be humble) and embrace it (just do it)
• Everything is up to you. Be alert of your surroundings.

3. Failure

These days talking about failure has become sort of a fashion. SWITCH was no exception. We saw some talks about failure. Ones more interesting than others where basically the main message is “Do not fear failure. Persevere. It’s all up to you.”

So wrapping everything up SWITCH was a great conference! I sure was inspired, had fun and connected!

“Done is better than perfect” - this sentence is from Ji Lee, ex-Creative Director at Google Creative Lab and future Creative Director at Facebook, and I think it sums up the main idea at #1 at SWITCH.

This day had some really good talks like:

1. Working at home Without Going Crazy by José Fontaínhas

José had some really good insights about how efficiently work at home without damaging your life. I really enjoyed his talk and I think that many things he talked about also aplies while working at an office.  Some ideas I enjoyed:

• We’re walking backwards to the future and all we can see is the past
• Learn from your mistakes, but learn more from your successes

2. Creativity by Ji Lee and Miguel Duarte

Regarding creativity Ji Lee talked about the power of personal projects. Basically how can you put together you’re professional and personal life to create something awesome. He then presented some simply genius projects, like the Bubble Project. He summed up his talk by referring some lessons learned:

• have fun
• personal and professional projects complement each other
• never put all the eggs in one basket
• Ideas are nothing. Doing is everything.
• Ship! Ship! Ship! Don’t be afraid of failing.

Miguel picked the subject of creativity from other perspective – the organisations perspective. He talked about organisations working as an assembly line and how that kills creativity. He then presented a new concept called Un|management. Un|manegement is about you setting your own office, your own schedule, choosing your own  colleagues and setting your own salary. A little utopic in my opinion but he presented some good points.

3. Attitude to change by Ricardo Diniz

This was the last and in my opinion the best talk of the day. Ricardo talked about finding and pursuing your dreams. To find your dreams he says there 3 questions you have to answer:

1. What do you love?
2. What are you really good at?
3. What others think you’re really good at?

He then finished his talk giving us some insights about some key points to take into account when pursuing our dreams:

• Create lifelong relationships
• You never feel lost with the right partners
• Invest and develop strategic partnerships
• Be brave. Be different. Be yourself. Innovate.
• Delegate. Don’t go over yourself.
• Just do it.

4. Stop Sending CV’s by Active Media

Active Media organized a workshop about self promotion and how to stand out from the crowd. The main points we talked about in this workshop were:

• Coming back to the basics. You must try to answer who you are, what do you do and why are you important.
• Having an online presence. Have a blog to share your thoughts, go to Linkedin to connect with other professionals, and use Facebook to engage with the community.
• Design your own CV. Make it playfull, show off your skills and your work.
• Make some business cards. They offer a quick reference to you.
• Look for projects not jobs.
• Explore different cultures.
• Don’t be shy and keep your mind open.
• Apply with your soul.

It was a nice workshop where some interesting points were discussed, and some good ideas presented.

Looking forward for day #2