something in the way

Our annual MX conference helps managers working to deliver better experiences to the world. And that's right in line with Charles Warren's 10 minutes on how the three little words "How Might We" makes design deliver significantly better results.

Start a project off with this, and I think you can expect significantly better solutions from your team.

Charles leads Google's Social UX team, and before that, the Google Mobile UX team and before that, he was the co-lead of IDEO's Software Experience Design Practice.

Weekend fun, part 1: as Reactable makes the leap from custom, tangible interface to go-anywhere iPhone/iPad app, here’s a look at what the fingertip-controlled music creation experience is like. The first of a series of tutorials, the video above walks you through some basic music production. It should lay to rest any question about whether this kind of interface can work in musical performance or live arrangement. I still think some artists will want to bang on something rather than just gently finger-paint their way through music, but as arrangement tool, it’s intriguing – and this video makes clearer what the thing is about.

(Just a couple of quick posts by way of apology for breaking one of our two servers, causing an outage. My fault.)

A video on the current state of education and REDU. It stands for rethinking, reforming and rebuilding US education. Powered by people and technology, REDU is a movement designed to expand and encourage the national conversation around education reform by providing information and resources to learn, a community platform to connect, and tools and initiatives to act.

Following the belief that education will not be solved through a single bill passing or by policy makers alone, their goal is to create a destination where educators, parents, students, and everybody who cares about the issue have the means to engage in the ongoing conversations, be inspired by reform stories, and make a difference in their own way. It’s a platform for everyone.

letsredu.com

(via bobulate)

Very cool, and almost as good a paintball-waster as the Mythbusters’ “Mona Lisa in 275 milliseconds” demonstration. This one’s a little more controlled, though: you can see more videos here, including one where they’re using multiple colors in layers to create a more nuanced look.

I wonder if they put their “paintings” together in a pixel editor, or just something like Paint. The resolution looks… well, not high. But the dripping effect ends up giving it a unique look for sure. Not that I support graffiti (or can even tell what’s being painted in half the videos). Cool though.

[via Make and Gearfuse]

Just when you think you can’t find another YouTube video trick, someone goes and manages to choreograph an elaborate piece across webcams across the planet. But perhaps this piece isn’t really about YouTube so much as it is coordinating movement across performers and dividing the screen space up in creative ways — something that could be even more interesting in live contexts.

Details:

This music video was shot for Sour’s ‘Hibi no Neiro’ (Tone of everyday) from their first mini album ‘Water Flavor EP’. The cast were selected from the actual Sour fan base, from many countries around the world. Each person and scene was filmed purely via webcam.

Director: Masashi Kawamura + Hal Kirkland + Magico Nakamura + Masayoshi Nakamura

SOUR official site: http://sour-web.com

Via We Love You So, the blog for Spike Jonze’s upcoming Where The Wild Things Are film (and yes, that’s a topic in itself). So, now you know Spike Jonze is watching the YouTubes for inspiration, too.

3D Computer Interface from Free Flow on Vimeo.

During long winters with indoor heat running overtime, I imagine you’ve built up your fair amount of static electricity, and as the sparks fly, wondered why you couldn’t put that power to some good use.

Working with electrostatics, a team of students at Northeastern University in Boston have done just that. For their senior design capstone project, they assembled a gestural interface which allows 3D control just by waving a hand in front of a computer. That sort of idea is all the rage these days. The difference here: there’s no camera, no IR emitters, no markers or physical controllers.

You just move your hand in three-dimensional space, and the control data is transmitted to the computer. In fact, it’s one of the more touchless interfaces I’ve seen since the father of them all, the Theremin.

That does appear to be a blanket underneath their hand. Now, being the glutton for punishment I am, I want to figure out a way to do this in which there are sparks.

More on this project as I learn about it, but it looks like it’s got some great potential. The bottom line to me is that there’s every reason to begin interacting with three-dimensional onscreen interfaces using spatial physical interfaces. Joysticks and mice actually do a reasonably good job, but they don’t cover the entire gamut of what’s possible. Now it’s up to the software to start using that control data.

If you thought Apple was good at marketting their products by taking others down, RIM “GUAVA Ad agency” has just offered them some competition. In a stunning, funny, and extremely clever ad, BlackBerry takes a shot at Apple. Literally.

A must watch for anyone and everyone. Go ahead, hit play!

As noted on MacDailyNews, “Actually, the video is what is known as a “spec” spot that’s meant to drum up business for the agency or production house that created it, in this case, “GUAVA,” out of New York City. Often, agencies make Apple-related specs spots for existing and invented products as it gets them the most coverage (it worked this time, too). “

[via Rimarkable]

Here’s a funny and attention-attracting wall which follows the moves of the people in front of it.