Saint Blog

Today I came across a series of blog postings where people in the digital industry have posted 5 things that they’re thinking right now. The content of the discussions are wide ranging, from the impact of social gaming, where Apple have gone wrong (or if they have gone wrong), the Internet of Products, the 100 year career – all super interesting stuff from the likes of Dan Hon, Alice Taylor, Russell Davies etc.

Check the list here, lots of interestingness – http://danhon.com/2010/07/12/a-collection-of-five-things/

Got me thinking about my 5 things, what are the things that are on my mind today?

1) Unlocking the collective consciousness: I touched on this in a previous post regarding Chat Roulette, and the fact that so often the undeniable power of technology tends to be used for such superficial means. I’m excited about what a fully connected world can mean for us as a future species, as opposed to being scared about us becoming less that we are now. http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/is-the-internet-making-us-stupid–673843

2) Life as a game: Having read an interview with Dan Hon of W+K and Six to Start fame, I’m fascinated by how gaming psychologies can be applied to regular day-to-day experiences. VW’s Fun Theory began to explore this pretty well, can we make the world a better place by allowing people to point score their experiences?

3) More machines than humans came online last month (PSFK) which whilst being a headline grabber is also amazingly exciting. So humans grow to develop a deeper understanding of human global contexts, so too will machines. How will this affect our lives, what will that bring, this excites me a lot.

4) I may never buy another CD again. I’ve recently come to the conclusion that storing a thousand CD’s in my small flat isn’t necessarily a good thing and whilst I’ve geared up to start the long digitalisation process of my music, I’ve realised that I’m scared of never buying a physical album again. I fear for a world where nothing physical exists – but the existence of Spotify makes the argument for buying a CD even less compelling. Data storage suddenly takes on an importance of immense magnitude.

5) Best man speeches. I’ve got to do one. On Friday. And I’m dreading it.

What are you thinking about today?

A conversation with our UI designer earlier today got me thinking about how easy it can be to fall into the trap of conforming to a certain design or interface aesthetic once you see a few incarnations of something. In particular, most of the iPad applications that have been launched in their thousands over the past couple of months seem to do one of the following:

1) Use old iPhone design principles in a bid to get an application out there on a new platform ASAP.
2) Try and create a brand new shiny aesthetic but without much thought for what this new platform is and more importantly how people will use the content made available.
3) Take one of the early prototypes that were developed (think Wired, Sports Illustrated etc) and then merely pinch those ideas.

This has been getting a load of airplay today, a new social magazine application from FlipBoard. I like the feel of this, the transitions between pages and between content. I like the way they’ve taken a problem (lists and lists of updates, news, photos, lists and lists and lists) and attempted to solve it through UI Design, creating something brand new but oddly familiar.

As Anna quite rightly pointed out, this is something new, its too early to settle for either some new accepted norm for an application, a set of rules that we automatically abide by. This is a phase to be playing, experimenting, building UI’s that may be baffling, challenging and indeed may fail and fall by the wayside.

But that’s why we do what we do, right?

Just spent the morning with the nice chaps at Rolling Sound, who were kind enough to let me play with NeuroSky, a headset out of the States that reads brainwaves that can be used to control computer software.

The headset (below) looks like a standard bluetooth-type set of headphones, but has a set of sensors that touch your ear and also one that touches the bottom of your forehead.

After a couple of false starts – at one stage I was beginning to think brain had completely failed – the headset began to pick up readings. It was pretty fascinating to see how the readings changed as I relaxed and then concentrated on a variety of different things. They’ve developed an SDK from which developers can then create applications for the device, and whilst the technology is still in its infancy, its captured my imagination regarding the endless possibilities of this sort of device.

Holler if you want some more information about this, for clients such as the Home Office, NHS, BBC etc. it feels like something that could enhance an experience no end.

Thanks to Si and John for their time.