Now I don't consider myself a dog hater; heck no! EH has sported enough puppy pictures to keep any dog lover happy and me vaguely embarrassed.

But when I am in "My Documents" in Windows XP and I click on "Search" I want a text input field, not a three-D puppy. This thing annoys me each and every time I see it.

Lordie, why did I leave 2000 for the siren call of XP? The default interface looks like Mickey Mouse designed it.

And no gloating, you Mac OsX types, your interface looks more like it came out of a Bed, Bath and Beyond catalog. C'mon, chrome is for bath fixtures and 1950's chevy's.

Of course, these are entirely SUBJECTIVE opinions. I'm sure somebody out there feels their life has been muchly improved now that their widgets have the illustion of being three dimensional.

Remember that old Sesame Street song?

"One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong. One of these things is not like the others, can you tell me which one before I finish my song?"


from internet world magazine

Go to CS547 Human-Computer Interaction Seminar and watch the first archived talk, Scott Klemmer's. Do not be fooled by the title, he demonstrated a new wall-sized GUI, a smart whiteboard. It blew me out of the water. The attention to understanding the nature of design that allowed this new tool to come into existence... well, that's the way it's supposed to be.

BTW, Terry's Winograd's seminars are open to the public. If you are ever in the area, it's well worth making an effort to attend.

More on Design Outpost project: the chi paper and the overview, with videos, etc.

Anyhow, it's not only a cool product, but a good talk as well for thinking about the nature fo the design process and how tools support modes of thinking. Oh, and it's in english, not academic jargon. At least I could follow it.

Excited!

Action, Interaction, Reaction is a long and thoughtful look at the practice of interaction design.

"Interaction design, the best term we have to describe the skills we have acquired to mediate our interactions with the digital and networked world, will be one of the key practices of our century, and executed well will help realise the potential of the network society that has been tantalisingly hinted at in the past five years."

I really appreciate the presence of ergonomic concerns
“Architecture is about body-sized, furniture about hand-sized, and PCs about finger-sized interactions.”
but I do think the eye is the actor over the finger. Still the body cannot be ignored.

Also explored is the history of interaction design, and its relationship to interface design, brand and business.

Also, gobs fo good links at the end, including this one.

We all have problems. Minnesota is NOT the solution.