Archive for the 'Web 2.0' category
the rise and rise of the zoomable interface
July 3, 2008 12:31 am
Twice this week I’ve stumbled across interfaces which I’ve found irresistable and blog-worthy. The first is PicLens (not brand new this week – but certainly within living memory ie: several months). The second is the Zoomii interface for browsing Amazon books.
PicLens is a Firefox 3.0 plugin which allows you to navigate through sites such as Flickr, YouTube, Photobucket, MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo, Google and this week Amazon in 3d. When you enable PicLens, images and videos appear in an almost 3d infinite wall which resizes and zooms according to the velocity of your click n’ drag. (It’s so responsive that it gives me motion sickness…) When you click on a thumbnail, the interface becomes 2d while the image zooms up and resolves itself, quite rapidly, into higher res. The whole experience seems a lot faster than navigating a space like Flickr in a regular browser. This may have something to do with the ability to see more images simultaneously, in an environment which mimics our visual perspective in the “real” world. I like not least because I feel it assumes an intelligence in the participant/user.
Like Piclens zoomii offers a click and drag interface, but without the 3d immersion. Zoomii utilises many of the same navigation metaphors as Google Maps, so it’s instantly familiar that way. The attraction here, is the ability to browse books almost as if one were in a physical bookshop. It’s a welcome move away from the functional, yet incredibly dry visual environment of a regular Amazon page. Currently zoomii offers only a couple of hundred thousand titles from which to choose (quite a lot really).
Both interfaces prompted me to reflect upon the satisfaction factor in design. For me, both successfully deliver a satisfying experience for the viewer/user/audience, well beyond offering mere eye-candy or a distracting toy. It is genuinely pleasurable using both interfaces because they work at a practical and an intuitive level. They help close the gap between perception and experience. It removes that “arms-length” feeling one can sometimes have when navigating a space. It somehow physicalizes navigating and brings us into greater intimacy with the content. I’m sure that this is only the beginning of a general swing towards more “physicalised” spaces no doubt influenced by the rise of virtual worlds, MMPORG’s and the rapid spread of multi-touch interfaces generally.
Heads-up on the zoomii interface via information aesthetics and Ars Technica
SEED your business by crowdsourcing
June 25, 2008 8:43 am
Image: Mike Rohde
With the US economy described as being in “free fall”, the 3rd SEED conference held in Chicago a couple of weeks ago on 6 June, may be for some, a beacon of optimism in an otherwise bleak and stormy landscape. It was a small, one day affair which apparently attracted a (mostly male) audience of around 300 or so. The message appears to have been simple: “Take creative ideas and turn them into something SATISFYING & BANKABLE” – in other words, do what really fires you up.
Among the guest speakers were Carlos Segura, founder for the digital type foundry T26, Jason Fried of 37 signals, Jake Nickell and Jeffrey Kalmikoff of the über successful Threadless T-shirt community and the apparently mad (but rich and getting richer every day) Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine TV Library (who was apparently “kidnapped” on the day by Melissa Pierce of Life In Perpetual Beta fame – for fun). Of note, is that most of these guys didn’t go to business school and the common philosophy they share is that we should all be ready to “fail as much as possible”. Nickell and Kalmikoff also share the rule of “crowdsourcing” where content is community created, the community manages and grows itself and the community is ultimately rewarded.
Gary Vaynerchuk declares “Now, is the beginning of the gold rush in personal branding. . .”
