It seems after all the criticism Amazon received on the user interface of it’s original Kindle, they’ve addressed not only some of the concerns but also took some of the suggestions which are now part of their second version of the device. Some of those suggestions included adding speech-to-text capabilities to the Kindle 2.0, making [...]
We’ve heard about the global phenomenon of a population that is aging, yet there are very little talks about what design strategies should be used for them. Other than the classical stereotypes – louder volume, slower pace yet not condescending, pitch within a certain range, more information, etc. – the impact this tech-savvy population will [...]
My appologies for being away for so long. Between the Holidays and the January blues, I’ve been crazy busy (which considering the current situation is something I’m thankful for). Some of those projects have brought in new pieces of information which I’m looking forward to share and discuss – multimodal design and usability, speech-recognition in [...]
I know we’re used to relate the notion of IVRs with arcane self-service over-the-phone systems and IVR jails, yet a company called Moshi found away to leverage the notion of “Interactive Voice Response” in a totally distinctive way. The Moshi IVR Alarm Clock is the first one to my knowledge that allows you to set [...]
As I mentioned here and here, one of the most appealing aspects of the G1 phone is the openess of the platform which allows developers to get really creative when it comes to apps that leverage all the features contained in the phone. One company worth mentioning is JOYity which was recently covered by TechCrunch. [...]
Wow, it seems politic uses for the phone aren’t just limited to campaign messages and voting reminders. (DISCLAIMER: This note is not intended to promote a particular party or candidate, I’m simply using it as a case-study for interesting uses of the phone for UI purposes) Just today I received an email from Sarah@PalinTalk.net with [...]
As a follow-up to my previous post, it was interesting to read David Pogue’s review of Google’s First Phone, particularly in regards to some of the UI Compromises designers had to make on this first iteration of the Android-based phone: The Menu Button – This feature provides context-relevant options based on the current task. David [...]
That’s right! Big news over the past couple of days due to the launch of the $179 T-Mobile G1 device, the first commercially available “Google Phone” in the market. As usual, David Pogue did a great review of the new phone that even tough clearly “borrows” many features from the iPhone, it also takes advantage [...]
Wow, as someone that loves to see old technologies and principles being applied in creative (and unexpected) new ways, I have to say I was definitively impressed by Dialtones (A Telesymphony). As designers, we always struggle with the balancing act of attempting to create new “works of art” that follow some basic principles, yet attempt [...]
It’s that time of year again… If you’re planning to attend next week’s conference, please stop by and say hi. And if you still haven’t decided what presentations to attend, here are a few where I’m participating and which I think will be very interesting (even though I may be a little biased ) Introduction [...]
