Steve Jan » Design

Everything is a Remix

admin — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 16:56:32 +0000

Creativity isn’t magic. Part three of this four-part series explores how innovations truly happen.

Everything is a Remix Part 3 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Nokia N9

admin — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:08:47 +0000

In this video, Marko Ahtisaari, Nokia’s SVP of Design, announces Nokia N9.

It only takes a swipe to get to what you want with the Nokia N9, and it all floats beautifully on the large, curved display. Stay in touch with people, news and events. And browse the web. Quickly. Get around with free maps and navigation. And take great pictures with the 8MP camera. The Nokia N9 makes it all smooth, effortless and gorgeously stylish.

Projeqt CMS

admin — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:54:15 +0000

Much has been said over the past few years about the future of publishing and content on the web. Terms like “transmedia storytelling” and “cross-platform publishing” are tossed around like giant balls of cotton candy — delicious, fluffy but, ultimately, without much substance. And while certain platforms have made multimedia storytelling possible for publishers and visual artists, none offers a truly holistic proposition.

This week, the launch of projeqt offers hope for a platform that does it all and then some. Dubbed a “creative storytelling platform,” it’s Tumblr meets Slideshare meets Cargo Collective — only a more flexible Tumblr, a sleeker Slideshare and spanning more media than Cargo Collective. And if this isn’t enough of a treat, it’s also device-agnostic — built entirely in HTML5 for cross-platform compatibility and specifically optimized for iPad and iPhone, projeqt is part publishing CMS, part portfolio-builder, part something else entirely.

Projeqt CMS Tutorial from projeqt on Vimeo.

Don Norman: The three ways that good design makes you happy

admin — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 19:09:23 +0000

In this talk, design critic Don Norman turns his incisive eye toward beauty, fun, pleasure and emotion, as he looks at design that makes people happy. He names the three emotional cues that a well-designed product must hit to succeed.

Minority Report Style Sales Interface

admin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:57:31 +0000

From time to time we come across some interesting technology that has the potential to revolutionize industries.The 3 Live Shop from Sweden, could potentially be one of those technologies, this customer service and sales experience brings real time to a whole new level. Developed by B-REEL, Teenage Enginering and Isotop this really is Minority Report stuff with touch screen technology that allows sales agents to drag, drop and scale content and explore multiple options with customers. This technology has the potential to streamline and truly transform the customers service and sales experience.

Jacek Utko: Can design save the newspaper?

admin — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 15:28:14 +0000

A great story on how design can make a big difference for a companies and products if you go about it correctly. Polish newspaper designer Jacek Utko tells how his revolutionary designs have actually grown circulation and revenue at papers all across Eastern Europe over the past few years.

David McCandless: The beauty of data visualization

admin — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 20:11:15 +0000

David McCandless turns complex data sets (like worldwide military spending, media buzz, Facebook status updates) into beautiful, simple diagrams that tease out unseen patterns and connections. Good design, he suggests, is the best way to navigate information glut — and it may just change the way we see the world.

Mathieu Lehanneur demos science-inspired design

admin — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 20:06:39 +0000

Naming science as his chief inspiration, Mathieu Lehanneur shows a selection of his ingenious designs — an interactive noise-neutralizing ball, an antibiotic course in one layered pill, asthma treatment that reminds kids to take it, a living air filter, a living-room fish farm and more.

The Era of Connected Intelligence / Freescale

admin — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:59:30 +0000

Freescale’s vision for “The Era of Connected Intelligence” illuminates a world of seamless interactivity — a world without PCs. Freescale CSMO Henri Richard offers his perspective on our connected future: an array of smart mobile devices, the connected car, smart grid, telehealth and ‘wireless everywhere.’ All of these developments will result in improved efficiency, new types of services and even new forms and delivery channels of entertainment.

SPB Mobile Shell 5.0 on the Android

admin — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:33:26 +0000

One thing that Windows Mobile and Android have both benefited from is 3rd party user interface overlays to add a more user-friendly experience, as well as other features such as additional homescreens, swipe gestures, and more. While Nokia has done some of this type of thing on the N97 and N97 Mini, clearly there’s nothing wrong with more choices. We’ve looked at some options, such as vHome and Handy Shell before, and typically walked away quite impressed with the Symbian developers out there. Recently, our friends at SPB Software let us know that the latest update to SPB Mobile Shell was going to blow our minds, and sent us a review copy.

I decided to test SPB Mobile Shell on my Nokia N97 to really get a good idea of the potential performance issues, given the N97?s pathetic choice of processor, RAM, and internal storage. I figure, if it runs decently on the N97, it’ll run decently on dang near any Symbian-powered smartphone out there. The installation file is 6.5MB, and when installed, reports taking up just that on my phone. RAM usage seems to be around 10-12MB, which isn’t much more than the regular built-in widgetized homescreen on the Nokia N97. After several days, I was also pleased to report there wasn’t any noticeable battery drain from using SPB Mobile Shell v3.5, either.