Contemporary design

The design work going on at MIT over the pond right now is very cutting edge with regards to interactive design, one such feature is the Anemone interactive menu design. Instead of your customary drop down menus design that is the norm in various GUI's this is a growing 'plant like' effect java applet that the user clicks on and drags the file they want which in turn grows into a whole new menu showing you the files within, and so on and so on.

This new form of menu design is great to look at and interact with, but functional use of it may not be as simple as the usual drop down menus so I doubt whether software company's in the future will resort to anything as radical as the anemone. space on screen for software such as Flash is a luxury most designers cant afford. So having something like the anemone as a way to access the various tools and options may be the future regarding the effective use of workspace within software such as Flash or Photoshop

Saying that one website has embraced this new form of menu (though not as extreme), the thesaurus on-line. The menu sets for this website are web like in appearance which has words linked to the word you’re searching and they in turn when clicked on have there own links.

This does make for a more enjoyable user experience not only because it’s a bit different from the norm but it’s a more visual experience than the traditional linear drop down menu.

Liverpool Museum (now called the World Museum)

The new look World Museum in Liverpool, has changed. The facility has up and moved down the road, from the old building to a more modern facility,with this the museums interiactive experiance has changed.

The first initial interactive experiance is the touch screens which are situated throughout the building. The ground floor screen shows the layout of the building and the various times of the many shows and exhibitions on offer, it is a simple touch screen system with a swf movie running the ineractive features. Interacting witht the portal is made at the users choice and you dont have to use the touch screen as the infomation on screen is displayed on the museum walls as well.The portal has a nice 'schematic' layout regarding the visuals and is simple to use. So even if you have never looked at a touch screen before in your life you wouldn't find it hard to navigate.

The symbols and floor numbers for each floor matched the museums layout (as seen in the picture on the left) this helped keep continuity and ensured that visitors to the museum could find out where everything was and then transfer that knowledge to the building itself .

The theatre on the 2nd floor was the most impressive of the interactive features of the museum, with the latest projectors which were HD ready the staff at the museum host interactive experiances from around the globe. for example a camera on a forty foot cane was set up in Belize and from the theatre members of the public were allowed to move the camera via web link and explore the countryside. It doesn't sound like much but the possibilites are endless with this feature, for example similar explorations could be broadcast from space or the depths of the ocean allowing the audiance to interact. This would appeal to all age groups and as long as the user feedback was instant i believe it would be a fulfilling experiance.

during the tour various interactive portals were shown to us with different themes that where linked to the feature they where placed in. The first thing i noticed about these portals were that children flocked to them more so than the exhibits themselves. They were a simple setup (like the touch screen situated in the lobby) a swf file game or movie which simple in itself represented the section of the museum the user was in. These interactive features were short with little feedback apart from whether you completed the task correctly, they offered little if any educational value.

One which was a bit more useful and did incorporate the museum artifact it was related to was the miyan scroll exhibit. this exhibit had a touch screen situated next to it which allowed you to look at the miyan scroll more closely and each page at your leisure . This being impossible with the piece itself as it is placed in protective casing to preserve the item, so being able to interact with it was a worthwile experiance. The touch screen itself was nothing complicated just a flash movie again with a zoom feature that allowed you to zoom in on the scroll and as your mouse rolls over you recieve information regarding the scroll on screen. This was a change from the linear information plates that would have been their in most cases had this interactive feature not been set up.

It gives the user the chance to filter out anything they don't want to read about and concentrate on the information they do. This interactive feature was hardly used compared to the others as this was more educational than entertaining thus the children who did look at it turned away when they realised it wasn't a game. more adults looked at this feature, though as soon as the kids ran off so did they.

When the tour entered the Space exploration floor it was interesting to see the old interactive features that remained from the old museum this allowed a comparison with modern features and there origional cousins. The main difference i found was the old interactive features which consisted of a button that would activate a light or a audio/video sequence was more educational than entertaining and being really simple to use people of all age groups were able to interact . The feedback was instantainious and being educational felt fullfilling after the experiance was over.
The only zone that surprisingly didn't have an interactive feature was the dinosaur exhibit, their was only the information plates placed in front of the dinosaurs that offered information, but im sure in time a feature will be added to this exhibit.

The new PSP: Evidence of poor design

The new Sony Play Station Portable (PSP) is here and with the ability to play games and Universal Media Disc (UMD) films as well as whole lot more, this handheld device should be the gadget of the year.

but as with most multi function devices problems arise when all these extra features are present on the one device. The PSP is evidence that huge companies are still guilty of poor design.

Due to the large screen Sony have sacrificed the functionalityof the primary controls, it has effected the square button (a problem which Sony is well aware of) and caused problems with dead pixels on the edges of the screen.

A report by G4 gaming magazine has highlighted that the game makers for the PSP have also complained about the UMD function within the PSP as it has influenced the way they have had to produce games. The games companies complaining the software running the games is not functioning properly because of the UMD software.

Proof that big companies such as Sony can still make errors were the design of their products is concerned is shown in the PSP. These areas of concern however did not effect the sales of the PSP which have soared.

FACT/Liverpool

On a recent trip to FACT Liverpool I witnessed the new exhibition "Rock the Future".

This was a very unusual exhibition as the individual was asked to interact with the pieces instead of being a passing witness to the art on display.

The 1st piece we encountered was a simple box room painted in chroma key blue and at the centre of the ceiling was a small printer printing of small snippets of news chosen randomly from the internet.

Half the time the news had no meaning but putting them together created some strange results and even inspired. On entering the piece their was an explanation on the wall but I and many other people did not read this so we entered the feature with out knowing what was actually going on. This piece appealed to all ages with kids just loving the fact all the shredded paper was like snow an adults waiting to see what will pop out next from the printer on the ceiling. It wasn't a particularly challenging piece and didn't offer a sense of satisfaction when finished participating.

Another piece which was interesting involved three computers with graphic tablets that the user could interact with and when drawing on the tablet they interacted with the room itself. The lights would go off and sounds would be played depending on the speed of the pen on the tablet. Plus in an adjacent room people could see there art being reproduced for everyone to see on 3 big screens, this was also linked to a website where there art would also be displayed to be looked at again and again. We all had the habit of just running in and not finding out what the piece was all about again but upon working it out the art had a more satisfying experience than the previous room with the creations you made being published on a website you have the chance to experience the art again and again.

Overall the great thing about this piece was you ended up drawing to influence the light and sound and less to do a good picture which I suppose made re-looking at the art pointless as the design you had created was just a squiggle.

The third piece we encountered was a, plain white room with a painted walkway bending through multiple items that have been donated from people who live in Liverpool. These items are completely varied from Halloween masks to model Audi TT's. In the adjacent room it was painted black and has a massive screen with a projection of all the items in the other room randomly picked and then effects applied to them to alter their appearance. This was more a passive piece you just sat and watched the items have effects applied to them but with the effects and images randomly chosen you never saw the same image twice.

Again this did have the ability to inspire as no one image was the same again either being mixed with a different image or having various effects applied thus creating original art. That seemed to be the main feature of all the pieces, the fact that each piece encourages the user to interact and make their own art and not be just a passive viewer.

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