The Economist has put up a very nice web special about the sources of people’s inspiration. While the content is certainly worth a closer look, what completely consumed me was the navigation. Fragments of images are projected on cubes that are arranged in space. The interesting part is that there are certain angles from which the fragments form images.

While this kind of navigation is impressive and great fun to use, I can’t help the feeling that I might have read much more of the content if it was presented in a more straightforward way. The site illustrates just how fine the line between great user experience and distraction really is.

I’m a huge fan of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers, which means I have tremendous respect for John Cleese. In this video, he is talking about how he started writing, what helped him and what hinders the creative process.

One of his main points is that interruptions kill creativity, especially when you try to do deep thinking. Now, I know that these days it is en vogue to  promote lateral thinking and group thinking as the golden way to be creative. And certainly that kind of thought process carries great value and produces interesting results – as a matter of fact it is how most projects here at envis precisely get started.

But in the end, it only represents a small part of the creative process. The rest is mainly deep thinking, developing narratives and solving problems (and of course pushing pixels and lines of code). And this is where focus and concentration are sacred. Cleese makes a compelling case here, as he has more experience in being creative than most people out there calling themselves designers. Writers like him are probably among the most skilled people when it comes to using creativity, simply because they have to create both, a problem and a solution and weave them together into a story.

I really hope that this way of thinking gets back some traction in the design community. It is easy to point at a pile of post-it notes and label that »creativity«. But for every post-it, there is a story of an idea yet to be developed – and those stories deserve more exposure.

As i love supporting good friends when they produce such awesome work, i thought i would post something that a friend has recently been involved with. The video responds to the Munich 2018 Winter Olympics hosting bid. The interface design and animations are by Marc Osswald.

Marc was approach by Schusterjungen & Hurenkinder and Technik und Design GmbH in München to produce an interface system that would coincide with making München stand out as a vibrant and inspiring city to host the famous winter games in 2018.

The interaction helps the viewer navigate themselves around the famous Germanic city of München. The user is able to explore around the ‘proposed’ sites that are being turned into Olympic and tourist hotspots. Many of us already know that München last hosted the games in 1972 in where the Olympia site still stands to this day; I hope that if München wins the bid that the old site will both reflect and being incorporated in a way that responds to its history.

The interaction was used as a showreel piece during the winter Olympics this year in Vancouver, Canada! Bravo to Marc for such nice use of interface design!

This blog post may not intentionally be an interactive or design based bulletin, but i found the idea behind its concept to be very interesting to follow especially from a creative standpoint because it uses technology to represent human form and this is what interactions do to their audiences. They attract attention.

The man behind the project is well known American music video director Spike Jonze. His latest short film entitled ‘Im Here’ tells the story of a computer based robotic man who lives an ordinary life but sacrifices it all because ordinary just isn’t good enough. The film consists of a love story with a twist. The power of giving what you have to someone else.

I found this film very interesting to follow as a viewer. Not many directors bring their true imagination to their artform. A very personal idea but presented with a formidable and audience enabled understanding. The short film last’s around 15 minutes and is well worth a watch if you enjoy great cinematography and a story that brings technology to life. The trailer does not give the film much justice so go ahead and watch the full film. Check it out online here.

Mark Baskinger is an interaction designer and associate professor at the School of Design Carnegie Mellon University in the US. He shares his views about how you draw up your ideas to communicate interactions. I agree with most of his points. One question that got me was do we rely on the iphone to outline interaction design principles for future devices? What do the Envis-Precisely community think of his statements??

I first stumbled upon Rhonda some months ago (how the hell could I not write a post about it then!?). It is a very interesting 3D drawing application made with openframeworks. The basic idea is to always draw in 2D, but to be able to rotate your drawing around any axis at any time, thereby creating three dimensional wire artworks. You get a pretty decent impression from the demo video on their site.

What’s new is that Rhonda now has a sister project called Sonic Wire Sculptor, which is all about music. The y axis translates to the pitch of a note and the whole drawing is revolving in 3D. Again, the demo video gives you everything you need!

With iPad pre orders being taken in now ready for release within the next couple of weeks, we have agencies and developers all over the world trying to create new software and applications to be available on release. Its an exciting prospect actually, designers are really stepping up to the game and working on projects that will really bring out the Ipad’s A4 chip to life.

I stumbled across this recently, its a project currently in production by Bonnier R&D and BERG. They are attempting ways of best viewing the printed format on a digital medium. Its entitled MAG+. Its a collaborative research project by the two agencies and its fundamentals couldn’t be more appropriate for the coming weeks. We’ve seen other versions of software which have integrated printed format onto a digital screen over the years, but for this project to be so unique from the others; are that each aspect of user integration has been taken on board. A more meaningful experience can be obtained and controlled.

I gather this video is around 2 months old now but i thought it was still a very nice take on Augmented Reality. Worth a look for anyone who hasn’t come across it already. It was produced by Keichi Matsuda who is currently studying at the ‘London’s Bartlett School of Architecture’. Her approach gives me the idea that she wanted to look at things through the loophole, things we will expect to see in the future through our own eyes in a perspective we only nowadays visualise two dimensionally.

‘Bumptop’ went Mac enabled a few days ago so i thought i would go ahead and discuss some features of Bumptop and what it has to offer. I originally was introduced to the software around 2 years ago via a TED talk video that discussed the idea by CEO and co-founder ‘Anand Agarawala’.

After having the beta available for Windows a couple of months ago, the full version has now become available on both Windows and Mac.

Basically ‘Bumptop’ is a new way at looking at your desktop. A new form of integration between you and your files. Clearing up your workstation and adding personality to it, similar to that of a personal office space.

Their are also alot of other really cool features, add-ons and skins that can be used to intergrate Bumptop capabilities. You can find more information about ‘Bumptop’ here.

Lets start my first post back with a discussion about the RCA (Royal College of Arts), and the shows that took place in London a couple of months ago. The RCA is renowned for producing some of the finest designers around the world and it continues to produce great quality of work and inspiring designers. The college offers a range of MA programs that are related solely to the arts and media based subjects. The college is located right in the heart of London, South Kensington. Known attractions in the area include the; Science Museum, Natural History Museum, V&A and Royal Albert Hall just name a few.

This leads us on to the recently established ‘Design interactions’ course that is offered. It is a relatively new course but has progressed and excelled pretty fast over its first couple of years. I had the opportunity to attend the end of year shows during the summer of 2009 and was extremely impressed by what had been achieved to date. The level and talent of work was extraordinary.

The work that is produced is usually alot more varied and experimental and can differ from other interaction courses that are offered in other countries around the world. Their were alot of new, exciting & innovative ideas that were attracting agencies and exhibitors from all over the world to make the effort to attend. I very much look forward to attending next years show to see what the future graduates have up their sleeves. The show definitely gave out an excellence to be valued upon that considers education from a Masters level and standard of work.

In relation to the show, i throughly enjoyed the toaster project by ‘Thomas Thwaites’ (www.thomasthwaites.com).

Basically a project about creating a working electric toaster from scratch using only the raw materials that get used to produce a toaster in an ordinary factory line. I found the idea quite amusing at first glance but after you read about the process he has taken, it becomes quite an interesting concept on how to produce an object that is sold for the smallest amount of money nowadays by using only your two humane hands.

He describes the idea as ‘Absurd’ and by far it truly is, but at the same time a wonderful craftsmanship because of its uniqueness for being wity to do it yourself.

You are also able to view a selection of the final year work from the design & interactions course ending 2009 at: —  http://www.di09.rca.ac.uk/

If you would like more information about the Royal College of Arts, visit — http://www.rca.ac.uk

Enjoy & stay interactive