king talk

For the better part of this year I worked on installation projects like Streamflow and Holodeck. But in the last couple of weeks I finally had a classic interface project on my desk again.

This also meant that I got the chance to do some interface sketches again; something I almost forgot could be fun. Here are a few things (re)discovered and found interesting.

The Purpose of Sketching

The only reason why I do sketches (and not start directly with, say, wireframes) is to organize my thoughts. When I think about an interface, I always see a few details very clearly in front of me while the big picture is still blurry. Sketching allows me to organize my thoughts, combine them and create new stuff based on older drawings.

Use a Pen you Like

Everyone has a different style when it comes to bringing thoughts to paper and the pen should support that style. I personally need a rather thick pen for drawing and settled with an Edding 1300 felt marker. It is thin enough to write annotations but also thick enough to force me to ignore details in the beginning.

(Paper) Size Matters

I sketch on A3 paper. It is still managable in its size, yet large enough to accomodate a whole group of sketches. I like to draw interesting details next to the basic layout so that I get a clearer idea of the whole composition.

Start Tiny

My sketches grow as my idea of the interface becomes clearer. While the first sketch might be just 5 by 5 centimeters, the last one might fill a whole A3 sheet.

The size of the initial sketches also depends on the pen I use.
The thinner the pen, the tinyer the first sketches should be. This keeps me from trying to figure out every detail in the first sketch and thereby also reduces the fear of doing things wrong.

How do you Sketch?

Do you use similar techniques for sketching or are they completely different? Let me know in the comments!

Fitts law is one of the most important principles in interaction design. What is it and how does it apply to various types of interfaces?

In 1954 an Ohio State psychologist published a paper named »The Information Capacity of the Human Motor System in Controlling the Amplitude of Movement«. It presented a model for measuring the time it takes someone to hit a certain control of a machine, based on the position of the hand, the distance to the control.

The author of this paper was Paul Fitts and his findings are a key ingredient to every measured user interface design process. It was – and still is – glorified by many designers and engineers, probably most notably by Bruce Tognazzini, the first application software engineer at Apple. He even developed a set of questions about it which he would ask every aspiring software engineer. So what’s so important about it? Let’s have a look. continue reading …

In our ongoing effort to do some video documentation for recent projects, our focus now turned to the Center for New Technologies at Deutsches Museum, Munich.

As you might know, the exhibition opened in late November last year, featuring an enormous amount of interactivity. Every single one of the 33 huge display cabinets has a touch sensitive glass surface under which various objects and screens reside. By simply pointing his finger, a visitor can access different levels of information, combining the benefits of digital data with the tangibility of real objects.

Watch the video to see how it works! More information can be found on the official portfolio page.