New uvLayer…now on TechCrunch

14Dec08

Been busy with a new baby, the holidays, and of course shipping our latest release of uvLayer (Beta 3)!  It is exciting to see how far we have come, and it is always nice to attract new users.  Thanks go out to Jason Kincaid of TechCrunch for his recent coverage.

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Some smashing visits

18Aug08

Latest review of uvlayer, from Smashing Magazine.  We are covered in their piece on 10 Futuristic User Interfaces. Thanks for the post guys.  We have some exciting new features coming soon.

Welcome to the Future!

 

update:  Looks like this article has made the top 5 in technology on digg.

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Tags: futuristic user interface, uvlayer

Drive By Shootings in San Jose

12Aug08

Lots of drive by video shootings of uvlayer in San Jose last week, here is where I get shot by Marcelo Lewin, for the EXPOzeShow.com.  Definitely not my best work but I’ll let you be the judge.  The target audience for the clip is content creators.  

More importantly we showed off the recently updated, enhanced, and soon to be released share module. The conference was suprisingly buzzing considering it was the middle of summer.  And to head of the inevitable questions about my shirt, yes those are birds.

Here is one of Will Johnson presenting uvlayer, this one was shot by Tim Street, the man behind French Maid TV.

Filed under: devices, review   |  1 Comment
Tags: Building Blocks, San Jose, video

uvLayer gets StumbledUpon

21Jul08

Kinda funny that StumbleUpon is called that, since recently we were added to one of their categories (software) and to us it feels more like a packed highway of users were diverted to uvLayer more than a couple of users stumbling in. We had some amazing traffic in the last few days and have received solid feedback from some of the new users on uvLayer.  Most of the traffic has actually been directed to the AIR application download page, but it feels good, so no complaints here.

I think StumbleUpon is similar to uvlayer in that they are trying to enable users access to content online by filtering it socially and making it easier to get to (i.e. push of a button) clearly it is a very different execution from “uv” but we have similar goals.

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Tags: StumbleUpon, traffic, uvlayer

Ready to chuck your mouse?

17Jul08

Well the BBC reports that Gartner is calling time of death on the mouse in the next 3-5 years.  I hope so.  I’m definitely ready to ditch my mouse and wish I could recycle my keyboard along with it, however I don’t think it will happen in that timeframe.

Thankfully, iPhone sales are helping drive touch based device sales. HP is advertising their Touchsmart devices and Dell is starting to make some noise about theirs, however PC turnover just doesn’t happen that quickly.  Also at the end of the day the design paradigm for applications on these devices need to switch to take advantage of touch capabilities, kinda like what happens with processing power, it takes a while for those new processors to get out there in the marketplace, then to reach a meaningful saturation point, which then drives software creators to take advantage of the new power, but unfortunately unlike my example this is not just an upgrade in power but a whole new way of interacting with the computer.  It will require new user behaviors and understanding as well as new applications that harness the power of touch.  The good news is touch should be a lot more intuitive then the unnatural keyboard and mouse that we all had to learn.  

Time to chuck em?!

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Tags: gartner, iphone, mouse

Radiohead in 3D

16Jul08

Just read about the Radiohead video for house of cards done using Papervision3D over at Google at InsideRIA. Definitely one of the more creative data visualiztions I have seen to date.  Gotta give em props. Visualization of data has primarily been driven by the analytic types/businesses and is in desperate need of creative boundary pushing approaches.  Now we need to find the soft gooey center of visually presenting meaningful anlysis of data that is equally pleasant to look at and is easily understood in very little time.  I think Apple has been pushing this agenda the most with their uses if iconography on the iphone, things like the calendar icon changes date, the color of the time/clock being black or white depending on time of day, etc.  These designs seems so obvious once put into practice and when we interact with the, but actually practicing this type of information visualization is very difficult and tough to get right.

Filed under: design   |  5 Comments
Tags: Papervision3D, Radiohead, RIA

Let’s improve the interface, not history

25Jun08

Eric at TechCrunch in his latest post mentions that VC Thatcher Bell commented about Google,  “This is a really good way for a search engine to get input from a human and for Google to make money. It is not the best way for a human to interact with a computer.

He argues that more intuitive Web and search interfaces, like SearchMe, are needed.”

When discussing or presenting uvlayer, we state that we are trying to innovate on the presentation layer to create a better digital media user experience (we are still in beta and iterating but we are getting there, turns out it is hard to make things fun and easy).  This assertion is sometimes challenged by something like “it works fine right now” or “I am not sure there is a need for this” however my favorite response is the no response with blank stare, often accompanied by frequent blinking.  Usually this is before they have even seen what we are working on, meaning they disagree with the assertion.

Huh?  

I am pretty sure this is what Google founders faced early on, “We want to make search better!”,  reply “there are lots of search engines and they work fine right now”.

Ironically, I use Google as the example for our founders’ frustration, because it is often cited as an example of great user design to us in meeting when we show our product as if,

1) Google “designed” the entry HTML box

2) typing in words in and scrolling through text links is somehow “intuitive and user centric” 

3) the other search engines (and there were a lot) didn’t shape peoples behavior for years before Google showed up on the scene, basically teaching users how to enter text into the search box and scroll through the lists of links.

Now, Google did a great job on making the results relevant, but they have done very little on the user interface to make it better for the user.  Sure they simplified the page by taking off the clutter of links and surrounding images, the result is a fast loading page where the info comes up quickly. However these were engineer oriented optimizations, not an attempt at making the search experience better for users.  I can already hear the argument coming “getting the results faster is a better experience”.  Maybe.   But was that Google’s perspective? Maybe it was to get you to click faster, and more, to drive revenue and usage. It isn’t optimized for a pleasant user experience, in fact the only pleasant part is when I get to the site I intended to visit.  True, I only get there due to relevance but that is not a result of the interface, that is the algorithm.

Google is great example of improving search technology that borrowed other designs and piggybacked on the shaped behavior of users of search engines that came before it, however Google as a great example of design is revisionist history.

Luckily Apple with the iPhone is blazing the way for natural interfaces, once users get a taste of that touch based interaction they will expect it,  hopefully the uvlayers and SeachMes of the world will be ready for them.

It also sounds like others are starting to want us to succeed.

Filed under: design   |  2 Comments
Tags: google, SearchMe, Thatcher Bell

Just Scratching the Surface

13Jun08

Finally went to the AT&T store in nearby San Bruno to check out the Surface implementation they have running in the store.  Essentially the application is Point of Sale (POS) kiosk that allows users to compare cell phones, plans, and look up coverage on dynamic maps.  The UI was well done, aesthetically pleasing, and very responsive, however the physics were a little more than necessary (meaning you could really flick an object from one side of the screen to almost off the screen) but I am sure this was more for show of Surface’s capabilities than geared for usability. 

The quick summary on my visit- a nice retail experience.  

However, “nice” was not what I was not really what I was hoping for and I had to wonder why only nice?  I am obviously a big supporter of this type of technology and want it to succeed. However, after the inital fun in sampling the unit, I realized the actual application was far from compelling.  Objectively I had to take a step back and ask myself a few important questions: Is this helping the sales person do their job? Did I as a customer feel compelled to take any more action having used this technology, meaning movement down the consideration path towards purchase? Was the experience so compelling that I would by from this particular store versus another store?  Was my overall in-store experince enhanced?  For the most part the answer to these questions are not really.

What is disappointing is that most of the early Surface implementations have been POS/Retail/Transactional based applications.  My assumption is that this is because it is easier for Microsoft to sell clients the touch based kiosk model that has been around for years and commercially used for transactional type interactions (for example e-tickets at the airport, movie theaters, etc.). 

But, it has been around for years so it isn’t new.  

Also, these kiosks don’t need true multi-touch to be successful, in other words these POS type applications are easily accomplished with Surface but do not highlight the capabilities or possibilities of the technology. It is sort of like using a Lamborghini Murciélago to go to the grocery store, not terribly efficient or a good use of what the creators of the car envisioned.  All you need for POS is a touchscreen hooked up to some sort of PC, and usually not a particularly powerful one, definitely not one that is $10,000.

Hopefully we will see companies leveraging this type of technology to extend their brands and customer experince as opposed to just facillitating simple transactions. Surface has the opportunity to open up the out of home market for a lot of companies, especially those who are already creating compelling digital experiences for their customer online.  However they should do it in a way that leverages multi-touch and NUI, in order to create an immersive exciting experience for their users.  This would be a worthy investment.

For any interested companies, if you need any Surface help just drop me a line.

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Tags: surface, nui, POS, AT&T store

More going on with Input

11Jun08

Techcrunch covered Camspace today, they are a group that has created an application that allows nearly any ordinary PC webcam to track up to four objects, as small as 5mm, in real-time with high accuracy and reliability, also locking and tracking (X,Y,Z control) is automatic.  I have mentioned similar efforts here before, however the exciting news here is that this innovation is growing and spreading around the globe. It is clear that developers are showing a heightened interest in input beyond the keyboard and mouse.  Making this technology affordable and accessible is the first step to going broad with this innovation. The next step in advancement will be building applications and creating compelling content that will cater to these new forms of input.  Games and multimedia will most likely be the focus of early applications but what will be next?

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Tags: nui, input devices, Wii controller, CamSpace, webcam

Design changing the world

06Jun08

A post on the importance of design from Joshua Porter was appropriately picked up by Techmeme today. Technology and design are becoming inextricably intwined, and users will be the beneficiaries.  It is exciting to see how users are making conscious decisions on what they feel is well designed technology or experiences. Intuitively users have always known what works for them, however with the growing coverage of the importance of design in media and understanding of its impact to technology, has led to a new found perspective that starts to put the user into a “critic” type role.  

This will force greater innovation and lead to better designed experiences. User centric design will change the world.

Word.

Filed under: design   |  1 Comment
Tags: techmeme, user centric design