Written by David Charney
Posted: April 19, 2009 (1 year, 4 months ago) | 0 comments
I don’t know why I didn’t upload this a month ago but here is a new iPhone design for MyDoppleGang concept. I took an early design I had done and converted it to fit on an iPhone.
MyDoppleGang lets you take a picture of you or your friends, and find other people (Dopples) who look just like the picture! Mix it up by finding people that look the same but with unique characteristics, such as being old, young, or even the opposite sex.
Written by David Charney
Posted: April 18, 2009 (1 year, 4 months ago) | 0 comments
The Travelers - In Synch Challenge site has been around for a while but is still the definition of a site that uses fantastic user centered design. I work in the education and training space every day and this site still jumps off the page for me. It takes a fairly dull topic and delivers a visually enhanced, engaging user experience that drives the user to explore, interact, and be challenged - all while learning. There are few sites who do such a great job utilizing video, 3D animation, audio, strong instructional design, and engaging challenges to tell a series of educational stories. My hat is off to B-Reel and Fallon who did an excellent job putting this together and Travelers Insurance for taking the initiative to provide a great learning application.
Written by David Charney
Posted: April 17, 2009 (1 year, 4 months ago) | 0 comments
The snow is gone and it is time for that age old process of designers and developers stretching, unhinging themselves from their chairs, wiping the pixels from their eyes, and letting the sunlight actually hit their skin (SolvingDesign recommends a sunscreen of about SPF 90 until your skin understands sunlight). Here are a few events occurring soon in Chicago:
RIApalooza
Friday, May 8, 2009 (9am to 5pm) - Illinois Technology Association - Chicago, IL http://www.riapalooza.com RIApalooza promises a platform agnostic and “PowerPoint-Free” zone, which means we are going to forgo the boring marketing pitches in favor of talking technology. RIApalooza is about creating Rich Internet Applications; how to go about building them and what is being built.
Flash in the Can - FITC - Design & Technology Event
June 22-23, 2009 - Chicago, IL http://www.fitc.ca/event_detail.cfm?festival_id=94 Now in its 3rd year, FITC Chicago is back with some of the most unique and engaging presenters from around the world. FITC Chicago is a blitz of presentations and abundant networking opportunities, its an event that will leave you inspired, energized and awed.
Written by David Charney
Posted: April 8, 2009 (1 year, 4 months ago) | 0 comments
Hey all - Here is a great article on Gizmodo about BumpTop. The idea seen in BumpTop is not necessarily new but BumpTop does a fantastic job of creating a true environment that lets you feel more in control of your computer, your files, your life. If you have Windows 7 you can download a free version from the BumpTop website. Check it out.
Written by David Charney
Posted: April 5, 2009 (1 year, 5 months ago) | 0 comments
There are a few tricks of the trade used when developing menu systems that I wanted to discuss. First, the goal is to build an intuitive, usable system that gets or leads the user to where they want to go. We don’t want our users getting frustrated and then tell everyone how annoyed they were using our menus. So in this installment of Building a Better Menu we are going to discuss… wait for it… the delay.
Delays can be used to smooth out usability by keeping sudden, unexpected events from occurring. You can use the example below to recreate these events.
The Problems
The user may need to roll the mouse past the menu to reach something lower or higher on the page. What we don’t want is the sub-items to suddenly pop open as we know the user does not intend to interact with the menu.
The user rolls over the first main-menu and a list of sub-items appears. They then need to move the mouse to the last item available. Unfortunately the second main-menu button is in the way and as the user moves their mouse towards their destination, the sub-items to the second menu appears. The user then has to go back, reopen the first main-menu sub-items, and move the mouse along this menu to keep the switch from occurring.
