rodcorp: rodcorp: Product designproduct development, user experience, usability, accessibilityBooks read in 2002, 2003- July 30, 2003 Rodcorp's books read in 2003 (now you know what we've been doing instead of working) and 2002.http://radio.weblogs.com/0105728/categories/productDesign/2003/07/30.html#a468 Chicago Manual of Style enters the 21st century- July 28, 2003 Not online sadly. Related: Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton's Web Style Guide. viahttp://chronicle.com/free/v49/i46/46a01401.htm UniTap keyboard: smallest single-tap solution- July 23, 2003 Gizmodo notes the new Unitap keyboard, which "works by having a grid of small dot-like keys, so rather than having each dot associated with a specific letter or number, you just press the four dots that surround the letter or number you want". Like Digit Wireless' Fastap keyboard, it is a 'single-tap' method (as distinct from the T9-style predictive text or old-school 'triple-tap') of entering text. Whilst Fastap seems closer to having product in the market, Unitap claims to offer...http://www.unitap.net/ Three sets of cards to help your head make connections faster- July 18, 2003 Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's Oblique Strategies: One hundred worthwhile dilemmas, "each of which is a suggestion of a course of action or thinking to assist in creative situations" Charles and Ray Eames' House of Cards: Comes in five flavours. "The images are of what Eameses called 'good stuff', chosen to celebrate 'familiar and nostalgic objects from the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms'. The six slots on each card enable the player to interlock the cards so as to...http://radio.weblogs.com/0105728/categories/productDesign/2003/07/18.html#a452 Birds and ringtones imitating each other- July 17, 2003 In what must be an attempt to correct the recent tendency of birds to change their song in response to cities and mobile ringtones, the British Library is working with iTouch and Mobiletones to provide authentic bird and animal ringtones for Samsung handsets. Separately, the RSPB is working with Mobileavenue to provide birdsong ringtones for Nokias. The BL's tones are "real tones", the RSPB's are standard polyphonic. BBC: Birds hit the high notes in cities Birds imitate mobile ringtones -..http://radio.weblogs.com/0105728/categories/productDesign/2003/07/17.html#a444 Interesting printers- July 1, 2003 Hektor is an inkjet printer made out of a can of spraypaint and a series of clever, machine-controlled pulleys with this handheld printing device you swipe your hand back and forth and it lays the print (of whatever you bluetoothed to it) down both via boing boinghttp://www.pdacortex.com/printdreams.htm Grafik magazine- July 1, 2003 Grafik magazine is the re-branded and re-designed Graphics International. Worth a look for articles on the interstices between art and graphic design: Julian Opie (of the Blur album cover) and Simon Patterson (of The Great Bear tube map). The Grafik website is sadly less interesting though.http://radio.weblogs.com/0105728/categories/productDesign/2003/07/01.html#a437 |