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Viget's Peyton Crump has collected screenshots from his research on data-driven timelines of news.

http://www.viget.com/inspire/timeline-views-of-the-news/

This is video showing the interaction design of a Surface interface to configure the Audi A4.

Audi A4 Car Configurator by Neue Digitale / Razorfish in collaboration with Realtime Technology AG. Showcased at this year’s IAA - the world’s leading automotive fair. The application allows multiple users to configure an Audi A4 simultaneously by changing the car's paint finishes, rims and by selecting and coloring style package components. The configured A4 is experienced in an immersive 3d environment, in which users can navigate seamlessly by zooming and panning using a multitouch-enabled interface

View the video on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/6796111

I'm becoming more and more intrigued by the latest offering of inexpensive touch screen PCs like the MSI Wind Top that have been released recently, as well as the rumored Apple Tablet. I'm excited for the penetration of touch interfaces on higher resolution desktop applications, which will start to spread at a much greater rate to a wider audience when we see low cost devices like tablets and touch screen desktops at netbook prices.

The researchers behind BumpTop released a new commercial version of their desktop interface software that shows how Windows users might begin to use their touch screen PCs before Microsoft releases its own touch interface. You may recall the demo of BumpTop for Windows tablets that was initially demonstrated in 2006 and published in Proceedings of CHI 2006. The recently released $29 product for Windows 7 is a desktop overlay that allows users to access, manipulate and filter objects on their desktop using a piles metaphor.

If Apple comes out with a tablet, I'm sure will see a lot of similar interfaces using their dock piles. Watch the video above to see how the app transforms the Windows desktop, or check out the BumpTop page for more info.

http://bumptop.com/

Caterina Fake, founder of Flickr and Hunch, talks about why working hard isn't as important as working on the right things. Or as I once heard on a cartoon as a kid... "you have to work smarter not harder."

Much more important than working hard is knowing how to find the right thing to work on. Paying attention to what is going on in the world. Seeing patterns. Seeing things as they are rather than how you want them to be. Being able to read what people want. Putting yourself in the right place where information is flowing freely and interesting new juxtapositions can be seen. But you can save yourself a lot of time by working on the right thing. Working hard, even, if that's what you like to do.

I loved that paragraph. I also loved the anecdote about Watson and Crick, the scientists who discovered the structure of DNA, and how their discoveries didn't come from hard work, as much as from being in the world thinking, experiencing, allowing ideas to happen. I think there's a valuable nugget in there to product developers about that space that's sometimes needed for creativity that isn't valued enough and understood.

Creating features to compete, building, and accretion without the relentlessness to say no and focus on the right things isn't the path to quality and excellence. The right path in product development is kind of like finding the right path in life. Asking the hard questions about the things that matter and prioritizing effort around those things is hard work. But it's not working hard on the wrong problems, for the sake of working or existing. It's defining what is meaningful and pursuing those thing with fervor.

Thanks to 37signals for the link. Read more at Caterina.net.

http://www.caterina.net/archive/001196.html

The jQuery Slider Gallery article on jQuery for Designers provides a tutorial and demonstration for using jQuery plugins to create a scrolling gallery similar to the scrolling showcase on Apple's product pages.

http://jqueryfordesigners.com/slider-gallery/

Jared Spool talks with Todd Zaki Warfel about his forthcoming Prototyping book to be published by Rosenfeld Media, and got him to talk about his 2 years of research while working on the book.

Todd's firm, Message First, utilizes prototypes as a core element of the design process and has been giving a series of presentations and workshops recently to describe his research into the different prototyping practices of UX pros, and talk about the utility of the prototype. He engages clients early on in generating ideas, and uses the prototype to quickly get something in front of them that comes as close to the experience and behavior they might expect from their product. He provided a little bit of insight into their process.

It may surprise you that they start with rough, black and white sketches which they share with their clients both early and often. Whereas some design shops may work hard on a prototype for three months before first showing it to their client, Todd thinks that’s a bad idea. There’s nothing worse than diving deep into a design direction only to have it unilaterally shot down in the first review.

Instead, you need to get your client to give you lots of feedback very early in the process, starting with basic and rough sketches. It will save both sides a lot of time, effort and frustration. Once the design direction is solidified, Todd and his team move their prototypes into color and interactivity. The Messagefirst crew is now often jumping straight to HTML, CSS and JavaScript for the higher fidelity mockups.

One of the things I took away from this talk was that the best prototyping tool is the one that your most familiar with and know how to exploit to communicate the ideas. That said, there comes a point where the tool you use, whether it's Visio or OmniGraffle, Powerpoint or Excel, shows its limitations at communicating well enough. And this is why so many people jump more quickly to HTML prototypes.

This is essentially where I am today. I'm strong enough in the tools I use and have extended them beyond the capabilities they were created for. But what Todd and his team are doing makes sense. He engages clients early on with sketching exercises, and continues to ideate and refine on paper until they have a strong direction, and then they begin to demonstrate the ideas in a format that feels like the product.

Listen to the podcast on UIE.

http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2009/09/23/spoolcast-prototyping-experiences/

John Maeda wrote a short article for Huffington Post about simplicity and humanizing design, what it has meant for the software developed on Apple products, and what it means for the future.

The respect so many designers have for Apple is possibly bourne out of reverence for the philosophies that lead to reduction, simplicity, and the humanizing of user interfaces. Maeda talks about Jonathan Ive in this regard, citing his ability to make something real and human by getting his hands dirty. These people, he says, are the ones who will drive creativity and innovation in what they do.

Maeda's take on the future of design seems to be that the national emphasis on left-brain thinking alone will not be enough to drive economic development.

You can read more at Huffington Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-maeda/technology-design-apple_b_291748.html

The paper prototype is generally used as a design tool and even usability testing tool, but the folks at IG Index have figured out a creative way to use sketches and paper prototypes as a communication tool in place of wireframes for demonstrating interaction to development teams. Martin Belam posted video from UX London 09 of Jane Austin, Chris Neale and Frances Eida discussing this simple method of taking wireframe/storyboard sketches or paper prototypes, and creating stop-motion animation to demonstrate interface. Wonderful stuff. More at Currybet.

http://www.currybet.net/cbet_blog/2009/09/uxlondon_redux_jane_austin_chris_neale.php

Larva Labs' Intelligent Home Screen is a home screen replacement for Google Android devices that provides an information stream or feed.

It divides the stream into 2 panels: private information on top (messages, calendar events) and public information on bottom (stock quotes, news). It provides color-coded category markers, and a draggable menubar that allows the user to selectively change the volume of information between top and bottom lists, and when pushed to a single end, provides focus on that category. A multi-click toggle on the right icon of the menu bar allows you to filter by shuffling through categories.

Nice use of direct manipulation to set volume and filter the feed. To get the full demonstration, click the video link on the product page.

http://larvalabs.com/product_pages/intelligent_home_screen.html

Fred Beecher did an informal usability test of 2 conversion apps for the iPhone--Convert and Covertbot--and wrote up a thought provoking review regarding the relationship between playfulness and usability. Convertbot could be viewed as the more playful and whimsical of the 2 apps. He writes:

Fun isn’t always the new usable. There are situations in which usability is more important than playfulness and those in which it’s the other way around. The delight that playfulness contributes to an experience depends on the context surrounding that experience.

...

[W]hile playfulness is undoubtedly an important new focus in user experience design, it’s not a panacea. User experience designers need to understand when playfulness is more effective than pure usability in inspiring delight and vice versa.

Fred observed that playfulness wasn't always favored, but that "playfulness is more effective at certain levels of interaction and when there is a clear benefit to the user to learn the mechanics of that playfulness."

With regard to the use case of converting measurements, his small sample favored the less playful interface that required less to learn. Clearly the dimensions of frequency of use, and specificity of the use case are big factors. The quick information need when converting a measurement is nothing like exploring other kinds of information-rich environments. But the exception in his test points out that once she learned how to use the playful app, she preferred it better. What I'm wondering is, how do you determine when playful comes at too large a cost? What is the point where the burden of learning is outweighed by the benefit of use?

He's suggesting that ultimately UX designers need to understand the balance between playfulness and usability, and the goal is to deliver appropriate experiences that achieve sustainability while making users enjoy using the product. Again, I think audience, context, and use case seem to be key factors. Read the full article for more.

http://userexperience.evantageconsulting.com/2009/09/playfulness-usability-context-delightful-user-experience/