One of the most exciting aspects of interface design is the process of constructing new perspectives — discovering new frameworks that help explain how we behave, what our expectations are, and how they are met. Constantly analyzing and re-evaluating behavior and expectations helps identify good design patterns – and identifying good design patterns makes way for creating new, engaging designs.
To give a specific example, back when I was drafting the foundational ideas for Spatial Computing, I needed to wrap my brain around what a “3d interface design” meant and how it would work. I figured that a good way to do this would be to take a look at the interaction design paradigm that exists for things before 3d input — all types of input from 2d to 0d. Here’s what I came up with:
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I was just in the shower and I made a huge realization:
I am focusing all my creative energy in the wrong places.
See, I would consider myself a thinker, a doer and maker. I’m an inventor, a designer and engineer. But looking at my life lately, I’ve been spending a majority of my energy trying to be something that I’m not — a brand.
This desire for a brand identity comes from an honest place. A year or two ago I began scaling back my work because I felt like it wasn’t really getting me where I wanted it to. I had expectations that I was an artist, and as such, I needed to do artist behaviors and have artist things. The logic being that doing this would get me into some important gallery or some cool press attention.
So I tried to design a brand and I built a website. I went to more events and started schmoozing. I started to dump a disproportionately large chunk of my energy into inflating this identity of “Phedhex” with the idea that this could be a brand that could get me things.
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First off, many many thanks to everybody who submitted. Matt & I received lots photos and are really impressed by the quality of the photos! It was pretty difficult to finally decide on a winner, but here ya go:
& the winner is:
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(Please click on the photos to view full size… these thumbnails don’t really do the photos justice)
Photo was shot by Jason Eppink. IOU $50, buddy.
What a beauty! Crisp, bright, and nicely saturated. Matt and I also liked how it gave a good sense of size while still managing to evoke what it feels like to be standing there seeing the whole thing.
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I’d also like to post a few of the many others that were also being considered for the prize:
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This was shot by Tim Szetela. Tim had an entire set of very high quality photographs (and a number of videos of the animations).
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This cool little animated gif was done by Corey Menscher. Gives a good sense of space & depth. (you have to click through to see the animation).
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And lastly:
Matt Parker (the other guy on this project) took this shot. Looks good. He wasn’t actually considered for the prize money, but I figured I’d share this photo w/ you all anyhow. : )
Thanks again!
w00t!
The redesign includes a couple of cool new features. Most notably, the old… uh… plain design, has been updated to this cool, new hex design. This includes visual updates all across the site, including the mailing list page, the about page, and the empty splash page.
plain white, courier new... glad to see some color now...
The second thing the new site has that the old site sort of didn’t is a project index page. I compiled all the work I’ve done and placed it in the projects page. It may still need reworking as time goes on, but I’m pretty happy with it so far.
One of the things I noticed when building the projects page is that I had never uploaded any footage from The Imhotep Project. So I uploaded it and listed it in the projects page.
Lastly, the comments on blog posts or project pages are post it notes. I think that’s pretty darn cool. I had to do some minor PHP coding to allow the commenter to pick out which color post it they wanted to use, but I think it was totally worth it.
Hey all!
Think this is cool?
Then you’d be interested to know that colleague Matt Parker and I built one that’s roughly 8 feet tall, 10 wide, and 8 deep. We were initially going to just document it for ourselves, but construction went so quickly we found we had some extra time to do a little exhibiting.
So if you wanna see a room-sized volumetric renderer, the exhibition is open at ITP Thursday and Friday from 7:00 – 10:00.
Additionally, in the interest of getting some awesome photos, $50 and a props in the blog goes to whoever sends me the best photo of the event!
Directions to ITP:
Take the RW to 8th or the 6 train to Astor Place.
4th floor of 721 Broadway (south of 8th st, btn Waverly & Washington).
