The Latest Entries

Everything is Worth a Point: The Future of Game Design (DICE 2010 – G4tv.com)

DICE 2010: “Design Outside the Box” Presentation Videos – G4tv.com

Jason Schell shows us what we can learn about a possible future by looking at the present popularity of Facebook games like Farmville and Mafia Wars.

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What the iPad Means to Us All

Back in February, just after the iPad was announced, I happened to have been sitting at the kitchen table of a country house in Western Massachusetts, a good 15 minute drive away from the nearest wifi connection. The house has no cable TV and its lone computer has only a dial-up connection to the local college. The woman of the house, Anne, is in her 60′s, a grandmother, and won’t turn the computer on for fear that she might break it.

Anne told me that she wanted the iPad. When I asked her why, she just shrugged. “It seems like it could make so many things easier than how I do them now.”

This is a woman who is technologically-averse that, until a few years ago, was afraid to pump her own gas.

It got me thinking as to what, exactly, the iPad would change about our world. More importantly, what won’t it change. And most importantly: why? Keep reading

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Behind the Scenes @ Frog Design’s SXSW Opening Party

Design Mind lets people inside the nitty gritty details of how they pulled off the coolest opening night party I’ve never attended. Augmented reality Porta Potties?

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Why Journalism Died

First, there was the village herald. And then came the almanac, and then even later, the newspaper.

And then came the television, and then, later, cable television.

And then came the Internet.

None of this is mentioned in this Onion video. But it’s all right there if you look close.


Breaking News: Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere

Logorama: Best Animated Short Oscar 2010

Francois Alaux, Hervé de Crecy and Ludovic Houplain’s Oscar-winning animated short film, Logorama, is a hard boiled story set in a world where everything is a logo.

You’re welcome.

OK Go and Rube Goldberg

I thought about how one goes about creating a Rube Goldberg machine – and the more I thought about it, creating Rube Goldberg machines is kind of what I do.

More on that later.

For now, here’s one of the better Rube Goldberg machines, made possible by the creative technologists at Syyn Labs.

MITX Mobile Presentation

On Friday the 19th I was honored to be asked to speak on mobile application strategy as a component of a service to customers. The presentation was short – 12 minutes long – but I hoped I conveyed a bit of value in that time. Hell, Justin Timberlake, Timberland and Madonna only needed a third of that to save the world.

You can read more about the event, including my illustrious co-speakers - Raj Aggarwal of Localytics, Steve Brykman of Apperian, Anna Callahan of RaizLabs, Dan Katcher of Rocket Farm Studios, and Yoni Samlan of Active Frequency - at the MITX blog. Thanks to Katie for covering the event, to Hill Holliday for hosting, and for Jaime for putting the event together.

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The State of the Internet

Creative agency and data visualization specialist JESS3 put together this onslaught of figures and numbers on what we do online. It does of nice job of showing some staggering figures without harping on their significance. By the time it takes you to register that Asia has nearly three times the number of Internet users as North America, you’re on to the next staggering figure.

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Speaking@MITX: On Designing iPhone Applications

If you’re a UX designer or developer and you’re interested in learning about the hows and whys of designing mobile applications – specifically for the iPhone – then this event is for you.

I’m honored to be a member of the panel of experts for the MITX event “Designing iPhone Apps: It’s more than just beautiful coding.” on February 19, starting at 8:00 pm. Mobile experiences present a new level of design challenges, and the panel of folks assembled is second to none:

  • Steve Brykman – SVP, Lead Strategist, Apperian
  • Anna Callahan – Software Developer, RaizLabs
  • Dan Katcher - CEO & Co-Founder,  Rocket Farm Studios
  • Bryan Maleszyk – Senior Consultant, Experience Design, Molecular (that’s me)
  • Yoni Samlan – Partner, Active Frequency

This promises to kick off a great year of MITX experience design events. I hope to cover the basics, but I’ll also be talking about some of the mobile experience topics: Augmented Reality, Location-Based Services, and maybe even a bit about the iPad.

I’m Looking forward to mingling with the great folks above, – and I hope to see you there.

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LaunchCamp Session:5 Ways to Develop Your Product

LaunchCamp, an open one-day conference for early-stage entrepreneurs and “intrapreneurs,” we put together by the good folks at Fresh Ground PR, took place yesterday at the Microsoft NERD center in Cambridge, linked with Social Media Breakfast Boston.  I had the pleasure of facilitating one of the break-out forums on product development.

The session was filled with great minds, and as usual I learned at least as much as I imparted. For those of you not at the session, here are the top 5 things we learned:

  • Think small. Break things up into small, manageable problems. Focus on the smallest possible challenge, innovate for solutions.
  • Converse. You’re solving people problems. Get them involved. Find influencers - on Twitter, in support forums, in private communities. Go where they are and get them involved right now. Show you care.
  • Listen. Social media presents the unique opportunity to listen. It’s cheap and it’s free.
  • Fail. Solving small, manageable problems gives you more room to fail, which mean more to room to innovate. Lots of small, focused failures nearly always lead to a big win.
  • Know your value. More importantly: Know you have value.

Bonus: Read Four Steps to the Epiphany. Apparently it’s good. I just ordered it.

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