The personal blog of Michael Massie
Taking inspiration from this lamp idea (left), by Andreas Müller - the lamp goes from on -> dims -> off according to its orientation to pointing North. I’d love to build a variation (right) that uses a servo motor to automatically point the needle itself at whatever the object of your affection.
Finally got to take some shots of this book.
Congrats, again, to Suzanne Ginsburg on the release of: Designing the iPhone Experience
Pick it up here on Amazon.com
Great post on the OSX moving “Traffic Lights” and minimizing cognitive load
In a system where e.g. a window close button has a fixed position in a window (area) your brain is very good at translating your spatial memory of where that close button is from a sort of “relative” memory into absolute coordinates on the screen. Our brains are very good at these kinds of things, so they are a versatile tool in the field of interaction design. So by moving around the “traffic lights” you force the user to employ visual aid when about to use the “traffic lights”, which in turn drastically increases cognitive load.
(Source: mmassie)
Since selling the house and the inevitable move back to an apartment, I find the shrinking of space a somewhat exciting challenge, but I wanna hide everything behind art. I have all these ideas running around about, modular paintings that can install over hide-a-way utilities, like the ironing area in this drawing… makes me wanna call IKEA and work on making some of these things. Now, unfortunately moving to an apartment means no more workspace to start cutting wood for a prototype. #irony
Fini! In a prior post I talked about wanting to get smart people together, in Milwaukee, to make things: People that have ideas, people that can design and people who can write programs. Today I am happy to say that October 21st, at 6PM at Transfer Pizzeria will be the first Study Hall.
Thanks everyone for your support and I hope to see you there!
-Mike
So yeah, editable board with date, county (maybe by GPS), etc. Might be fun at parties. Anyway, I get a free copy if you make it.
via Flickr
Home is a place where social objects add value over novelty.
After reading about Social Objects and how they have not quite come into focus, I couldn’t stop thinking about the potential for inanimate objects to talk, have a history, or contain data. It became pretty clear (especially as being a fairly new home owner) that there would be a huge advantage if your homes appliances and components could talk - and not in the conventional use-case of your refrigerator letting you know when the milk is bad.
How about when your furnace needs maintenance, water heater needs scheduled service, air filter needs replacement? With a database handling details about the device, time stamping and alerts - You now can be notified of warranties, end of lifecycle, link to user manuals (could have come in handy when trying to find the oil holes on my furnace), repair history, etc.
This can all be done quite easily with a Stickbits type barcode that links, not to a little web note, but a little more of a robust database (but not overly complex). This way emails can remind you that the air filter has been in for 2 months, roof should be inspected, etc. This would be very handy when purchasing a new house as well - scan the barcodes and now you know exactly what state all your appliances are in the house (e.g. the water heater has about 2 years left).
Square Groups - An idea about how this could be done:
In my last post, I talked about an opportunity for Square to expand their current offering allowing us to switch our profiles and take money for charity, a high school fundraiser, etc. Above is only an option (mock-up above) on how I think they could do it:
It would be an option under “Accounts” that allows you to add a group/charity to take payments on behalf of. This would be by an “Add a Group” field which would prompt you to either search for a group, or to type in a a group/charity’s PIN ID. Type in the PIN and this would pair the device the that particular account/org.
Once the pairing is complete you have the option to switch between profiles to allow you to be able to switch over to your Group/Charity account to start taking donations at a Meetup, or anywhere.
Made some room for creativity on a new homepage by splitting the blog off to is subdomain
Friday Über went production release of the version with my UI designing, and I gotta say, “I love Über!”
The recent release of Pulse for the iPad seems to best what was to be Nik and my next product, which was code named Oatmeal. Code named Oatmeal cause it was to be, “the only thing you need in the morning”. So sad, but glad to have a great option out there… now we just need a better Twitter app for the iPad. Above is a mock-up of the app and it’s interactions.
“To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful.”—Edward R. Murrow
Users approach most products with an expectation of honesty. Things should do what they say, behave in an expected manner and reinforce their decision to use…
The Smart Alarm 2.0
I am very excited to actually start getting some work done on version 2.0 of the Smart Alarm, the app that started it all for me. Nik is out of school for the summer and we’re hoping to get the app ready for OS 4 (allowing it to run in the background), a little UI refresh, and some other enhancements yet to be disclosed.
You can also show your support, or appreciation, of the app by sporting this as your iPad/iPhone Lock-out Screen: Download on Flickr.
You can follow the progress here
Thanks everyone for your continued support.
