For my lunch break, I checked out the Foodspotting Street Food Festival, where a nearby car park was transformed into a 'food truck' park, with mobile food wagons of all shapes and sizes (including a schools bus) serving delicious food. The queues were long, but the Korean/Mexican fusion, and Texas-style hot dogs made it way worth the wait.
Session 9: The Refrigerator Speaks. The Secret Language of Things. [dual]
Chloe Gottlieb (@chloalo) - VP of Interaction Design, R/GA
Will Turnage (@wubbahed) - VP of Technology, R/GA
Hashtag: #smartthings
Myth of the smart fridge
- For 20 years, it has been the icon for what the future can represent.
- More than 50 prototypes have come and gone, but none never made it to market.
- fuckyeahinternetfridge.tumblr.com
- "Even if the fridge talks, the food can't talk back"
Convergence or Converging?
- Computers do not always look like computers. They have gone undercover.
- Data is available everywhere.
- We are more digital everyday.
- Our actions are plugged into digital systems.
- 'Smart' devices are the interface between the physical and digital.
Possible scenario (current)
- Sam is asleep with a wristband measuring her bio rhythms.
- It wakes her up at the most efficient time.
- It is also linked to the rooms temperature control, and is made slightly warmer as she wakes up.
- She checks her weight and the scale sends data.
- She takes an energy pill with a tiny chip inside, an ingestible event marker that is absorbed by the body.
- Runs with a Nike+ GPS watch.
- When she returns, she checks all the morning's data as well as the historical data on the iPad which is on the fridge door.
- The fridge is out of milk - she takes a picture of the empty carton with the iPad, and is automatically added to the shopping list.
- She rides to work on a GPS enabled bike.
- It works out how much fuel she saves by not driving to work.
- On the way back home, the 'fridge' reminds her she's out of milk.
What makes devices Smart?
- Sense --> Analyse --> Remember --> Recommend
Other notes
- System vs Things: People experience 'things'
- The interface is the gatekeeper
- UX: less like a spreadsheet, more like a window
- Adam Greenfield - the "smart city" - If sensors are invisible, what does it mean for privacy?
- Triangulate data: e.g. Bathroom scale + Foursquare + iPad = Tonight.im
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Session 10: Fun With The Lights Off. Interactivity Without Graphics. [panel]
Panellists: Adam Hoyle, Margaret Robertson, Paul Bennun, Tassos Stevens
Hashtag: #papasangre
I was put onto this session by 3 of the guys on the panel, who I met on the hotel shuttle on the way into the Convention Center the day earlier. Essentially it was the story of how the iphone game 'Papa Sangre' was developed - a game without graphics, and only sound.
It got into really interesting territory as the interaction design does not necessarily have to be about signs or iconography. The challanges of building a game that you navigate only through sound is immense, and the panel spoke of their experience from a technical and design perspective.
Here is another Ogilvy Note for the panel.
Also check out a vimeo of someone playing the game. It is touted as a 'horror game', and let me tell you - it is terrifying.