Take your friends to SCHOOL!!

I almost forgot to post this!! Classes start super-soon so sign up now and improve your lazy self! You can choose from:

- Microcontroller Progamming for Artists: Introduction to the Arduino System
- Fun With Fiberglass: Basic Composite Fabrication
- Fuzzy Logic: Intro to Soft Circuits
- Musical Instrument Building
- Building Music & Video Controllers: Creating Sensor Instruments with MidiTron

all worthy endeavors! All at LEMUR in BKLYN!

There's other stuff happening too, so ... check it out already >

Science Visualization Challenge Winners

The National Science Foundation has announced the Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge winners for 2008 and there's some great stuff in there.

Shown here is "String Vibrations" by Andrew Davidhazy, Rochester Institute of Technology

Atmosphir: the LEGO of video games?

check out this video from TechCrunch

Atmosphir is a free game and game design tool for Mac and PC. You create 3D interactive adventures using "blocks" such as a sand castle tower, fireball-breathing bird, or trap door, to create your own levels and then share them with an online community.

Their goal is to become "The LEGO of video games".

You can sign up for their Beta now. It still needs a lot of work but has a lot of potential!

more about the product >

Nice Site for Art Openings and Events

ArtSlant.com
Already listing tons of events, they have subsites for NY, LA, Paris, SF, Chicago, and the mysterious "Elsewhere"

Check it out >

Another Snot-Related Product

Baby Nasal Aspirator (AKA Nosefrida)

Of course, invented by Swedes. The snot doesn't actually reach your mouth, there's a stopper in the end.

But still, EW!

http://nosefrida.com/

Marketers Turn To Flip Books in Ailing Economy

Great article from MarketWatch.com!

" Recognized as one of the earliest forms of interactive media on record, flip books are making a comeback despite a rapidly declining U.S. economy and slashed marketing budgets. "Marketers are taking cues from the past in order to harness feelings of comfort and stability for their current marketing communications. As a result, they've rediscovered flip books," said Jeffrey Kay, President of Flippies, who produces millions of custom flip books annually for businesses who use them primarily as interactive brochures, event giveaways and trade show handouts.

"History has demonstrated that flip books are the ultimate recession-proof marketing tool," said Kay, who points out that flip books have successfully survived -- and even thrived -- through six previous U.S. recessions, the Great Depression and countless economic downturns. "Right now, flip books are to marketers what meatloaf is to comfort food. And in this age of multi-platform, high-tech interactive marketing -- the simplicity of flip books is not only refreshing, but its illusion is more captivating and engaging than ever."
...
Companies or individuals interested in creating their own custom flip books can visit Flippies online at http://www.flippies.com for more information.
"
read the full article >

Waterfall vs. Agile Development

As a user experience architect, I'm nervous about going into my next project using Scrum. I've done it before and unfortunately came out of it feeling like Agile development was an excuse for the programmers to get to skip the design and research phase of a project and jump straight into development. It makes my job harder as a user experience architect because I can't do wireframes and I have to work with user stories when the conceptual framework doesn't feel stable yet. Like deciding how many wheels your vehicle is going to have before you've even decided if it's a car, train, or bike. Or maybe you'll just walk.

As someone who designs interfaces for a living, I am not sure I like the idea of programmers getting started without having a wireframe to work off of. Still, I'm willing to try. At least I'm being involved early in writing the user stories for this particular project, so I feel like I have some control over the experience...perhaps i'll write some that are like, "as a user experience designer, I am consulted throughout the process so that the website doesn't launch until I think the design makes sense and works well" !! Just kidding.

Anyway, I found a presentation by Maria Giudice of Hot Studio that I really enjoyed. It shows a diagram of what I think is a happy compromise: using the waterfall method first and then agile closer to the development phase.

Human-centered design meets Agile Development

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: user-centered ucd)

More Crazy / Cool Wine Containers

It's a drinking glass this time, from the sculptor who brought us the cool decanters, Etienne Meneau! (see previous post)

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more info from Etienne Meneau:
Blog The Strange Carafes : http://the-strange-decanter.blogspot.com/
Album photo Little Heart : http://verren1.blogspot.com/
Information & orders : etiennemeneau@free.fr