From the old, beloved Atari 2600 joystick to the Wiimote, how did we get from there to here?
The “Sock Master’s” family tree of controllers has the goods. There are some classics and some real stinkers like the The Nintendo Virtual Boy Controller. What were they thinking?
[tags]controllers, games, videogames, hardware[/tags]
There’s a well-balanced piece from Patrick Wintourin the Guardian today about parents being shown how to protect their children online.
It reports of a government initiative based on a review by Dr Tanya Byron (she works as a consultant in child and adolescent mental health and also presented quite a few programmes for the BBC on the subject).
I’ve only skim-read the main points of the report (which is available for download in full), but it makes interesting reading. The most important aspect is that she goes quite thoroughly through the pros and cons of the use of technologies - from social networks and general internet use to online videogames. It also draws upon a lot of evidence from children themselves.
It’s nice to see Byron is not pedalling the old ‘it rots young minds and they’re all being groomed by pedophiles’ line, by rather she looks at the complexities of the interactions between parents, children, society and technology:
“Ironically parents’ concerns about risk and safety of their children in the streets and outside has driven a generation of children indoors, where it could be argued they are being exposed to a whole new set of risks.”
It’s good to see some of the onus being put back on parents too. The use of these technologies is not inherently better or worse than what children used in previous generations and I’ve lost count of the amount of conversations I’ve had about videogames.
Arguably the use of these technologies are mostly beneficial, especially in the future that children will be growing into. The real problem is that many parents have no idea about how the internet functions, about social spaces online or the culture of videogames and that really needs to change.
It’s good to see this kind of research and well worth a read - it’s well-written too. (There are also quite a few annexed documents about the methodology and brain development research that background the report).
Photo: uncleboatshoes on Flickr
[tags]Tanya Byron, child development, videogames, parenting[/tags]
If there was ever a clear example of the generation gap between those who have been steeped in digital culture from the start and those who have had to adopt it later in life, the current debate between 37signals and Don Norman is it.
I took note of the original article in Wired on 37signals and I know that Don Norman had weighed in with accusations of arrogance, because he was already quoted in the article. Experientia’s post alerted me to the fact that it’s still going on, and on.
I interviewed Jason Fried back in 2005 and didn’t find 37signals arrogant at all.
What’s weird is that I think Norman and 37signals are actually talking about the same stuff, and even sharing the same opinions in general, they just have different ways of expressing them, and neither side seems to understand the other. Personally, I find Norman’s views on simplicity versus complexity erratic and he too often equates simplicity with minimalism - he rants about it pretty frequently in the Design of Everyday Things and uses the minimalist failures as critiques of simplicity.
Normal mainly took exception to David Heinemeier Hansson saying, “I’m not designing… for other people.†The gist behind this is that they do what Apple does, create things that work for them and hope that other people like them (as they apprently do). But Norman suggests to 37signals how they should really work:
The solution is to decide which customers represent your core audience, and then to observe them at work, the better to understand their true needs. (Not by asking them, not by questionnaires, not by focus groups). Rapid iterations of prototype and evaluation is the key. The iterative design method of rapid prototyping, test, and iteration (all done within the span of a day or so) is well defined in the Human-Computer Interaction community.
That makes me suspect that Norman hasn’t really got a grip on what 37signals do - as a quick look at the (now free) Getting Real book would show. Here’s what they say in the “Rinse and Repeat” chapter:
Instead of banking on getting everything right upfront, the iterative process lets you continue to make informed decisions as you go along. Plus, you’ll get an active app up and running quicker since you’re not striving for perfection right out the gate. The result is real feedback and real guidance on what requires your attention.
37signals strive to avoid feature bloat. There’s a reason that word processing apps like Writeroom and Mellel are increasingly popular. They’re simple and clean. I have great respect for Norman, but sometimes he seems to voice opinions that really reenforce my feeling that HCI is a terrible methodology to study interaction design. It also feels like he’s stuck between two worlds, the old consultant model and the current world of flux.
Jason Fried makes a salient point in their well-written response, comparing what they do to being chefs:
And if enough customers tell us our food is too salty or too hot, we may adjust the salt and the heat. But if some customers tell us to add bananas to our lasagna, we’re not going to make them happy at the expense of ruining the dish for everyone else. That doesn’t make us selfish. We’re just looking out for the greater good.
I think that makes sense, especially in an environment where products can and should be niche, and can and should be changed and tweaked. It’s very different from the product-based world that Norman hails from.
*Photo credit: mcdemoura
[tags]HCI, 37signals, simplicity, Norman[/tags]
Some will argue that I’m weak-willed, but I have made a 180-degree change of opinion on the merits of the One Laptop Per Child project thanks to Tom Coates’s article.
I’ve been pretty cynical about the OLPC previously because I found the rhetoric not really matching what I had seen (limited as that was). The main issues being whether children need laptops versus food (of course, both would be possible), the environmental arguments and also the accusations of utopianism. Tom’s piece neatly kicks those issues into touch from the outset:
For me, it comes down to the way we want to operate in the world. It’s extremely easy to adopt a pose of scepticism and cynicism about any attempt to change things or push them forwards. I’ve said before about a particularly aggravating tech commentator that naysaying is a sure-fire way to look sensible and intelligent without any of the effort of actually having to think. I stand by that, and I think the OLPC project has had its fair share of this kind of thinking.
Fair cop. I think I’m probably guilty of this.
Personally though, I believe that it’s possible to work for the good of all and improve the world. I think it’s a decent and honourable thing to apply whatever means you have at your disposal to raising the aspirations and possibilities of one of the planet’s most squandered resources–its residents. And I do buy the geek rhetoric that access to information, communication and education cannot but help people. As such, I’m prepared to give this project and others like it, the benefit of the doubt.
I still have some issues about the educational theory behind it, but they’re not huge and I think Tom is absolutely right here. Perfectionism is another form of utopianism after all.
It’s always good to read something that turns your opinions upside down. I think it’s important to admit it too.
[tags]OLPC, Tom Coates[/tags]
Those crazy Danes.
Amusing project over at Halfmachine which involved making toilet door signs from LEDs in a club.
Of course, they can be programmed, so they switched them around based on how many times the door was opened in order to facilitate a bit of social connection. It works too, judging by the video.
Playful, social, simple. I like it. I suspect people spent some time trying to work out the system too, which all adds to it.
[tags]LED, halfmachine, Denmark, toilets, signage, interactive[/tags]
That’s My Mouse allows you to see share a web browsing experience with other people. You see their tag moving around as they move their mouse and any changes they make to the page. You can also add pins, write comments, etc.
It has a full API and also simple Javascript snippets to add it to your own web pages.
They seem to be keen for people to try mash-ups with it and use Google Maps as an example of usage, showing someone the way to your house. But I think it could be pretty useful for web designers working remotely to easy collaborate and talk about changes.
If you read Russell’s great post, Reskilling For An Age of Things and sympathised with his woeful soldering skills, these BlinkM programmable RGB LEDs might be just the thing to kick start a project.
They are RGB LEDs with a tiny programmable microcontroller to change the colours easily. You can plug them into an Arduino and program them or you can use their natty little sequencer (see below) to create colour sequences. Think of it as a drum machine for colour.
They only cost $12.95 from Sparkfun. Maybe I’ll actually get around to making something (I might even make something talk).
(Via Tinker.it. More images in todbot’s Flickr set.)
[tags]arduino, blinkm, LED, physical_computing[/tags]
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