Category Archives: Interaction Design

I’ve always been really bothered by the term ‘form and function’. It somehow implies that form is outside of function. As if they are two completely separate things. In fact, I think form and function have a relationship that is a lot more blurred. That in fact, form is part of function.

Filed in Inspiration, Interaction Design, Technology, Theory, Visual Design | Comments (0)

I really like the idea of using a second finger as an amplifier of an action in multitouch systems.

Filed in Interaction Design, Touchscreens | Comments (2)

Thinking about underlying structures of sentences and how they relate to interaction design.

Filed in Interaction Design, Theory | Comments (7)

Looking at some apps for both iPhone and iPad, I discovered some of the best of them have placed controls in ways that best match the ergonomics of our hands while holding them, particularly the saddle joint of the human thumb, with its ability to roll in a particular almost-45 degree sweep. In order to access other parts of the screen requires a reach with the index finger or an extension of the thumb to access it. … Put the high-use controls in the Easy zones, and controls that are less used (and certainly those you don’t want accidentally pressed) in the Reach zones.

Filed in Interaction Design, Touchscreens | Comments (20)

I’m a long-time user of the Mac Twitter client Tweetie. Tweetie was so well done, Twitter purchased them and made Tweetie the official Mac Twitter client (renamed to just Twitter). Yesterday was the launch of its new version, one that many of us have been waiting over a year for. Especially considering the fantastic update to Twitter.com and the excellent new iPad clients such as Twitter’s own, I had high expectations for this release, and sadly, Twitter did not deliver. Twitter 2 for Mac is a major disappointment, flawed on many levels.

Filed in Interaction Design, Product Reviews, Visual Design | Comments (3)

Many of the projects we do at Kicker involve new technologies, so I thought I’d put some thoughts down about how to do that and how to think about those kinds of projects.

Filed in Interaction Design, Speaking Summaries, Technology, Theory | Comments (0)

Microsoft’s Kinect (and the subsequent awesome hacks) has raised the rallying cry of “Where’s my Minority Report interface?” Trust me when I say: you don’t really want one.

Filed in Gestural Interfaces, Interaction Design | Comments (5)

Let’s say there are two interaction designers, and let’s assume they work in same medium. Online, let’s say, just for the sake of argument. You know their work; you’ve seen other products they’ve launched. They are both competent designers, at the top of their craft. Now imagine I pointed you to two new web apps that these two designers had done (separately). Could you tell which interaction designer had done which? Chances are, no you could not. Unlike other design disciplines, style is a subtle thing in interaction design.

Filed in Interaction Design | Comments (2)

Things to keep in mind when designing for different types of touchscreens.

Filed in Interaction Design, Touchscreens | Comments (1)

A talk by Mike Kuniavsky at Kicker Studio’s 2010 Device Design Day.

Filed in Device Design Day, Interaction Design, Technology | Comments (0)