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XR Twitter Ice Cream Social on High-Fidelity
XR Twitter Ice Cream Social on High-Fidelity

Design With Tools - by Local Projects @ IxDA

Design With Tools - by Local Projects @ IxDA

Notes from the team that created the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum and parts of the 9-11 memorial. "Creating an immersive digital experience is a hard challenge that designers take on daily. However, there are select projects that go beyond the screen and bridge over to the physical realm. With breakthrough technologies within the Internet of Things (IoT) and brands reinvigorating their retail shopping experience and startups taking their brands offline (e.g. Warby Parker, Birchbox, Bonobos), there is an ever-present need to keep the customer engaged throughout both their digital and physical experiences. And find ways to make both experiences as seamless as possible.

Local Projects will be showcasing specific projects where the design challenge required immediate insights thoughtful planning along with flawless execution from both a research and design perspective."

Nerve Controlled Prosthetics

As a teenager, Les Baugh ran into a set of power lines. The electricity “just evaporated" him, leaving him without arms.

They told him he would not walk. They told him he probably would not live more than a few years.

They didn’t bother to tell him he would never uses his hands again.

He performs a lot of daily tasks with his mouth and face.

Now he is “testing an advanced robotic prosthetic created at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory.”

““These limbs. They are mind controlled.” ”
— Les

"You got the picture in mind of how you want everything to be. It takes a while to achieve that."

““When it don’t move quite right you start pushing yourself. You want it so bad. But it’s still out of reach.””


When he grabs it.

The look in his eye says victory.

It is a multi-year process of clinical research and commercialization which means Les cannot live with his arms yet.

Screenshot 2015-05-21 12.15.10.png
““The limbs should become part of them, not them becoming part of the machine.””
— Johns Hopkins member

"It’s basically more back to human. Being a whole person.” - Les

How it works:

Targeted Muscle Reinnervation - free nerve endings that formerly controlled muscles…

brain thinks “open the hand” > fires the end point of the nerve > contracts that muscle > sensed by prosthetic and mapped to coordinating pro-limb.

NYT Tags: Prosthetic limbs, controlled by thought.

h/t http://www.nytimes.com/video/technology/100000003693281/the-bionic-man.html

RSVK

Photo by Paul Chun

Photo by Paul Chun

New York City - a city of 8 million lonely people
 

“In New York, everyone is trying to chill by themselves. Our goal is to bring everyone together.”
— Andy K. of RSVK

The best Integrated Design thesis from Parsons I've seen. Possibly one of the best Parsons thesis projects ever. They didn't just have a design and plan for bringing people together. They brought different people from different passions and design professions together. A creative and collaborative night.

RSVK - Raw Standard Vision Krew - is an artist collective & recording label based in NYC. Their talent hails from across the USA and the world.

Design Challenge: Digital Watch Faces

This Creative Mornings Field Trip was held at ustwo’s new office in FiDi. Really their office is a whole floor of a federalist building that must have been a bank.

Wearables are quickly becoming a part of our everyday lives with the advent of Android Wear and Apple Watches. Designing for such tiny devices has become a coveted design skill. How do we decide which information we show? How do we stay digitally authentic? How do we make something look good enough to wear? These were some of the questions the ustwo team tackled whilst designing the collection of Android Wear watch faces you can see today. Join us in our studio for an exclusive in-depth look at how this project came to be, the unique challenges we faced, and how we overcame them.

Then, imparted with our team’s design principles, take the challenge yourself by sketching your very own digital watch face. We’ll choose our favorite of the bunch and mock it up!

Here’s what your morning will look like:

• 8:30 - 9:00 AM - Studio tour of ustwo New York

• 9:00 - 10:00 AM - Digital watch faces presentation & workshop

ustwo New York Studio Tour

Origin and Work

The two founders of ustwo created a firm and started by designing icons for Sony feature phones 10 years ago and now has four offices including their New York location.

 

Team Structure

30% UX
30% UI
30% DEV

work

70% client work
20% games
10% joint ventures 

Encouraging UI / UX to be product focused.
[probably 10% of the headcount is for strategy and other]

Clients: Google, Sony, Nook etc.

ustwo may be most well known for their mobile game Monument Valley.  

Screenshot 2015-05-08 13.29.06.png

They even have business inquiries through their games' popularity as industry members appreciate the quality of design and execution.

Culture:

They have a Gender Equality Task Force as they note women are underrepresented in technology.

 

"A big culture of feedback.

A place where you can sit down for honest and constructive feedback. And feedback is a gift. You give it because you want to improve.” - Carl

Every Thursday they have new speakers come in like Hyper Island

Every Thursday they have new speakers come in like Hyper Island

Double - to allow remote visits and a co-ambiguous presence from other offices

Double - to allow remote visits and a co-ambiguous presence from other offices

Global leadership accountability

Hearing what’s up from the bottom up

Hearing what’s up from the bottom up

They really use their wall space. Not just for illustrations, but a structured use of blue tape and sticky notes.

Shaun Tollerton presented the previous an overview of the market of android watch interfaces as well as the 20 faces that ustwo designed. He spoke to the rationale behind the designs.

Digital Watch Faces

From data interpreted watch faces to the human element, noting "People love to customize their watches. That's something we've learned." "People wear a watch face so it has to look good. It's not just an app." - Shaun Tollerton

Principles for Designing Digital Watch Faces

1. Be Zen

2. Be Glanceable

3. Make it Work

4. Show a Single Expression.

Workshop

The challenge was to design a digital watch interface featuring the weather by using the design principles ustwo just taught us .

What we came up with:

Love Forecast

Created by a front end developer with a keen visual eye named Cameron and yours truly.

Branded through collaboration with the creator of the watch face that ustwo will visually take to the next level. Excited to see how Tolly of ustwo takes it to the next level.

Thanks to:

Casey Hopkins @CaseyHopkins
Shaun Tollerton @Tollerton
Carl Martin @CarlMartin

Join Creative Mornings
Check out ustwo
 

Parsons SDM: Design Intelligence Conference

Parsons SDM: Design Intelligence Conference

"This year’s conference will be driven by the  question: What Can Design Intelligence Do? Through the immersive day-long experience we will explore these questions from various perspectives and sectors and through the course of the day have the opportunity to talk about design in the context of new economics, new models, and new work."

Biometric Passports

Which countries have biometric passports, which do not?

Biometric passports available to the general public

Announced future availability of biometric passports

Countries without Biometric passports.

Less than 13% of African nations have biometric passports.

How are biometric passports used?

220px-EPassport_logo.png

The chip is part of a process in a larger system.

Biometric passports also open us up to new security threats and like biometric data being stolen.

Better questions:
What other good forms of identification are coming out?
What methods and artefacts that allow people to travel with ease? Explore new lands, conduct safe business, visit loved ones?

Data via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biometric_passport