Thoughts, ramblings and experiments in making sense of a complex Future

This will be the first time I watch my mentor and friend Mike Kruzeniski of Microsoft EXG Group present.

Usually my chats with him were on gchat and he would tell me to be less poetic! This is so cool to watch and learn from.  

Building a new product is hard. In the transition from design to engineering, the subjective qualities of a product often lose out to practical challenges. This session is about an approach and framework that allowed us to sustain the aesthetic principles of an experience, by making emotional quality matter to our engineering team.

MIKE KRUZENISKI-MICROSOFT

Mike Kruzeniski is a UX Creative Director for the Entertainment Experience Group at Microsoft, in Seattle. Before joining Microsoft, Mike was a Designer on Nokia Design’s Insight & Innovation team in Los Angeles, where he worked on projects such as the Nokia 2010 View of the Future, and the concept design for the Nokia 8800 Arte. He has a Master’s of Interaction Design from the Umea Institute of Design in Sweden, and a Bachelor of Industrial Design form the Emily Carr Institute of Design in Vancouver, BC>

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Through a hands-on sketching process, Cottam explores ways of combining traditional design principles, craft techniques, natural materials, and physical computing tools to give modern products greater longevity and meaning.

MATT COTTAM-TELLART

Matt Cottam has been responsible for setting strategic direction for Tellart since co-founding the company in 1999. He provides both inspiration and direction through active involvement in client projects, academic research and teaching., as well as international design and technology conferences worldwide. With Tellart Matt has directed design and strategy projects for clients including Nokis Design, Humanna Inc. and Otis Elevator (United Technologies REsearch Center). Matt is a member of the part-time faculty at the Rhode Island school f Design and an Adjunct Professor at Umes Institute of Design (UID Sweden)>

Digital interactions are moving beyond keypad and screens and into sensing, networked products that inhabit our everyday lives. This session will explore how designers can create engaging experiences between physical products and digital services.

TIMO ARNALL

Timo Arnall is a designer working with interactive products and media. Timo leads an international research project on mobile technology. Timo’s work spans design, media and technology; interested in the ways in which products are used in everyday life, the emergent uses of new technologies and the design of products are used in everyday life, the emergent uses of new technologies and the design of products and services in local contexts and situations.

(Proud to know you guys! You inspire me!)

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I am always rendered speechless by the sheer beauty of BERG (London) work combined with the visual brilliance of Timo Arnall. I dont really know the intricacies of who were involved in the project, but it seems like they had several different teams collaborating on this project. What struck me most about their video was the high quality of the production and the simplicity with which an idea had been communicated. It’s really inspiring to see!

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

Excerpts from the BERG blog:

We’ve been working with our friends at Bonnier R&D exploring the future of digital magazines. Bonnier publish Popular Science and many other titles.

Magazines have articles you can curl up with and lose yourself in, and luscious photography that draws the eye. And they’re so easy and enjoyable to read. Can we marry what’s best about magazines with the always connected, portable tablet e-readers sure to arrive in 2010?

and then later

The design has an eye to how paper magazines can re-use their editorial work without having to drastically change their workflow or add new teams. Maybe if the form is clear enough then every mag, no matter how niche, can look gorgeous, be super easy to understand, and have a great reading experience. We hope so. That gets tested in the next stage, and rolled into everything learned from this, and feedback from the world at large! Join the discussion at the Bonnier R&D Beta Lab.

Recently there have been digital magazine prototypes by Sports Illustrated, and by Wired. It’s fascinating to see the best features of all of these.

I especially love the idea about rubbing and ‘heating’ up content to make things active. As mentioned in their blog, they let the Web be the Web and focus their exploration more on the subtle joys of reading a magazine in the digital realm.

(Image courtesy: BERG London blog)

I’ve been following alot of the projects about digital reading recently and found this concept to be among the better ones by miles.

I aspire to reach near such levels of clarity, honesty and beauty with my work someday.

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