One of the main components of my jive project was a tangible user interface, this was meant to be a RFID+TUI but I wasn’t able to create thin enough antennas to work in this manor. That is why there is a RFID Antenna on the middle stand.

The tangible user interface uses Phidgets magnet sensors to sensors when a ‘friend pass’ is placed onto the screen. This then triggers one of three actionscripit animations, the initial design and implementation is really simple, but this is just the beginning.

If you are an experienced AS3 coder and know anything about XMLsockets, I would be great full of a hand to get this prototype working to its full potential at the graduate shows. Also, if it could dynamically load photos from Flickr, or really get Tweets that would also be amazing!

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After reviewing the internet’s and hearing Clive Grinyers podcast at InterSections 2007 InterSections 2007. I have never seen this concept before, even within Bill Buxtons apple overview from “Designing interactions”. Clive only has a short introduction about this concept.

“tangerine’s first project for Apple, where Jonathan Ive began to make his mark. This was one of three concepts based on different types of mobile working. Workspace was for intense, static activity with high feature levels and the ergo “Harley Davidson” keyboard.”

Its an interesting object, and would be great to see a Harley Davidson keyboard in the next iPhone. The short pop-out keyboard on the side seems like a great idea too. So Blog-o-Sphere.. dose any one know more about this concept?

Addicted to Cheap Shopping? Most people believe that prices are constantly rising, but in reality the cost of most consumer goods have been drastically falling over the past 10 years. Libby Potter crosses three continents to reveal how ‘cheap’ has changed the world.
In America she visits the busiest mall on earth – which can house 32 jumbo jets – and the small town where one store revoluntionised the way everything is now sold. In Europe, she meets shopaholics and sees how one retailer totally transformed how we buy. She also goes shopping in the ‘citadel of cheap’ – the largest wholesale market in the world and discovers why communist China no longer wants to be capitalism’s low price manufacturing workshop. But how long will our addiction to cheap last? [S,SL]

This afternoon I saw a BBC 2 program about the state of England’s addiction on cheap shopping. As a product designer, you have think that its my occupation that are making things worse, but this is my design solutions to a couple of questions proposed on the show.

PROBLEM: So many products, so cheap, products are disposable. Recycling centers can’t keep up.

SOLUTION: a ‘Cradle to Cradle’ design response, where each product is easily up-cycled into the same product or even a better product. See my book review post.

PROBLEM 2: There is always a looser in cheap products.

SOLUTION: Yes, Socially resonability can be built into the design. For example during my time at Resolute I investigated VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds) used in our manufacturing process. By designing our products to use a low VOC, we lowered the risk of casnergenic compounds introduced to Resolute workers by 80%. This investing in design and design for the assembly line and the environment add an extra cost to the product, but that’s better than cancer… Isn’t it?