Some students at Carnagie Mellon University are creating a Dungeon’s & Dragons game using Microsoft Surface as a school project. You can watch the video above.

I got really excited at the beginning of the video, because they were allowing real character statuettes to interface with a map. Later in the video, they seem to drop the ball on leveraging Surface’s capabilities. For instance, why not allow players to roll actual dice since the surface table could read them.

Regardless of this implementation, I think this is a very exciting use of the surface table. If the price of the device were ever to drop, I could see the whole HeroClix community getting VERY excited over this technology.

I came across this new hand held remote interface for computer based TVs this morning on engadget. It’s called GlideTV Navigator, and looks like it’s designed to be an aesthetically pleasing remote you’d want to leave on your coffee table.

Unfortunately, it looks like the aesthetics stopped with the industrial design of the device, because it’s my opinion that the software UI looks awful. It looks like a hodgepodge strangely aligned, inconsistently styled, and in some cases unlabeled buttons. Hopefully, all will be explained if I ever get an opportunity to sample the device.

The device itself also reeks a little bit of over design. For instance, there are eight buttons surrounding the trackpad, none of them labeled. Four are arrow buttons, and I think most could figure out which they are. But, the four other buttons are for Escape/Back/Function/and Enter. Your guess is as good as mine as to which is which. Also, the rounded bottom of the device may prove to be difficult. As you try to thumb around the device, I would imagine that it would “rock” in your hand as you attempt to hit the Glide/Power/Search/Playback/and Volume buttons. Those with smaller hands, or short thumbs might find this a two handed remote.

Of course, I haven’t used the device yet. These observations are all off the top of my head. It’ll be interesting to see how the market receives this.

I’ve been a little slow at coming up with application ideas. I have a few in my head, and I’m going to try to take the time this week to blog them, and hope I can catch up to my one a week pace. This one is a Zillow Layar concept.

By now, I’m sure many of you are familiar with the site called Zillow. It allows you to see what your home is worth, who else around you is selling and how much, and what the last sale price was on a home.

There is also an application for Android based phones called Layar. This is a virtual reality application. It creates overlays on top of the camera view to provide further information as to what you’re seeing.

My concept is a blend of these two applications. Using Layar, Zillow could create a layer of their information. People could walk around a neighborhood, and look through their phone’s camera to see what a house is selling for, what it’s features are, etc. For those looking into an area, this would give them a chance to stroll around and learn more about the neighborhood, while gaining valuable information about the homes around those they’re interested in.

10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.

Here’s a new interface being designed by 10/GUI that is trying to rethink multi-touch interaction with a computer. I would agree that there needs to be a fundamental change in the way that we perceive the desktop space. I’m not sure I like this new approach. I’d be interested in the results from user test.

Still, worth a look.

A little while ago I posted a video I found about CRYSTAL, well here’s a new one of the debut of Microsoft’s Courier Tablet. Again, awesome concept.

Notice the delivery. They’re using a personable story we can all identify with, and using the person’s goals to show off potential features. It’s obvious Microsoft is embracing User Centered Design (UCD) with both arms and giving it a warm hug.

I hope they continue to massage this project. It clearly has potential.

As a Windows Media Center user, I thought that it would be really great if my Android phone could control my TV. It’s the perfect remote. It has a responsive touch screen that could be used like a track pad. It has a hard keyboard, and the ability for a soft keyboard for typing in search words into Netflix. And, it has Bluetooth, which could allow it to connect to my, already Bluetooth enabled, computer over HID.

The application would have three states. The states would be mouse/trackpad, keyboard, and remote. There would be a hard control on the top, letting you know what state you’re currently in.

The mouse/trackpad would operate the mouse. Sliding your finger over the screen would move the mouse some distance in the same direction. Tapping the screen would result in a click. Long-pressing the screen would result in a right click.

The keyboard could work two ways. The first, would be to submit each keystroke as they are typed out. The other would be to buffer what the user types in some way, and send it perhaps when the space is struck, or a state is changed. That way, you could take advantage of Android’s type correction.

The last state, the remote, would simply be a series of buttons. The windows logo button would launch, or return the user to the Media Center home screen. The rest of the button are pretty self explanatory.

It’s clear that I need to give the remote more thought. The highly used “back” button isn’t displayed. Also, I’m not loving the location of the record button in relation to the other playback buttons. Still, I think it’s a successful application idea, which fulfills my guidelines for one of the 52.

I finished reading the book Presentation Zen this morning, by Garr Reynolds. Garr, is the blogger who runs presentationzen.com, a site I frequent and subscribe to. Garr’s book compiles much of the tips, tricks, styles, and suggestions you’ll find reading though the many posts on his blog. It’s an easy read, concise, picturesque, and informative.

As an interaction designer, I find myself presenting more and more. One reason, is that the company I work for doesn’t have design and usability fully integrated into the development process of our products. Bringing in new ideas, concepts, and work flows is best done via presentation and discussion.

There is a lot that can be learned, as an Interaction Designer, from presenting. It forces you to think objectively about how to engage and audience. It teaches you voice, pace, and concentration. It allows you instant feedback from your audience, as you watch their body language and hear their questions. It’s also an exercise in flow, story, and simplifying complex ideas into simple forms.

We should all learn to present, and Garr’s book is a wonderful first step.

Whenever I start designing interfaces, I do it with paper and pencil. There’s something about stepping away from the computer that frees up my mind, and allows me to experiment more. Also, I find drawing a lot quicker than even my best skills in Photoshop at mocking up interfaces.

When designing applications for the HTC G1, I like to have a template from which to work from. It saves a lot of time not having to redraw the device over and over as I create each screen. I thought that my template might help many of you, so I’m including it in this post.

Download (g1_template.psd)

Two years ago, I went to the NNG Useability Conference. While I was there, I had the opportunity to see a session with John Pruitt and Tamara Adlin on the Persona Lifecycle. Ever since that session, I’ve been a big fan of Tamara’s, and had followed her blog “Corporate Underpants” (which has since moved here).

Corporate Underpants was a great idea for looking at how website content is organized. Basically, whenever you see content of a site organized in such a way that it reflects the internal structure of a company, you’re seeing the company’s “Corporate Underpants.” No one cares about your “Products Division,” “Service Division,” or “Human Resources.” They want to “buy a product,” “get help”, or “get a job.” Tamara argues, that a site’s content should be organized as to reflect the goals of your audience. Applying Tamara’s concepts to application, we can start thinking of user interfaces in the form of, Developer Underpants.

Developers are inherently lazy when it comes to the user interface design. It’s not their fault, their goals are just different. Developers live and breath logic and algorithms, they deal with absolutes. Developers don’t care where a button needs to go. If a button is needed, they make a button. Where do they put it, wherever there is space. In the end, applications become confusing, bloated with UI elements, and inconsistent experiences. They show their Developer Underpants.

I’m going continually add posts to this category discussing bad UI decisions. I’ll deal with Mobile Platforms. Mainly because I find it the most fun, and mainly because I think this fledgling landscape is ripe with abuse! We have the iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, Palm WebOS, and Blackberry all competing to become king. As developers scramble to get their applications out to the greatest audience, they will be porting programs from one platform to another with disastrous results.

Time will tell what kind of trouble this category will bring.

This is a great video of a new interface for homes called, Control of Remotely Interacted Systems using Touch-based Actions in Living spaces (CRISTAL).

In the demo they’re using an overhead projector, but I could just as easily see this working well with Microsoft Surface. Regardless, it’s an amazing idea of interacting with objects by mapping their interfaces directly.

I really like these ideas. This type of design is not limited by hardware, or engineering. They’re merely experimenting with possibilities, and seeing how far they can take an interaction.

Some things they could add to this would be:

• A kitchen camera, so you can see that you’re water is over boiling while watch the game in the other room. Then turn down the stove.
• The time remaining on the microwave letting you know that you’re reheated breakfast burrito is done, and you missed the audio feedback. Or, add a minute to the counter.
• A way for adjusting your heat/air conditioning
• Outdoor cam, for who’s knocking at the door, with intercom interface.

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