“To put this eyeball cacophony into perspective, the new menu system has over 60 places to click—nearly triple that of the original iPod version (and that’s not including Nike+ integration on nanos). Plus, the new system has five screens just for settings, all of which are unrelated to the main “Settings” menu. How did things become so complicated? The iPod went from doing one thing really well to doing a bunch of things pretty well. But the UI was never redesigned to accommodate the functionality…Right now Apple’s sending city traffic down a one-lane, unpaved road.”

Link: A Sad Fact: The iPod’s Clickwheel Must Die (gizmodo.com, via)

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“So what’s our straightforward definition of the ideal search engine? Your best friend with instant access to all the world’s facts and a photographic memory of everything you’ve seen and know. That search engine could tailor answers to you based on your preferences, your existing knowledge and the best available information; it could ask for clarification and present the answers in whatever setting or media worked best. That ideal search engine could have easily and elegantly quenched my withdrawal and fueled my addiction on Saturday. I’m very proud that Google in its first 10 years has changed expectations around information and how quickly and easily it should be able to be retrieved. But I’m even more excited about what Google search can achieve in the future.”

Link: The future of search (googleblog.blogspot.com)

Save to del.icio.us | Small Surfaces is published by Gabriel White.

Link: Text Games, On Paper (mobhappy.com)

Save to del.icio.us | Small Surfaces is published by Gabriel White.

“Mobile phones are some of the most advanced personal objects we have, but still there are just technical inventions or stylish skins. What can be done to improve personal communication and social connections? TAT Tenk researches social patterns around mobile applications and will present some of its findings during first half of 2008.”

Link: Can mobile phones become useful as social tools? (businesstobuttons.tv)

Save to del.icio.us | Small Surfaces is published by Gabriel White.

Link: Balsa Wood Mock-up Modeling Tutorial (canon.com)

Save to del.icio.us | Small Surfaces is published by Gabriel White.

“The double click does not translate terribly well to touch screens, however. This has led some researchers to look for alternatives. In developing his multi-touch screen, Dr Han found that there can be more to touch input than simply detecting contact. He has found a way to determine how much pressure is being applied. Adding a thin polymer layer, scored with microscopic ridges, to his touch screens causes the bright spot created by a finger touching the screen to vary in size and brightness depending on the pressure. This makes it possible, for example, to drag an item on the screen and then, by pushing harder, to slide it under another item. ”

Link: Touching the future (economist.com)

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Link: JamLegend (jamledgend.com)

Save to del.icio.us | Small Surfaces is published by Gabriel White.

“The dissertation builds on available sociological approaches to understanding everyday life in the networked city to show that emergent technologies reshape our experiences of spatiality, temporality and embodiment. It contributes to methodological innovation through the use of data bricolage and research blogging, which are presented through experimental and recombinant textual strategies; and it contributes to the field of science and technology studies by bringing together actor-network theory with the sociology of expectations in order to empirically evaluate an area of cutting-edge design.”

Link: A Brief History of the Future of Urban Computing and Locative Media (purselipsquarejaw.org)

Save to del.icio.us | Small Surfaces is published by Gabriel White.

Link: Product Integration – Usability killer? (productmanagementtips.com, via)

Save to del.icio.us | Small Surfaces is published by Gabriel White.

“Mobile phones have evolved to become indispensable tools that have changed the way we lead our lives, and they are certain to continue to evolve and play an even greater role in both business and everyday life.”

Link: A mobile life in the near future envisioned by DOCOMO (nttdocomo.co.jp)

Save to del.icio.us | Small Surfaces is published by Gabriel White.

Link: Nokia Conversations (nokia.com, via)

Save to del.icio.us | Small Surfaces is published by Gabriel White.

But if there’s one thing that’s demanded by mobile devices, it’s that the things you create are highly optimised for the context of use. And this is exactly what a web browser is not. So it’s no surprise to me that people are racing to use the native iPhone applications for Facebook or Twitter rather than going to the iPhone-specific web versions.

Link: Aurora Concept Video (adaptivepath.com)

Save to del.icio.us | Small Surfaces is published by Gabriel White.

Link: AU Design Project (kddi.com, thanks Matt)

Save to del.icio.us | Small Surfaces is published by Gabriel White.

“Below we present 10 recent developments in the field of user experience design. Most techniques may seem very futuristic, but some of them are already reality. And in fact, they are extremely impressive. Keep in mind: they can become ubiquitous in the next years.”

Link: 10 Futuristic User Interfaces (smashingmagazine.com)

Save to del.icio.us | Small Surfaces is published by Gabriel White.