In their paper entitled "New uses for mobile pervasive games - Lessons learned for CSCW systems to support collaboration in vast work sites", Matthew Chalmers and Oskar Juhli discusses how such games could be of benefit to conduct research about mobile and distributed work (e.g. infrastructure mana...
Delicate cueing
How to cue the passers-by to enter this shoe shop by using a delicate socialnav-like trick. Note how intriguing it is to use this lovely shoe material on the very swiss-designed raw concrete ground. Seen in Luzern, Switzerland yesterday afternoon. ...
WiFi vocabulary
Continuing my exploration of internet vocabulary, the terms employed in different cultures to refer to WiFi are diverse and interesting to document (and discus with Timo). The first one is from Boston airport (but I could have shown some from other countries) and the second from Berlin. I find in...
The hidden value of vernacular maps
Two maps to navigate in Berlin yesterday and today. The first one, on the right, is the classic lonely-planet-like artifact you give to the hotel, asking them "can you point me where we area?". The second is the lovely and more valuable map handed by a local friend who made some recommendations. E...
When surface has more value than volume
A picture I took yesterday morning in Geneva. It shows an interesting (and sad) trend lately in the city: the disappearing of mom and pop's shop which are now so expensive to rent that it's more valuable for certain luxury companies to use the shop as a billboard structure. In the case depicted ab...
Vodafone's receiver on space/geoweb
In the last issue of Vodafone's receiver, which is about "space", there is an interesting overview of the geospatial web (aka GeoWeb) by Sean Gorman. The article examine how these technologies allow to understand spatial and social phenomena. Starting by a quick overview of the field and how it shi...
Science fiction and HCI/interaction design
Some quick pointers about the relationships between science-fiction and HCI/interaction design: Human Computer Interaction in Science Fiction Movies by Michael Schmitz surveys the different kind of interaction design sci-fi movies envisioned during the past decade. It also interestingly describes h...
Flea market electrogear
Seen at the flea market last week end in Geneva. It's fascinating to see how such electro-devices are more and more common in this kind of place. Electronic gear used to be common but I see a surge recently in second-hands shops. Why is that intriguing to be blogged? simply because the prominence ...
Designing for the mobile and fixed
Found time to sort my notes from last week's workshop. Quick and dirty revision below The first presenter, Alan Dix, nailed down the differences between designing for the mobile and fixed in his "interaction with and through the mobile" speech. He pointed out the main differences: context/device/in...
Electrical switchgear and meters
Recently involved in a design studio concerning electricity and the internet of things at ENSCI design school in Paris, I spent some time these days nailing down the topic of people and energy from various angles: perception and representation of electricity, the importance of infrastructures, the ...