The stupid toolbox

[Michael Rudolph]

On Wednesday 05 March 2008 15:40:32 Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> On Wednesday 05 March 2008, Michael Rudolph wrote:
> > > software + someone who's able to transform water into beer + a
>
> for the record, i'm really good at turning beer into water. or ..
> something like water anyways. ;)
>
> > So what would help in my point of view was, if we engaged in
> > stimulating discussions to set a mood here on the list (and later
> > let it seep through through blogs into the wider community), that
> > finally would bring us all on the same page. And only then, when we
> > are able to have educated discussions about what a humane interface
> > could look like, should we start to collect ideas, perhaps on a
> > wiki page.
>
> i think that would be brilliant. i think the meeting in April will
> help with that as well... we have the Plasma project page on techbase
> that is there for exactly this sort of idea gathering as well

Hello Aaron,

Celeste also started a thread over at kde-usability@ asking for ideas 
for an usability track at akademy. I don't think i will be able to make 
it and if my idea is feasible at all, but I imagined a "live review" 
session, where someone would take some time to review various devices 
in the light of interaction design.

For example walking through the iphone interface and explaining what's 
good about it and what's not. Perhaps Nintendo's wii and other devices 
and interfaces, this could really be an eye-opener for many people in 
the audience and could build awareness for these matters. A little like 
Jos's recent shutdown story. (oh, and perhaps someone could explain the 
gmail interface to the kde-pim guys; that'd be great :-)

If hardware is involved there would of course be the problem to obtain 
it and means to display the interaction in a way that everyone in the 
audience can see it. Software on the other hand could be quite easily 
reviewed, even on "the other" platforms.

Just an idea. Anyway, I'll put up a video review of the iphone interface 
on techbase: Recommended Reading.

michael