Monday, July 12, 2010
Google's Android App Inventor: App Development for the Rest of Us - based on Open Blocks visual programming
INFORMATION FROM THE GOOGLE APP INVENTOR WEBSITE:
- Complete this form and we'll have you building apps soon!
- Set up your computer and phone for App Inventor.
- Run through the tutorials that introduce App Inventor.
- Get help by joining the App Inventor Google Group.
The blocks editor uses the Open Blocks Java library for creating visual blocks programming languages. Open Blocks is distributed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Scheller Teacher Education Program and derives from thesis research by Ricarose Roque. We thank Eric Klopfer and Daniel Wendel of the Scheller Program for making Open Blocks available and for their help in working with it. Open Blocks visual programming is closely related to the Scratch programming language, a project of the MIT Media Laboratory's Lifelong Kindergarten Group.
The compiler that translates the visual blocks language for implementation on Android uses the Kawa Language Framework and Kawa's dialect of the Scheme programming language, developed by Per Bothner and distributed as part of the Gnu Operating System by the Free Software Foundation.
The educational perspective that motivates App Inventor holds that programming can be a vehicle for engaging powerful ideas through active learning. As such, it is part of an ongoing movement in computers and education that began with the work of Seymour Papert and the MIT Logo Group in the 1960s."
More on this topic later!
Friday, November 20, 2009
DROID & Interactive Display in Times Square; DROID Voice-activated Search
The video below shows people in NYC's Times Square using their Verizon Droid phones to interact with the Verizon Wireless digital signage billboard:
The Droid offers a voice-activated search feature. Users can ask a question, and the search engine, powered by Google, will provide the search results from the web or from items stored on the phone. One feature I like is that it provides turn-by-turn directions from Google Maps, as well as other helpful geographic information. This would be a great tool for city dwellers and visitors alike.
The video below is a demonstration of how the Google Maps Navigation feature works on Android-based phones:
RELATED
Verizon, Motorola Unveil the Droid
Marguerite Reardon 10/29/09 CNN Tech
Verizon Droid Gets New Google Innovation: Real-Time Internet-Linked Navigation
Michael Hickins, BNET
Announcing Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0
Google Mobile Blog
DRIOD by Motorola Fact Sheet
Cross posted - Interactive Multimedia Technology
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Urban Screens, Urban Scenes, Media Facades: Obscura Digital's Outdoor iGoogle Artist Themes Launch in NYCU
The event took place over a year ago, but I thought it was worth re-visiting, given the theme of this blog. For more pictures, visit the photo gallery of the event on the BizBash New York website.
"Google wanted to make a big impression for the debut of its iGoogle Artist Themes. Obscura Digital delivered by transforming New York City’s MeatPacking district into a massive outdoor art gallery for three nights. Using sixteen projectors perched atop three rooftops at the intersection of Little West 12th, 9th Avenue, and Gansevoort, we projected the artist themes onto the exteriors of ten buildings in a synchronized, animated display complete with audio. Many of the 70 participating artists—including architect Michael Graves, artist Jeff Koons, designer Marc Ecko, and photographer Anne Geddes—came out to see their work writ large. In spite of the rainy night, the brightness of 30,000-lumen projectors was hard to miss and people on the street stopped to take in the spectacle"
Friday, July 10, 2009
Interaction with Mobile Phones: Building On Android - Sony Ericsson's Rachael & HTC Hero
Both Sony Ericsson and HTC have built upon Google's Android build to create new "user experiences" for mobile phones.
Sony Ericsson Rachael UI Video:
"Sony Ericsson "Rachael" Android XPERIA handset unveiled?"
(Paul Miller, engadget, 7/4/09)
Sony Ericsson's Android Rachael UI Makes Me Want to Ditch My iPhone
(Jesus Diaz, Gizmodo, 9/8/09)
"Make it Mine, Stay Close, Discover the Unexpected!" Personalization with HTC Hero Touch-enabled Smart Phone"
HTC recently launched the HTC Hero. I haven't had a chance to touch one, but it looks interesting enough to make a trip to my local mobile phone service provider and see how it works.
"HTC Hero launch event video featuring HTC Sense™ - an intuitive, seamless experience built upon three fundamental principles - make it mine, stay close, and discover the unexpected." -HTC
The two video clips below explain the rationale behind the HTC Hero and why the company thinks it is an important innovation:
PART I
PART II
A few quotes from the video:
"It begins with listening and observing people as they use their phone..."
"...there has been a fundamental shift in people's phone expectations..."
"People want to stay close with the important people in their lives, and have online information...Voice is key, but no longer enough...The SmartPhone is the New Phone, people no longer expect their Internet to be at their desks anymore. They expect it everywhere they are. The Internet is becoming the fundamental of the mobile phone. Access to web browsing, streaming media, and connected applications has taken off, and this is where Smartphone really excels. People really appreciate the experience..."
HERO UI Introduction:
Related:
HTC Debuts Hero, With Fresh Face for Android
(John Herman, Gizmodo, 6/24/09)
Google Android Info
"Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. The Android SDK provides the tools and APIs necessary to begin developing applications that run on Android-powered devices."
Cross-posted on the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Why not adopt the Google User Experience Team's design principles for off-the-desktop digital interactions?
If you haven't noticed yet, interactive urban (and suburban) screens of all shapes and sizes are found outside the home and workplace, in places we've come to expect, and in unexpected places. Our cell phones have morphed into web browsers, with larger, higher resolution screens.
The web and the real world have become intertwined.
But often, it is not pretty.*
It is as if all of the blocked pop-ups, banner ads, and fast-forwarded commercials escaped, and found new homes on the screens we find staring at us in airports, malls, arenas, and big-box store aisles!
Is it possible for user experience principles to enhance our digital lives beyond our laptops and desktops?
A recent post on the Putting People First blog outlines some great advice from the Google User Experience Team that holds true for off-the-desktop applications, including multi-touch displays, digital signage, kiosks, mobile devices, and anything under the umbrella of DOO- digital out-of-home:
"The Google User Experience team aims to create designs that are useful, fast, simple, engaging, innovative, universal, profitable, beautiful, trustworthy, and personable. Achieving a harmonious balance of these ten principles is a constant challenge. A product that gets the balance right is “Googley” – and will satisfy and delight people all over the world."
The ten principles that contribute to a “Google User Experience” are:
1. Focus on people – their lives, their work, their dreams
2. Every millisecond counts
3. Simplicity is powerful
4. Engage beginners and attract experts
5. Dare to innovate
6. Design for the world
7. Plan for today’s and tomorrow’s business
8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind
9. Be worthy of people’s trust
10. Add a human touch
*Previous posts highlighting usability problems - and other things not pretty - related to off-the-desktop user experience:
Off-the-desktop musings about future interactions: User experience, user-driven design, Universal Usability, Airports, and the "Internet of Things"
Usability/Interaction Hall of Shame
Not-so-useful Information Displays in a University Building
Technology-Supported Shopping and Entertainment: User Experience at Ballantyne Village - "A" for Concept, "D" for Touch-screen Usability
