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Why Google Killed Navigation in Android?

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Getting into my car this morning with a 3 hour drive across the country ahead of me, I had a rare and slightly unnerving panic. Not knowing how to get to my destination, I fell back on my one true saviour: Android navigation to find the way; a tactic that has paid off more times than I can count. Only this time there was a problem. The last update to Maps has brought with it a stripped down flat UI to the front end of navigation. This is all good, apart from almost all of the functionality we were used to is gone! In desperation, I opened up PLAY and grabbed my second choice for finding my way around: Waze Now, before I go further, I know that Google didn't kill navigation. It is still there and it still works, but what they have done is shifted the functionality and focus. When Android was first launched , it occupied a very different world. Smartphones were just starting to take root and tablets were just a vision within Steve Job's eye (or clunky pieces of trash made b...
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Windows 8.1 - The next great thing?

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Windows 8 is a subject that is never far from my mind when doing any blog post, so today it was pretty nice to see the first look of Windows 8.1 drop. Microsoft has always been the but of bad Usability jokes, and my biggest complaint was that Windows 8 felt like a really great idea, gone half way there. I shouldn't have been surprised as that is classic Microsoft. That is, put something out, get user feedback and then in the next release fix it. 95 = ok 98 = great ME = DISASTER XP = God's gift to the PC Vista = DISASTER 7 = Great 8 = Disaster 8.1 = Great? I digress. This post really isn't a run through of all the latest features and my thoughts on them, partly because of time limitations, and partly because all first look videos are little more than marketing spin, so the reality will drop later when hands on tests start. But what is apparent is that Microsoft seems to have got maybe 80% of the way towards the vision that was Windows 8. Sure, a lot of thes...
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Geeks Vs. Nerds

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Taking a break from serious HCI blogging, sometimes you come across something that is just too good to let slide by. If you are reading this blog, then you will love this! From: MastersInIt.org
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A new kind of immersive experience? Almost

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Take a look at this:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22315685 It is marketed at a new sensory experience for the home, a 180° television. Does it create an IMAX experience for the home and is it genius? Maybe. Is it better and tested than normal TV? Yes. How do we know? Because this is not new, just an application of established information visualisation from over a decade ago . Will it take off? Probably not. The film industry is so setup with the single way of filming that it would require a monumental shift in technique of filming, and a massive increase in cost. Think, the industry is currently finding it hard enough to film in HD and 3D, let alone this kind of strange new experience. However, it should not be discounted. An artist or an experience designer should always have a wide variety of tools at his disposal, so it may not become the default, but I hope to see it now and then.
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The electric shower?

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Check out this new design idea: Shower To-Go http://www.yankodesign.com/2013/04/19/shower-to-go/ Basically it's a hand held 'electric shower' and could do to washing what the electric razor does for shaving. The name electric shower is something I just came up with, but terror and feelings of panic aside, it captures the point. The inner product designer in me wants to love this rather sexy and sports image driven device, clearly aimed at a male buyer (do women have problems washing? Would they use that thing on their hair) but I feel it becomes more art than function. Why? Because it's one step too far for mankind. So let's assume it works great and I can look and smell great with this device, the action of rubbing a vibrating(?) stick over your body like a portable steam cleaner is so divorced from the action of bathing or showering that it's not going to be an activity that is obvious or natural to any person. The though of 'really?' and 'wh...
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U-Turn in windows 8's modern UI

Remember when windows 8 came out? We were filled with videos, images and adverts focusing squarely on the Modern UI of windows 8. Well, now it turns out Microsoft has stopped focusing on Modern UI to sell is new Os, and started saying "hey, remember how much you love the desktop, we still have it!" In Depth: Microsoft: emphasis on Start Screen shackled Windows 8 http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/microsoft-we-shouldn-t-have-lost-touch-with-desktop-for-windows-8-1144623?attr=all&src=rss It's something I have been musing for some time. I installed Windows 8 the week or was released and so far haven't been able to quite get my head round it. Not that it's hard to use (although it does have some quirks) but just what is it? When I'm in desktop mode, it's the old windows experience more or less. Jumping into Modern UI, it's a whole new experience, which to be honest I really like. Internet Explorer 10 in this mode really is something special, wit...
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What toilet door symbols tell us about information communication

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Unisex Toilet Symbol? Sometimes information needs to be communicated at the most vital moments of high stress and need. Traditionally , this has focused on semi-important areas such as missile defence systems, pretty useful when North Korea starts threatening world stability . But there are other situations which may be more important, and one we all face every day without realising it; knowing which door to go through when we need the toilet! The picture on the left was taken at an art gallery I was visiting on Friday, which when I encountered threw me. Thoughts passed through my mind "is this right?" Looking at it I didn't quite know what to make of it, so started looking around, all the doors were like this. After a few seconds of desperation I thought I would chance it and went through, although all the time there was that worry in the back of my mind. Why was this? Looking at the symbol, it isn't hard to work out that it could be anything else but a unise...
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