Adaptive Path’s first concept video “Aurora“, for Mozilla Labs, provides few new concepts wrapped in a somewhat cluttered presentation.

Here’s the video, short analysis to follow:

My take: the use of pie-menus, “spaces” ala OSX 10.5, visual tag-clouds, screen-sharing, and chat buddies as symbolized as icons is nothing new. But the fluid interaction and transmission of data between the two actors, via the screen, is novel and seamless; a compelling example of how screen-sharing should work. I also dig the notion of presentation objects morphing into areas of web-pages, especially in the context presented in the video. However, it’s not clear to me how useful presentation objects are when I’m viewing my own stuff.

I found the Aurora presentation somewhat cluttered. Perhaps I’m just so tainted by the simplicity and clarity of Apple’s product demos that now, when I see concept demos that lack razor focus and a super-clear POI (point of interest), I want to pull out my magic delete wand and remove, remove, remove, until the core of the feature/concept pops boldly to the fore. If the editors of Aurora had just cut the amount of objects, icons, text string, etc on the screen by 3/4, I think it would have increased the demo’s impact significantly.

Out with the old “blades” interface, in with a simpler, more navigable, more “cover-flow” like experience.

Much more info over at Kotaku.

Photos here for the archive:

Reactable hit the scene a few years ago. Since I haven’t posted about it, and it’s still so damn revolutionary, here are a few clips from their site:

Aza Raskin brings some UX goodness to the Mozilla Foundation with this demo for the FIrefox’s mobile UI. Some nice UI patterns in the demo, most of which excel in their simplicity, a hallmark of Aza’s design style.

This short video clip demonstrates a few implementations of the MS Surface within the context of Windows 7. Some of the demos are somewhat banal and bizarre (what’s with that photo of the kid with stuff smeared all over his face?!), but the mapping demo actually looked compelling.

Video: Multi-Touch in Windows 7

Every morning when I get into the Adobe SF office, I make a latte, get myself situated, cruise through my RSS feeds and, once a week, also check out movie trailers.

Yesterday I found this great video clip of Jon Faverau narrating a scene from Ironman. In it, he talks about a futuristic user experience scenario they created to extend the legacy of cinema-based UX vaporware. He explicitly calls out Minority Report and the Island which, IMO, present two of the most influential UX scenarios. Click here for the clip.

And click here for an in depth article on the development of the interactive table featured in The Island. The table was art directed by Mark Coleran, who’s demo reel is mind-blowing.

And here’s the touch screen interface from Minority Report:

Interested in some of the latest, greatest ideas in car dashboard innovation? Here’s some videos that show various auto dashboard experiences. My favorite by far is the Porsche Cayenne’s data rich but easy to parse dashboard (it’s the first in the list). If you have any other good video examples of auto dashboards, please post them in comments.

Good link from UX Magazine - the Rock Werchter 08 website has a bold, simple, and beautiful navigation pattern. Brief video review of the experience below.

A friend at work just showed me this new product from WeAreAka out of Paris. They specialize in super high quality audio-visual work for tradeshows, and have created their own hardware, software, and interface for a set-top they call Snowflake.   

I’ve posted a few screenshots here that don’t do the entire experience justice but that do illustrate a number of design aspects that I think are exceptional.Their “interface” is simply basic grayscale (and the occasional red) forms set over content and under white custom kerned Futura type. With this simple recipe they are able to communicate menu structure, fast forward and rewind, and channel branding. Most importantly, color is reserved for the content, which is ultimately the user’s.

Check out the site and watch their video for a better example of the experience. Notice how seamless are their menu transitions, and how the basic shapes smoothly transition into the “rewind” and “fast forward” pose. The “record” transition is a bit over the top, but sufficiently communicates a change in state (not-recording to recording).This work is revolutionary in its simplicity. I want it. 

This little video of “environmental creation,” taken from the upcoming game Little Big Planet, is highly inspirational. The patterns and metaphors used to create the game’s environment are applicable to RIA design and development - especially the development of cool and interesting components.

I especially appreciate the sense of play and discovery showcased in the video. There is every reason for more serious software - like the CS, Acrobat, iLife, and MS Office, to deliver this level of pleasure via their user experience.