Patrick Hansen.com

Adobe has been spreading the word of their support for “Openness” in the creative and technology industries, primarily focused around the web (HTML 5) and Flash.

This is obviously a response to Apple’s recent lack of support for Flash on their mobile devices such as iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, and their recent posts on their stand.

Watch for this ad popping up around the series of tubes…

View their perspective here:

http://www.adobe.com/choice/?sdid=GXRVG

People have been discovering a multitude of uses fro Apple’s new iPad device. This is one of the better ones:

New iPad Test – Will It Shred? from FUEL TV on Vimeo.

There has been a lot of controversy revolving around Apple’s position not to support Flash on the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. This article from Apple has a detailed explanation of Apple’s position.

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

Here is another great, and humorous, article about Apple’s history with Adobe and how some of the past may have lead to Apple’s current position.

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2010/04/14/chronicles-of-conflict-the-history-of-adobe-vs-apple/

This is a pretty awesome short film featuring classic video game characters and themes. Very well done! Even if you’re not a video game fan, you’ll appreciate the production.

View it here:
http://www.urlesque.com/2010/04/09/short-film-pixels-old-video-games-new-york-the-one/

Check this video of TouchOSC acting as a MIDI controller over WiFi MIDI. He has set up a 16 pad (MPC style) controller with Record and transport controls to navigate the sequencer. Also uses a slider to control velocity sensitivity, which is a great solution for a multi-touch surface, but does alter the experience from the traditional tactile approach. He also notes near the end of the video that is has some small latency, but hardly noticeable.

I could definitely imagine using this in my studio and on stage without the need to bring or set up every controller I own.

I also like the simple UI that TouchOSC has provided. The UI serves the user with enough visaul indications and treatments to accomplish the tasks without limiting or distracting the user with detailed visuals and/or metaphors that could be outdated easily.

The possibilities…

How Shell made an invisible Nissan 370Z for their new oil line Helix.

A very talented team that I work with at EffectiveUI has created a new iPad application that should utilize the new arena the iPad has created and provide opportunities for everyday practical uses in an array of industries.

It is called Ideate.

screenshots:

Concept
The concept is very simple, yet provides a lot features to handle even some complex scenarios. This does revolve around the idea of “sketching,” but not in the illustrative/art definition that some other applications like Brushes has targeted.

The “sketch” idea behind Ideate is to provide a tool to people where they can throw down “rough” ideas quickly and easily in a digital format. It is not intended to be a tool to create a final draft  or detailed designs, but a medium to substitute for the “back of the napkin” or a whiteboard canvas. It really focuses on the “loose & sketchy” experience and offers features targeted towards that objective.

Features/Templates
It offers a variety of brushes, colors, and size options to accommodate your sketching needs, but it is NOT an illustrative tool, so you will not find fancy brush types, at least in this version.

It not only provides brushes and a blank canvas for users, but also a variety of templates and clips for various uses depending on your needs. It comes with over 200 templates and clips, such as grids, patterns, figures, anatomical drawings, sport floor plans, landscape textures and objects, music bars and much more.

Here are some of the categories of clips and templates:

• Sports
• Design
• Landscape
• Fashion
• Music
• Medical
• Shapes
• Home Interior

example of landscape clips

Interaction (Touch/Stylus)
It is also developed to be used with simple touch or a stylus to offer that added “analogue” sketchbook experience.

Sharing
It also allows users to share their sketches with others or to themselves, with email functionality, and integration with Flickr.

Go Green
This is also a great environmentally friendly concept since you can do all of your sketches digitally and save a few trees here and there.

Feedback
This is definitely an application I will get once I purchase an iPad. I’m holding out for the 3G version, so it will be a couple months before I can actually experience it, but I’m already thinking about how I can put this into use. With my interests in designing, home remodeling & landscaping, music composing, writing, art, and whatever else time allows me to do, I won’t have to hesitate to have some medium to lay my ideas down and share. No need to work on a tiny iPhone-size screen, or make some room for the laptop. Just grab an iPad, open up Ideate and throw down.

Price
First release price: $3.99

Buy it
iTunes

Website
http://www.ideateapp.com

Twitter
http://www.twitter.com/ideateapp

This is a pretty sick project researching hand styles characters from a variety of artists and different implementations including an installation of the data.

There is even a screencast in the video of some cross correlation with photos of graffiti and certain characters being analyzed.

I’ve switched my blog system from B2Evo to WordPress.

Now, B2Evo wasn’t bad at all and had some really nice features, but I’ve reviewed some of WordPresses latest features and plugins and felt it was time for a change.

Thank you B2Evo for the great system!

I’m still working on transferring my data over, hopefully that goes well. Obviously old post URL’s/permalinks will not work.

Some other small issues due to the transfer:

• legacy Links may not be interactive.
• legacy YouTube embeds were using a B2Evo YouTube plugin, so those wll not display correctly.
• legacy audio clips were using B2Evo audio plugin.
• Categories did not transfer and get re-assigned properly. You may notice that I cleaned this up and reduced the amount of categories I was working with and now have added “tags” to most post. You can search on both.

The new EffectiveUI book is out!

We (EffectiveUI)  partnered with renown technology publisher O’Reily Media to write a book which summarizes not only we work and what we do, but also bring forth some insights into the multitude of techniques, approaches, practices, and challenges that are revealed when designing and developing a great user experience with software.

The book brings forth ideas and perspectives in an industry which is continually growing and evolving, which help shed light on some of the more hidden aspects of designing great software. People, technology and terminology fluctuate and constantly create obstacles in software design and development, including politics, clients, and even team work. Understanding this road map to building a better user experience can help prepare you and your team to not only take on a challenging concept with software, but also help manage the process to control what you can create and ensure quality in a slightly abstract and still defining realm of “User Experience.”

Primary Authors John McRee, Jonathan Anderson, and Robb Miller have done an excellent job bringing all of these ideas together into a published and easily readable format. Many of employees from EffectiveUI participated in the content of the book including additional content, photos and other visuals.

Order it from (printed cover price: $49.99 / electronically on iTunes: $4.99):

• O’Reily Media (printed and eBook available)
• Amazon
• iTunes (iPhone/iPad)