The Cosmonaut

In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with Quicksilver, and the Word was Quicksilver. Then Ubiquity was born:

.

Ah, and make sure you check Mort’s Ubiquity tips for users and developers.

César Astudillo is blogging again, which is good news, but the very good news is that he’s doing so in English. I bet he’ll get big recognition soon, because his posts are so insightful and inspirational that many people will start following him in days.

He recently blogged about recombination and heat stoves. He described the technique with an extremely creative excercise of imagining the stove of the near future

A real must if you are into good interaction design reading.

Seen here

Youtube’s ActiveSharing seems to me like a failed attempt (another one!) to kick the social and sharing side of their website. This is how they explain it:

Are you a video trendsetter, an expert at finding the cool stuff on YouTube? Now you can share what you find immediately by Active Sharing with other YouTube users.

Click the “Start Active Sharing” button, then go watch some videos. Your username will show up on the page of the videos as you watch them, and a list of the latest ones you’ve seen will appear in your profile.

I don’t think that such a small feature deserves so much explanation, activation and even a name (ActiveSharing). It could be because Youtube guys want to feature something that will be surrounded by a bunch of other confusing features. I think that removing some functionality would be a better strategy than adding more stuff to the mess.

My suggestion if you want to share videos with your friends is to use Unvlog, especially now that it has an English version. Way clearer, simpler, smarter, nicer and to the point.

A must read if you are somehow thinking about location independent living (in any of its flavours): 24 Things We Wish We’d Known Before Becoming Location Independent

I would say that Agustin Jiménez’s was the best talk we had at our recent “Desconferencia” (a gathering of professionals where everybody gives a small presentation).

He enlightened us on the convergence point between interaction design and biotechnology. The main point was that biological systems are being created with more and more levels of abstraction and that one day in the near future designers will be needed to determine how these systems will be used by people. The fact that DNA sequences and machine code have a very similar structure (I am simplifying here, I know) leads to the building of new levels of abstraction just as we did on machine code, making it possible to design biosystems that have sensory interfaces a person could interact with:

Have you ever think about a cell as a machine?. They really behave like it whether they are yeast or pluripotent cells in your bone marrow. In fact, as Drew Endy define them, they act as computational systems. They receive inputs, and behave accordingly as outputs. Cells have measurements tools, priorities to satisfy and self awareness of different kinds.

As interaction designers we can apply all the inherited knowledge in our discipline to new horizons like biotech. It’s just a new framework with new variables.

Agustín Jiménez is an interaction designer who always has one foot at the side of technology and another one on the biomedical edge. His post on the talk: Biotechnology and Interaction Design is worth a relaxed reading.

A few days ago I posted something about defining interaction design. Luis Villa replied with a comment that is one hundred times better than the original post. I don’t have his explicit permission to make a post out of it but since he made it public I assume I can. Here it goes:

Sometimes I see patterns…

Information Architecture: how it’s structured
Interaction Design: how it behaves
Information Design/Visual Design: how it looks

Front end
XHTML - How is structured
JS - How it behaves
CSS - How it looks

Backend
Model - Data and structure
Controller - Behaviour
View - the look, the skin of the system

Restaurant (I don’t know if I’m kidding here…)
Kitchen: data, ingredients, structure…
Waiter: behaviour, orders
Table: presentation, look

From my humble point of view, all of these layers in any of the domains (conceptual, logical, physical) has a lot to do with design. Maybe I live in a special place sorrounded by programmers and developers who act_as_designers ;-)

As a pattern, we’ve got three layers: a fundation, an intermediary which routes actions betwwen surface and fundation and a surface, the part that the user thinks is the system (because, from the user’s perspective, behind the surface there’s magic).

I’m not a philosopher, maybe I’m saying stupid things.

Luis Villa

I am super-happy to share this news about Planetaki: we already implemented a feature to embed a planet in whatever website you want. Ain’t that cool or what?

If you are a Planetaki user and want to try it out, experiment a bit or just do some good to your website readers, try embedding this ultra-tiny piece of code inside your html:

<script type=”text/javascript”
src=”http://www.planetaki.com/javiercanada.js”></script>

Make sure you change the “javiercanada” piece for your planet slug or it will be my planet showing up on your own house :)

This sounds sooo damn familiar to me:

(found at Monster-Munch)

NOTE TO NON-SPANISH-SPEAKING VISITORS:
This post is in Spanish because it’s about my decision to blog in English. I could do that in English too but some would consider it a provocation ;)

¿Por qué ya no posteas en español? Me han hecho la pregunta doscientas veces desde que volví a escribir en inglés- Y digo volví porque sí, este blog empezó siendo en inglés. Este fue el primer post. Y después le siguieron otros con algo más de chicha como este o este otro.

Fue en el Reboot. Como algunos recordarán, me impactó y volví con algunos pensamientos. Los posteé. El primero de todos decía:

1. There is a world out there, go reach it.

Esa es la gran razón por la que posteo en inglés. Pero si hace falta la desgrano en varios motivos e intentando contestar a algunos argumentos para que siguiera escribiendo en castellano.

Volvamos al Reboot. Allí conocí a un puñado de gente excepcionalmente interesante con la que me hubiera quedado hablando semanas. Quiero poder seguir intercambiando con ellos. En Dinamarca me quedó una sensación tremenda de “cuánto me estoy perdiendo por no poder dialogar con esta gente”. Decidí tomar la vía pragmática y escribir en inglés. No veo otra vía mejor. Y aprender danés, sueco y alemán, posteando cada cosa en varios idiomas no es una alternativa realista.

Si el argumento es que no soy fiel a mis raíces, entonces quizás ya no lo era antes, porque mi lengua “materna” es el catalán y nunca he escrito sobre diseño en catalán. El hecho de escribir en castellano ya era instrumental y nadie me dijo nunca nada.

Si el argumento es que dejo de aportarle al gremio de aquí, diría que me importan un bledo los gremios regionales. Yo no estoy en esto para fortalecer ninguna comunidad regional (alguna vez lo estuve, ya no). Tampoco creo que tenga sentido hacer patria mediante el ejercicio de una disciplina donde los mimbres son casi siempre universales. Además, no acepto más presión que la de hacer bien mi trabajo, y mi trabajo es diseñar. En eso no tengo responsabilidad con ningún grupo ni comunidad, asociación o país.

Entre mis colegas hispanohablantes los hay que hablan bien inglés y los hay que no. Pero hay muy pocos que no sean capaces de leer en inglés. Y sinceramente, si no saben (o no quieren) leer en inglés tampoco me interesan como lectores porque están renunciando a una parte inmensa de los conocimientos necesarios para entender lo interactivo. Sería ingenuo pensar que todo lo que hay que saber está traducido al español.

Es evidente que usar el inglés favorece a quienes la tienen por lengua materna. Les favorece un poco. A mi eso me trae al fresco por dos razones: a mi también me favorece usarla (mucho más, de hecho). Y además me cansa esa visión tan maniquea de que el mundo es USA vs. el resto. Creo que como refugio está bien (te da una causa por la que luchar), pero poco más.

Mi entorno profesional más cercano es directamente angloparlante o bilingüe (especialmente con la próxima incorporación a Vostok). Y me encanta que sea así. Me hace sentir que no hay limitaciones fronterizas a los proyectos que podamos hacer. Y como este blog es parte de mi proyecto profesional tiene que estar acorde con esa realidad.

No soy malo escribiendo en inglés. Puedo mantener el nivel sin problemas y hacerme entender. Tuve la suerte de vivir en EEUU y algo de fluidez me queda. Se me escapa algún gazapo que otro y alguna vez me falta vocabulario. Pero mantengo el tipo muy dignamente. Además, a los guiris les suele importar mucho más lo que tengas que decir que tu nivel de inglés. Pero claro, eso sólo lo sabes si te atreves a hacerlo.

No tenía pensado justificar mucho la decisión, al menos públicamente. Sin embargo, David de Ugarte escribió el otro día un post titulado Por qué no publico ya en inglés ni comento la agenda cool en cuyos comentarios se me alude directamente. Y como la opinión de David y sus lectores sí me importa, pues me he lanzado. Pensé que contestar desde mi blog era mejor que hacerlo en los comentarios porque así podía extenderme un poquito más.

Por último, estoy muy contento de no ser el único de aquí que escribe en inglés. Lo está haciendo gente interesantísima como Juan Leal o Jorge Correa. Ahora puedo citarles y que la gente no hispanohablante se perdiera lo que ofrecen. Ojalá pronto sean muchos más.

One of the diseases of this age is the multiplicity of books; they doth so overcharge the world that it is not able to digest the abundance of idle matter that is every day hatched and brought forth into the world.

Barnabe Rich (1580-1617)

Seen at Pasta&Vinegar

The City of Madrid’s website (munimadrid.es) has been ranked the most usable of all municipal governance websites in the world in a study commissioned by United Nations and conducted by Rutgers University. Madrid also ranks very high in other categories, being the 5th best overall.

This makes me very proud since I lead the team who made that possible. I guess I cannot disclose much of the information regarding the project, but I want to congratulate and thank the team who worked really hard to make it possible. We weren’t expecting such success.

Here is the press release and a link to a United Nations page with the full report.

Here is the overall ranking:

This is the detail on the usability category:

This is the paragraph where Madrid’s website is mentioned as one of the best practices all over the world:

Working for the public administration is always dificult. There are many interests and stakeholders which sometimes conflict among themselves and you feel in the middle having to come up with something that compromises all parts and is also what you think it’s best for users. I don’t recall it as an easy project.

Besides, as a professional you have to deliver a plus when working in such projects. Why? For two main reasons:

1. You are being paid with everybody’s money
2. Your users are the Citizens. You work for the public good.

I remember recalling these principles when things used to get tough. It was our big motivation. Now I see it was worth the sacrifice.

From the great Mauro Entralgo:

ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

There are industrial designers who look at an object and they modify it to improve its features in a specific circumstance. They designed the folding chairs, the anglepoise lamp and the unfolding package for the butter.

There are other designers who look at an object and they modify it with the purpose of worsen its features for any circumstance. They designed the three leg stools, the square-shaped glasses and the sinks with no place for leaving the soap.

I found Juan Leal’s post about Verplank’s definition on Interaction Desing very interesting, although I am no fan of definitions and compartimentations. I’ll jump to the train, however.

My favorite definition/description/whatever goes like this:

Information Architecture: how it’s structured
Interaction Design: how it behaves
Information Design/Visual Design: how it looks

These definitions are not mine and I cannot recall who wrote them first. I’d appreciate any feedback on it. I am also aware that the boudaries between concepts are not clear at all, especially between the last two. They tend to overlap a lot.

Me comenta Kepa Landa que la Universidad Europea de Madrid ofrecerá para este próximo curso un grado en Diseño, oficial, aprobado por el ministerio y pionero en España.

Parece que aún hay poca información sobre el profesorado, pues sólo veo 12 nombres (y muchas más asignaturas). El plan de estudios tiene buen aspecto, bastante completo, aunque con poquita carga de diseño de interacción dado que las especializaciones son Diseño Gráfico, de Interiores, de Producto y de Moda, un poco en la linea del IED.

Creo que hubiera sido bueno apostar más por el nuevo diseño de producto, con más énfasis en lo tecnológico y en la interacción persona-ordenador. Aún así hay que reconocer el mérito de sacar una titulación así adelante. Les deseo suerte!

This is Orange-Cosmo (technical name: UniPo, Cosmo Knots-Series 3), one brave traveler ready to cruise the universe in the quest for adventure and beauty. It is now part of the crew at the Vostok Spaceship:

Orange-Cosmo comes from Smupf, a beautiful store of vinyl toys where there sure is something cute for your next gift, something that will stand on the owner’s table and say “hey” every morning.

Jorge Correa (one of my favorite designers) just released a small set of super-cute weather icons free to use. This is what they look like:

They come just in time for something we have in mind at Planetaki. Thanks, Jorge!!

These are some of the latest blogs I added to my planet at Planetaki:

La Antena - add it to your planet

Voltage Blog - add it to your planet

lightgreen - add it to your planet

materialicious - add it to your planet

Have a nice week ;)

Silverback is already out. What is special about it? Well, it’s basically a software to merge the captured interaction of a user on the screen with the recording of his face, all in one screen for easier test usability documentation.

On the typical usability test set-up you have the usual screen pointing to users’ face and also some camtasia-like software for recording what goes on the screen. Then you dream of merging it together to create a killer DVD for your client but actually never do so because of the time it would take to review both tapes, digitalise and do the necessary video edition.

I am a big fan of contextualised user testing: doing the testing as close to the real user environment as possible. This really makes it easier. Taking advantage of the Mac computer which usually has an embeded webcam, makes the test way less intimidating for the user.

The solution is so clever I wonder why nobody did it before. Congrats to the guys at Clearleft. I may use it soon.

Yet another funny post on my blog (I am laughing a lot these days, I guess that’s good):

(thanks, Dani Calderón)