Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
A long article in the Christian Science Monitor reflects on the new directions for the MIT Media Lab, including how it will relate with its sponsors. Director Frank Moss also speaks about confronting social problems and user-driven innovation. Moss wants…
If robots can act in lots of ways, how do people want them to act, happy or sad, bubbly or cranky? Reporting on the recent conference on human-robot interaction in Salt Lake City, Henry Fountain of the New York Times…
Two upcoming conferences are exploring some of the implications that widely distributed technologies in our living environments (also called ambient intelligence, intelligent environments or ubiquitous computing) might have for people and the way we live. International Symposium on Intelligent…
The Financial Times reports on Project:LIFE, a unique research project by David Wilson Homes and the University of Nottingham’s School of the Built Environment, to understand how the design of the home affects how we live together and to enable…
Denmark was the first country in the world to make public services available online and is now going a step further – forcing its citizens online. Since the beginning of February, for instance, companies dealing with state institutions must submit…
In her Outside Innovation blog, best-selling author and management consultant Patty Seybold engages MIT professor Eric von Hippel (author of Democratizing Innovation) in a lively debate about lead users and lead customers. In a response Matt Locke, Head of Creative…
Local authority internet services in the UK are showing signs of improvement, though the overall level of progress is slowing, a major survey reveals. The eighth annual Socitm Insight survey of local authority websites – Better Connected 2006 – also…
It seems engineers and programmers are discovering the importance of user experience and understanding the “invisibility” of technology: “It appears as though the cold, soulless world of submicron silicon geometrics and robotic place and route iterations are giving way…
In a long interview with The Deal’s Tech Confidential, Prabhakar Raghavan, head of technology research at Yahoo! Inc., says Yahoo!’s goal is to let Internet users retrieve precisely the information they’re seeking on the Web without having to search for…
DIY checkout or self-scanning has long been called the next big thing in supermarkets, but perhaps because of the hellish line situation, Inferno-familiar Italians were quick to adopt them. Unicoop Firenze was the first Italian retailer to introduce self-scanning in…
[New flexible work] arrangements are bringing jobs to thousands of people with disabilities, including those with spinal cord injuries and vision loss. Fast computers and broadband connections have become so inexpensive and reliable that location is now not an issue…
The Catharina Hospital in Eindhoven, the Netherlands and Philips today opened the world’s first Ambient Experience Catheterisation Lab (CathLab). The ambient experience design concept aims to improve the workflow of physicians considerably and reduce anxiety of heart patients undergoing catheterisation.…
Why is Intel, the giant chip maker, in the process of hiring more than 100 anthropologists and other social scientists to work side by side with its engineers? While the success of this strategy will become clearer over the next…
The European Union is to unveil plans Wednesday for the creation of a rival to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reflecting fears that academic standards are slipping further behind the United States and risk being overtaken by China and India.…
When six-year-old Tilly Griffiths from Staffordshire wanted to join her elder sister’s ballet class, her parents turned for help to a little known charity that designs and manufactures one-off pieces of equipment for disabled people. Based in an old chapel…
Britain’s historic city of Bath is to host an experiment in advanced wireless computer technology that could provide the blueprint for developing the world’s next generation of mobile phones and lap-tops. Called Cityware, the project will see 30 volunteers using…
Researcher Bill Buxton started his career as a musician in Toronto, but found his true calling mixing computer science with his passions for music and design. Now at Microsoft Research, the human-computer interaction and computer graphics pioneer will collaborate with…
Travelers are starting to leave behind heavy, dog-eared guidebooks and instead are cramming their much lighter mobile devices with all the necessary tips they’ll need to discover new parts of the world. Airlines, tour operators, entrepreneurs and even old-fashioned travel…
The company at the heart of the machine is trying harder to get into the heads of its users. In the latest MRWho, MrWeb’s Michael Kenyon talked to Ken Anderson, Manager of People and Practice Research at Intel and one…
Philips unveils the Entertaible – a 21st century tabletop gaming platform that marries the best of electronic and traditional board games in a natural and simple way. Sitting comfortably around the game table, people can enjoy both the shared experience…