• MediaMaster is shutting down – We did some really interesting user research to help define the overall value proposition, concept, and user experience. Exciting to see what they were able to do but obviously disappointing to see where it ended up a few years later. "Don’t wait for large corporate partners to make your business viable, it needs to be so on its own. Design it well from the start, it helps when you don’t have to re-engineer the interface, it’s the most complex part! (That was not a problem we had)"

The Diamond Dave soundboard (updated link) is getting a lot of heat in the blogosphere lately. Taken from a recently unearthed isolated vocal track of David Lee Roth singing “Runnin’ With the Devil” in the studio, this website provides clickable buttons that trigger various DLR vocal stylings. If you listen to morning radio (and hey, who doesn’t) and hear DJs making prank phone calls to pizza joints using clips from Rocky movies, this is the type of thing they are using – a soundboard.

I really love how the interface takes a fresh, honest (and hilarious) approach to foreshadowing, i.e., giving an indication of what’s going to happen (you might also think about this as feedforward, the complement to feedback). What will happen when you press a button that says “Whoo!”? The first time you try it, you learn very quickly what happens. Once you grasp the basic model (which takes one risk-free moment), the button label descriptions accurately (if cryptically) indicate what the result will be.

I love the idea of a UI with the following controls:

The ahh-hahs:

The whoo-hoos:

and of course my favorite

Sure, it’ll take more learning to distinguish between AHHH HAAAA and AHHHHHHH YEEEEEEAAAHHH and maybe the buttons should be clustered rather than alphabetical, with HHAAAAAYAAAAAAHAAAAH and the similar-sounding AHHHHYAAAAHH near each other. So it’s not perfect, and I doubt there will be a dot-one release to improve the UI along those lines, it’s still a fascinating example of breaking some rules (i.e., number of letters on a button) in order to deliver a better experience, in this case, one that stays very true to the brand promise.

From last Thursday’s SNL, Fred Armisen uses the latest tool for interactive visualization of election data. I love how the entire comedy routine is premised on the demonstration of the interface, essentially without any content.

Although Clippy was reported dead in early 2007, his cousin Ibbi (a feminized toilet seat?) has stepped forward to head up the so-helpful-you-want-to-throttle-it department.

It’s amusing to see a despised and unsuccessful software feature egregiously ripped off. Why did someone think this was a good idea?

I’ve developed a taste for expensive yogurt.

It started as a lark a few days ago, in a natural foods store near my home, when I saw Saint Benoit Yogurt for the first time. This single-serving yogurt comes in a miniaturized stoneware crock, colored and shaped like (what I imagine to be) a traditional European crock.

I figured I’d throw down the $3.99 for a Saint Benoit once-it seemed luxurious, and worth doing for the experience.

But lo, the Palmetto Organic Grocery has just opened directly across the street from our office, and guess what they carry?

As it turns out, Saint Benoit only costs $2.49 if you return one of the used crocks. Compared to the usual $0.99 for many other organic yogurts, this price is still awfully high, but if the reusable crock and local, sustainable production are an ecological improvement over the usual disposable plastic container and cross-country transport, that’s one inducement to pony up.

The bottom line for me is sensory, though. There’s something about the “old world-like experience” of holding that little crock and hearing the spoon clink on its side that is proving to be quite seductive.

It’s a triumph of interface design.

Covers for outdoor electrical outlets adapted to gently lock-out some light switches in a market research facility observation room. Behind a two-way mirror, the room must be kept darkened, and so the use-with-caution light switches are kept separated from the use-at-will light switches. The cover hardware, adapted from its intended use, doesn’t prevent operation of the light switches, but you have to think more deliberately before flicking them. This is a reasonable example of a forcing function.

I already described the ridiculous persona-encrusted collateral from Yahoo’s Search Marketing. This week I received a package from Microsoft (with an unnecessary piece of styrofoam in the box to protect their precious wire-bound book).

With tips from me – Search Master Steve

Search Master Steve? Good Lord!

I’m not sure whether Microsoft’s only-works-in-IE search marketing interface is worse than Yahoo’s. I guess it’s like asking if you’d rather have two fingers ripped off by an angry gorilla or have three fingers removed surgically. These products are not fun to use and the crap I’m getting in the mail from the Microhooligans is insulting.

The progress bar is a familiar interface widget in software. But sometimes it appears away from the PC.

Crosswalk in Tokyo (full disclosure: I took the picture when the progress bar had run out; so I added them back in Photoshop).

NEX train from Narita Airport to downtown Tokyo

Airport Express into Hong Kong

I’ve uploaded nearly 1300 of my Japan pictures to Flickr. For reasons I’m sure you’ll understand, I haven’t added titles or tags or descriptions proactively, but please add comments or questions on flickr and I’ll gladly offer a story or explanation.

Meanwhile, I’m including some of my faves here, as well as part 1 and part 3.

Public bathroom doorway, Karuizawa, Japan, January 2008

Before we hiked up the nearby mountain I wanted to use the bathroom. I was very frustrated to find the door locked. I pushed and pulled and saw the keyhole for the deadbolt and figured I was out of luck. Then I saw someone enter the adjacent women’s room – by sliding the door. I wouldn’t expect a bathroom door to slide, and I didn’t interpret any of the cues (or affordances) about how this door works to suggest sliding was a possibility.