First of all, your video is wonderful. It's a polished (and great) idea - it's clear 10/gui has gone all the way from careful research to wild brainstorming to careful-once-again visual prototyping (letting yourself bounce everywhere in between). And what's more amazing is how you've managed to synthesize everything you've learned in those 9 months into a video that isn't afraid to patiently, clearly and *simply* explain both the entire problem space and your solution. The end result of your polishing is a concept video that, more than any other concept video I've seen in a very long time, has left me (and everyone else here) genuinely wanting to "try it." I mean it sincerely when I say that your design vision abilities are uncanny - but even more remarkable are your design synthesis and storytelling abilities, which to me set a standard that many professional design firms don't even meet. While I'm still a wet-behind-the-ears design student, I suspect I speak for a lot of professionals here when I say that I wish and work towards my designs and deliverables someday being as crisp and professional as this.
That said, my biggest gripe with the video is, in a sense, just how strongly I still want to try it (and feel I haven't tried it by watching). Despite the idea being fantastic, and polished, and really convincing, it doesn't go that one last step of leaving me with a good sense of "I can/should use this myself". And maybe this is just a function of my hacking/"build the thing" background, but I think some of this comes from it feeling like "just a concept." On his blog, Dave notes that some of that has to do with the fact that your demonstration use cases don't really try to reflect the average person's usage of the system - that it's not situational. I'd actually take that argument a step further and say that your design is dangerously close to *over designed.* By which I mean, while your design is wonderful now, any further design (and arguably, some of your current "finishing touches" like the specificity of your gesture vocabulary) now has an incredibly high likelihood of being rendered useless by the simplest of direct user prototyping/interviewing/testing. It's clear your design understands the human condition and has a clear vision on how to improve it, but it's not yet clear to me your design understands *me* and how I would use it as an individual. And the only way you're going to convince me you understand me, is to build some manifestation of 10/gui (be it a "situational video" that puts me in someone's shoes, or a clickable Flash prototype, or a full-on beta) and let us imagine using it in daily life. We understand it, we love it, now put your design to the next, inevitable test - let us try it. (Oh, and please ship it - I want one for my stupid laptop and its tiny windowed screen. :D ) -Solomon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46632 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
