Danny Stilton, Design Director at IDEO, talked about all the cool stuff they do at the Flashforward 2008 conference but what was really interesting was the open source Flash multitouch experiments he briefly showed.

IDEO also announced the launch of their blog labs.ideo.com that is live today.

Their multitouch exploration is all open source under the Creative Commons license and available at google code, http://code.google.com/p/ideo-multitouch/.

I am excited to see what happens.

John Warno
Milk Labs

The first night of the conference I had an opportunity to speak with Neil Ishibashi Art Director at Disney Online and one of the conference speakers. Somehow we started talking about User Experience and underlying technology. It quickly became apparent he was interested in the UE aspect of our conversation so I posed the question “Why can’t we make technology like a refrigerator?”

The premise is you don’t have to be an engineer or refrigerator technician to operate a refrigerator. You want to make something cold–open the door and put it in. The only action you need to learn is to open and close a door. Something everyone has done.

Sure, if you want to build a refrigerator you may need to be an engineer but the majority of users need nothing more than the strength to open the door, which any 3 year old could do. Most people could not explain or don’t understand the technology to make food cold but who cares. It’s not necessary. The engineer solved that problem and the User Experience person decided to put a big door with a handle on it for the users.

One example of a successful refrigerator is the iPhone. I believe its success comes from the conventions Apple chose for the users to learn while limiting what you can do. Imagine a refrigerator that requires you to learn some thing new in order to open the door or requires a multi-step process to get your food. I know I would be skinnier if that was true.

There are tons of products and services that would be great refrigerators. From my IT experience I ask myself, “Why do I have to use Cisco IOS for managed switches and routers?” Most of the things people want to do don’t need a CCNA certification or in depth networking knowledge. I want this computer thing to talk with that computer thing. Boom. Done.

Neil and I were definitely in agreement with presenting complicated technology in a simple fashion and it maybe some time soon we will see more refrigerators. With Flash and all of its capabilities it’s on those creating good user interfaces to make it happen.

Granted, some things may be too complex to be refrigerators but I just want my drinks cold.
John Warno
Milk Labs

You can find the latest photos from the conference here.
http://flickr.com/photos/kidbombay/sets/72157606851768351/
Thanks to Ketan Anjaria at
http://kidbombay.com/

This is myself and Caleb Adam Haye and we are blogging from the conference. If you see us please say hi.

John Warno
Milk Labs

Keith Peters was given the difficult task of having to follow Miha’s riveting presentation, yet Keith managed to deliver a heartwarming retrospective on the evolution of the Flash Platform. He compiled an awesome reel of standout Flash sites from 1999 (ancient times in the Flash world) which invoked nostalgia within myself and I presume within the hearts and minds of the other creative thinkers who were fortunate enough to have lived through those times.

Keith also did a glorious job of ripping Jakob Nielson a new one, for lack of a better description. Yet somehow he managed to do so in a professional, and courteous manner… never directly insulting him. In order to illustrate Jakob’s obvious lack of artistic perspective, all Keith had to do was pull up Jakob’s notorious “Flash: 99% Bad” article alongside Jakob’s current site, useit.com; both of which were decidedly boring and virtually nondescript. Hardly the type of website that impresses even the most novice rich media artisan.

Keith’s talk wasn’t just a Nielson bashing session, he followed up by sharing his perspective on Flex, which can be summarized by his statement that, “Flex is very good for Flash”. Although he was quick to point out that he personally is more of a Flash nerd than a Flex nerd.

Lastly, he delved into some of the latest and greatest features available in Flash 10, including bones, which basically enable kinetic motion from within the IDE. Some other noteworthy features include: tweening enhancements, drawing API improvements, lightweight 3D (not a replacement for PaperVision3D, but a suitable approach for projects where PV3D is overkill), a new text engine, pixel bender, and sound API enhancements (create/manipulate sound in Flash, one could create audio synthesizers in Flash).

Caleb Adam Haye
Fire, Inc.

Miha Pogacnik’s presentation and performance was engaging and entertaining. I loved how he used music to discuss the human journey. It was great to see someone so excited share his take on the different stages we transition through in life. His presentation was almost a lesson in music appreciation as he played Bach on the violin and deconstructed the piece as he played.

He was so compelling and energetic I was captured by his lesson and at the same time his message was personal.

What was interesting was how the music and explanation inspired you to ask, “Where am I on this journey?” The introspection was a welcome surprise and gave me the instant opportunity to relate directly with his lesson and consider my own path and current stage.

I came away with two important things from his presentation. This may be obvious but, incorporating the lessons learned from deconstructing and analyzing your work, path, or journey into your life makes you better. More importantly, without taking the time to look at what you are doing, successful or not, you can become trapped.

John Warno
Milk Labs