target is new

an exploration in the new

Moving to a tactile web

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With the iPad and also the rumours of Google going tablet, you can predict this new way of interacting with devices is taking off this year. What I find interesting in the videos is the way the interaction become more and more tactile, much more than the touchphones we use now. Where on an iPhone or Android you have a more finger interaction, the iPad and Google demo really does something more: gesture moving. The Minority Report feel.

You feel the gesture interaction on two interaction principles:

  • interacting a touchscreen with two hands the same time with ten fingers will feel different. You will make bigger movements with, not only with the fingers but also with the whole arm.
  • using the movement of the whole screen as extra input gives a lot of new possibilities. Like the e-mail program on the iPad where the avalailable functions follows the orientation of the screen

Of course we should not forget the stuff Microsoft develops in this field. With Surface they have made a gesture interface come true. And the promise of the new Natal game experience of Microsoft is also promising. This is the most literally translation of the gesture interface. But both have less impact because it limits to the specific uses (professional and gaming).

It looks like that we will have some serious steps to a new tactile experience in the use of our digital media. This can be also an extra driver for the developing of the Internet of Things.

Written by iskandr

February 2, 2010 at 11:51 pm

AR is not the product

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Just read this column on the future of Augmented Reality (AR) in relation to the marketing thingys made with it right now.

Now, I’ll grant that all of these are marketing gimmicks. They’re probably not meant to be anything more. But let’s just step back and call a spade a spade–and recognize that whatever “augmented reality” becomes, these projects probably won’t have much to do with it.

And of course Cliff is completely right.
I think this is also a recurrent pattern you see with a lot of new technologies that are a-claimed as promising. The first uses are based on what you can, not what you need. This was already the case with DTP years ago. It turned out to be a useful thing.

In AR there are two separate uses now. The marketing gimmicks as mentioned in the column, and the functional uses where adding information to the reality serves a purpose. Like the heads up manual for car mechanics, or the Layar-apps that add non-existing buildings to the city.

The sign that AR will be mature will be when we are not designing AR solutions, but we are integrating AR in holistic services when this adds a necessary function. When an AR service does not equals AR anymore.
We will definitely see those emerge the coming year, but can expect that real integration will take even much longer. At the end we will see that the current uses has a strong function in making AR understandable.

Written by iskandr

January 23, 2010 at 1:59 am

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January 15, 2010 at 8:01 am

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January 13, 2010 at 8:00 am

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January 12, 2010 at 8:00 am

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January 11, 2010 at 8:01 am

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January 10, 2010 at 8:00 am

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2010 the year with new focus and service attitude

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It is a tradition on my blog to give some predictions on the coming year. See these for 2009 and 2008 (both in Dutch). I will not look back in detail to see if the predictions came true, in the end it is more a residu of my thinking of that moment, than a serious hitting for the trends to come true. Broader trends are more interesting than one hot wonders, in my opinion, and I’m glad that the predictions of the last two year has started and/or are still developing. As I said last year: the short term developments are always slower, but looking back in a couple of years we will be surprised by the changes.

This said, I will share some thoughts for the coming year; I think this will be a year as a start of a new focus and service attitude.
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Written by iskandr

December 27, 2009 at 1:53 pm

The end of SEO with an evolution to semantic search

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In this post by Robert Scoble, he coined some interesting thoughts ont the developments of SEO and SEM. I especially found the ideas on the evolution of search engines like Google and Bing to search results that are relevant by heart and not by design interesting. It is an evolution to a semantic web in another way than mostly is promoted.

Most of the time the idea of the semantic web is linked to a better understanding of the question, of a smart determination of the question. Do you look for a bank to collect money, or to sit on. In the example of Scoble the semantic part is found in the search results itself. What results do really fit, apart from any influencing designing elements. It may look like just another accent but it is a world of difference.

So this will mean that the current services for search will evolve to semantic systems. Fed by the conversational realtime search and cloud based sensors to the real relevance. Services like Twine will be obsolete. We won’t call them semantic by the way, they are just intuitive and authentic.

Is SEO therefor also obsolete. Not completely. It will stay for some time, and it will be more and more a hygienic factor. A basic requirement you cannot avoid. It is just like the development of usability. Usability is not the discriminator, the experience and persuasion aspects of an interface are. SEO will be part of the basic toolset. The real behavior makes the difference.

Written by iskandr

December 18, 2009 at 1:56 am

Moving to a come2me economy

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Location based services were always about the wet dreams of advertisers where you come in contact with relevant advertisements right on the spot. We see however a different development on the same principle emerge, much more likely to occur. A come2me economy you could call it. Based on a really consumer centric approach.

Maybe it is not the best term. It has to do with permission based thinking, with VRM instead of CRM (Vendor Relation Management), that all start with the idea that the future success for a company will not be in the one that convince the most consumers to come to them and buy their products. Instead the brand has to find the customer and service them with real value.
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Written by iskandr

November 14, 2009 at 2:39 pm