Written by David Charney
Posted: December 16, 2009 (2 months, 3 weeks ago) | 0 comments
Creative evenings indoors are great in the winter (You people without snow can participate as well). Get out your crayons, pencils, pens, paints, Prismas, charcoal, or clay and get creative. We can’t let kids have all the fun!
Update: Miss Keil reminded me that oils, pastels, water colors, water color pencils, colored pencils, chalk pastels, and acrylics are all great too. Another friend of mine’s brother in law is an ice sculptor and many of my friends are 3d and animation experts… I can’t leave them out either. What other mediums am I missing?
Written by David Charney
Posted: November 27, 2009 (3 months, 1 week ago) | 0 comments
I met with Don Norman - Famous usability and cognitive psychology expert… All about the user experience. We discussed the business a bit and did a little brainstorming about a friend’s product and how to make it more receptive to a specific audience.
He has many books on the subjects. Don was a VP at Apple and started the Nielsen Norman Group with Jakob Nielsen (all you designers know who that is). Brilliant guy. 74 years old… I would have guessed 55. It was great of him to visit with us. Thanks Don.
Written by David Charney
Posted: October 20, 2009 (4 months, 3 weeks ago) | 1 comment
Hey all, I just wanted to give a shout out to a small project my Dad has been working on. He is designing and creating custom boxes and selling them out at uniqueboxart.com. Each box is different and allows him to explore new ideas both in design and from a technical standpoint. Nice work Dad!
I obviously focus on digital design on this blog but it is important to remember all the many other types of art in this world. My Dad has set up custom rigs, used unique wood textures, shapes and sizes, and even used steam bending to create the projects I have grown up with.
Written by David Charney
Posted: May 22, 2009 (9 months, 3 weeks ago) | 0 comments
It is first the fundamentals then the application of information that builds experience. A simple example:
For a right-angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. a² + b² = c²
OK, now go use it… Go on…
For many of us this is where the problem begins. We don’t know how to apply this information. If we can’t apply it, we can’t relate to it. If we can’t relate to it we may find it boring or not something our time is better spent on. So we move on or find a good movie to watch.
So let’s finish the puzzle. We know a² + b² = c², but how do we apply it? How do I use this information? Let’s give an example of it’s application. I would love to make this interactive but due to time here is a quick mock-up. So the scenario is this. You are building a bike ramp. You know how long and how tall the ramp is, but you haven’t put together anything yet so you can’t measure the length of the final plank. So you ask yourself…
Continue Reading >>
Written by David Charney
Posted: May 9, 2009 (10 months ago) | 0 comments
I was at Siggraph a few years back and these guys were presenting their new usability ideas and theories that surrounded a new UI. They tried to go for the cool factor as a means for better usability but without the many other attributes they were failing fast.
One of the components they had on screen was similar to what I have created here - except for their first example had a little close button in the top right corner of the main panel. Basically there were these little info panels that could display contact information - or really any kind of information on screen. They could throw these different panels out and re-align them quickly. It sounded like the usability testing they did involved a focus group of themselves and that everything was working great except for one thing. They explained that the close button was too small in the top right hand corner of their info panel. They kept missing it with a mouse or touch screen. There can be many panels on screen and so closing them needs to be quick and effortless. Their current system was unacceptable to them and their “new” approach to usability… but they had a trick up their sleeve.
Continue Reading >>
