pinkPopsoda

[pinkpopsoda]

  Rethinking the receipt: bringing whimsicality, fun factoids, low-tech personalization of information. (via Icon’s “Rethink”: turning receipts into ‘paper apps’ – Blog – BERG)

[pinkpopsoda]

Lemon Hand Grenades.

Chris Myles created these Portal-inspired Aperture Science lemon grenades ("COMBUSTIBLE LEMONS - MODEL: 0419"). "I took an aesthetics class in college. One of the assignments was to package a piece of fruit in an innovative way. I bought a miniature pineapple, cut off the flower, and screwed the fuse, spoon, and pin from a dummy hand grenade into the top. I got an A."

But then, I think, so did everyone else.

Chris Myles made these COMBUSTIBLE LEMONS MODEL 0419 not from real fruit, but from that tacky fake plastic stuff you can buy at the craft store. Which, in this context, actually becomes pretty awesome. They are apparently just as useless as my aesthetics class, but also just as much fun.

(via Make: Online | Lemon Hand Grenades)

[pinkpopsoda]

People Who Have Access To Power Meter Data Reduce Their Energy Use

The simplest way to cut down on energy use isn't to build millions of brand-new LEED-certified buildings; it's to convince people to make changes themselves. And sometimes, having access to energy consumption data--and a friendly nudge to compete with neighbors--is enough to get people to do just that. According to a study [PDF] from the Environmental Defense Fund and energy-management software company OPower, Americans who get better power meter data (from both regular and smart meters) cut energy consumption by an average of 1.8% in the first year. (via People Who Have Access To Power Meter Data Reduce Their Energy Use: Study | Fast Company)

[pinkpopsoda]

Commuters will be the bellwether for Google Wallet

To make an m-wallet succeed, says researcher Sheikh Taher Abu of the University of Hyogo, Japan, writing in the journal Telematics and Informatics, the commuter is the person to please. He found that m-wallets are particularly popular for travel related purchasing. "Commuters place a great deal of value on products that enable them to reduce their commuting time. Wallet phones enable them to do so by completely bypassing the ticket machine and by accelerating the purchase of foods, drinks, snacks, and newspapers in kiosks or convenience stores." (via One Per Cent: Commuters will be the bellwether for Google Wallet)

[pinkpopsoda]

Lego Experience Wheel: Lego's Building Block for Good Experience. 

(via LEGO’s Building Block For Good Experiences « Customer Experience Matters)

[pinkpopsoda]

A new augmented reality shopping platform for Xbox Kinect will allow users to try on clothes in true 3-D, share photos with friends, and store wish-listed items on smartphones for shopping on-the-go. 

KinectShop is primed to seamlessly integrate with real-life shopping experiences. "With an experience like KinectShop, a shopper can easily scan a QR code or swipe their NFCsmartphone to take their experience with them and use wayfinding tools to locate the product in-store," Luke Hamilton, Dawson's Razorfish colleague, writes to Fast Company in an email.

A smartphone's ability to activate apps and alert nearby stores to wish-listed items could automate the time-honored skill of deal-finding, too. Imagine digitally trying on a new purse, getting a round of likes on Facebook, and then being alerted to a big sale at a nearby store while running errands--futuristic shopping, indeed.

(via KinectShop: The Next Generation Of Shopping [Exclusive Video] | Fast Company)

[gregmelander]

[pinkpopsoda]

gregmelander:

PTTRNS

An amazing resource for seeing common Mobile user experiences, from splash screens to check in UX. Great stuff!

[footballandmusic]

[pinkpopsoda]

footballandmusic:

Gil Heron - The Black Arrow

[howiechang]

[pinkpopsoda]

howiechang:

Slide presentation on mobile prototyping by Rachel Hinman presented at Web Directions Unplugged in Seattle, May 12 - 13, 2011

[rickwebb]

“You can make the Internet safe for Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga, or you can make it safe for the next Skype,” said Benkler “You have to choose.”

At the eG8, 20th century ideas clashed with the 21st century economy | radar.oreilly.com | Readability (via rickwebb)

[rickwebb]

“You can make the Internet safe for Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga, or you can make it safe for the next Skype,” said Benkler “You have to choose.”

At the eG8, 20th century ideas clashed with the 21st century economy | radar.oreilly.com | Readability (via rickwebb)

[pinkpopsoda]

“Tropical Tolerance” is a concept based on the idea that the design of software needs to take into on consideration specific to African challenges: notably, power, communication, labor, pricing.

Interesting insights on how they go about developing software, the tech landscape in Africa, uniting and removing artificial borders with technology.

Herman believes: “Technology is the only way for Africa to get rich. We don’t have proper infrastructure and we can’t compete in manufacturing. But if you put me behind a PC and tell me to write software for a Chinese customer, then I can compete brain for brain with anyone trying to do the same thing in the US.”  ”The trick we have discovered is we meet Africa where it is. We do not try and invent anything. What exisits is enough, we have SMS into the bush, internet in the cities. We can innovation around that.”

theSOFTtribe employs around 70 people and has a client base of more than 250 organisations, including major multinationals such as the Ford Foundation, Nestlé, and Unilever; it is also a Microsoft development partner in the region.

[pinkpopsoda]

Using an ethnographic action research approach, the study explores the challenges, practices, and emergent framings of mobile-only Internet use in a resource-constrained setting. We trained eight women in a nongovernmental organization’s collective in South Africa, none of whom had used a personal computer, how to access the Internet on mobile handsets they already owned. Six months after training, most continued to use the mobile Internet for a combination of utility, entertainment, and connection, but they had encountered barriers, including affordability and difficulty of use. Participants’ assessments mingled aspirational and actual utility of the channel with and against a background of socioeconomic constraints. Discussion links the digital literacy perspective to the broader theoretical frameworks of domestication, adaptive structuration, and appropriation.

[pinkpopsoda]

Redesigning Banking with Behavioral Economics in Mind. By studying customers and rethinking the user interface, designers find ways to make online banking more enjoyable (via Redesigning Banking with Behavioral Economics in Mind - Technology Review)

[pinkpopsoda]

Africa is becoming a test lab for mobile phone development Lessons in innovation that Vodafone learns from its work in sub-Saharan Africa will be applied to its projects around the world.

[pinkpopsoda]

100 Years of War Casualties, Charted With Kitchenware: A century of butchery, shown in one bloody kitchen: shocking but all too appropriate (via Infographic Of The Day: 100 Years of War Casualties, Charted With Kitchenware | Co.Design)

[pinkpopsoda]

Beautiful: A Dock That Turns The iPhone Into An Analog Alarm Clock

(via A Dock That Turns The iPhone Into An Analog Alarm Clock | Co.Design)