Man-Machine Interfaces. Learning From the Death of Air France 447.

Mai 10th, 2012 • Tech, Tools
Tags: Air France, Design, Flying, Interfaces, Planes, Strategy, Tech, Tools, UI, UX, World

I don’t like to fly. Being constantly quite anxious in planes I once started to try to understand plane crashes. The objective: to get to the roots of my fear. I was particularly moved by and interested in the horrific crash of Air France 447 in 2009 that cost 228 people’s lifes.

After recovering the lost flight recorder after months of desperate search from the depths of the Atlantic one thing became terribly clear: the series of flaws, mistakes, and misconceptions that lead to the disaster were connected (among other things) with the user interface design of the super modern Airbus Airbus A330-200.

At heart, the problem was one of feedback. In a world of flight dominated by computers, Airbus designs its planes with less tactile response (in the name of pilot comfort) and less potentially overwhelming information (in the name of clearer pilot decisions). In the case of Flight 447, some of the plane’s ducts froze up, removing the information of airspeed, and forcing the plane out of autopilot. In response, a pilot named Bonin pulled up on his stick, gaining a bit of altitude to, presumably, safely keep the plane in the sky. (via)

He didn’t.

The story of this fatal flight should make anyone interested in user interface design think.

Time to share four recent links on this topic – one of them is actually an interview with a friend of mine who is a pilot himself.

• Fastcodesign: How lousy cockpit design crashed an Airbus killing 228 people
• davaidavai.com: Hooked. Alex Wipf and his theory of flight.
• Worldhum: Malcolm Gladwell on Aviation Safety and Security

Just another chapter in the neverending story of how we expect technology to be fail-proof. Most of the time it is. Up to the point where technology and humans interact. Titanic anyone?

Social Media Management Software. Check Out Altimeter’s New Buyer’s Guide.

Januar 9th, 2012 • 2 comments Reports, Social, Tech, Tools
Tags: Altimeter, altimetergroup, Business, Facebook, Presentation, Reports, Social Business Design, Social Influence Marketing, Strategy, Tech, Tools, we are social

So once you have given all the presentations about the value of Social Media and explained that a fan is not worth $2.38 (or something) you will – at some point – face the challenge of managing real time interaction with your customer. Here SMMS, a type of software especially designed to support the management of complex social interaction platforms, are usually your weapons of choice. Especially in a world in which any major enterprise has to be able to manage its 178 social media accounts in average.

A Social Media Management System (SMMS) is a software tool that uses business rules and approved employees and partners to manage multiple social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. This system contains features such as governance, workflow, intelligence, and integration capabilities across the enterprise. The success of these tools is dependent upon a business-led strategy, defined processes, trained staff, and ability to measure efforts.

SMMS are there to reduce the complexity of large real time social media platforms. And there are many, many different vendors on the market. From Hootsuite to BuddyMedia, from Wildfire to Spredfast, no two vendors are alike and there is no one-fit-for-all SMMS-solution. Altimeter’s new “Strategy to Manage Social Media Proliferation” serves as a great overview over the SMMS-scene and offers metrics to support the choice for specific vendors based on the social objectives of your organisation.

If you have ever tried to give your customer a founded recommendation on which SMMS to choose you will know how important the following report is. In a market as cluttered and dynamic as this we need more top-level reports like the following one instead of infographics on Mashable.

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Meanwhile in Japan. A Kinect Hack a Day keeps the Doctor away.

November 21st, 2011 • Tech
Tags: 3D, Cool, Creativity, Experimental, Funny, Hack, japan, Kinect, prank, Tech, visual, World

This fantastic looking little Kinect hack is almost too typical Japanese. At least if you consider that it seems to be completely normal (after a little surprise) for Japanese people to pose with your evil Manga-twin in the mirror…

Stuff We Like. Selfcontrolfreak’s Interactive Videos.

Oktober 20th, 2011 • Experimental, People, Tech, We like
Tags: Amsterdam, Cool, Creativity, Experimental, Funny, Gaming, intelligent, Pechakuchanight, People, selfcontrolfreak, Tech, video, visual, We like

Last night I attended Amsterdam’s Pechakucha Night at Roest. Most of you probably know the concept: Random people present their business concept/idea/art theory/whatever on 20 slides and they only have 20 seconds for each page before a heartless Powerpoint algorithm switches to the next one. The one person that definitely stood out for me was Olivier Otten – a young Dutch Creative/Developer who tries to play with very playful ways to interact with video under the name Selfcontrolfreak.

I don’t want to say much more. Just one thing. Gamification is not about badges and check-ins. Traditional playful, interactive metaphors have been around since the 1990s. But even two decades later I know of few platforms which are as much fun as this one.

Check out his 22 simple, playful video examples and start playing with Selfcontrolfreak.

This Morning’s Hot Shit. The new Facebook Features.

September 23rd, 2011 • 1 comment Experimental, Social, Social Business, Strategy, Tech, Tools
Tags: Facebook, Semantic Web, social network, Social Networks, Timeline

My new Facebook Timeline has arrived. After yesterday’s f8 announcement (great overview here) I really think we are about to see the ‘profound changes’ that mashable talked about yesterday morning.

Hacking Facebook to set up Timeline is a rather simple. Techcrunch has published a handy DIY guide this morning. But only I am currently able to see my timeline right now.

What it does is really to replace my profile with a nice, interactive biography on one page. The Timeline stops everytime Facebook identifies important steps in my life. My sister’s birth certainly was one of these events (even though at that point I didn’t necessarily agree). And I am invited to upload baby photos of her. Cheesy and nice.

Timeline is a new, pretty cool metaphor that really adds a new perspective to Facebook. Facebook as a lifelong diary – well actually…a living diary. Long term not just super-today.

But there is much more that I find interesting.

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Oh Boy. How to Fuck up the Announcement of a Great Invention Big Time.

August 11th, 2011 • Tech
Tags: 802.22, Cool, Experimental, IEEE, innovation, Tech, Tools, Trends, WLAN, World, WRAN

Engineers just know how to ruin a good story.

The thing which has just been announced as a new technical standard by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) will probably really be a revolution. But instead of giving this thing a really cool name they called it ‘WRAN’. Or to make it even more cryptic: 802.22.

‘WRAN’ stands for ‘Wireless Regional Area Network’. It basically takes the idea of your WLAN at home one step – or more – further and offers wireless internet access in an area up to 62miles/100km wide. We are talking about 12,000 Square Miles aka a lot. (via PCMasters)

As far as I understand this means we are getting one giant leap closer to Internet wherever we go. The potential implications of this new standard are absolutely breathtaking – just think about the challenge for Mobile carriers as well.

But anyway. It is good to see that there is absolutely no need to revise my stereotype of Engineers. You guys have possibly just invented one of the greatest technical solutions of our time and you call it “802.22″? Seriously IEEE: What the Fuck? This could have been the greatest product announcement since sliced bread. But you ruin it because you name it like a species of Alien Bacteria.

If you want to check out more of the IEEE’s fancy marketing concepts go check out their ‘Product page‘or the Wikipedia article.

It could have been good.

We Like. Credit Card Payment via Webcam.

Juli 27th, 2011 • 2 comments Tech, Tools
Tags: Cool, Creativity, ecommerce, Experimental, Future, Ideas, Jumio, Tech, Tools, We like

Every morning I am trying to fight my way through the world’s startup concepts on betali.st and other sites. And to be honest, most digital enterpreneurs do not have very good ideas.

Jumio Netswipe is different. Sounds like just another startup that…connects you with your friends/let’s you check in to dog poo. But it’s actually extremely purposeful. It’s the first Creditcard payment provider that scans your card via webcam. And yes, I think this really is pretty cool and can potentially be used in the future.

Jumio introduces Netswipe from Jumio Inc. on Vimeo.

via Netzwertig

Storage vs Bandwidth. Amazing, isn’t it?

Juni 23rd, 2011 • Tech
Tags: Bandwidth, Cloud, Storage, Tech

If there is one thing interesting about technological progress then it is not just how fast hard discs and download rates have become. It is also how much prices have dropped over the past two decades. I can still remember 80486 PCs for a price beyond $10,000? Is that 5% as fast as a modern iPhone or is it even less. In the freaking 21st century everyone keeps talking about the cloud. But what actually enabled the Cloud isn’t just bandwidth – it is also price per unit Bandwidth.

The guys from Backblaze have created this amazing infographic that illustrates how far we got.

Back to the Future. The Apple Knowledge Navigator.

Mai 24th, 2011 • Experimental, Ideas, Media, Mobile, Tech, Tools
Tags: 1980s, Apple, Brands, Cool, Creativity, Experimental, Future, Ideas, iPad, iPhone, Mobile, products, Tech, Tools, Touch

The following video was filmed in 1987 and stages a conceptual Apple design called the ‘Knowledge Navigator’. It is a concept described by former Apple Computer CEO John Sculley in his 1987 book, Odyssey. It describes a device that can access a large networked database of hypertext information, and use software agents to assist searching for information. Gesture control is included as well.

Apple produced several concept videos showcasing the idea. All of them featured a tablet style computer with numerous advanced capabilities. And I guess it reminds you of something. If you watch closely you will realize this video plays in the year 2010 or 2011…

Campaign + LinkedIn. Just a more serious Facebook Connect?

April 27th, 2011 • 2 comments Brands, Experimental, Social, Tech, Tools
Tags: Agencies, Amex, Amsterdam, Brands, Creativity, Experimental, Ideas, LinkedIn, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Strategy, Trends, Volkswagen

Yesterday I stumbled upon the first major digital campaign that builds upon LinkedIn’s open API – Volkswagen’s LinkedUit campaign here in the Netherlands (Source). The online special builds up on the Volkswagen Passat campaign ‘Nogal vol van zichzelf’ (‘quite full of himself’) and uses your LinkedIn connections to discover profane information in your profile and compares it to an opponent’s data in your LinkedIn circle of connections. The more information your profile contains the more likely you will win against an opponent of your chosing.

Volkswagen’s online special is light weight fun, looks nice and is well integrated with LinkedIn – which is of course the actually interesting aspect of this digital campaign. Because of course – Achtung Amsterdam and Volkswagen could have alternatively used Facebook Connect. But they went for innovation and decided to use LinkedIn’s open API.
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