Type Cast

• News Events, User Events, People
  (tags: global Journalism media news ugc citizen)

• Yahoo! NewsGlobe
  (tags: news visualization yahoo maps flash 3D earth media)
• Konigi | Knowledge Sharing & Competitive Research for User Experience Design
  (tags: blog design inspiration reference research usability resource)

A nest of remotes, originally uploaded by Rare Surname.

Was tidying the flat and had them all lined up. What struck me was how universally crap these things are.

If ever there was anything that was a blatant example of engineers designing products by determining injection moulding patterns then these must be it. Or, in a web sense, it’s the homepage by committee when everything must be on there.

The best way to design one of these would be to collect say 20 examples from random homes. See which buttons are either worn smooth or aren’t surrounded by general crud and give them main billing. Make ‘em big and ergonomically aligned. Get rid of the rest.

I remember an ‘A’ level exam question in Design Technology which asked to design a TV remote. They had a list of 15 or so buttons and their frequency of usage. Marks were awarded for button placement and size of button in relation to frequency of use. If the majority of 18 year old students can get this stuff half right what the hell happens later in careers?

In this case, Bose and Apple (unsurprisingly), have it spot on. All buttons on my remotes from these two are well used and intelligently placed. When will other manufacturers learn?

Today sees the launch of a new site aimed sqaurely at the home renovation / decorating market.

MyDeco.com, from the founders of lastminute.com Brent Hoberman and Martha Lane-Fox, is an intermediary service which aggregates home furniture and decorating products into one site. But calling it a simple intermediary is selling it desperately short. There are some really cool features in there which should make it a complete one-stop-shop for everyone from those looking to get some ideas on which sofa to purchase to those looking for a complete ‘changing rooms‘ style makeover.

Just some of the features on the site include…

• Decorate your room virtually by uploading a photo and applying colour and virtual wallpapers
• 3D modelling, allowing you to create a look from real products in your own room photo
• Buy the Look, where users can buy a specific look for a fraction of the ‘real’ price with similar, but less expensive products.
• Get expert tips and advice from leading designers

Underpinning this, and more, is the fact that the entire site is ’socialised’. Everything is ratable, rankable, commentable as well as a cute little feature called ‘not my style’ which helps to build your taste profile thus allowing you to find people with similar likes and dislikes to you. Mix in some blogging and groups and it’s the virtual hub of neighbourhood gossip on home decorating. Dodgy furniture makers beware - your product’s failings will be shouted form the roof tops.

In fact, I have more than a passing observer’s interest in this. Back in the mists of time at Interesource (February 2007) we did some work with MyDeco to help define and architect the social aspects of the site. We did a whole bunch of Photoshop worked up wireframes which they took and branded up. No doubt loads of it has changed since last summer. I only glimpsed at the private beta on a couple of occasions last autumn, but it was great to be part of that start up scene in the early days - it was like 1999 all over again, rented office space an’ all. As for the team, they were great to work with. By the very fact that many of them were ex-lastminute.com, a lot of them had worked together historically and so this thing was always going to work.

I’ll follow MyDeco closely, hell I will probably even register. I wish them all the very best.