Some links of interest

Bibliography of multi-touch interaction research

Given the recent interest in multi-touch interaction following the announcement of the iPhone, I thought I would point to Bill Buxton’s brief history of multi-touch interaction research. There’s also some background in the Fastcompany interview of Jeff Han.
By the way, I much prefer this latest video of Jeff Han’s work than his TED presentation.
Apparently you can make your own multi-touch screen (by following Jeff’s original paper) but it would appear the real wizardry is in the software…

Interaction Design in Europe

Convivio – the European Network for the Human-Centered Design of Interactive Technologies – has kicked off a series of interviews with leading voices in the field of human-centred design. Interviews will feature people from all over the world, but with an emphasis on European voices (and I’m biased, but it’s wonderfully refreshing to have a European perspective on all things HCI).

The first interview is with Jan Chipchase, Principal Researcher at Nokia, who maintains a photo-blog at Future Perfect.

The second interview is with Adam Greenfield, author of Everyware: The dawning age of ubiquitous computing.

Adam finishes with some great advice for designers who are interested in getting involved with ‘ubiquitous computing’:

“[…] I’d imagine that getting comfortable with user observation and ethnography, contextual inquiry, and other techniques for the qualitative understanding of the experience of use will stand you in good stead. And if neither of these two suggestions appeal, about all I can say is sit just where you are – because it seems fairly likely to me that some kind of Everyware will come to you.”

In a related vein, and also from Europe, Nat Torkington blogs about his conversation with Matt Webb, who works for creative design consultancy Schulze & Webb.

Designing Web Applications – Structure and Flows

User Interface Engineering (UIE) have released a 54 page report called The Designer’s Guide to Web Applications, Part I – Structure and Flows . It’s US$35 – but there’s a free chapter available for download.

I’ve read the free chapter, and it’s very good. It helps conceptualise how most web applications should be structured – useful if you’re struggling to envisage how screens should ‘flow’ from one to the other.

In a similar vein, there is Bob Baxley‘s Task Flow for Web Applications, part 1 – Views & Forms and Task Flow for Web Applications, part 2 – Wizards & Guides.

Two great events in Auckland for World Usability Day

There will two events in Auckland for World Usability Day on Tuesday 14th November.
At lunchtime, we will be making some (visual) noise with some red balloons in the streets of Auckland, highlighting good and bad examples of user experience.
In the evening, Shona Bishop, GM of Marketing & Business Development at the Bank of New Zealand, and Natasha Hall from Trade Me will be talking about how they’ve introduced usability into their organisations.
Find out how you can get take part in the events calendar.
I’m hoping for lots of people at lunchtime (and in the evening too, of course). We’ve ordered 100 balloons so there should be enough to go around….! Don’t be shy – come along!