The Brain Dance. Week 10–11: Mar 6 — Mar 19, 2017
This bi-weekly edition of The Brain Dance (again…) comes more design oriented than usual but with the classic bits of technology. Well, everything is mixed, right?
The Brain Dance: Week 10–11
March 6–19, 2017
Recommended book of the week
“One + One = Three. A Masterclass in Creative Thinking”.
by Dave Trott .
2016. Pan Macmillan. 256 Pages
Rating: 5/5
I’ve discovered Dave Trott articles recently and after reading a few I confess I was trapped by his telegraphic style. His short stories, so easy to digest are hiding always an interesting creative gem that makes you think. It’s full of real stories with a twist and a translation to something related to our lives as creatives.
I got a copy of “One+One=Three” and read it in a blink of an eye. I won’t say it changed my life, only a few books deserve that recognition, but it did make me think and inspired me through the stories of those creative heroes that always went against the norm.
Truly inspiring and I got a copy of his other books, just to continue with the inspiration loop…
Design
7 Concepts That Tease The Wacky Future Of Screens
As a person who always worked with screens and who knows things are changing and evolving, and knowing the increasing popularity of conversational interfaces and the non-ui future to come this article got my eye. Interesting vision about the future of screens by Universal Everything.
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The tech industry needs more designers — are hybrid designer-developers the answer?
I’ve seen articles about John Maeda this week almost every day. I think I haven’t seen him that much in my entire life…
He talks about that classic topic, “should designers know how to code?” and expresses his opinion on why this is more important than ever.
And to finish with good ol’ John, here we have the Design in Tech Report of 2017. Pretty interesting and good insights.
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Voice User Interface Design: New Solutions to Old Problems
Another article about designing for conversational interfaces pointing out pretty much we’re living the beginning. I would like to attend Cheryl’s workshop and dig a bit deeper on the world of Voice interfaces.
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Is Your Brand Ready For Zero UI?
On the same note this article talks about the role of brands when user interfaces evolves to a world with no screens where voice interfaces are basically the norm.
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We’ve Mastered the Screen, What’s Next?
This article as well goes around the idea of what are the next steps now that we can think beyond the screen, voice interfaces, gesture based interfaces and haptic interactions as the future of interactivity. Nothing really new but always interesting to read and have in mind.
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Future of Design
Design matters and is relevant for success. Read this report and get some insights about the role of design in start-ups.
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Forget Coding: Writing Is Design’s “Unicorn Skill
This double article remarks the value of words. Writing as a design skill.
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The death of interactive infographics?
Very interesting and long article about interactive infographics and their role. Everything starts with a pretty illustrative fact, almost nobody interacts with them nowadays, so we have to have things absolutely clear in advance before doing something that perhaps won’t be noticed.
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Design Sprints Are Snake Oil
Interesting point of view on design sprints. Although are good and the guys from Google Ventures did a great job, it’s true, not all design problems are product design problems, and this is not the magic key to do good job.
Artificial Intelligence
Adobe Is Building An AI To Automate Web Design. Should You Worry?
The same way AI can boost other industries —and kill some jobs— why would design be different? I think the only thing we can get out of this is making our job more productive and effective. I tend to think all this power should be here to help us, not to get rid of us and our creative thinking.
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The Future, Crowdsourced
On the same topic as the article above. It’s all about embracing this new world that starts to appear ahead of us, machine learning, AI. What I said before… this should empower not weaken us.
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Forget Obamacare — AI is driving the real health care transformation
This is something I’ve been thinking for a while. If all the data, all the records of your health and others is stored somewhere, if there’s an endless data library with investigations and we can use this to improve our health… that’s gold, that’s better than having a doctor that can make diagnoses with variables that can cloud his/her mind. The thing to solve would be in my opinion to bring the emotional component but from a medical standpoint, yes… AI can be the future of health care.
User Experience
Having a Psychology background is already a huge step towards User Experience (UX)
This is not new but it’s true. I remember having a conversation time ago with my favorite UXer, Joeri, talking about this background and how truly understanding psychology was really effective for user experience design.
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Netflix will explore mobile-specific cuts of its original series
Time changes everything… and this is another sign of change. I was pretty strict when watching movies (Only on theaters! or on a big home screen!) but sometimes the small smartphone screen is so convenient that it’s a good way to consume some video content. If Netflix is thinking about this is just because data doesn’t lie and smartphones are kings.
Design for Emotion to Increase User Engagement
Interesting article about how emotion, going beyond the basics of usability increases effectiveness when interacting.
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A Rant against Pretty Designs
Same author as the article above but on the other side of the spectrum. It’s a showcase of HATE based on an egomaniac need of making a point. I agree with some of the examples as bad design and bad usability but I would never make my points by criticizing the work of others. If you want to prove a point, just prove it by saying what’s good UX, not pointing out what’s bad UI. Basically because that is OBVIOUS and quite pointless.
We can all play the hate game, it’s so easy to destroy… but what’s the need? Feed your ego?
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Being Human in an Automated World
My main concern about automation is we can forget that was not given, that one day we decided to let machines do some work for us. Interesting article about its implications.
Miscellaneous
How escape rooms became the future of advertising
I will always be an advocate of experiential creativity. It seems escape rooms were a success at SXSW. It’s not enough with screens, we are entering a real era of immersive experiences. I hope this new “trend” is a real thing and not another PR stunt.
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The World Changing Ideas Of 2017
To close this biweekly Brain Dance an interesting compilation of ideas that can change the world curated by Fast Company.
