Wireframes

Wireframe - this term may not be new to Interaction designers, Usability practitioners and lately project managers. However very little known to root level engineers (mostly UI developers). Well I wasn't familiar to this myself when I was a developer. But we have been practicing this since the start of our projects. We scribble roughly on paper on how UI of a product is going to look like - mostly layout and navigation. However we don't pay attention to minute details of how user would want to look at the product and navigate through it. It was more from system and implementation point of view. Well many of these things got cleared during my study at IDC.

So I slightly went off the topic. The reason for this post is that I just want to highlight some of the key benefits of wireframes. I was reading an article by Michael on Adobe for using Fireworks to do wireframing and export the design into css and html (that's a great relief for developers).
Following is the link >>
Michael list downs some of the key benefits of Wireframing. An excerpt from his article.

Wireframes help you communicate the fact that your design is a work in progress—and therefore subject to change based on feedback

Wireframes help ensure that the functional design is evaluated separately from the visual design

Wireframes don't become dated like comps, so you can reuse those unchanged dialog box sketches in your version 2.0 functional specifications even though you have completely reskinned the application

You can create wireframes much faster than you can design high-quality graphics—and it doesn't require much artistic skill

Using wireframes instead of comps for initial design reviews helps you to avoid the inevitable "please make the logo bigger" request until the functionality has been decided

3D movies on youtube

And the day has come when common man is not away from watching 3D movies right on his desktop/laptop or home TV. Well thanks to youtube which has started supporting 3d movies.
See some of them in action below.

This is truly an epic in video watching history on internet

And the day has come - Mahawar

The day I have been eagerly waiting for has come.

Mahawar - our game is out in markte. It's being sold and marketed by Funskool India Ltd.

Check it out online at Funskool site.

Thought the graphics in the game are not upto the mark that we delivered and the game play also seem to have been tweaked a bit to suit the market and manufacturing, I am anxious to get myself a copy of it and play.

Flash + Wii

The way Flash is advancing towards embracing different technologies and input mediums, it is apt for Adobe to make it as a platform. Adobe Flash (earlier Macromedia Flash) which was just an animation tool initially has come a long way till date. It not only provides you a platform to build dynamic website, but also a Rich Internet Application and the output devices can range from Personal computer to mobile to TV to palm top. And with the Open Screen Project by Adobe and other industry leaders of technology like Intel, Verizon, Samsung, Palm, Qualcomm. Well more details on this can be got from its site

This was just to give a brief peep into world of Flash.

What I want to post here is to document my first encounter with Wiimote and Flash. Yes there are plugins and api available today through which you can take gestural input from Wiimote to Flash.

You can easily get lot of information on it from internet but this post is a consolidation of all of them and gives a concise description.

To start with you have to download the server to communication wiimote events to flash. And yeah flash apis for capturing these events and programming required output.

Get the entire suite at WiiFlash site

The site has got entire documentation of how to go about connecting wiimote and then using it with Flash. However there are some loopholes.

Prerequirements

1. .NET 3.0 runtime

2. wiiFlash server

3. bluetooth enabled PC/laptop

4. Wiimote

Steps

1. You have to download .NET 3.0 runtime environment from Microsoft site as the latest WiiFlash server uses .NET3.0 components. On the site it mentions to download 2.0. However I dug out from internet that 3.0 is the latest requirement.

2. Now you should have a Wiimote and a bluetooth enabled PC or laptop. PC might not have inbuilt bluetooth adaptor so you have to buy a bluetooth dongle and configure the hardware. See the image below. e.g. Bluesoleil

3. Download WiiFlash server from the site. Once you download the zip, extract it and locate the server exe at WiiFlash 0.4.5\WiiFlash 0.4.5\Servers\WiiFlashServer 0.4.5.exe document. Make a shortcut of this file, as you are going to use it everytime you want to connect wiimote to flash.

We now have to connect our wiimote with our pc/laptop for bluetooth communication

4. Open bluetooth devices dialog or go to My bluetooth devices and select search bluetooth devices. As soon as it starts searching for bluetooth devices press button 1 and 2 on wiimote simultaneously (see wiimote image for reference of these buttons). Once the search is complete you should see an entry like Nintendo RVL-CNT-01. Select this device and proceed further.

5. The dialog asks for a passkey for the device to connect to computer. This is for security purpose. However our Wiimote doesn't require any passkey so just say "No Passkey/passcode" and proceed further.

6.With this you are done with making wiimote pc connection. Double click on the wiiflash server. It should look like this.

The wiiflash server shows how many wiimote are connected.

Tadaang !!!!!

It's done.

To check whether your wiimote is working or not open wiimote_demo.exe from WiiFlash 0.4.5\WiiFlash 0.4.5\Examples folder. Though different sites mention just opening .swf file will make the file working I found that making a projector of the file is better option.

You need to open the file in Flash IDE (CS3 and above) and just publish it as .swf and .exe (projector).

Click open the file and you should see different parameters changing by chagning wiimote gestures and clicking different buttons.

See the attached screenshot below.

I think this is enough to start with. You can check out other examples in the zip and and have fun.

Next post will be how to program wiimote events and make exciting stuff in few easy steps. You should have knowledge of Flash event handling. ;-)

Transmedia storytelling and India

Though this term might have been there from some time, I recently discovered it.
Transmedia storytelling as wikipedia says is storytelling across multiple forms of media. This is very new take in industry where they try to split the entire User Experience across multiple media and services. Different sites have been citing different examples to simply understanding this term.
Wikipedia gives examples of Matrix and Batman begins movies where they have tried to put some of the storyline/part into comic books and games to know/understand the content better.

Indian version of this can be cited in movie Krish, where they manufactured toys and props of the movie and sold it. But if you notice we have been doing transmedia storytelling since ages and its not new to India or Indian business. Take for example Ramayan. It there on TV, in comics, on everybodys mind. Though it was limited due to limitations of digital and print media.
So what is the point that I am trying to make here?
It clear. There is lot of opportunities for India to take a deep dive into transmedia storytelling industry and generate revenue. This will not only create employment but also take care of thrusting the product across different stratas of society.

I was just thinking if this can be linked to ultimate User Experience, where its no more limited to the duration of using/consuming the product/service but through out the lifetime.
And if you have some brilliant idea just enter Transmedia storytelling competition

Google is making a Wave

Google Wave
Google is making a Wave by designing/developing a collborative environment inside the browser. I think it's more like iGoogle but less like it. Well it seems to be an attempt of Google to bring all its product under one hood and give user the power to create and share and recreate media/communications through inter usages of their already exisiting product.
So what's so big deal about it?
Well it's live and real time. So you can see what your friend is typing a message for you.
You may look at the different screenshots of Wave at its official website >>.

Big Data - visualizations

Stamen Design is one of the pioneers in conceptualizing and implementing data visualization projects.
Michael from Stamen Design, presents their projects on data visualizations.In the course explains key concepts of what goes behind making visuals of large amount of data so that it is not overwhelming to users.

Michal Migurski | UX Week 2008 | Adaptive Path from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.