Bill Buxton at Mix '09

Bill Buxton is one of the great interaction designers, and authors on the topic.

Video and a written interview for Mix '09 via interactiondesign.se

On Great-Depression-era Industrial Designers:

And the lesson from this and these successes at that time from '29, think about it, what idiots would do a startup of a design consultancy on the eve of the Great Depression? But every one of these companies is still in business today. They didn't just survive the Depression, they thrived in it as did their clients because they got the return on experience.

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Social Music Table

I saw this 'Dub Table' interactive music mixing table in a tent at a recent music festival. I was happily amazed at non-techy people getting involved in what is normally the geeky domain of music re-mixing. A crowd of young and old, male and female, were reaching in, adding new sounds, changing volumes, EQ and other effects in a real-time Dub mix. I've never seen technology that has enthralled, and actually engaged an audience like this before. Expect a 'Rock Band' version before long.

Unfortunately I can't find a direct link the creator of the Dubtable (help?), but you can read more about the technology behind (or rather, under) the table on Create Digital Music.

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Microsoft Shows Off it's ZUI

Microsoft Office Labs has shown off what I think is a pretty nice little implementation of a Zoomable User Interface. The idea for ZUIs has been around for over 15 years but has yet to be used in a popular, mainstream interface (that I've seen) to navigate through a set of documents. Could you see yourself using this system?

Watch the Microsoft Canvas for OneNote ZUI video examples here.

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