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Forget flying cars. All we need is glass. [video]

This Corning concept video caught our eye over the weekend. Have you seen it? (It has over 7 million YouTube views - not bad considering it's over 5 and half minutes long).

Corning's "A day made of glass... made possible by Corning" shows a day in the life of a family surrounded by smart glass interaction. It's visibly "the future" - and it's a future SLANT would love to see.

What caught our eye was the extent and connectivity of the graphic user interfaces within our most routine daily activities. Not only does everything look easy to use, but it just looks plain cool! And when your product is just a slab of (pretty awesome) glass, your customer's experience is going to be entirely defined by its user interface.

This is exactly what we meant in our GUI video when we said good GUI design isn't just a product feature - "in some cases [graphic user interfaces] are going to define products in a new way."

Read more

tags: GUI, future
categories: Random
Tuesday 03.08.11
Posted by SLANT
Comments: 1
 

liquidpubs: superior digital publishing coming soon to an iPad near you

What do you talk about when you sit around discussing how things should be? A frequent topic at SLANT is the creative potential of consuming content on touchscreens. 

These conversations became more focused in February when Apple demoed the iPad without a digital media solution in place. Since then, a few magazines have launched digital versions, but interactivity has been dismal, at best and consumer reviews have been below average. 

It's easy to see that iPad publication readers want a richer experience.

liquidpubs came to SLANT this year with the concept of creating a new customizable application that would allow publishers to create more robust digital and interactive newspapers, magazines and books. 

1. storyboarding the user's reading experience2. taking designs to the iPad screen3. all good review sessions involve the Thriller dance

How often do you get to be part of the solution? So of course, we dug in. 

We started with storyboarding the graphic user interface elements of the base application, including the paths users would take through the content. We then concepted ways to infuse gorgeous interactivity within the magazine like like pop-out timelines and galleries within articles. Paired with animated covers and articles with motion backgrounds, the truly interactive magazine came to life.

From here, liquidpubs began working with their development team to program the app to make their customizeable base application a working reality. 

In the company's press release, liquidpubs founder Ryan Vetter added, "We've been developing and planning since last year, and have worked hard to assemble an amazing team of people and a powerful solution for the next generation of publishing. We're excited to finally be out in the world."

 "We can't wait to work with liquidpubs to help publishers' deliver unbelievably cool content on this digital platform.” said Christopher Cecil, SLANT's founder and Head of Creative Intelligence.

For more information, visit the liquidpubs website (we designed that, too). And while you're there, check out the video we produced on the homepage to take a tour of the protypical magazine experience running on the liquidpubs platform. 
tags: GUI, UX, iPad, SLANT
categories: Announcements, Project
Wednesday 10.13.10
Posted by SLANT
 

Why SLANT loves John Underkoffler

We caught this tweet from Fast Company on Friday: The Genius Behind Minority Report's Interfaces Surfaces, Unveils Mind-blowing New Tech http://bit.ly/bdjmmo

The video of John Underkoffler's TED presentation is an amazing show of gestural interfaces that (according to Mr. U) will be commonplace in a few years.

Our favorite part was this quote around the 13:00 mark - it reinforces our own thoughts from our recent GUI + UX video

"For some of this technology, ground center is a combination of design which is crucially important. We can't have advances in technology any longer, unless design is integrated from the start. And efficacy, agency... we are human beings, creatures that create. We should make sure our machines aid us in that task and are built in that same image. " - John Underkoffler

Take some time to watch it. And envision the awesomeness of the future (and the forthcoming buffness of computer users from all of that arm movement).

tags: GUI, TED, design, technology
categories: Random
Monday 06.14.10
Posted by SLANT
 

(re)introducing DLO.com to Best Buy

 

If you have an iPod or iPhone, there's a good chance you've seen or even own an accessory made by Digital Lifestyle Outfitters (DLO). We've been working with DLO since 2005 to make sure their brand stays fresh and consistent online.

In our latest effort, we've been working closely with their creative and marketing team to reskin the 4 year old website to match their latest product packaging designs.  We launched the site Monday morning just as the new packaging was made available to customers at Best Buy stores, nationwide.

Check out the new look at www.dlo.com (and be sure to check out DLO's new packaging and products at your local Best Buy!)

tags: DLO, GUI, Philips, SLANT
categories: Announcements, Project
Tuesday 04.13.10
Posted by SLANT
 

Good Interface Design Makes You (and Us) Happy.

You have this idea. It could be an awesome app. Or a killer product. Or just a whole new way for people to engage with your brand. 

Think about it. With the proliferation of mobile and touchscreen devices like iPhone, Android, and Apple’s new iPad, hundreds of brands have the opportunity to deliver an amazing user experience. 

The $64,000 question is: What now?

At SLANT, that's the kind of challenge we live for. (Well, besides all-U-can-eat taco night).

So, we created this video to share our thoughts on Graphic User Interface and User Experience Design (GUI + UX) and its ties to marketing. 

From designing the GUI for products, iPhone apps, friendlier websites and content management systems, we know this stuff. And we love it. We can't wait to help make your product better and make you famous(er). Let's talk!

 HEY YOU! Yeah, you - the one squinting to read the text in the video. Try the 'fullscreen' button or go watch the video in HD over on Vimeo.

 

Update on 2010-03-29 14:56 by SLANT

Behind the scenes shots posted in the Fotos section

tags: GUI, UX, design, iPad, SLANT
categories: Announcements, Videos
Thursday 03.25.10
Posted by SLANT
Comments: 3
 

iPad: Told you so!

Here at SLANT, we're getting lots of questions like: "so the iPad - what's the point? Isn't this just a giant iPhone?"  Well, yeah, it is.  BUT...we see tons of potential.

Our biggest gripe about the iPad when it was announced is that Apple didn't spend enough time showing us how things are going to be different on the iPad than on our iPhones, iPod Touches, or laptops.  They showed us web surfing, music, pictures and movies, but it's all the same that we're used to. They needed to show us how amazing it will be to do other stuff that we CAN'T do on iPhone.  

It's so obvious to us that we started to wonder why it wasn't obvious to everybody else: this is going to be an amazing way to read and interact with magazines and newspapers. And for this to be truly amazing, we knew that big publishing companies were going to need to really embrace the platform.  And by 'embrace' we mean, totally rethink their content for full-blown interaction.

Instead of flipping digital pages with your finger, imagine sliding articles into place with your finger, or flicking through images embedded in an article.  Or how about making Ads finally worth looking at by rotating objects 360º with your finger right inside the ad?  All of these things will make the iPad an amazing experience for consuming content. 

But there were no such announcements or demos showing a partnership with the Condé Nasts or the Newscorps of the world to offer compelling interactive versions of their publications.  We were beginning to think we were the only ones who got it and we were going to have to do this ourselves.  Looks like our visionary-ness has caught on and the big guys are finally getting it.  So, that's why we say: "Told you so!!"  

See what the publishers are saying about the iPad...some really exciting stuff!

  • Wired Magazine: http://bit.ly/95vgK7
  • Other Condé Nast Publications: http://nyti.ms/9SHtHL
  • Penguin Books: http://bit.ly/c0EWOh
  • Wall Street Journal: http://bit.ly/do9PGl

 

tags: GUI, UX, iPad
categories: Random
Wednesday 03.10.10
Posted by ccecil@slantmedia.net
 

Freshfields Village got fresh with us.

And we're so glad they did!

A quaint little village at the crossroads of Kiawah and Seabrook, Freshfields Village was struggling with a website that just didn't match up. They wanted a site that would drive visitors to their merchants, while also spotlighting the community events that take place there. 

So, SLANT set out to build a site that allowed people to truly experience and explore Freshfields Village...all without ever stepping away from the computer.  The result?  Ta da...a fresh new look that is getting "twittention."

"Freshfields Village has a new, MUCH improved site up. TG! Check it out http://freshfieldsvillage.com." - CHARLIE, via Twitter, 10:04 a.m. Oct. 28.

Experience Freshfields Village online here, then be sure to take a trip out to experience it for for yourself!

 

tags: Freshfields, GUI
categories: Announcements, Project
Thursday 11.05.09
Posted by SLANT
 

iTunes needs a facelift.

iTunes needs a facelift...bad. Not because it's "been a while and something fresh would neat." No. It's because the user experience of iTunes is broken.

iTunes is suffering from some growing pains. When it was first designed and released, it was for organizing and playing music. Now it does everything except mop your kitchen floor. The fundamental problem with this is that unless you "grew up" with iTunes, the interface is now very daunting.  It's hard to find things and when you do find what you're looking for, it's been forced to work within the confines of the iTunes interface - when certain things could benefit greatly from an entirely new interface.

Let me demonstrate. One of my gripes is with the iPhone management.  Those of you with iPhones will (hopefully) relate with me that clicking endless checkboxes and choosing from dropdowns is a pain.  Not to mention how much of a pain it is to organize all these new fancy apps on the iPhone's home screens.  So we decided to see what would happen if Apple spent some time rethinking the iTunes/iPhone management layout.  We think it should go something like this (click thumbnails to enlarge):

Main iPhone Sync Settings Screen

Typical Detailed Settings Screen

App Management Screen

tags: Apple, GUI
categories: Random
Thursday 06.25.09
Posted by SLANT
Comments: 1
 

Philips DLO HomeDock HD

SLANT's handywork in the realm of Graphical User Interface (GUI or "goo-eee", as fellow geeks would say) is being met with pretty impressive critiques. DLO's HomeDock HD was released to the public back in November and SLANT was responsible for designing and developing the unit's Graphical User Interface.

SLANT was asked to completely overhaul the system's GUI to make it dazzle when connected to HD televisions and to make it more user friendly in general. After about 4 months of designing, tweaking, and documentation writing, the final designs were baked into production units and on the shelves at Best Buy nationwide as of October.

Reviews are coming in from notable tech blogs and review sites complimenting "the nicest-looking on-TV menu system yet attempted by a third-party developer for the iPod." (as quoted from iLounge.com)

Lots of people don't know that User Interface/Experience design is something SLANT has been known for since it's inception back in 2002. Starting with interactive CD-ROMS (remember those?) and award winning flash websites that focus on unique user interface and navigation designs.

tags: GUI, Philips
categories: Announcements, Project
Friday 02.06.09
Posted by ccecil@slantmedia.net
 

it looks better from here. | SLANT life