Albert Tanutama

Andy Rutledge posted a thought provoking article about compromising design work. Designers are expected to excel and deliver best work as a result of clear vision, superior insight, and flawless execution. Any compromise in the work is a failure and corrupt of what is best for the client. Because of this, designers must have the abilities to present information, defend ideas, and address compromising or irrelevant concerns, compellingly and convincingly which will result in the proper understanding.

Although this no-compromise position seems harsh, designers still have the responsibility to listen and to understand their users. Vision, insights, and execution will only work after designer truly understand what the client and user needs (not wants). Empathy is essential – The best work comes from the best understanding, and that’s a no-compromise 

eLearning, predicted will replace traditional classroom-based learning has failed to deliver on its expectations. This failure brought skepticism and misconception of what eLearning is all about. As a result, it faded out into specific and rather small market niche. Nevertheless, the eLearning concept was noted right, only the implementation of it was wrong and not practical.

VideoJug is an interesting online video sharing which might show what practical eLearning could be. Unlike other video sharing services, it is focused on sharing knowledge, aiming to be “genuinely useful, genuinely helpful, and genuinely practical”. Currently it has both professionally produced and amateur made how-to videos covering relationships, health, lifestyle, work, finance, fun and more. These videos come in between 2 and 6 minutes long that you can download to your iPod or mobile phone. Apart from posting comments, linking and embedding video to your blog, VideoJug allows you to print instructions described in the video. You can suggest and vote topics to be produced or you can create your own videojug, or slideshow.

Having learned hard lessons from the previous bust, many industries are making a come back despite reusing old concept with new approach. I think VideoJug gives refreshing ideas for eLearning industry to make itself relevant in the market which I hope to see in the coming year. Meanwhile, I will learn to stick with my 2007 resolutions

Happy New Year!

What makes simplicity difficult to achieve? Luke Wroblewski, Principal Designer on the Search team at Yahoo! identified following possible causes:

• Conflict between perceived simplicity with actual simplicity of usage. What appears as simple might be difficult to use, and what initially looks complex might be easy to use. Unfortunately, this perceived complexity can prevent potential users from discovering the simplicity of a product’s actual use.
• Complexity in balancing the features and information for advanced and average users creating value for company. The features and information that help power participants meet their goals can quickly complicate things for the average user, while simplifying a product to be effective for the average user may penalize the efficiency of power participants—who are arguably a company’s most valuable customers (read also: Power and Simplicity).
• Complexity in making gradual engagement works. Gradual engagement is a methodology used to manage complexity by gradually reveal complexity as users specify when they are ready for it – also known as progressive disclosure. This method in itself requires complex behind-the-scenes considerations in order to be effective.

This complexity, in other word, lies in aligning both perceived and actual simplicity, taking into consideration diverse type of users, making sure the resulting simplicity is appropriate (right interface, right user and at the right time) for their particular needs.

Don Norman recently posted that simplicity is overrated. He noted that how features (and the related complexity) still win over simplicity in the market “…simplicity is a myth whose time has past, if it ever existed. Make it simple and people won’t buy. Given a choice, they will take the item that does more. Features win over simplicity, even when people realize that it is accompanied by more complexity.”

Norman’s skepticism draws interesting responses. Joel Spolsky, a well-known software engineer, argued that simplicity and number of features are not related. Simplicity does not necessarily means “not very many features” or “does one thing and does it well.” It could simply means aesthetic, clean visual appearance of the product. Simplicity is about making product usable or easy to use. It is about thinking users who will use the product. The success of the product does not depend on simplicity but rather “…a result of a combination of things: building an audience, evangelism, clean and spare design, emotional appeal, aesthetics, fast response time, direct and instant user feedback, program models which correspond to the user model resulting in high usability, and putting the user in control, all of which are features of one sort, in the sense that they are benefits that customers like and pay for, but none of which can really be described as “simplicity.” Therefore, attributing product success simply based on features ignoring the role of simplicity is not appropriate.

A comment made by a reader in Guardian blog added the need to consider type and maturity of the product in relation with new features added. Customers are likely making their decision based on features particularly for new and unfamiliar products. This is not something irrational, features convey benefits and economically people have the tendency of maximizing their gains. The problem though, they do not have “sufficient information or experience to understand their choices” – as a result, they often experience regret and disappointment.

At the heart of the issue is what I believe simplicity as minimizing effort. When Norman observed people choosing feature-rich products, I believe they are minimizing their decision making effort based on visible factors available. Unless people have personal experience using a product, external factors such as branding, feature-list, advertisement, product reviews and testimonials are some of the factors that influence this simplistic decision making. Simple and usable products that fail in the market are likely caused by their failure differentiating, communicating and justifying their values in the market. The problem is not the product but about the product; hence, the challenge is managing the perceived value of the products. When people start using products, deeper level of simplicity is essential – this is where design, usability and human factors create lasting experience that will hopefully have positive impact on subsequent decision. A good design plays important role in confirming and ensuring people that they have make a good choice which will eventually simplify their future decision. Hence, the challenge here is to put into practice all of those design and user-centric theory and principles.

Last year, I made my decision of buying Sony Ericsson K750 simply because it has all features that a handphone could have (radio, bluetooth, infrared, camera, mp3 player, and many more). I don’t use all those features (they just give me a good feeling that my handphone is powerful). As I start using it, I realize how usable and friendly it is (shortcuts, responsive recently called and messaged contacts, immediate camera mode upon opening the lens cover). The simplicity of deciding and using creates a good experience, which I feel will have definite impact on my future purchase.

From Wednesday until Friday, X|Media|Lab – an international digital media think-tank and creative workshop – organized their latest Professional Day Conference and lab session in Singapore. This year the theme is “Learning from Games”, covering the emerging area of ”Serious Games” or game-based learning, in which pedagogical approach of education meet with fun, entertaining aspect of games. The blending between these two perceivedly different, opposite areas leads to interesting implications and discussions, for example to what extent education can be embedded in games, vice versa.

Noah Falstein, Board Member of Serious Games Summit and Games for Health Conference, began the conference by highlighting positive implications of gaming that help to enable social change, improve dexterity and skills, and support healthy living. Serious games, to him, are characterized by 4 aspects: creative (offer fresh approach), commercial (first step toward what will be huge market), compassion (helping with real world problem), and consequential (shaping opinion).

Chee Yam San, from National Institute of Education (NIE, Singapore) followed up this topic by highlighting the importance of designing serious games seriously, putting pedagogical considerations into game design. This requires game designers to think more about what they consider as “Education”, in which goals, values, and beliefs play important role. They also have to figure out learning from simply knowing, and doing to “become and becoming”. It is important to realize that Game is just a means to end – just be sure what the end is.

Zhan Ye, from China GC Networks explained the emerging market of serious games, especially in China, given the increase in government spending, common chinese ideology, and increase in education and learning needs. Serious games are likely be able to bridge the gap between education needs, and entertaining preference of learniers.

Katie Salen, from Parsons The New School for Design, insightfully explained the nature of game. By looking at participatory nature of games rather than just interactivity, she noticed the role of bringing affiliation, expression, collaborative problem solving, and circulation into games. In addition, she looked into the nature of “gaming” which is the “frame of mind that produce something beyond the artifact of game”. Game, to her, are important because it teaches about system, procedural thinking, and computational literacy to collaborate and solve problem.

Siddharth Jain, from Playware Studios Asia described the challenge of designing serious games, because to him “learning stops cold when game gets too serious”. He highlighted the importance of having engaging narrative, experience, suitable game mechanics and meaningful challenge in games.

John Buchanan, from Carnegie Mellon University described the problem of interacting with game characters late in the development cycle. He introduced game sketches methodology to be done even before prototype was made. The purpose of sketch is to record ideas, provide flexibility by minimizing stakeholders’ commitment to the initial design, invite comment, and focus attention to certain design aspect while abstracting anything else.

Sande Chen, previously from MIT, introduced issues of assessment in serious games. Assessment is particularly important to measure effectiveness of Serious Games. Traditional assessment like feedback and quizzes only provides proof of learning and gauge on students’ ability. It is neither measure engagement nor self-motivation of learners/gamers. Serious Games assessment on the other hand, opens new possibility of providing continuous assessment, for example via logging, tracking, observation, replay/reviews, and modding.

Chris Deering, previously President of Sony Computer Entertainment , described new digital experiences (such as Big screen PC, handheld and mobile devices, content acquistion devices, monetization, games interactivity, user generated live content, and concierge services) that are happening, emerging trends (unlimited access that replaces ownership, streaming that replaces download, helping customer to find more what they like, easier way to pay, utilization of AI everywhere, improvement on voice recognition, and GPS) and their implications. 

Jyri Salomaa, from Nokia Research Centre, highlighted mobile specific features that make it compelling for ubiquitous learning and games in the future: always with you and personal, always connected to network, and rich communication capabilities (like video, audio, and messaging).

Caryl Shaw, who works in Will Wright’s Spore, Maxis shared about working in communities, identifying different user categories that emerge from the community, for example: casual, browser, collector, story teller, content creator, webmaster, toolmaker.

Deb Polson, from Australian Centre for Interaction Design (ACID) highlighted several elements of gaming that make it appealing: autonomy, simulation, consistency, feedback and authenticity. Autonomy of game provides genuine choice to control game path; Simulation in game sufficiently provide accurate representation of things to model. Consistency provides believable narratives to help players to immerse, establish clear casual relationship between variables to form hypothesis and strategy. Feedback allows players to test and refine their hypothesis and assess consequences of action. Finally assesment allows meaningful demonstration of ability and understanding, construct rather than recycle knowledge.

Richard Sanford, from Futurelab noted emerging new learning models (like student centric, knowledge as construction, experiential and situated learning) and the embrace of pedagogic changes as symptom of a broader educational shifts.

Finally, Tracy Fullerton, from Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab looked at Games as system of meaning in which looking at what games mechanic communicate is essential.

To sum it up, I learned that fundamentally, Games and Learning are not that different. The blending of games and learning are not something unexpected; in fact, it is about time to realize that games is another system that enables learning, and learning is already embodied in games. What is important is to leverage on natural mechanics of games to deliver appropriate mode of learning that will yield the expected results.

Early last month, Microsoft announced their upcoming video service called “Soapbox“, which uses Flash Video, instead of Media Player. The interface looks pretty sleek and clean.

Soapbox supports AVI, ASF, WMV, MOV, MPEG 1/2/4, 3GP, 3G2, SWF, DV; a lot more than YouTube, and thus allows me to upload 3GP video recorded using my mobile. In addition, I can continue browsing while uploading, unlike YouTube – although, currently there isn’t a lot to browse.

So, without further due, this is an example of the video that I’ve taken two weeks ago during rehearsal for Sacred Music Festival.

 
Video: Laverna – Think about his love

Remember ArtRage? I finally decided to buy it because I need layering feature available in the pro edition.

The purchasing process wasn’t as straight forward as I expected to be because Ambient Design do not sell their products directly. Instead, they uses Kagi and CGChannel to manage the transaction. Due to security consideration, I chose to use CGChannel because it allows payment via PayPal (and therefore does not require me to disclose my credit card number).

However, I was totally surprised when I just get the payment receipt especially since I had expected instant delivery. Thank goodness, the Ambient Design team was quick to respond – they explained that CGChannel have to process my payment manually, and therefore I have to wait for at least one day before I could receive the download instruction and registration number. Nevertheless, the excitement was gone.

Moving on, the software was delivered promptly and it is now work wonderfully (yeap, the Kiwi is one of the result). It’s definitely more fun than painting using in Photoshop!

Last Tuesday I attended Adobe’s first MAX Conference (formerly it was Macromedia MAX) at Grand Hyatt Hotel. It was a two-day conference, (I only attended the first day though) with three parallel breakout rack, covering cretive, application and mobile devices. This year conference theme is “Beyond Boundaries” indicating Adobe’s direction to provide common media platform across technologies and devices – Web, Print and Mobile. Frankly, I feel this is the best MAX conference that I have ever attended. The excitement was there as seen from the queue forming long before the registration counter (Or maybe it was just floor arrangement issue).

The conference featured many overseas guest speakers, such as Jennifer Taylor, Jared Tarbell, Craig Swann, Ted Patrick, Justin Everett-Church, and more. The keynote was brought by Jennifer Taylor, the Product Manager of Adobe Engagement Platform, talking about activities after Adobe acquisition of Macromedia. There are a number of exciting synergies in the pipeline.

For mobile devices, Photoshop will have great saving emulator (giving a preview of mobile screen, scretch to fit the display. backlight and reflection simulator). Flash will have various control of mobile emulator (memory usage, time, battery level, performance callibration).

For Web, Dreamweaver is going to support pasting from Photoshop and still maintaining link to original file (double click to access) – giving much needed improvement on the design workflow. It allows user to save the image into the Web format (png, gif, jpg) and automatically uses the same configuration if user pasting a revised image from Photoshop. Fireworks (I thought it was going to disappear) – will have full compatibility with Photoshop. It will have support for multiple pages of PNG that provide basic Flash-like interactivity (click to change page, all within the same single PNG file). Dreamweaver will have AJAX design features using SPRY Framework.

Flash will be able to import Photoshop PSD file – full support of layers and folders. User will be able to indicate various type of layers imported (such as text and movieclip), set compression rate, set stage to match the imported images. Definitely a more integrated and preferred workflow. AfterEffect will have interesting “pin-in” feature to make basic Flash-like animation (set some pin to control the movement and position of the object) and it will support render queue for Flash Video – user will be able to continue using After Effect while exporting Flash videos.

For Application, Flex have an interesting CSS support to skin the user interface (really cool – transforming basic Flash UI into Windows Vista kind of UI). ColdFusion will have Flex Application wizard to create basic Flex Application simply by creating database queries (supporting queries inside queries, and visually set the query parameters). The demo showed how we can create Flex based music player in 5 minutes, complete with editing feature. ColdFusion will also have support for embedding images on the run-time. Great for generating watermark and presentation on the fly.

For Productivity, Adobe Acrobat will have detect Form Field feature which allow user to create dynamic form from basic PDF page. It will also have activity guide which make it easier for user to fill information into the PDF Form.

There are two products being previewed in the keynote. Adobe Soundbooth, which allow user to create and edit music (like Apple’s Garageband?) and new Adobe delivery platform code-named Apollo. Apollo is cross-platform player that allows designers and developers to easily build desktop-based Rich Internet Application. It will provide better desktop integration features like installation, application shortcuts, drag and drop, clip-board, cross application communication, background process and notifications. It will also provide new APIs to host machine for network, file I/O, chrome customization, local storage and settings. As a result, Apollo will be one of the new application delivery platform that support offline mode. Interestingly, Apollo will have its own native browser rendering engine (based on Webkit Open Source Engine – which is used in Apple’s Safari browser). Hence, Apollo support two type of development methods: with SWF (with embeded HTML) and with HTML (with embedded SWF). I’m pretty excited about Apollo, given its ability, portability and learnability. I feel that Apollo is going to be Adobe’s major breakthrough (much like Flash Video is).

After exploring Apollo deeper from Ted Patrick’s Advanced Apollo Application Development, I attended Craig Swann’s Interactive Imagination. I must say it is the most inspiring session I’ve ever attended. Craig leverages sound and videos support in Flash 8, creating very engaging and interactive works to show his ideas about “People as Interface”. I was awestruck to see how Craig used inputs from webcam, microphone, light, and other sort of custom controllers to create unique experience. For example, drawing using a small pen-light, video snapshot, up to playing a piano. The Flash potential for interactivity is truly unleashed in Craig’s hand.

Last session I attended was presented by Richard Galvan, about After Effects for Flash designer. Nice tips and great intro to After Effects beginner like me Richard also showed the AE’s motion stabilizing and alpha channel features…Exactly what I needed.

Finally, my MAX conference day ended after a little bit too quiet bird-of-a-feather session on Mobile and Device by Jeremy Clark and Bill Perry. Pheww! I’ll definitely looking forward for Adobe’s upcoming product launch!

David Armano, Creative Director at Digitas introduced the anatomy of new creative mind.

With consumer behavior evolving toward a more empowered status—the definition of creativity has shifted from one-dimensional skills to a four-dimensional type of creativity that blends logical thinking with creative problem solving. Individuals possessing this “New Creative Mindset” blend Analytical, Expressive, Curious and Sensual qualities into their thinking process. The result is a holistic approach to creativity that is effective across multiple touchpoints and experiences.

It is an interesting picture of different modes of thinking – their unique roles and how they blend, working together to create a well-rounded, insightful understanding.