benzipkin.com

I’ve been working on a new research concept and prototype that will illustrate some future directions of search engines. New emerging technologies like the semantic web, RDF, the mobile web, and social media may open up unprecedented opportunities for controlling the ebb and flow of information. This control will be enhanced and increased as more powerful UI platforms like Adobe Flex and MS SilverLight continue to evolve. Accessing the WWW may become more akin to operating a customized application GUI than the linear browsing behavior we see today.

Key issues:

• So what will this new search/information retrieval look like?
• How will our web browsing experience change?
• How can users design a search experience? What types of tools and UIs will they need to manipulate and customize their information?

These are questions I’ll be addressing with the team at RDVO. More coming soon, and any interesting ideas or links would be helpful!

Every once in awhile you see a presentation that just makes you say “wow”.

Alan Cooper’s keynote address at the Agile2008 Conference, titled The Wisdom of Experience presents a deeply insightful perspective the software development process.

The presentation starts by painting a clear, broad picture of the software development landscape and then dives deeper into the development process. His main premise is that the Agile Methodology is the best (and only) way to effectively implement modern software projects because it facilitates true collaboration between engineers and interaction designers.

We try to use the Agile Methodology on all of our development projects at RDVO. I think we’re one of the few agencies that have embraced this approach–the majority of interactive design firms still use the broken Waterfall Model as their core implementation process. We’ve found that Waterfall essentially sets you up to fail. A reason most agencies embrace it is because it’s much easier to “sell” to clients. Go figure.

So back to Cooper…not only is the subject matter of the presentation important, he is a master of medium. The presentation is perfectly organized and executed. While it would have been interesting to watch the presentation, the main points are clearly organized in the speaker notes.

There has been a lot of talk about the Steve Jobs presentation style, and how all business presentations should follow his model. As great as “Jobsian” presentations are, they also have a lot to do with his subject matter. While this may sound nice, the vast majority of business presentations simply need more “meat” to be relevant. I think that Cooper’s presentation provides a perfect happy medium.

The recent launch of Cuil.com and Microsoft’s acquisition of Powerset.com has piqued some new interest semantic search engines. To deliver on their promise, these new search tools must provide a new experience for search, integrating a number of new paradigms and experiences.

In preparation for a new project, I put together a quick presentation that compares design approaches for a number of prominent semantic search engines, including Powerset.com, Sindice.com, Cuil.com, Twine.com, and hakia.com. Specific attention was paid to general presentation, input methods, display or results, and categorical results approach.

Worth a look if you’re interested in semantic search.

Bill Gates just unveiled some of the few features of Windows 7, due out sometime in 2009-2010. One of more intriguing features is new “multi-touch” functionality that allows users to interact with the screen similar to the CNN Magic Screen or iPhone interface. The video below shows a demo of the Windows 7 functionality.

Video: Multi-Touch in Windows 7

Multi-touch certainly has a lot of promise and a clear “cool factor”, although it’s difficult to imagine how this technology will actually be useful to the majority of users. I mean, how many times can you resize a photo?

I stumbled across this very interesting video while researching some of the new stuff Microsoft is doing in the multi-touch interfaces realm (check out Bill Gates’ keynote and the ‘Touch Wall’).

This video, which is from the team at Office Labs, provides some innovating and exciting new concepts in healthcare technologies, as well as some other tidbits like digital wallets and flexible displays. Well done!