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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!

There’s an interesting presentation from Mule Design on how a designer’s approach and strategy for copy can make or break a digital interface.

For a lot of projects, copy and wording are considered “icing” or an element of the design process that gets fitted in later—often with little or no involvement from designers. While many user interface experts believe that digital interfaces cannot support copious amounts of copy (the concept that users scan rather than read), the trend in UI design is more copy, not less. Wikipedia and Facebook are both great examples of how text can be used as the core of the user experience.

The presentation also discusses new communication and expression trends that are evolving as aspects of Web 2.0 – the concept that “We aren’t writing, we are speaking in text.”

The presentation, Copy as Interface, is embedded below.

There’s a nice article on the Google Blog that lists the company’s user experience design principles. The principles are broad, but do a great job summarizing how Google addresses the fundamental usability and experience inherent in their products. I love this approach!

1. Focus on people—their lives, their work, their dreams.
2. Every millisecond counts.
3. Simplicity is powerful.
4. Engage beginners and attract experts.
5. Dare to innovate.
6. Design for the world.
7. Plan for today’s and tomorrow’s business.
8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind.
9. Be worthy of people’s trust.
10. Add a human touch.

These principles are defined in depth here.

Popular Mechanics has an in-depth article and video about the latest advances with Microsoft Surface.

Jeff Han from Perceptive Pixel talks about the benefits of multi-touch interfaces used by products like Surface.

It looks the project has evolved quite nicely since the initial announcement. The interactions with other devices are especially cool.

In his latest Alertbox, Jakob Nielsen publishes the results of a quantitative study on how time needed to complete website tasks increases as you get older. According to the study, there is a 0.8% increase in task time per year for users between the ages of 25 and 60.

Nielsen attributes the increases in time to the human aging process—erosion of cognitive resources, loss of visual acuity, etc. Apparently, the older you get the harder it is to process complex information and tasks on the web.

While there is not enough disparity between 30- and 50-year-old users to warrant different design approaches, Nielsen notes that there is a specific drop-off in ability after age 65. Websites designed for senior citizens clearly need to follow different usability guidelines.

It’s hard to disagree with the Nielsen’s findings, although concluding that older users struggle more than younger users is hardly groundbreaking. The study notes that the age at which people start using the web has some impact on their ability, regardless of age. However, the study does not take into consideration how the types of online tasks you perform vary by age.

Pew Internet released an interesting report on how online activities differ by demographics. While the findings do support Nielsen’s findings, there is equal variance across different demographics such as income, race, and education.

Interested in Silverlight and WPF? Mike Demopoulos, partner and creative director at RDVO, maintains WPFDev.com, a growing compendium of the latest projects, technology advances, and how-tos for Microsoft Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).

At RDVO, we’ve identified Silverlight/WPF as an exciting and emerging new technology for building truly dynamic web applications. While the technology has yet to truly take off, it will only be a matter of time until it’s embraced by a wider audience.

Take a look at WPFDev.com for a taste of what’s to come and see how cutting-edge organizations are already using the WPF and Silverlight platforms.