GUI - Less is more!

We've started work on our Facebook app, and while it's interesting and (i feel) has great potential to really be smth that catches on, it's turning out to be a hell lot of work! So much for my 14 day mc :S

So the past few nights have been filled with 6 and 7am mornings sitting up wondering whether adding a certain feature is too much, and weighing the cost of eliminating that feature against the take of the users using the app.
On hindsight, perhaps this group has too many jack-of-all-trades, with the exception of Khoa! And while that's great for brainstorming, it doesn't help much in the design stage.. :S Or maybe the app's too girly, and we should scrap it and do smth else? (4 guys and a non-so-girly-girl doesn't seem to make for a great app design huh.)
Mainly because i don't want it to turn out like Microsoft/Creative - All programming and absolutely no usability.

Which brings me to today's lecture. To be really honest, i wasn't very impressed with Microsoft/XBox's demo. Microsoft has superior User Experience, but ZERO User Interaction design! It was very flashy, which is nice, but not very easy to use. And i thought i read somewhere that lots of flash is RAM intensive..? Its scrolling interface has soooo many items per level that you practically have to memorise what the Xbox offers in order to breeze through the interface. Xbox has cool concepts and ideas tho.. The avatar creation really caught my attention and made me realise that. But yeah, usability wise, sometimes less is more!

Something that i need to remind myself as i work on this app!

Silverlight was cooool! Lots and lots of potential, and lots of effort spent on really useless things. Like when to refill a glass of water, or having 2 mice running at the same time. That being said, if the same technology was applied to touchscreen, that'd be a whole different ballgame altogether! I really liked the Multitouch surface stuff tho! Not new technology (they've been developing multitouch for years! Remember the movie Minority Report? The technology was being developed even then! Since my mentor pointed it out to me about 2 years back, gestural interfaces has been something that's greatly caught my attention. Lot's and lot's of potential! (Imagine, though, how tired your hands will get from waving them around just to get an operation done :P)

If you guys dont' remember Minority Report, here's the espanol version :P







So, the 2 mice thingy reminded me of yet another video, one that i talked about at Fong Seng last week. Imagine Abel playing an instrument/composing music using smth like this, with a (touchscreen) Silverlight interface!





Something to think about for the WPF app huh?? haha..

Alright! That's all for today! Btw, an apology and a HUGE THANK YOU to Khoa for being so computer illiterate, and for trying to explain stuff to me in PURE ENGLISH, not computing language! :P I'll try to get better yeah - Look! I now can link Youtube videos to my blog! :P

p.s: i tried to pick up a little bit of interface design while interning at Creative (lol, what an oxymoron), from one of the most interesting interaction designers i've ever met. Yigs was my mentor, and a damn good one too! I've much much more to learn on this interface design journey tho. Hopefully, i'll get to pick up much much more!

I promised pics right?

Haha, my pics are always unglam. Super unglam. So erm, don't faint.

haha, the op's done, but the torture starts now. As you can probably see, i've my teeth bound shut! (and it hurts.. like, this nagging pain - as though someone's taking a dull pin and is pressing it against your head, slowly. It doesn't call for screaming, but it's always there. And after a day and night's worth of that, you really feel like screaming.)

So Janus was really sweet. On facebook, i demanded (being the super buay paisay person that i am) that he cook meatballs for me once my jaw heals. And he replied saying he'll cook more than just meatballs! Soooo sweet right? Like, how many people would do that??

And sorry prof Ben for taking so long to set up this blog! I was super sleepy after the op (they pumped me with a super lot of morphine) and i couldn't stay awake for more than 15 mins, only to be jerked awake coughing (cos my flu hasn't completely gone away). Super annoying! So if i'm a little grouchy/grumpy for the next few weeks, i really do apologise in advance!

~peaceout!

CS3216 - A new beginning

(So i typed this entry during the wee hours of tuesday morning, but only posted it up today. Sorry for the lateness folks!)

So it's the first day of school, and also the first lesson for CS3216! Before class, i was nervous, tired, but more than anything, i was excited. Excited because this really is a module that i want to take, and want to do well in. Excited because i'd finally be able to think again.

Stepping into the video conferencing room booked for the occasion was like an elephant barging into a glasshouse. In that instant, i felt trapped. I've no idea why. Perhaps it was simply the acknowledgement that i'd stepped into a class filled with geniuses. Geniuses in their own field. And i was the lowest amongst them. Uni tends to do that to you.As the class progressed, the excitement that had been building up started to transform into something altogether-ly different - fear. Fear that i would not be able to meet the expectations of this great class, fear that i, a second generation CS3216sian, would fail to not only meet the success of the previous batch, but to outdazzle the achievements - bringing CS3216 to a different level altogether. You see, to me, it's not about the grade. Grades don't make who you are. It's about why i'm even studying at all. If it's to learn, then i'd better jolly well do my best in what i'm learning. Reach for the moon - even if you miss, you'll land amongst the stars.

And still, apprehensiveness fills me. i can't programme. i don't even understand the techy jargon. what if i don't learn in time? But still, i'll try my darnest, and hopefully, i'll come out still a designer, not a programmer. Because we should each do what we do best, yes? And so i'm typing this entry with the innocent child like faith, with no intent whatsoever to offend. And as the road ahead becomes rockier, as we become more sleep deprived, as i struggle to cope with all my modules, i want to come back to this entry filled with hope, filled with excitement, filled with dreams. and keep keeping this dream alive.

it's just 4 months, after all.

And it's tuesday already - in 6 hours, the op will start, and my mouth will be clamped shut to the heavenly blessings of good solid food.

All you people out there - TREASURE the simple pleasures in life!

(Pictures up when i get them :))