Tag Archives: technology

Why Web Design is Dead | UX Magazine @UXMag #UX #webdesign

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Web design is (finally!) dying of irrelevance. Web pages themselves are no longer the center of the Internet experience, which is why designers need to move on to the next challenges—products and ecosystems—if they want to stay relevant.

Web design has no future—a risky statement I know, but this article explains why it has no future and what we, as designers, can do about it. As a discipline, web design has already exhausted its possibilities, an emerging combination of tech and cultural trends highlight the need for a broader approach.

READ MORE: Why Web Design is Dead | UX Magazine

#Holus Is A Tabletop Device That Turns Digital Media Into A #3D Hologram | TechCrunch @Kickstarter #holographics

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Launched on Kickstarter this morning, Holus is a tabletop device that converts digital content into a 3D hologram. Created by H+ Technologies out of Vancouver, the campaign has nearly doubled its goal of $40,000 in its first 2 hours.

Don’t expect to use this to summon Obiwan with a seven-inch image of Princess Leia. Objects aren’t 3D in any sense we’re used to. Instead, the device is a square tabletop platform which encases a glass pyramid upon which media is projected from below. The result is an ostensibly 3D image which can be viewed from 360 degrees around the machine.

READ MORE: Holus Is A Tabletop Device That Turns Digital Media Into A 3D Hologram | TechCrunch.

Periodic Table of #Wearable #Tech | APX Labs #business

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We got rid of lanthanides and noble gasses and replaced them with the 118 essential elements of enterprise wearable tech.

 

Our updated periodic table groups and defines the main capabilities that businesses are using today to build and harness a connected workforce. Individually they are powerful, but when you combine them together they create solutions that are impossible to deliver in any other way. Just about every large business will need all of these capabilities at some point.

via Periodic Table of Wearable Tech | APX Labs

So you want to be a Data Visualization Librarian? | hls #librarians #dataviz #MLIS

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So you know that you want to be a librarian, but have you thought about specializing in a certain field? Maybe you have an interest in emerging technologies or you want to work with researchers and students across the disciplines? Data visualization is a hot topic in librarianship, and specializations in data analytics and visualization is an exciting area of growth in the profession. I sat down with four visualization specialists who work within the University of Michigan Library system to get an idea of what their jobs entail.

READ MORE: So you want to be a Data Visualization Librarian? | hls.

This Little Robot Wants to Be Your Best Friend [Indiegogo] | WIRED #robots #AI #gadgets

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WE’VE LONG KNOWN there’s a market out there for robotic buddies. One compelling piece of evidence: The original Furby sold more than 40 million units, and it didn’t really do anything.

17 years later, an A.I. and machine-learning company is making a robot pal that will do way more than its fuzzy predecessor. It’s called Musio, and it houses a pretty impressive A.I. engine developed by a company called AKA.

The robot remembers details from prior conversations, asks follow-up questions based on that info, and can be used as a smart-home controller. But its main goal is to be your friend: Asking you questions, actually listening to your answers, and learning what you’re all about

READ MORE: This Little Robot Wants to Be Your Best Friend | WIRED

STEM Curriculum Turned Into An Addictive [iOS] Game | Co.Design #STEM #apps

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Levers, pulleys, and wheels—they’re tools that outline some of the most foundational principles in physics. But foundational principles are boring. What’s fun is using a lever to catapult a boulder at a castle, breaking down the bricks one by one to discover a dragon sleeping inside.

That is the premise of Simple Machines, the latest iOS app by the educational game studio Tinybop. In the past, Tinybop has made interactive books on the human body and plant life. They’ve created a fun simulator for kids to build their own robots. But with Simple Machines, they’re taking aim at a very particular part of student curriculum: The first stages of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), in which kids commonly learn about six “simple machines”—the lever, pulley, wheel, wedge, inclined plane, and screw.

READ MORE: STEM Curriculum Turned Into An Addictive Game | Co.Design | business + design.

3 Google Cardboard Articles | WIRED, Engadget, TechCrunch #GoogleCardboard #virtualreality @googlecardboard #makerspaces

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Google Cardboard is VR’s Gateway Drug | WIRED
There’s no reason not to try Cardboard now. It’s cheap, it’s easy, it works with your phone. It’s still a million miles away from the best VR demos out there; Oculus, HTC’s Vive, and Project Morpheus all blow Cardboard out of the water—which they should, because they’re not made of cardboard. But Cardboard more than accomplishes what it’s supposed to: It transports you.

Google’s Cardboard Design Lab teaches VR with (what else) VR | Engadget
Google debuted its larger and more robust Cardboard VR headset at I/O yesterday, now it needs some apps that actually run on it. However, designing a program in a virtual 3D environment is quite different than designing one to run on a 2D touchscreen. That’s why Google has also released the Cardboard Design Lab, an app that teaches you the basics of VR design from within a VR environment. The program runs through 10 fundamental design aspects — from “Using a Reticle” and “Keeping the User Grounded” to “Guiding with Light” and “Gaze Cues” — all from within the confines of the Cardboard headset. It won’t transform you into an VR hacking wizard overnight (as it’s not designed to) but CDL will give neophyte coders a solid overview of what they’re getting themselves into. And while the lessons learned here can just as easily be applied to designing for the Rift as Cardboard, the app is currently only available on Android.

Google’s Cardboard VR Now Works (Very Well) With iPhone | TechCrunch
Google’s Cardboard VR app first appeared last year at I/O 2014, but the initial version was somewhat limited in terms of device support. A new version released this year works with devices with screen sizes ranging up to 6 inches, but the more exciting news for many might be that it now also works with iPhone.

The new Cardboard for iOS app is available in the U.S. store now, and includes the same demo apps, as well as the same QR-code based pairing process to make sure it’s optimized for whichever generation of headset you have. Cardboard for iOS is a free download, and works with iPhone 5 and up.

Career Spotlight: What I Do as an “Ethical Hacker” | LifeHacker #cybersecurity #hackers #hacking

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You occasionally hear about major security vulnerabilities being discovered before they’re exploited, like the notorious Heartbleed bug last year. Security researchers work hard to weed out those dangerous flaws before they’re found by hackers of more malicious intent. This breed of preemptive hacking is sometimes referred to as white hat, or simply “ethical hacking.”

These hackers work with businesses to probe their networks for security holes, vulnerabilities to social engineering, and more, while considering the mindset of someone who might have criminal motivations. To learn about what such work is like we spoke with Ben Miller, an ethical hacker at Parameter Security. READ MORE: Career Spotlight: What I Do as an “Ethical Hacker” | LifeHacker

Even Tiny Updates to Tech Can Be Obstacles for the Disabled | WIRED #tech #disabilities #access

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I completed a web design for usability course during my MLIS program. For one of the sessions, guest lecturers with disabilities demonstrated how they accessed the Internet and provided insight into the challenges they experience with this activity. An eye-opening learning experience which I’m grateful to have had, which has provided me with greater understanding of the issues the disabled confront accessing the web and how designers can improve web content, layout and features to aid access. I highly recommend reviewing W3C Schools Accessibility Guidelines for more information on removing barriers to web information and communication. The article below discusses another challenge for the disabled when using tech: iterative updates.  

WHEN THE AMERICANS with Disabilities Act was passed 25 years ago, it was intended to usher in a new age of accessibility. It promised recourse from discrimination in employment, transportation and communication—in other words, greater access to the physical world. Since then, the world has evolved in radical ways—physical boundaries have come down as our lives have transitioned by varying degrees to online spaces. It is almost impossible to imagine our daily routines without the use of personal technology. For people with disabilities like myself, technology has opened new doors in ways the historic legislation never could have conceived.

As a person with autism and apraxia—a condition that leads me to have great difficulty with planning and organizing everything from moving my mouth when I speak to the steps needed to wash my hands—I rely upon personal technology for many things. A device that translates my typed words into a voice is my link to the world. And the rise of social media and online classrooms has expanded my networks and ability to participate in activities once closed to me.

But often these are positive outcomes of technology made for the masses rather than benefits baked into the design. And as technology is iterated, I can already see ways in which it has and will continue to create new barriers unless its creators consider a more universal approach.

READ MORE: Even Tiny Updates to Tech Can Be Obstacles for the Disabled | WIRED

We Can Now Make Computer Chips Out of Wood | Gizmodo

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We’re one step closer to biodegradable gadgets. These computer chips are made almost entirely out of wood. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin, Madison teamed up with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Products Laboratory to fashion the new semiconductor chip. The paper was published today in Nature Communications.

See, most of a computer chip is composed of a “support” layer that cradles the actual chip. The research team replaced that support layer’s non-biodegradable material with something called cellulose nanofibril (CNF), which is flexible, wood-based, biodegradable—all things that can make a device way less hazardous.

Image credit: University of Wisconsin

READ MORE: We Can Now Make Computer Chips Out of Wood | Gizmodo