Challis Hodge’s UXblog

WebProNews, May 17, 2006 MIT may be on the verge of a revolutionary development in speech and video algorithmic technology. Their test subject: a 9 month-old baby boy, who is the center of a project called “The Human Speechome Project.” Associate Professor Deb Roy, head of the MIT Media Lab’s Cognitive Machines research group, has wired his home with 11 overhead, omni-directional fisheye video cameras and 14 ceiling-mounted microphones. It will record all of Roy’s son’s 400,000 waking hours for three years, with the objective of discovering how humans naturally acquire language in social settings.

A recent article in Boxes and Arrows by Luke Wroblewski illustrates a technique for deriving color palettes from nature. This isn’t a novel idea but it’s nice to see it getting some attention. We need to bring the living, breathing world into our work as much as possible. Color is certainly a place to make that happen.

Perhaps no other design element has as much influence on how we feel in a space (a website, a home, etc.) as color. Colors can instantaneously change our moods and alter our opinions. They can make us comfortable, put us in a state of awe, or get us excited. In the case of interface design, color combinations found in nature are especially useful. From complex web applications to informative “brochure-ware” sites, naturally occurring color combinations have the potential to distinguish (by helping create a more memorable website), guide (by allowing users to focus on interactions), engage (by making page layouts comfortable and more inviting), and inspire (by offering new ideas for color selection).

This technique is no substitute for a thorough understanding of color theory. Upon further exploration I think you’ll find that nature does a pretty good job of defining and illustrating certain areas of color theory.

Of course if you find yourself in a bind there’s alwats the Palette-O-Matic 5000 ;-) (doesn’t work in all browsers).

BoldMouth just released an interesting new study on WOM Marketing (PDF). It’s worth checking out. The report is good. Judging from their website they just skipped right past online marketing!

Social networks and community sites have changed the rules of marketing. The thing is, most of your competitors just don’t know it yet.

Businesses of every size from large enterprises like Microsoft and Panasonic to small companies like MyKumari.com and Verity Blue are, or soon will be, adopting word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing at an incredibly fast pace. The implementation of WOM marketing may be enthusiastic, but it often results in ineffective or misguided campaigns.

The rules for marketing are changing at such a fast pace—and that fact was reinforced—when 65% of organizations that participated in the study told us they did not have a formalized word-of-mouth marketing plan.

We believe that industry stakeholders need formalized processes to assess how referral conversations are initiated, modified and terminated, and to better understand the relationship dynamics that develop as a result of individuals making independent referrals.

The study includes a comprehensive overview of where the word-of-mouth industry is now, and shows you how to create a word-of-mouth marketing strategy for your own organization that will help you avoid missteps than can detail your success to build buzz and revenue.

Maconomy a company offering business solutions and services for professional service firms, agencies, and the like has created an interesting little advergame to explain the importance of timekeeping in the consulting/agency business.

They will yell at you… and they will tell you off You have to be fast to catch them Competitors are right now playing hard to dominate the ranks Time is up before you know it… You must stay profitable.

So you absolutely need to catch time – on time.

Andrew Bernsteinhas a short piece on Wombat Blog with a couple of good points to consider when monitoring WOM.

As PR becomes more strategic, and campaign time shortens, you can’t wait six months to do a focus group,” says Andrew Bernstein, President and CEO of Cymfony. He suggests tracking the conversations taking place online. “By tracking a variety of areas, you can get a good sense of what people are thinking about your product, brand, and company.

Click here to read Andrew’s five tips

Portable On Demand Storage is a great concept and PODS is a great brand! We’re preparing for our move to Chicago and need to get a bunch of stuff out of the house for staging purposes. We’re hoping for a reasonably quick sale.

The movers won’t make two trips, at least not at a price we can pay. What’s the answer? PODS!

They drop a container off at our house. We load it. They pick it up when we call them. They then ship it out of state and store it in Chicago. When we’ve found our new house we call and they drop it off in the driveway. All this costs a lot less than any moving storage company I’ve been able to find.

No I’m not affiliated with PODS but they do sem to be franchising quite successfully. Competition is up and coming but PODS seems well established with a brand that has great potential. Of course quality control in a franchising environment can be challenging.

I had a slingshot when I was a kid but it didn’t look like this!

Potential applications of this family of machines include ground-to-space or intercontinental launch, for which large L/D projectiles would be required as shown in some images. The machine would also be of interest in providing a very high impact power source for physics experiments, including possibly impact fusion using magnetized fuel targets for which shorter L/D projectiles would be used.

It looks like Ed Schmidt and Mark Bundy of the Army Research Lab are looking at ways of firing projectiles into orbit.

Korea has developed its own android capable of facial expressions on its humanoid face, the second such machine to be developed after one from Japan. The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy invited some 60 children to the Kyoyuk Munhwa Hoekwan in Seoul to introduce Ever-1 to the public. The name combines the first human name found in the Bible, Eve, with the “r” in robot.

The Korean Institute for Industrial Technology (KITECH) said the android, which has the face and body of a woman in her 20s, is 160 cm tall and weighs 50 kg. Ever-1 can move its upper body and “express” happiness, anger, sadness and pleasure. But the robot is still incapable of moving its lower half. Ever-1’s skin is made from a silicon jelly that feels similar to human skin. The face is a composite of two stars, and its torso on a singer.