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I was lucky enough again to be able to present at MIX this year (you can see some slides from it scattered in this post and the video link is here). MIX09 for me was the first time I’ve really seen design be the major talking point and a key focus for the Microsoft organisers. A lot of this boiled down to one man: Bill Buxton. Bill is Principal ...

OK, with just a week to go it’s time to tell you what we’re doing at MIX this year. Last year, I looked at a whole bunch of stuff in Virgins, Spaceships and Hobnailed Boots but we focused in on a few things like the power of brand experience, and how you go about it with the philosophy of Total Experience Design where you have to look wider than ...

On multi-touch devices like Microsoft Surface and the SMART table multiple users interact with digital content concurrently.  These digital social experiences extend beyond a poke and a tweet as users interact face-to-face.  The success of these multi-user social platforms depends on the familiarity of the users, a cocktail of ...

With the official launch of Microsoft Surface in Europe just a week or so away, I thought it was time I updated the world on what we’re doing with it. As a Microsoft Surface partner, based in London, working across the entire Europe and EMEA region, but part of a global organisation, we’ve been working with Microsoft Surface for over six months ...

Many months ago, a group of creatives came up with an idea for a creative ‘meeting of minds’ under the rather mystical name, The Fantastic Tavern. Like many good ideas, it sat dormant, waiting for the right moment to be realised. Later conversations touched on similar themes. At ReMIX UK, friends discussed if we could nurture a creative ...

Having read an article on how to increase one's productivity it got me thinking whether there is something missing from our design strategies. We want users to achieve their mental peak when using an application but what are we doing to encourage this?  Where is the Mental Strategy?  Research shows that mental performance is improved ...

Imagine a digital utopia where designers are free from grid-based design, and precision mouse control & clicks are replaced by gestural mechanisms. Where imagination is not exclusively for the mavericks to throw a curve ball at what’s achievable. Where we move away from the chair-and-desk paradigm and the frightening portrait WALL-E ...

  Ouch! Received an email this morning stating that playful design has no place in a business context!   For the last 3 weeks a small team of us have been working on an Enterprise Search application and we finally have something to show for our hard endeavours.  Our Microsoft Surface Enterprise Search demo rears it's pretty ...

Before the festive holiday kicked in I intended to design a Microsoft Surface Card Sorting application but time ran out without me getting much further than a brief conversation over a cuppa with some user experience colleagues and a few very rough and barely legible sketches of the application interface. To make sure I don’t ...

Friday 28th November saw the first of the Virgin Atlantic VJAM workshops to brainstorm ways to improve the travel experience for customers.  Conchango took the Microsoft Surface unit along and I played guardian and host of this device for most of the day.  The attendees included travel professionals, experts in social media and ...