Matt Cooper, senior designer at AIG, is a regular contributor to the interactive community Dynamo London.  He posted up a list of predictions for 2009 which I found quite inspirational.  Read the full post here.

-    Apple will release some sort of ‘Touchscreen-Netbook-Newton-Big iPhone-Thing’

Matt suggested it will be a combination of an A5 sized iPhone device with a MacBook - Nano.  The software would be managed through the app store, or wirelessly from another computer (as in the MacBook Air).

He also predicted it would be cheap, although I am not sure I agree with that, unless they initially sell it at a massive loss.

On a similar note, I have also recently read about the likelihood of a mass emergence of ‘empty’ phones or devices that you download software on to, to suit individual needs.

-    The commercialisation of Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a fantastic resource, that has developed in to a complex mass of information.  But I think that a lot more could be made of it.

If it was commercialised it would undoubtedly improve its operating system and overall design, but it sparks the eternal question - would the improvements out-weigh the advertising and biased commercial influence?

-    Digital paper

Matt predicted digital paper will come and go.  This may indicate a lack of experience on my part in comparison to Matt, but I think it could revolutionise the online experience, to make it less ‘online’.  I think it could make the internet a much more integral part of our lives, a step further than the MacBook Air.

Online information could be viewed on the ‘paper’ with a wireless connection to a computer, or device that can connect to the internet.  The keyboard could be abandoned through a touch screen that would allow users to write search terms (or whatever) directly on to the digital paper.

To celebrate the festive season I created a folding snowflake animation, and posted out little snowflake decorations, which I designed and had laser-cut from bamboo.

If I didn’t send one to you, I’m sorry, but you can still see the video here…

I’ve had the thought for a while about a homepage to hold data from all the websites that you visit on a regular basis.  This would obviously be customisable to individual usage, but could contain email, blog feeds, ebay, itunes, online banking.

Using a living room as an example, the data could be presented on various objects within the space.

- The telephone could light up as new emails come in.

- Saved youtube videos could play on the television.

- Images from design blog feeds could appear in photo frames - a new image would appear each time the blog was updated.

- The bookcase could store webpages in a similar way to the way online bookmarks work.  Each book would contain a different subject.  Taking this one step further would be to make this in to more of an application, allowing you to highlight text from webpages or to cut and paste snippets of information, creating an online scrapbook.

- The clock could count down the time left on ebay auctions.

The user wouldn’t be restricted to using a living room.  The application would be completely customisable, and the data could be stored in any imaginable way.  Another possible example being New York City - the flame on the Statue of Liberty could light up as new emails come in, webpages could be saved in the windows of the Empire State Building.

Whether this concept would simply be a homepage or would be more appropriate as an independent application I am not quite sure, it would probably depend on how complex it became.

On a slightly deeper track, the idea of storing data in physical settings reminded me of the process of remembering information by mentally storing it within rooms, and creating palaces of memories.  This could very easily be created online, but needs a little more thought, as I think there could be more to it than the direct translation in to a virtual world.

It’s been a busy couple of months.  I recently completed a placement at Pravda Advertising and, although it’s not exactly what I’m looking to get in to, it was more experience within a creative studio.  I also managed to get a number of ideas through to the pitch stage which was encouraging.

I’ve had quite a few meetings over recent weeks, with some positive feedback and good ideas on how to progress.  One of which came from me being shortlisted for the Northwest Vision and Media digital internship scheme.

Currently I’m in the process of designing / developing my Christmas cards, so if you’ve heard from me recently expect something soon!

Following on from advice at the i-design portfolio clinic, I began to explore how I could add emotional content to the site.  I had already considered that I would like to include user-input.  By creating a community side to the site, users would be able to rate venues, and add tags to describe their experiences.  These tags would be uploaded in to a section called ‘emotions’, where a stream of the tags would flow across the window, allowing the user to choose the sort of vibe they’re looking for.

I recently did a few videos for U Ram Choe’s Opertus Lunula Umbra installation at FACT in Liverpool, with Sparklestreet who did the exhibition design.

uramchoe

An animation of one of Choe’s technical drawings for the mechanics of the installation, this is one of the simpler ones as they were quite file-heavy!

At the i-Design ‘08 conference Brendan Dawes, Creative Director of Magnetic North, spoke about how physical representations of ourselves are beginning to be lost to our hard drives.  CDs, usually on display in our homes are being replaced by downloads on iTunes.  When a visitor comes to our home, they will lose the sense of who we are.

I have wondered about this before, and although these new technologies are fantastic, we’re in some way losing our individuality.

As a response I’ve come up with a few ideas as how these new technologies could be visualised in our homes.

iTunes Objects

Physical objects in our homes could display music or films we regularly listen to.  A digital wall could display the last cds we listened to, lining them up as a block of their covers.  The same, in a cheaper format, could be a lamp, wired up to the computer.

Digital CD Shelf

Our iTunes collection could be digitally stored on a shelf, with touch-screen interactivity, so cds could be selected and sorted through.

Holographic Ornaments

Many of the speakers at i-Design spoke about growing online communities, and how technology was becoming more feminine.  Holograms of objects could be displayed in the home as traditional ornaments are, and different objects could be sent from friends.  If a relative went to New York, for example, they could send a hologram of the Statue of Liberty.

As part of London i-design I went to the portfolio clinic, for recent graduates and students.  There was the opportunity to speak to some major London-based digital companies, including some of the speakers from the day.  It was very busy, and pretty much a free-for-all, but I did manage to speak to Imagination, AIG and Tribal DDB.

The majority of my feedback was positive, to keep working on the sort of projects I had been doing, and keep building up my portfolio.  Imagination did mention that the way I presented my work wasn’t very concise.  As I had a range of different programs showing my work (flash player, quicktime, acrobat) they suggested I could present each piece as a pdf, with a brief explanation, and then show the piece in its actuality.  I think this could really help me, as I’m not the most natural public speaker, and when nervous I can lose drift of what I’m saying.   However, in an actual interview I would show my work in a portfolio, and then go to the piece on my computer, but there wasn’t room for this at the portfolio clinic.

I showed each company the work I was doing at the moment, and received some really useful insights in to how I could expand the projects.

Pixel City:

Tribal DDB suggested I make adding more emotional searches to it, as in ‘turn-it-up’, ‘turn-it-down’, relating to how heavy a night you wanted.

I did originally think of having options like ‘cool’, ‘happy’, to filter what sort of vibe you wanted the venue to have.  However, that brings up the issues of personal opinions - what some people consider to be ‘cool’ isn’t what others consider it to be.  Although I did think that the sort of Agnys Dean scene (sorry!) is generally recognised as being cool, even though its not what I’m in to.

Malcolm Garrett at AIG suggested different formats the map could be in, as in what landmarks to look out for nearby, as I had done in the way-finding section of the Virgin in-flight screens.

Virgin In-Flight Screens:

AIG liked how the screens offered a practical alternative to the usual selection of mediocre films available, and thought Virgin was a great choice as they are a relatively innovative brand.  They mentioned how cameras had been placed under the plane before, but combined with the google earth view it gave it relevance and perspective.  The overall vibe I got from AIG was to be quite experimental about the ideas, I had been designing it quite clinically - exactly how it would look and work including designing the page where movies and other existing entertainment would be accessed.

The BBC reviewed the day, including the portfolio clinic and a little picture of me whilst I was speaking to Tribal DDB.

My website was also featured in the gallery, unfortunately I wasn’t named, but I did get a nice comment.

Last Wednesday during a short trip to London, I attended i-Design ‘08, hosted by Dynamo London as part of London Design Week.  It was a fascinating day, with some great insights into the future of interactive design.  It worked as a series of speakers, and panels, discussing their own practices and design issues.

The main issues that emerged from the day was the community-based generation of the internet, and how design and technology were now communicating with a mass-audience on a new level.  The introduction of the wii and the iPhone have created invisible, intuitive user systems.   The Nintendo DS has attracted a new audience to gaming, and interactive design as a whole is beginning to become much more friendly, and less technologically sterile.

Another issue, brought up mainly by Alexander Deshamps-Sonsino of Tinker, was the possibility that design could be taking a backseat to technology, designers are allowing technologists to teach them.  The speakers as a whole encouraged designers to develop coding skills and be very much involved in the whole process.

The final speech, by Timo Veikkola of the Future Laboratory, was something I had been looking forward to, and was indeed very interesting.  He outlined various emerging trends and creations that were shaping the future.  These included;  the Perceptive Pixel ‘Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall’; the ‘Musion Eyeliner Holographic Projection System’; Adrian Cheok’s huggy ‘Internet Pyjama’; and a virtual snow game to help the recovery of burn victims.  Also mentioned were virtual environments that display over the real world - London streets could be made to look like Blade Runner.  Earlier in the day there had been speak about virtual online avatar environments, SecondLife being the best known.  Although these are incredibly popular, I personally find them a bit unnatural, and can’t help but feel they may not be very socially responsible.  Perhaps there could be something in the combination of the two, so the virtual world is not so separated from reality, but enhances it.