Floozy Speak!

I haven't done a State of The Flooz report in a while what is up?

The Stress of Research

Lately I've been pretty stressed out from work.  Sometimes research can be really really REALLY challenging, both mentally and physically.  Mentally its hard to ask either the same question over and over in ten different ways, or to ask really really dumb questions.  I think in some ways I'm not a good researcher cause I will never ask someone to blow their head off with a shot gun and then say to them.. "how did that feel?"  Odds are it probably hurt, and I wrestle with that "odds are" all the time.  I'm factoring odds as I go.  When I talk to participants I'm noting everything, tone, body language, attention, focus, oh yeah and what they even say.  Most of the time my "odds are" is dead on, and after awhile it gets angry that I have to keep asking dumb questions.  This over time starts to create a pit in yer gut.  You're paid not to trust yourself, you have to keep asking dumb questions to probe, to get the user to tell you their reason, not your reason.  Even if its the same word, emotion, etc, you can't ever toss your reason on the scene, thats bad research.  After awhile this pit grows and grows and grows to the point where you'll snap, if you don't snap, yer getting far too much sex probably.  Yer guts not always right of course, sometimes it gets waaay skewed.  Just this morning I took an email totally wrong, got into a mental fit about it, felt my heart race and then after rererading it a few times figured out, oh thats not what they said. 

Phsically in research, ya get stress from sitting.  Yer ass cant take the pressure.  Yer back hurts.  Yer unfit, locked in a room asking dumb questions.  It starts to pile up.  Ya go a little insane.  Ya gotta get moving, go downstairs, walk around the building.  For me I love extreme cold.  Its 30 degrees out, put the jacket down and go for a brisk "holy frickin" walk.  Its good for you.  Get a workout going.

Travel is also pretty brutal on the researcher.  You tend to lug around bits of equipment, tools, cameras, laptops, and of course yer always in a rush, even if you are a mad planner like I am.

Aniexty over your work, thats the final straw really.  You worry.  Even when they tell you, yer fine, you still worry.  The worry ends when you accept your fate, ya do what ya can do and thats what ya did.  Sometimes I feel a wave of relief when I accept the fate, whatever it may be.  Sometimes it feels like that moment in a bad movie where welp, ya know that one character ya like, odds are they are gonna axe him, ahhh well.  Damn theres that odds are again.

5 Weeks ahead.

I've read recently that it takes 5 weeks of doing something to obtain a habit.  So I'm attempting to whip myself into shape one week at a time.  Start slow, go fast. 

This morning getting into the car I pondered my barriers to good health.  What are they?

1. motivation

Motivation is a bitch.  How do you stay motivated?  Its really hard.  I need Bob from the Biggest Loser to yell at me in the morning, I would love a trainer like him to believe in me.  Thats what it really comes down to, ya gotta believe.  I HAVE TO BELIEVE.  Faith rolls in, ya gotta believe. I also tend to think that you need change to help motivation.  Change it up, but dont stop. 

2. understanding

When it comes to eating, I think I do pretty well really.  In the past few weeks Mary and I have gotten all "oti" on our eating.  Our cat is serious, serious about RAWWR!   Oti, our car, I love her, shes great, but shes mean.  I need a mean understanding of proper eats.  Mostly when it comes to doing big workouts with diet.  You have to eat enough to keep the furance going.  We arent taught to understand food, I wish we were.  I wish we were really informed on what its all about, you are one big walking chemistry set.  The inventor in me keeps dreaming up solutions taking ideas from every fitness/wellness program ive ever seen.  I want space food, I want the eat this ration 5 times a day plan.  I always kinda laugh inside when folks tell me, you want sauce with that, or butter buds, or use some salt.. heck no, lets treat this meal like its a challenge.  Part of me wants a military approach to eating, i beg of you, just tell me.  The other part of me, is convinced it can be done better, but I need order, and I always, almost always need to buy something to do it.  Do I really need to buy a BowFlex, an AbGrinder, a CorEvolution or a Massage chair?  Probably not.. but it could be handy.

3. outlet

I'm 50/50 on this stance.  Part of me sees outlets as factors of change and places to go to do my work.  The gym, when it was really used, did pretty good, it was good place to go, it was like a beacon in the storm, but the trainers are really the beacons not so much the what was inside the building.  I do like machines to assist me, that is nice, but I also want to know how to stay fit with nothing but my own body weight, thats empowering.  Other outlets like a class, a place to take a class are also very interesting to me.  A class takes me to a new world, a new thing to experience and discover, a new place to learn, thats a mental and phsyical reward.  The other half of me argues that outlets are excuses, they are gimmicks, they are barriers to real change.  That part of me says accept the headache pain, avoid drugs, go natrual, dip yourself in subfreezing tempertures. 

4. partner

When I had a trainer at McConnell Heart Health Center it was expense but nice.  Though after awhile I kinda felt like I was visiting more vs working.  Sure I still worked out, but I was never really pushed, not like how Bob on the biggest loser pushes.  Course this is just one experience I had with one trainer and if she was expensive, odds are (there it is again) someone like Bob would be ten times that much.  Even still I feel like I need a poke. 

5. cost of wellness

America is not designed for wellness.  There's so much going against you.  Sometimes I dream about a fast food system that focused on feeling good vs feeling fat.  I wish for seeing the whole thing, DIFFERENT, not sold to me, given to me.  I wish for a more enabled world to make me better, not fatter.  Dreamy eh?  It sure is.  Still the cost of eating right, doing right, sucks ass.  Its just not cheap, and if it is cheap, someone frickin tell me. 

6. stability

Gotta have stability to make it through.  Stability to me is alot of things.  Its trust in yourself, its room to breathe, its coming up for air, leaving room for doubt, taking a moment to think.  Its also about having others comfort you, its ok to get help ya know.  Seek it, get it, save it, love it.

Welp.. ok I think i'm done with this post.  I ate my 2 hard boiled eggs and 2 carrot lunch.  Next up, a report to do, then... ponder my amazon purchases, then catch up on some blogs and edit a video.

BBL... dan

Tags: biggestloser, amazon, fitness, wellness, goodness, research

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Posted by dan at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's that time again.  Time to put on the thinking cap and think about future stuff to be's!  

I sat here, 8:10am, about to get ready to do some usability testing, prepping, pondering, and quickly scanning my stock portfolio thinking.. where does the future hang out? 

Yesterday I was big on my thoughts regarding came companies.  In the stock world, three gaming gaints stand out on the stock exchange and none of them are American born.  SOHU, SNDA, and 888 are three chinese stocks I follow in the world of gaming over there.  It all goes back to the econmical attributes of addiction.  Online worlds are hot these days, and most of them are excellent at addicting the masses into their virtual escape tactics.  These three companies really hone in on that, they keep them fires burning. 

My future cap says this will only continue to grow as more and more the line between the here now brown cow and yesterworld continues to fade.  Once someone can successfully and sufficently maintain a virtual version of themself without financial aid of the real, then folks, we're entering a brand new age. 

So virtual worlds are in and here to stay.  What else is happening?  The fight for identity will continue.  Video on the web will continue.. but ya know the other day I started thinking about that.  The problem with video on the web is that, its improv like nature, that is the WHAM see me now idea is stuck, tied to the desktop, laptop, streaming live hooked up to a computer. 

Sure we can capture a moment, edit it, and put it online but all of that takes up too much time, its still not free enough.  We need a new toy. A wireless anywhere cam that can stick on anything and that will always save right down to the web your "stuff". 

Wireless webcams have been around before, but probably not in the form i'm looking for.  If we really want to be all that in the lifestreaming world, allow people access to emmit their signals of life easier.  A personal broadcaster.  It'd be interesting to have these personal broadcasters that all send out the now, and if we want bam it goes on the web, if we dont, it can all pool into a producers pile and one can edit it and then post it. 

I for one am tired of the webcam look.  Here I am, talking to a PC, youtube looking video.  I want more context, I want to see more of what is happening.  Webcams should be experiemental, infusing different lenses to capture the now, standard, wide angel, fish eye and if we can't pull off good lighting lets go with some light emitters or something to make it look good.

Well my test is about to start, I should get back there and make sure all is well.  No doubt there is alot to behold here shortly.  This time of year we see lots of people reflecting and pondering on the soon to be.  I say we really start off 2008 with a huge refresh and new perspective honing in on what can invoke change, cause change is golden, it excites us and frees our minds.  Let's do it!

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Posted by dan at 08:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Folks are all bent outa shape over Facebook's abuse of consumer data.  All in the name of potentially cool neato features, Facebook falls flat on its face on what could be just another example of how big networks can go bad pretty darn easily.

Personally, its a true marketers idea that a person would want to flaunt, tell and scream to others that they bought x branded object, without the consent of the buyers words.  I think its kinda messed up, I dont want to broadcast my purchases to other people, I want to tell them about it sure, but not auto-broadcast.  I mean yeah I want to tell ya I got X on a sunday, and it rocks, its so much better than Y, but thats my system of spreadin the word, not some hive mind machine in the background taking all my thunder from me. 

More and more I don't get Facebook.  There's defiantely a group that loves it, thinks that its the next new toast, and then theres those that dont get it and wonder why we're all thinking its the next new toast. 

Its another network to me.  

On another note I saw a beta yesterday touting it's latest cool new feature, protection of your data!  Thats right, finally a network where you and your data will feel SAFE!  Welp that'd be dandy if people really picked networks for that reason, sadly I doubt that.  If that's your biggest coolest feature, I'd go back the drawing board cause playing on potential fears don't usually add up to sticking behaviors.  I mean people go where their clicks go or where they think they oughta go or where they want to go and safety for your data, while it should be a nuff said to some extent isnt going to drive the masses your way. 

Thing is data is too messy if you think about it.  Explict purchased data streams is where we all get bent outa shape regarding the facebook dealio.  Beyond that theres tons of data that no one seemed to really care if it got mined, and i wager it will continue to be mined, sorted and analyzed with or without your permission.  Its opinion.  Raw, in its purest form, customer voice.  Expressed a half of dozen different ways from micro content posts, to social networks, to blogs, to web sites, its all just digital text, that a spidering engine can crawl through and suck down along with its related attributes, and until people change their ways in how they express themselves, data will always be out there for the taking.  You can't re-invent the free expression the web has given people.  You can't restrain it, shield it, prevent it from happening, the cat is outa the bag folks.  You can either deal with it now, monitor your flow and either be in or out. 

I mean you can be a user of the net, digging for input, I mean we all do that ya know, we go to the oracle of google and search, if you remove general opinion of the web, what good is search?  If search granted you just information that was manifest soley for marketing purposes, what good is it to go and talk to a marketer about a product you want to buy?  You're going right back to the beast!  You cant do that.  Where do you get the fresh wisdom of true experience?  Data has to be free otherwise a search makes no sense. 

So people are paranoid about Facebook's obvious attempt to prey on peoples -stuff-i-bought- stream, makes sense, but it doesnt change things.  If anything theres storytelling aspect that facebook marketers didnt take in account for how people like to express their stuff.  If anything they probably did know about it but discarded that one tid bit in order to cross the line and do it anyways.  Alarming?  Not really.  You should be able to opt in or out, but even then, the idea is still outa the bag.  Other ideas?  Get rid of the network, leap to the next one.

Which gets me back to the fleeting values of networks in the first place.  They are like hot syndicated shows.  Sure, ER was once huge, massivily popular, everyone loved that show, and then it died off, and eventually it will just DIE as viewership has passed on to Greys or Heroes or whatever, the same with social networks.  Friendster was the bomb, then the Tribe, then Myspace, then Facebook.. in five years will Facebook still be crafting winning epsiodes over and over?  I doubt it.  Which is why you better cash out now oh bookians.  I mean I'd rather be hanging out on actionable stuff vs trendy could be may be all depends on how many believe in stuff.  Search is always going to be here, getting good info will always be a ticket item, being in, the click, is fleeting, it will get old, they will move on. 

Part of me thinks social network creators should look to game designers to really understand their potential fate.  At the moment I feel like game designers have a good grasp at foreshadowing potential futures.  Carmack's id I think always had a knack of that from a sheer technological stand point.  He could fashion a perdictible fate by what he could create as a base.  He could make strides and basically as a result open doors and see poteintally the worlds that could be created from that.  The rest just took off from there.  I see id as one of the biggest change manifesto creators out there, though i doubt they get that credit much any more.  Their open changing/develop gaming platforms helped fuel early ideas of a DIY, API, go make mashup future, that you see everywhere today on the web. 

Again the future facebook creators of the planet should keep an eye on how gaming companies constantly stay connected to their core audience and the edge those users seek.  MMORPG's and social networks are nearly identical in some ways.  They sport vast members, have addicting elements, and continually work to update their world, infuse ideas, change, grow in leaps every year - expect gaming companies typically have a mirrored team in the background working on the next game.  Is anyone in the social network scene really doing that?  I mean they want their first world to be their only world, where as game designers want that world to some extent to die and make way for a new world.  

Econmically game designers have a huge advantage over social networks in that most networks are free from the get go acquiring members and just existing, holding on in some way to get paid.  Game designers spend alot on the back end to make world but it goes out to the masses at a hefty upfront fee of say $50, and then a $15 a month fee to just belong.  Who here would pay $15 a month to part of myspace or facebook?  HA, dont think so, though I bet some would.  Even still, game designers have capital, and capital baby, that makes people shine and enables them to construct the future. 

Well that wraps up todays ramble, back to Pete, I got things to do.  Thanks for reading!

Tags: wow, warcraft, idsoftware, carmack, facebook, myspace, design, socialnetworking, data

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Posted by dan at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The lines between here, now, this place in two places are merging.  First of all I'm here in this blog space leaving a bit of my essence in these digital words, though, I kinda dislike the whole digitial wording of my words.  Digital always makes me think of the compact disc, a CD, not a record, records are analog, cd's all digital.. my words on a blog, they're more virtual than digital.

But the lines are blurring.  Today we have two planes of existance, here on the web, and out there, you there, typing, breathing, dealing with your backache, your petty humanistic issues, over here I gotta deal with bad design, i need to clean up shop, make this blog look cooler, smarter, more integrated, connected, rss-loved and all. 

Over the past year we've read about this life, that life and of course second life.  But its kind of a yawn, another place to hang out, another place to park your presence.  Do ya ever get tired of going there?  Some people copy their essence into blogs, myspace or facebook pages or in Second Life virtual towers of yadda dadda, but soon I think, you'll be able to merge them into real space, the Google Space. 

I keep sensing that Google is going to enable you to take more of a part in the real space of Google Earth, Maps and more.  Not just a playground for point to point navigation, or enabling you to see a 360 view of the real space, its going further.  You'll be able to add your mark, place your footer, say, hey, I'm here, in this very much real space.  Real places give us real tangible talkable discussions.  We can go to Vegas, experience Vegas and its not just fantasy, its real.  Why would I want to walk around in a VR version of Vegas?  Its a real space, and its a mirrored world of new space really.  Its a layer on another layer of reality, but its far closer than fantasty land, its a world that can be mirrored in navigation, mobile, in home entertainment and more. 

Google's potential space is a big as current reality, perhaps even bound to it to some extent, but people will be able to build within a build I think. 

I can see mail box on 5th and main, turning into a tardis like space where cool kids hang out, in side that box is a new place, but it set in a very real space to begin with.  Google's basically gonna say, virtual worlds are nice and all, but come explore your world first, then drill down, and create new worlds from there. 

A far fetched concept?  I dont think so, they've been making bit strides all year.  All pointing to something, some experience that is larger. 

Tags: google, myspace, facebook, earth, presence, essence, secondlife

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Posted by dan at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

That's a question I got the gist of while reading a Slate article on the death of email.  Its not big news that email's been at war lately.  It's got opposition on all fronts really.  The article points out the latest threat to email - texting, im'ing, facebooking, myspace'ng, twitter, pownce.. etc. 

If I was 14, I bet I'd be doing the same.  Course they left out IIRC, I used to do a bunch of relay chat ya know.

Still they forgot to mention biggest issue with email, spam, phsihing attacks and general lack of decent organization abilities in software.  Its a mine field really.  I probably use 5% of outlooks power cause i really don't want to invest 4hrs figuring it all out.  On the other hand I use as much as gmail as i can cause it was a breeze to setup, and google's spam filtering is sweet.  So I guess I'm lazy when it comes out outlook?  Blame the user eh?  Well I guess you can do that.  Course thinking about the issue of spam and phishing attacks, that is one big ass problem that grows more and more everyday.  Plus its email its today long from hello.  Texting, and IM is more for the short burst generation. 

Myspace and facebook on the other hand are more about presence.  Last year I rambled on and on and on about presence.  I think the end game is really all about presence.  15yr kids I've studied in research from the various projects i've been involved with all seem to focus around the idea of being "on" in a digital sense.  They're connected to the hive, the see whats happening, connect when they wanna connect, interact, expose, dabble, wander, solict, annoy, post, you name it, the game is about that presence factor.  They don't get online to check, they are online from the time they wake up, thru school, get home and so forth.  They're always checking in.  Its a great big game of status.  What's my status, what's their status, i need update my status, check my sweet status. 

What's it mean to have a generation growing up addicted to the idea of status?  I dunno, probably scary, of course.  Seems like the older i get the less i care about status.  I feel like I got my automated bench warmers waving their flags to denote my status but I'm not gonna change my status 24/7, I wanna chill out and watch some surivior, and its ok not to call you up and let you know that, why weigh you down with the idea that i watched James kick ass again and again?  I dunno ya know. 

But by not changing my status fast enough, I position myself further and further from the hive.  At least in theory, though with RSS, I can stay waaaay back and still sit in comfort and tune in. 

Does it matter if email is really dying to teens?  No.  Does it matter in terms of future design goodness?  Probably, since these kids are gonna have a different view of what it means to be on, connected and part of something and that is gonna be reflected, or at least can be reflected in nearly everything they do, buy, and use.

Tags: design, email, death, trends, slate, myspace, facebook, pownce, twitter, phishing, spam

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Posted by dan at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well I got my replacement Chumby today, the first chumby was a bad bad chumby.. bad chumby.. NO!

Some at work question Chumby's presence in my office. They clearly don't see him as a member of the team however thats how most folks approach things on the bleeding edge like Chumby. Like what is this thing for? And sure while I'm writing this I can see the Kane Approves  widget clapping wildly at me and I wonder, what IS this thing for? 

LOL, I just got my snail mail at work and I'm cracking up.  I see this piece of spam mail, crap I happily toss into the trash, but I see it addressed to me as "Director of Regional Stuff".. lol, that sounds like me! 

So what is the Chumby for?  Initally signed on to get one because of a few reasons.  First its a bleeding edge concept in that its an open source, do what you want with it product.  It's next in the progression of devices like that of the ambient orb really. 

Its your stuff, your expression, your thing, your toy, you, in a small screen doing what you want.  Its a freedom toy baby, its got legs to do all kinds of things.  Its part of a DIY type trend I go on and on about at work. 

Secondly it's something I can develop for, enhance, make stuff, coolio.  Third it has implimications in the sense of its arrival on the scene of today going forward with tomorrow.  It will influence future design just in taking the first few steps forward to say "lets do this".  Its already setting things in motion.

And I work in Design Research, I mean here's a slice of technology we should be staring at and wondering what is the future user experience of a device like this?  What doors does it open, what influence will it have on someones approach to life, culture, entertainment, biz you name it.

Lastly, can we use it in research.  I had a wild view of future chumbyness- everything from, you could put one in the focus group lab and clients could sit on a couch and review potential data or participant info on it.  You could send it to participants and have it be like a research/data toy, cue it up for potential interactions, and this thing could be another way to approach people.   Wild dreams, possible or not, the ideas behind the Chumby are solid and hardware wise it has all kinds of goodness in it. 

At glance, sure it looks like a "boondoggle", my father would raise his eyebrows and probably scoff at the toy.  But my gut says this thing has potential, and in my biz, potential leads to inspiration, and inspiration leads to ideas and then we got creation and baby lets stay inspired shall we? 

Of coruse a grandmaster of an idea was to hook the Chumby up with the Phidgets RFID stuff and make a smart RFID able Chumby!    There is a usb port on the thing, technically it could be possible. 

One thing that I found out later and kinda bummed about was the advertising angle thing where by Chumby folks will occasionally inject ads into your Chumby stream to help pay for backend development and continued chumbyness.  Personally, i think they should allow people to opt out of that plan and either subscribe to a monthly fee or something in order to keep the chumby a real "for me" experience.  Take all the barriers away in its potential usage. 

Chumby is truly unique.  The ambient orb was a cool idea but I don't think it ever had an average joe front end on it to customize its experience, it was always like "if you think like a hacker or coffee addicted IT boy" you can customize it, limiting the amount of folks that could really dance with that device.  Chumby while a huge step in the right direction could face similar problems in that not everyone can wake up and know flash.  I've already scoured the web for flash-generating like tools to help me make my first widget.  But it is nice that its possible, i see stuff everyday.  I'd like to see Chumby walk thru on widget design, thats not just the simple display x y z images but everything from rich media to RSSable gadget goodness like stuff.

More on Chumby later...

Tags: chumby ambient orb flash

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Posted by dan at 02:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ok I just had a brain freeze on the open social dynamic, maybe Prime can utilize the open social network API's to further enrich its overall experience. 

I'm really liking what the web is turning into lately, its turning into a platform that continually errodes the barrier of utter approachable geek tech to the modern everyday dude.  Meaning, embedded code creates possibility and that API's, the more they are refined into usable bits by everyone, the more all of us can make something cohesive and projected at our eventual needed goals. 

That probably didnt make alot of sense. 

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Posted by dan at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So Google launched OpenSocial this week and, while I really haven't dived into the magic of it yet, it appears like a big whooop on the net.  To me its like battle of the web platform apps.  Is it an attempt to lure web app developers off the facebook platform and say, hey come develop here too, and be like open dude?  I guess. 

Open Social also seems like yet another googlized tentacle into your content, sure, connecting it all, of course, for the greater good.  But its still slimey a bit.  Not that the snobish facebook is any better really.  They are both equally zipper dippers doin their thing to rock the heavens and change the course of the web. 

Meanwhile, the real shizzle this xmas is gonna be all the goin green sustainability design talk, that dirt devil broom vac and the Chumby I say. 

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Posted by dan at 08:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been thinking about november for quite sometime.  I remember reading a story about how november had become national novel writing month.  In 30 days, you write 50,000 words and join the many writers rank of novelist.  What the heck, I can do it, let's do it. 

What to write about?  Growing up?  Work?  Life in whatever lane I'm in, or do I go SciFi and dream up one of the countless ideas i've often scribbled down on to paper before.  I picked SciFi because I can dream up all kinds of things easier, faster and more in line with the idea of cranking something, anything out in 30 days. 

I started stiching ideas together from stories past, ideas i had, notions of this or that, and infused them into a wild universe, and already I'm 2,000 words down in my first day.  I can do this, this is fun, I want to do this, I hope i can keep it going, and make sense along the way, to some degree.

Work wise things are good, I had my review and heard what I'm kinda doing already, which is pushing in a new direction.  I've always been about trends, ideas, tools and new techniques, and now in research, at work, that's an offical direction for me.  I can hone in on the newness I constantly create. 

Prime, my beta project, my survey tool manifestation coming to life, coded in ruby on rails and injected with flash goodness is starting to take off.  In my review management noted the various creations i've championed through the system.  Much of these apps, aside from Prime we're developed by a local coder, friend, who I probably don't see enough any more, Bob.  It started out simple really, he was a coder and I was guy with some ideas.  Together we made stuff and it evolved.  It really worked out nicely.  In the span of a few years we've created note taking applications, a retail data capture and mapping ethnography rig, a tablet orientated data capture tool, a pda data capture tool, and the famed dapath, a pathfinder analysis tool for our participator design method.  Big stuff really, all of it, used to some degree, dapath is by far the biggest achivement reducing hours of tedious would be work.  I have to give my other local friend Troy, the web host of this blog btw, credit for engineering my ideas.  Troy helps me take end goal realizations and make them a real reality at whatever the cost of course.  As time has gone on, I feel these friends of mine, and I too, have moved on to whatever the next state of reality is.  Already I can see my previous novel like writing injecting into this blog post.  But still the end though here is thanks, its all good and now I'll be making even more tools. 

Prime has really caught on fire, and seeing a web app come together is pretty damn cool.  I can see why 2.0 folks get so excited about it, you're making stuff, making it happen, and its awesome to run 400 subjects through a study on Prime and seeing data come alive on the back end.  That is very cool.  In 2008 I'll be rolling into refinement on Prime, refining the look and feel, and getting into the visualiuzation, an area I really want to harness in research data and analysis. 

Everyone it seems is doing research these days, demand for research and consumer understanding is on the rise, its a race to understand people.  Thats happening on the front end with companies realizing the power of real data, on the back end with designers, the people that implement the data ideas they are dancing in data really, the love it, but the real frontier in research is absorption for no-data related folks.  We're talking about average joe understanding in the beast.  A biz, expects its core geeked out design team to understand the resutls, thats nuff said, but new trend in research is the average joe understanding the results.  There's a big push for more immerisve data findings like using video, visualization, or experience like results, can you can immerise people into pure insight?  Yes you can, people are immerised into worlds everyday online, and ya, thats right gaming.  Gaming is blow the roof off of how people absorb core ideals disovered in research, and its only a matter of time before it becomes yet another pricipal tool along with video as a way to get people to see the light.  I hope to be there on the cusp of it, figuring out ways to take the data, the core ideas, and infusing them into a gaming like structure, go and experience this finding, make it your own and as a result see it in the thinking and designing and being that you do and as result of that, making a better experience for everyone.

Tags: gaming research design experience novel

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Posted by dan at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)