ScienceDirect, the Elsevier database on scientific articles, sends every now and then a happy message that a new article matching my alert is available online. Rather often than not the articles deal with some sort of new device that was tested on with children without much relevance to design research.
This Monday however, I was very pleasantly suprised: …more »
Offline
Have been offline for almost one year now. August 2009 I left my position at the University, in September my wife delivered our son Gerben and in October I started a new career at User Intelligence. Making the change kept me …err… occupied.
What’s up now?
My PhD is still going strong – albeit in slower pace, I am still doing design research – albeit with adults and I have worked with great clients on user testing, user research and on co-design with users, for example with Microsoft, Philips (.com), LexisNexis Benelux, Vodafone UK, T-mobile Int’l and more.
What’s up next?
Currently my activities on designing with children have gained more attention. On October 28 I am going to present in the UX marathon techniques to design with children. I am invited to speak at the University of Eindhoven and I am in the middle of talking to interesting new design partners on designing for and with children.
Nevertheless if you need my expertise in any way, I am always looking for new opportunities to work on designing with children, all suggestions are welcome.
Expect new blogs to appear, and/or follow me on twitter for news.
Internet is the current public town square. Gary visualized how much we share.
KidZui is building a safe internet-experience for children. First they build the kids-safe browser “KidZui”, and now ZuiTube.
full article @ CNN
Great web app: Draw a symbol, search engine looks up the Latex-code. Very handy for my current thesis chapter with lots of equations.
http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html
Thanks@nata
Camera’s for kids not interesting enough below $100: Manufacturers seem to keep picture quality and durability as mutually exclusive features. Even the cheapest mobile phone has a better camera than the more expensive kid’s camera!
An observation by Terry Lane on Stuff.
My dad had told me it was the iPod of its day.
He had told me it was big, but I hadn’t realised he meant THAT big. It was the size of a small book.
When I saw it for the first time, its colour also struck me. Nowadays gadgets come in a rainbow of colours but this was only one shade – a bland grey.(…)
When the Sony Walkman was launched, 30 years ago this week, it started a revolution in portable music. But how does it compare with its digital successors? The Magazine invited 13-year-old Scott Campbell to swap his iPod for a Walkman for a week.
On the risk of publishing old news, still thought it was interesting to blog this article (released feb 09) in the light of the previous message:
Nature Words Dropped From Children’s Dictionary
To make way for modern tech terms such as BlackBerry, blog, voicemail and broadband, the latest edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary has opted to drop terms pertaining to nature. No longer can a child check this dictionary and learn more about the blackberry, dandelion, acorn, heron, otter, magpie, sycamore, or willow.
The NPR, the National Public Radio (USA), asked their audience about what children do with technology. The responses gave a nice overview of the current momentum of technology in the life of the very young.
“We saw a bit of trend in your stories: cell phones + water = gadget death. A surprising number of variations on that theme involved toilets, pet water bowls and kid drool. Still a whole other category involved stories of repeated 911 dialing, hiding tech toys from stressed parents and inserting all sorts of food into drives and slots of all kinds.
But not all stories involved destruction or police knocking at the door. Below are some of the standouts (…)”
Submitted through Twitter:
Being a speedy cyclist I hope this phenomenon stays on the other side of the Canal: British police is using a lasergun to catch speedy cyclists in Bournemouth; preferred speed is 10mph (16,1 km/h). That is s-l-o-w—m-o-t-i-o-n!
Okay okay, that is on a promenade along the seaside.