NPR reports German social networking site StudiVZ is being sued by FaceBook for User Interface (UI) infringement. This suit marks a shift in thinking towards the value of a user interface. In previous posts we’ve talked about UI as not being defensible. If this lawsuit is successful, we’ll be eating crow. We’re thrilled! Bring on that savory crow fricassee!
(Thanks Adam!)
Ouch! Yet another testament to the value of strategy. Zoomii launched and released a browse-by-aisles Amazon associate store in late June and this week Borders launched their “Magic Shelf” browse-by-aisle feature. I’ve written in the past that User Interface design is an excellent method to disrupt a market but it cannot be defended (scroll way down). In other words, people can copy it. It will be interesting to see how and where Zoomii goes from here.
I’m not sure if it was the Zoomii Books (thank you Stephanie) hyper-real representation of a bookstore browsing experience mashup created by Chris Thiessen, or the stylish video explorations of Robert Hodgin, but digital is beginning to fuzz the edges of reality for me. We can now create “natural” (beyond multi-touch) interaction metaphors that leverage all of the history and nostalgia of an analog object and then extend the value of that object significantly with digital technology. We create objects that look like they exist but only exist as bits on the digital plane. As we explore this digital reality or rather as it augments ours what happens to traditional constraints. Time? Space?
I need to lay off the sugar cookies after 10.
Welcome to the spill. The overflow buffer for the passion we have for interaction.
Spill is the blog from Tanagram, Inc. a technology innovation and design company based in Chicago, Illinois.
Recent Comments