If you missed our last NUI Camp in DC, we’ll be hosting our second NUI Camp in New York following a new two-day extended version of the camp. For all the details including registration, agenda and directions, check out www.nuicamp.net.
See you there next week!
James
A couple weeks ago we held our first NUI Camp in the DC area…and let’s just say it was a blast. We had around 40 people in attendance and kicked off the day with a quick and dirty 
intro to Natural User Interfaces. Josh Blake did an awesome job laying down the framework for how you should approach building NUI’s, and with only a couple hour primer, we divided into 6 teams and started designing our killer NUI ideas with only 4 hours to build an app. The teams that participated did an incredible job, and the overwhelming feedback was for us to do more of these…even in a longer two-day format.
Here are some cool shots of the team competitions, with @paolodm’s team winning! Video of the event will be posted shortly…
We already have plans for the next NUI Camp in New York….more on that soon!
James
I had the privilege of being invited to speak at the Re-MIX Atlanta event this past weekend, and was thrilled to be a part of the local design and development community. I enjoyed how the 
event was split up in three tracks….UX, Windows Phone 7 and Silverlight/Web.
The UX Track is what I really enjoyed attending, and it was loaded with sessions like “What Developers and Designers Don’t Get About Each Other” by Dennis Estanislao and Sean Gerety, a phenomenal talk (check it out on Vimeo) that walks through the differences between designers and developers and how they distinctly look at each other from completely different lenses. Very funny and great presentation. “Bring Your Sketches to Life with SketchFlow” by Virginia Cagwin, did a great job walking through how to implement SketchFlow into your workflow and demo’ed using Expression Sketchflow on a Mac and how it can better the end design you land with on your next project. “UX on UX” by Nikkie Chau was very entertaining in her session as it started with a nice little punch of Yoga all since she’s a master yogo instructor that, oh-by-the-way does user research 
. And the last session before my talk was by Zach Pousman talking on “Designing Pleasurable Experiences”, in which he did an amazing job exploring various techniques for ensuring your users have an immersive and enjoyable experience in whatever UI you are designing.
Glen Gordon posted a great write up on the event as well and many more photos of the event are posted out on Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/remixatl/
I had a blast getting to know the local Atlanta design and development community, and hopefully for those in public sector, we can bring this kind of love to the DC area in the next year!
If you haven’t seen it yet, NUI Camp is tomorrow. In Reston, VA. And it’s FREE.
If you’re a designer or developer and want to learn more about Natural User Interfaces by actually building them – don’t miss out. Drop by www.nuicamp.net to register.
James
I recently met with Joshua Blake from InfoStrat, and he showed me some cool stuff around NUI concepts and how we as designers and developers really need to change the way we think around interface design, especially moving towards Natural User Interfaces (NUIs).
Microsoft Surface is a prime example of how natural user interfaces can change the way we interact with computers. As designers and developers, one challenge with creating natural user interfaces for multi-touch devices such as Microsoft Surface or Windows 7 is getting around the old ways of thinking and old habits for interface design.
Josh decided to tackle this problem by creating an app called SurfaceCube. The gist of SurfaceCube is essentially a simple 3-D puzzle game for Microsoft Surface which he designed to illustrate as many as the Surface Interaction Guidelines as possible. I had the opportunity to sit down with Joshua and discuss SurfaceCube and the thinking behind some really interesting design decisions that makes it stand out as a natural user interface.
We also briefly discuss Joshua’s upcoming book about natural user interfaces and multi-touch development, Multi-touch Development with WPF and Silverlight, due Fall 2010. As a special offer to Channel 9 readers, you can use the following coupon to order the book through the Manning Early Access Program and read the chapters as Josh writes them. Coupon code channel9y is good for 40% off Multi-touch Development with WPF and Silverlight when ordered through manning.com, and expires on April 4th, 2010.
I ran across this resource a couple weeks back, but wanted to share with everyone as these are FREE assets for building multi-touch wireframes.
Gesturecons is a set of wire-framing gestural icons created by Ryan Lee. The icons are available for download made available via a Creative Commons License.
These icons will be very useful when creating wireframes or tutorials covering touch gestures. As a Silverlight and Windows developer, I wanted to see how well these fit with the Windows Touch API. In the image to the right, I’ve mapped the icons to the Windows Touch Gestures. (Click the image to see it larger)
Importing the Gesturecons into Expression Blend to use in an application or a SketchFlow prototype is simple since Ryan has provided the icons in an Illustrator format.
Also make sure and check out Adam Kinney’s post that’s a step-by-step walkthrough to make the Import into Blend process easier: Gesturecons – icons for prototyping Multi-touch applications.
Enjoy!
James
For those of you who want to get your hands on some cool ways to build a NUI, today the Surface Toolkit was announced and is now available. Check out the video below and download the bits!!!
Download the SDK:
If you haven’t seen this, it’ll blow your mind on the future of gaming, specific to design.
I really wanted to let everyone know about this phenomenal resource that was launched during MIX10 this year….called .toolbox.
So what is it and why should you care?
Here’s the creator’s brief description:
.toolbox is a free online training program from Microsoft for designers and developers that focuses on the design and UX aspects of Silverlight using Expression Studio, as well as on User Experience best practices.
This program will be helpful for your designers to ramp up in the use of Expression Blend and become Silverlight-ready, as well as for your developers who want to ramp up on design composition and best UX practices. .toolbox will guide them through 100 to 400 level training modules. The curriculum offers approximately 36 hours of training content around Expression Blend and Silverlight and approximately 12 hours UX principles training content making .toolbox a comprehensive learning program. People on your team will be able to study the modules at their own pace and schedule.
In essence, if you want to learn this new RIA/NUI/UX/(insert design acronym here)/stuff, this is where you should go. Whether you’re a designer or a developer or a jack of all trades, the bottom line is this stuff is all FREE and you should at least throw this in your to-do list to check out.
To Get Started
1. Go to .toolbox and sign up using your Windows Live ID
2. Visit the School section and explore the curriculum.
3. Select a module, watch the videos, and follow along using the provided guide and assets.
4. Take the evaluation for a completed level to achieve a badge.
5. Broadcast your achievements by posting to Twitter and Facebook.
Useful Links
· .toolbox Website | http://www.microsoft.com/design/toolbox
· .toolbox Twitter | http://www.twitter.com/designtoolbox
· .toolbox Facebook | http://www.facebook.com/pages/toolbox/349923567926
· .toolbox YouTube | http://www.youtube.com/designtoolbox
· .toolbox Promo Video in YouTube | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5JNwiqpGqI
Check it out.
James
I’m happy to FINALLY announce the first NUI (Natural User Interface) Camp on April 24th and will be held in Reston Virginia. This is the first of a series of NUI developer & designer events targeted to getting you real, hands-on experience learning and competing with other teams all in a full day of nothing but NUI.
Here’s a quick run-down of what we’ll be doing:
“About Natural User Interface (NUI) Camp
Don’t just learn about the latest Natural User Interface technologies from Microsoft, give ‘em a try with our full day developer/designer hands on competition. From designing to prototyping to building apps, this packed competitive day will team up designers with developers, creating a series of rich internet applications (RIA), all in a day, and all to be judged for a grand prize.
There will be two tracks in this camp – one for those with some experience under their belt (and want to compete), and another for those who want a full walkthrough deep-dive guided tour. Get acquainted with Silverlight or WPF, and come prepared with some multi-touch application ideas – as this will help you get ahead of the competition.“
We’re also bringing in Josh Blake from InfoStrat to kick the day off so all competitors can be familiarized with basic NUI concepts as well as some quick and dirty tips and tricks in using Silverlight or WPF multi-touch. If you don’t know Josh, he blogs at http://nui.joshland.org, and also has a website focusing NUI and his upcoming book on NUI/Win7 Touch with WPF & Silverlight at http://handsonnui.com. Josh is also the primary developer of http://bingmapswpf.codeplex.com
But yeah, some things to consider….if you come prepared, you’ll do much better if you decide to compete. We’ll have two tracks running concurrently so don’t worry if you’re brand new to this stuff and want to just sit back and absorb all things NUI.
Oh, and the best part…we’re providing loaner multi-touch laptop gear (will be divided amongst the teams) so instead of just seeing us demo cool multi-touch UIs, you’ll have real gear to churn out a killer app all in under 4 hours.
There will be a grand prize for first place, so stay tuned more on that later.
Register here: Microsoft Natural User Interface Camp
The Agenda
| Time | Session | Description |
| 8:00 a.m. | Registration | |
| 8:45 a.m. | Competition Overview | Quick overview of how the day’s app dev competition will go – we’ll raffle out teams pairing everyone up into teams of 4 or 5 people, ensuring everyone has both designer and developer resources. |
| 9:00 a.m. | Prep Part I: Intro to NUIsJosh Blake (InfoStrat) | What’s a NUI and why should I care? Learn what the fuss is all about and what Microsoft provides in today’s quickly changing landscapes for building user interfaces. We’ll talk accelerometers, Project Natal, Surface and a slew of other topics you need to consider when designing apps. |
| 10:00 a.m. | Prep Part II: Tools Overview (Blend and Visual Studio)James Chittenden | Whether you are a Visual Studio Developer or a Designer/ Animator, the line between the two inevitably blurs. Modern RIA development requires the ability to pick the right tool for the right job. This kick start presentation will demonstrate ways of using Visual Studio and Blend together in an integrated workflow. |
| 10:50 a.m. | Competition Scenario Explained | We’ll reveal the details of the competition 10 minutes prior to beginning. Teams will be prepped with rules and guidelines. |
| 11:00 a.m. | Go: Start Competition | Coding Competition will last for 5 hours and teams will need to build a RIA app in that amount of time collaborating with both the designer and developer resources on each team. |
| 3:00 p.m. | Stop: All Apps Compete | Teams must publish their WPF or Silverlight apps to the competition shared server by this time. |
| 3:00 p.m. | Prep for apps showcase | Teams will showcase apps that were built in front of audience |
| 4:00 p.m. | Judging: Winning App Showcased | Grand prize winner revealed |
| 4:15 p.m. | Closing and Raffle Drawing |
Here we have a simple but interesting sample of our new stuning and smooth popup. As you can see jQuery and CSS does it easy...
video here
