Bamsquitch

Managed to get some celebrity retweetage. Rufus Hound had set a word of the day and asked is followers to create a meaning for it. Here’s what I came up with: 

Nothing is original. I can happily admit that. New designs are informed from the past in order to create the future. What I cannot stand is the incessant replication of something that was once iconic and beautiful. It has happened with the I heart NY concept amongst other things and it has now happened with the ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ poster. Keep calm was a brilliant slogan created for a wartime poster which was printed but never officially distributed. A copy of the poster was unearthed at Barter Books in Alnwick in 2000. 

As the video shows, the poster is an iconic piece of design. Unfortunately it has been ruined by the infinite parodies and commercialisations (I think the final straw for me was seeing a variation of it on a Primark t-shirt).

With easy access to photo editing software anyone can now taint a classic and there’s nothing to stop this happening to any other concept. What really frustrates me is that mindless repetition, mostly financially motivated, has irreversibly scarred a piece of design that deserves iconic status.

Miscalculation

Last week I saw this post http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669294/surprisingly-functional-the-worlds-first-gesture-based-calculator showing off the world’s first gesture based calculator. I liked the look of it and from the article I thought it would be worth the purchase to at least play with it. Aesthetically the app is totally minimalist and I like the use of colour but when using the actual calculator I found it somewhat counter intuitive. The image below is an illustration of all of the gestural input available. 

There is definitely a learning curve involved with the app to familiarise yourself with the input method but to me there seems to be some obvious mistakes that have been made. Overall the gestures probably aren’t that much faster compared to just pressing a button, so the place it must succeed is improving the user experience of using a calculator. Unfortunately the emphasis is on aesthetic quality rather than UX which is a massive disappointment as it has so much potential.

The addition and subtraction are single finger swipe in opposite directions but they are used horizontally. Surely a swipe up to add and swipe down to subtract would be far more logical. Instead of pressing an = button a single finger swiped upwards is used but I can not see any good reason for it. The real confusing thing is that they use a 2 fingered horizontal or vertical swipe to clear the display. They really should have used the 2 finger horizontal gesture which means you actually drawing an equals sign to perform the equals command. Leaving the 2 fingered vertical swipe to clear, which makes sense.

Other functions such as multiply, divide etc. can be found by swiping down. There has been suggestions that diagonal swipes could be used for these which I see as a step forward. To me it seems under developed and under researched. The rule form follows function should really have been taken into consideration. I’m not mad just disappointed that they didn’t explore the true potential of the app.

Unexpected niceness

I came up against an unknown file type at work so I downloaded a Stuff-it expander, an unzipper I had used before that had been simple and effective. I didn’t expect much more than that but has undergone an interface overhaul with a fancy new drag and drop interface. The colour scheme and layout works really well and there is a certain satisfaction watching the interface change colour as your file is worked on. Sometimes you don’t realise how much better something can be with some simple applied interaction design, until someone shows you. My only criticism is that the end screen should celebrate the fact that it has finished expanding your file either by highlighting the ‘Done expanding!’ or by turning the background green. That said it’s still a great little app.

The Winter Edition

A little late on this one after my Winter festivites of the last few months but hopefully this selection will lead you nicely into the Spring.

Top 10

Skrillex - Breakn a Sweat

Azari And Iii - Reckless With Your Love (Tensnake Remix)

Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk - Love can’t turn around (Boys Noize Started Like This Mix)

Nero - Reaching Out (Fred Falke Remix)

Beyonce - Countdown (Jack Beats Remix - Dface Moombahton Edit)

Avicii - Levels (Cazzette’s NYC Mode Bootleg Mix Edit)

Foster The People - Helena Beat (Com Truise Remix)

M83 - Midnight City

Redlight - Get Out My Head

Ben Westbeech - Something For The Weekend (Breach Remix )

Pick ‘n’ mix

The Naked and famous  - young blood

Drumsound & Bassline Smith - Close

Justice - On’n’On (Brodinski Remix)

Maverick Sabre - I Need(Zed Bias Remix)

Youngman - Who Knows

Chiddy Bang - Ray Charles

Jay-Z & Adele - Won’t Go (Wishing) [Urban Noize Remix]

Zeds Dead - Coffee Break

Crystal fighters - Champion sound

The Vaccines - Norgaard

Flux Pavilion - Superbad

Breakwater - ReleaseThe Beast

Jack Beats - End Of Love

Azealia Banks - 212

Chill

Phoenix - If I Ever Feel Better

Cults - Go Outside (Menahan Street Band Remix)

Mayer Hawthorne - A Long Time

Ben Howard - Keep your head up

Flight Facilities - Crave you Feat. Giselle [Official Video]

Toro Y Moi - New Beat Official Video

Lana Del Rey - Video Games (Jamie Woon Remix)

Echo Park - Fiber Optic

Little Dragon - Little Man (Tycho Remix)

Hip Hop

Dot Rotten - Keep It On A Low

Drake - Over (Remix) Ft. Eminem

Sincere - aint nobody like you

Mash Ups

Sample gee - Playing tricks on the next episode

Bruneaux - I wanna Body move you ( Beastie Boys vs jungle book)

ElectroBang Me - TeeTs

Touch the Sky with Mr. Brown Klitormix (Robotic Pirate Monkey vs Bob Marley vs Kanye West ft. Lupe Fiasco)

Kanye West/Jay Z - Otis (Cookin’ Soul Remix)

Hello Brooklyn Jay-Z Marvin Gaye Remix

My 1st Marathon

Managed to get through the most painful experience of my life in a respectable time. During the trip I did manage to do a bit of sight seeing as well.

On route to the hostel on the first night

Saw a zombie polar bear in a shop window.

A sweet ride.

At the hostel

The infinite corridor.

Some peculiar soap.

Out and about

Everyone loves big 3D type.

One of many nice pieces of graffiti.

Questionable restaurant name choice.

Best shop name ever.

Best urinal ever.

True dat.

1928 Olympic stadium - start and end point of the marathon.

Boats

Cruising on the canal.

Bit of sun.

Bit much for Stu.

Big boat.

Inside the big boat.

Nice building

Cool roof.

Stitchin.

Autumn Beats

Looks like this could be a seasonal update so here are a list of brand spanking new beats to get you through the Autumn.

Top 10

I still love you - Switch

Gabriel - Joe Goddard

Lift me - Treasure Fingers

Heaven - Emeli Sande

Promises - Nero (Skrillex & Nero Remix)

Perfect Stranger - Magnetic Man

Louder - DJ Fresh

Feel So Close - Calvin Harris (Nero Remix)

Pharaohs - SBTRKT

Ritual Union - Little Dragon (Tensnake Remix) 

Wub Wub Wub

Time - Chase & Status (Masuka Remix)

Cinema - Benni Benassi (Skrillex Remix)

Digital Love (Algeronics Remix)

Sweet Talk - Kito

Pumped Up Kicks - Foster the People (Lyrakill Bootleg)

Bangers

Revolution - Jack Beats

The Last Dance - Claire Maguire (Danny Byrd Remix)

Sofi Needs A Ladder - Deadmau5

Anticipate - Skream

Big Bad Wolf - Duck Sauce (Mickey Fortune Bootleg)

Helix - Justice

Audio, Video, Disco - Justice

Embody - SebastiAn

All Sorts

Lost in Love - L-vis 1990

Pumped Up Kicks - Foster the People(Gigamesh Remix)

Golden Age - The Asteriods Galaxy Tour (Justice Remix)

Don’t Go - Wretch 32 (DJ Fresh Remix)

How Deep is Your Love - The Rapture (Populette Remix)

LK - DJ Marky

End of the World - Alex Metric

The Trumpeter - Ray Foxx

My House - Hercules & Love Affair(Tensnake Remix)

Fantasy - Breakbot

Miami Showdown - Digitalism

Feelin’ Good - Spadez

Calypsoul - RESET!

Street Spirit - Radiohead(Knight Riderz Remix)

Little Secrets - Passion Pit (Penguin Prison Remix)

Sleepyhead - Passion Pit (Daze Remix)

The Worse it Gets - Penguin Prison (Starsmith Remix)

Moonlight Matters - The Greeks

Bear Hug - The 2 Bears

Where You Should be - Shy FX

Watch Me Dance - Toddla T(SebastiAn Remix)

Bounce - Calvin Harris

When the Night Falls - Chromeo(Hercules And Love Affair Remix)

Chilled

Just Gazin’ - Digitalism

Since I left you - The Avalanches (Stereolab Remix)

Nap on the bow - New Look

The Bay - Metronomy (The 2 Bears Remix)

Go Outside - Cults

When the Night Falls - Chromeo(Mayer Hawthorne Conversion)

Trouble - Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs

The A Team - Ed Sheerin (Koan Sound Remix)