ChrisPrasojo

The iPad paradox

A recent (hmm.. not so recent actually) seminar I attended discussed what it means to formulate and sculpt an experience. The answers encompassed broad spectrum of perspective ranging from those closer to psychology, to ethnology, to art, and everything else in between. It is certainly not a concept which comprised of identifiable discrete factors, nor an easily formulated recipe that works for everyone. If it’s that complicated, then what it means to design the experience that people wants nowadays?

Observing design-scape in the recent years, since I delved into visual design that is, one branch of the trends is going deeper into minimalism where plain, basic, simple design is treasured as much as a heavily adorned piece of artwork. Minimalism sprouted in interior design, architecture, product design, visual design, and everywhere else in design-scape. Do people appreciating these plain and bare designs try to escape from hurdles and complexities in their life? Perhaps. Well, at least that’s what works for me.

I ditched the operating system that bog me down with weekly and monthly maintenance.
I pass on a feature-packed organizer which gave me an overly complicated synchronization problems.
I tossed away that overly confusing scientific calculator, packed with arrays of buttons, opting for a less scientific version.
All those overly complicated but feature-packed devices were replaced with something simpler. Less features, less bells and whistles, but works like a charm. Hey that works better for me! Relating this back to the minimalism, designing something with less feature can possibly be a must-have feature!

Recently, I stumbled upon this iPad paradox which echoed my thoughts! Have a look at it if you have five minutes to spare; it’s a nice article.

Customizable friendster profile page, low-level customization of WindowsMobile-based smartphones, and feature-packed MP3 players are some of the things of yesteryear.
Now I’m pretty sure there are plenty of people out there who are hungry for products with less feature, locked-down services, and minimalism in general. Yes, one size doesn’t fit all. Minimalism isn’t the only way to go. But the popularity of twitter, facebook, and Apple’s “i” products certainly show a sound trend towards simplicity.

Post-It Stop Motion

Here’s a cleverly designed stop motion video clip using post-it notes—or stickies as some of you know it as. I personally like the rain scene and how rain droplets fall and drip on the umbrella.

This clip is as amazing as Oren Lavie’s music video clip I posted months ago.

Google Wave

I’ve been busy crunching numbers and digesting journals in the recent weeks, so much that I didn’t have much time to open Google Wave invitation that has been sitting idle in my inbox for long. Well, today I did, after the majority of my loads are off of the list.

Google Wave’s fun factor depends on the number of friends (or family and colleagues) you have in your contact list. Only those with Google Wave account can hop on your communication wagon.

The interface design is pretty good, but it is still not intuitive enough for beginners to discover what they can do with it and how to do it. Perhaps mimicking typical email interface to something that is revolved around the complexity of Google Wave isn’t a good idea afterall.

Judging by the performance, Google Wave isn’t that great when it’s running on my Safari; It ran slower as soon as I opened Google Wave. Aside from that, there’s really nothing much to comment at this moment…

Still, Google Wave is an interesting communication concept that works pretty decent at its preview stage; It worth trying and exploring. I feel excited imagining a streamlined communication and collaboration for work and leisure. Not to mention the amount of reducible paperwork if this streamlined communication works well.

Why don’t you take Google Wave a spin yourself and see how you like it? I do still have some Google Wave preview invitations left. Drop me a line if you wanna get one.

If you know fun ways to use Google Wave, drop me a line, leave a comment below, or wave me directly.

Projects

Overview of projects that have been keeping me busy lately:

1. Human-Computer Interaction CS3240

The first project up on the list is ShuttleNet, an interactive kiosk displaying shuttle bus arrival information, route, schedule, and map. This interactive application is built using Flash from scratch with user-centered approach—gathering input from the users during design phase and continue involving them in usability tests in implementation phase.

The result? An attractive interactive system that works the way users expect it to be, effectively delivering information in a visually pleasing manner.

Read more

gTheme

I switched my Gmail theme from Minimalist to Ninja since I discover Mini Ninja that I used for Infotech recruitment flyer. Just like Tea House, Ninja changes according to the time. It’s fun to see what the Ninja is up to while busy reading and writing emails.

Read more

Curious Ninja

Programmers
Designers
Ninjas
All are welcome, regardless of their Dojo and belt color.

Read more

Cool coffee mugs

Eight cool coffee mugs featured in oddee.com, especially the on/off mug, are very interesting. I’d love to see it myself, turning from OFF to ON and back to OFF when I finish my favorite coffee.

Hmm… I saw My Cuppa Coffee some time ago but I can’t recall where that was.

Creative ads around the world

Just as creative as previously featured ads about energy conservancy and getting the right job, oddee.com lists fifteen creative ads plus another sixteen creative ads in unusual places from around the world. Check it out.

Chrome in 2.5D Clip

An interesting short clip about Google Chrome. I like how this lively short clip features perfect mix of colors and blends 2D+3D to showcase Chrome’s features. The first screen (gray interface with progress bar) reminds me of Mac OS 7′s classic interface. Very old school indeed.

Kayuku

Remember my previous blog post about my new web hosting service? I’m migrating to a new hosting service because the one that I had earlier was substandard. Well, knowing its extremely affordable annual price plan, I should have been mindful of its inferiority. It was a good lesson to learn though…

Behind the name ChrisPra.com
Cutting the story short, I migrated to a new web hosting service and it offered free domain name. There I went to grab chrispra.com as a shorter way to reach chrisprasojo.com
This thought arise when I realize my new friends called my Chris Prasago, Chris Prosaja, Chris Prasajo, and a series of anagrammatized Prasojo.
Believe me, no matter how you look at it, ChrisPra.com is just better.

Both .com name link to this blog at this moment. I’ll use ChrisPra.com for portfolio and other general stuff and use ChrisPrasojo.com for blog (Hello there my friends!).

Fresher wooden layout
As you can see here, my blog sports a new layout which looks similar to my previous layout. Yup, you get it right… I keep the dark wooden wall from my previous blog and photoshopped it a little further to darken the surface and its edges.

This theme isn’t built from scratch, but rather, built on a free WordPress theme with major tweaks which is heavily adapted to my taste.

Dark. Earthy. Woody.
There goes the name of this theme: Kayuku, which literally means “My Wood”.

Do you see what I don’t?
I personally pick a series of font type that comes default in Mac but not in Windows with a reason. Um… Do you think I’m a Mac fanboy who’s trying to widen the gap between Mac and Windows users? Mocking “I’m a Mac, You’re a PC. Haha!” phrase? Nope.

It’s my intention to educate and spread good stuff to everyone, like you, regardless of what kind of computer you’re using. Take a look at the screenshot below (click to enlarge) and compare how this blog suppose to be and how it looks on your screen.

See the difference? Good.
I’m planning to publish a new page for readers to download good stuff. The first thing in that download page is likely to be a set of font types you can install to your computer. Go grab it when it’s available so you can see prettier websites.

I shall get back to work now and clear my piled-up tasks. Thanks for dropping by! Do let me know if there’s any issue on the layout, plugin, RSS feed, or in any other area. Have a good day!