Also see:
My thanks to Mr. Tim Pixley, for posting this resource out on LinkedIn.
Be aware of the light source hitting your screen — from Digital Photography Schoolby Peter West Carey
Which also points to:
40 free premium stock images to spice up your education blog — from EduDemic
From DSC:
I also like istockphoto.com — very reasonable for pricing. I’ve heard Blue Vertigo is a good place to start as well.
Some other ones I used to keep track of — several of which are NOT free — as well as some potentially interesting/helpful sites to you — are:
Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular: A cognitive teardown of the user experience — from Pulse > UX by Charles L. Mauro
Excerpt:
Simple yet engaging interaction concept: This seems an obvious point, but few realize that a simple interaction model need not be, and rarely is, procedurally simple. Simplification means once users have a relatively brief period of experience with the software, their mental model of how the interface behaves is well formed and fully embedded. This is known technically as schema formation. In truly great user interfaces, this critical bit of skill acquisition takes place during a specific use cycle known as the First User Experience or FUE. When users are able to construct a robust schema quickly, they routinely rate the user interface as “simple”. However, simple does not equal engaging. It is possible to create a user interface solution that is initially perceived by users as simple. However, the challenge is to create a desire by users to continue interaction with a system over time, what we call user “engagement”.
What makes a user interface engaging is adding more detail to the user’s mental model at just the right time. Angry Birds’ simple interaction model is easy to learn because it allows the user to quickly develop a mental model of the game’s interaction methodology, core strategy and scoring processes. It is engaging, in fact addictive, due to the carefully scripted expansion of the user’s mental model of the strategy component and incremental increases in problem/solution methodology. These little birds are packed with clever behaviors that expand the user’s mental model at just the point when game-level complexity is increased. The process of creating simple, engaging interaction models turns out to be exceedingly complex. Most groups developing software today think expansion of the user’s mental model is for the birds. Not necessarily so.
Other key items discussed:
- Simple yet engaging interaction concept
- Cleverly managed response time
- Short-term memory management
- Mystery
- How things sound
- How things look
- Measuring that which some say cannot be measured
From DSC:
What Apple is able to do with many of their hardware and software products, what Charles describes here with Angry Birds, what Steelcase did with their Media:Scape product’s puck — and other examples — point out that creating something that is “easy” is actually quite hard.
Design tips — from blog.99designs.com
Adobe Museum of Digital Media announces new exhibition: John Maeda: Atoms + Bits = the neue Craft (ABC) — from finance.yahoo.com
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SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The Adobe Museum of Digital Media (www.adobemuseum.com) is pleased to announce its second exhibition, John Maeda: Atoms + Bits = the neue Craft (ABC), on view March 23 to Dec. 31, 2011. The exhibition is a digital representation of Maeda, president of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), leading an interactive lecture on how artists are connecting the worlds of digital creativity and analog (or handcrafted) creativity. Titled Atoms + Bits = the neue Craft (ABC), the lecture underscores the mission of the AMDM to provide an interactive venue for presenting digital media works as well as providing a forum for expert commentary on how digital media influences culture and society.
According to Maeda, “Computers let us imagine digitally what we once could only validate by handcraft in physical form – the infinite malleability and reusability of bits have forever changed the creative process. But just as it took Icarus to first imagine human flight by carefully observing how birds can fly, digital tools have relied on many of the original tools and media used by artists in the pre-digital world.” Maeda sees the thread that runs between the tools of physical art making – such as pens, brushes and pigment – and the way new media has co-opted many of the same tools to manipulate bits in digital art. Through the exhibition, he examines the history of linking analog and digital creativity within his own work and the works of others.
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If viewing these graphics via the Learning Ecosystems website/blog:
You may need to right-click and download the graphics to see them in their entirety.
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If viewing these graphics via the Learning Ecosystems website/blog:
You may need to right-click and download the graphics to see them in their entirety.
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If viewing these graphics via the Learning Ecosystems website/blog:
You may need to right-click and download the graphics to see them in their entirety.
