HP Interactive Canvas

The world's largest touchwall interface: 128 square feet? Many fingers? One UI? Four weeks? No problem!

We built the user interface for what was, at the time, the world’s largest interactive multi-touch wall. In four weeks. With no prior multi-touch experience.

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Bing for Nokia S60

Bing Mobile Application for Nokia

In early 2008, Microsoft announced that they’d be bringing Silverlight to the Nokia S60 platform and at Mix 2010, that effort took a big step forward with the beta release of the plugin for Symbian. Stimulant, which has been working with Silverlight on mobile platforms since its inception, was chosen (along with a few other elite agencies) to participate, helping deliver applications to showcase the runtime.

The application Stimulant worked on is a mobile variant of the Bing Bar desktop application. Stimulant worked closely with the Bing team and was able to reuse a significant portion of code and existing graphic assets, while adding in mobile-specific interactivity for this unique form factor. Much of the Bing Bar’s functionality has been ported, including stocks, weather, and real-time feeds of MSN content.

Got an S60 phone? Point your mobile browser at the demo application, located at http://silverlight.net/content/samples/s60/bing, and experience Bing in the palm of your hand.

Microsoft Local Impact Map: Surface Edition

Stimulant followed up the excellent reception of the Microsoft Local Impact Map Silverlight with a special  edition for Microsoft Surface. Drawing on our previous experience with many Surface projects, we saw incredible value in presenting this application in a new medium.

We knew that the Local Impact Map would be used to facilitate conversations about corporate social responsibility between Microsoft and representatives of governments and NGOs. How could we make the map even more collaborative, emotionally engaging, and aid in forming strong conversations around corporate citizenship?

The challenge called out for a fresh approach: build a version of the Local Impact Map for Microsoft Surface. In this way, Microsoft representatives can kick off interactions with their government and NGO contacts, letting them learn how to use the application simply by watching, and then let them explore the map as the conversation continues. All the while, the participants are literally able to look each other in the eye, and neither is in exclusive control of the device, the software, or the content. This makes for an emotionally equitable experience for all concerned. This human emotional connection and transparent communication style is exactly what Microsoft wanted to convey.

The Local Impact Map: Surface Edition shares the same hand-made look and feel as the online application, and is fed by the exact same data sources. We completely refactored the interface to make the Local Impact Map appropriate for Surface, and this laid the groundwork for further innovation.

A photo of the application, showing a data visualization lens

We chose the metaphor of a lens as the cornerstone of our multi-user interface strategy. Onscreen lenses allow for viewing in greater detail. Each lens can even display different styles of data visualization from other lenses, rather than repainting the entire screen with a data visualization that only one user might be interested in. This also allows local content to be freely oriented towards any user. Global filters allow users to hone in on the citizenship topics that matter most to their constituents and communities. Rich support for photography and videos also helps put faces on those helped by Microsoft’s charitable efforts worldwide.

The Microsoft Local Impact Map: Surface Edition is rolled out on Surface units in Microsoft facilities all over the globe.

Kodak’s Surface Experience at CES 2010

The Microsoft Surface experience we developed for Kodak was revamped for CES 2010, this time focusing on Kodak’s consumer products – cameras, printers, photo frames, and more. With new content, interactivity and a refreshed skin, our Microsoft Surface application segued elegantly in with the amazing pieces developed by our partners at Obscura Digital.

Our application allows multiple visitors to place a Kodak device on Surface at the same time and spawn an interactive deck of information specific to each device. We’re thrilled to be a part of Kodak’s booth as they present one of the most forward-thinking interactive product experiences at the entire show.

Nathan talks NUI at Interaction09

Here’s Stimulant’s Design Director, Nathan Moody, speaking about the design of Natural User Interfaces, or NUI’s, at the IxDA’s Interaction09 conference in Vancouver in February 2009. Thanks for all who turned out and enjoyed the talk!

We’re actually bummed that the random blast of smooth jazz that started playing in the middle of the talk (around 15 minutes in) didn’t come through very loudly in the mic, nor did the cameraman catch Nathan groovin’ to the smoothness onstage. Ah, well, there’s always Interaction10 in Savannah. Enjoy!

Interested in seeing us in person soon? You’re in luck: We’ll be speaking about installation/destination computing at the Event Design Summit in Los Angeles, doing a hands-on workshop at UXWeek in San Francisco, and talking about NUI at the Heartland Developer’s Conference in Omaha!

Stimulant on NUI and Multi-Touch at UXWeek: 2008 and 2009

Stimulant has been invited back to UXWeek this year to lead a workshop on designing large-scale multi-touch user experiences. Following on the heels of our talk from 2008 (above) we’ll be diving in much deeper and getting hands on with participants on actual multi-touch equipment.

Nathan is also going to be on-site at the Interactive Displays Conference in San Jose from April 21-23, so please drop a line if you’ll be in town and would like to connect.

See you at Interaction09!

Nathan Moody will be at the Interaction Design Association’s Interaction09 conference in lovely Vancouver, BC starting tomorrow. This Saturday at 11:20am in the Hotel Vancouver, he’ll be be giving a talk entitled “Designing Natural Interfaces: Notes from the Multi-Touch, Multi-User Frontlines.” He’ll be discussing the ins and outs of creating natural interactions for a variety of touch-based technologies and scenarios, including Microsoft Surface. It will be very practitioner-focused with solid, actionable advice.

He’ll be covering and commenting on the conference as it progresses, so follow us at Stimulant on Twitter! If you’re at the show, don’t hestitate to introduce yourself and say hi!

Stimulant at IxDA SF, Weds. 10/22

Darren and Nathan are going to be speaking at the San Francisco chapter meeting of the Interaction Designers Association this Wednesday! If you want to hear tales from the front lines of bleeding-edge interface design, this is the talk for you. We’ll be talking process, showing sample deliverables, and showing some brand new R&D stuff that no one has seen before. It’ll be a fun time, and we’ll save a ton of time to field questions!

It will be hosted by the kind folks at Particle. We hope to see you there!

Balance Bubbles

What do you get when you mash-up Microsoft Surface with a Nintendo Wii Balance Board? Tilt-sensitive surface computing! Yes, this is Surface sitting directly on the Balance Board (it supports 600 pounds, we checked). Here, Josh Santangelo (who conceptualized and coded this mashup) demonstrates a simple application that lets users create bubbles of various sizes and roll them around the table by pressing on the edges of Surface. You also get a sneak peek at the WPF/Silverlight physics engine we’ve been working on as well. Tilt sensitivity adds an extra dimension to the Surface experience and opens new doors on an already highly advanced platform.