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.

TouchTones

It’s musical, it’s magical, and it’s free. Stimulant is thrilled to announce the release of TouchTones as a freeware application for Microsoft Surface.

TouchTones (formerly ToneGrid) is a multi-user collaborative music maker that doesn’t require any musical knowledge in order to make something beautiful. Just tap the colored spheres to get them started and change the melody in real time! TouchTones has a range of innovative features:

• TouchTones features four sounds and a four-octave “grid,” which acts like a keyboard.
• Up to four people can use TouchTones at once.
• Symmetrical controls on all sides let any user control any sound.
• Holding down a colored button while tapping an arrow with another lets the user play the grid like an instrument. You can even play chords!
• Volume control, reset button, and integrated help video makes learning and playing a snap.
• No written instructions are needed to learn how to use TouchTones!

TouchTones is being made available for free for any Microsoft Surface running Service Pack 1 or higher. If you’re interested in having Stimulant visually reskin the application, replace the stock sounds with something custom, or want additional features, just ask. TouchTones is designed to be fully customized to meet your specific branding goals. Feel free to contact us for any general inquiries regarding TouchTones.

To learn more about TouchTones, or to download the installer, visit Stimulant’s Product Page.

WIND Mobile Multi-User In-Store Experience

Stimulant, in partnership with Trapeze, helped WIND Mobile extend their core brand philosophy of “The Power of Conversation” to the in-store experience with a Microsoft Surface-based assisted sales application. Surface lives in the heart of the store in most WIND Mobile retail locations, providing delightfully simple access to key product information and facilitating two-way conversation between employees and customers.

As a consultative tool, the Surface table allows customers to compare devices and plans side-by-side, helping to identify the options that work best for them. Information is made available quickly, clearly and in one layer of engagement. Stimulant worked closely with Trapeze to bring the WIND Mobile brand alive on Microsoft Surface, leveraging custom sound design, playful 2D physics and object recognition, all carefully blended into a seamless and engaging experience. The application leverages Stimulant’s proprietary product comparison engine, as well as a custom content management system to enable easy updating across all stores. Like all of our projects, extra care was taken to ensure scalability and stability for years to come.

Subsequent versions of the application will focus on the customization of services and devices directly from Surface.

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.

Kodak Product Explorer for Microsoft Surface

Kodak, a stalwart exhibitor at the annual Print tradeshow, did something different in 2009. They bucked the industry practice of bringing truly massive commercial printing presses to the show. Instead decided to attract attendee interest with final printed samples, and use a nearly all-digital environment to tell the story of the Kodak technology used to bring these printed materials to life.

Working with Kodak’s marketing firm Partners + Napier, exhibit design firm Mirrorshow, and our old friends Obscura Digital, Stimulant created software for Microsoft Surface that allowed trade show attendees to simply pick up a printed sample or object, place it on Surface, and have Surface reveal details on that object’s printing methods and what Kodak products were used in its manufacture. We created a byte tag recognition system that’s more robust than is typical, so that even large objects could be only partially placed on Surface but still be recognized by the system. Traditional “attract modes” were replaced with local “attract messages” to entice attendees to use the table even when another user was already doing so, leveraging the inherent multi-user capabilities of Surface. Our team also externalized all content so that the client could manage all content themselves, even after the trade show doors opened.

Hundreds of trade show attendees and booth personnel used six Surface units in the Kodak booth without a hiccup during the entire show. Sales personnel found it invaluable to have such information at their fingertips without requiring printed collateral, and trade show attendees could follow along or even acquire knowledge on their own, given the utter simplicity of Stimulant’s nearly-invisible interface, based on their own interests and needs.

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!

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.

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!