PROJECT – An Interactive iPad Only Publication

This is a rather impressive example of an iPad-only magazine.  It really highlights what publications have the potential of being.

The first video is the intro to PROJECT, the second a more detailed look inside. Notice: The interactive visuals. The one-frame hallmark shot for an article is now a 3-D virtual experience.
The future of future is here.

Rethinking Infographics

The New York Times has a different kind of interactive infographic (information graphic) these days. And I like it because it’s a departure from what we’ve come to expect of visualized information in the last couple of years.

While modern infographics have become useful tools, many are two dimensional and only capture a singular moment in time.

The interactive above (click the image to see it live on the New York Times site) visualizes the Facebook buzz around the World Cup in South Africa using photos of the players themselves who are widely talked about.

Scrub across the timeline and you can see how the conversation flows between these players and their countries.

Infographics have quickly transformed the way that we communicate raw, boring data. Gone are the yesteryears of piecharts and graphs.  But in the short time that the modern infographic has taken storm on sites such as GOOD, the visual format is becoming stale.

This is partly because there are so many people visualizing information now, and also because the speed of information allows us to create and share content so virally that there’s an over-saturation of visualizing any data.  In fact, because data is processed so fast thanks to modern technology, the information on an infographic yesterday can be dramatically different than one created today, as can be visualized in the interactive above.

The challenge is in thinking of a unique visual, then having the resources – particularly time and talent – to create them before the data becomes out-dated. Or as the New York times did, create one that takes you across time so your information doesn’t get old, but rather builds a unique story beyond the sheer number of data points that individually, are meaningless snapshots.

Diacarta Calendaring App

I’m a sucker for anything that transforms traditional ways of thinking into novel, interactive and beautiful design.

Diacarta — a visual calendaring app — is one such tool.  To quote @raymondpirouz‘s description on Twitter, Diacarta is:

An iPhone calendaring app that uses iconography to visually segment the day’s events

In short, Diacarta takes the traditional horizontal timetable of the likes of Outlook and Google Calendar and visualizes it on an analog clock.  You create activities by selecting one of nearly 60 icons, then dragging the event to a selected hour during the day.

Single-tapping allows you to view the event details, while double tapping on a scheduled icon allows you to edit the details.

I’m impressed with the unique approach to calendaring.  What I like most about the idea of this sort of calendaring is that I’m able to visualize my day as I’ve learned to tell time.  It’s much more  intuitive than a time-stamped entry on a list in Outlook.  Just like the planets move in a circular motion, so does time around a clock.  Even digital clocks have a 12-hour (or 24-hour) cycle, although you only see the present moment.

Another benefit for such a visualization is that I can observe and get a different perspective of how I use my time as a fraction of a 12-hour day (currently you can only see 12-hour increments, which makes sense given the way a clock is designed).  And because of the visual nature and my need to see that I actually fill my day with meaningful tasks, I find that I’ve scheduled my commute, sleep and even meal times.

Given these benefits, there’s definitely room to grow for this app.  Here are some ideas, although I’m sure some of these functions are planned for version 2:

• Syncing – Most of my meetings need to be on a traditional calendaring system anyways… just because the rest of the world is.  [Dicarta has tweeted that this will be available in version 2.]
• Customization – The ability to choose from a library of themed iconography. Alternatively, a way to upload your own icon sets.
• Repeating Tasks – For routine items, I’d like to schedule them at once and incorporate choices like monthly on a particular day, weekday/weekend only and expiration dates.
• Map Integration – Clicking on an address from the detail view opens Google Maps or any GPS app of your choosing, and navigate you to your next event.
• Phone/Address Book Integration – Clicking on a phone number asks if you’d like to dial the number or add to your address book.
• Web Integration – If a URL was included as part of the description, Diacarta launches the page in Safari.
• Email Integration – Associate (or tag) an email that lists details of the meeting, and pull up that message in Mail for viewing.  This would help  to quickly and easily refresh one’s memory about what agenda items, for example.
• Calendar sharing – Share the data on your calendar with other app users much like Google Calendar does, and allow for others (with appropriate permissions) to add to your calendar.

Three big ticket items would really push Diacarta — or any calendaring item for that matter — over the top of the innovation curve:

• Linked Data – With linked data and the semantic web driving new technologies, it would be great to see a passive integration of the information a user enters, web links, geo-location data and individual behavioral trends.  For example, if I include an entry for a Costco trip, the app would know which Costco I usually go to, and if I schedule my trip for 8:00 p.m., Diacarta would be smart enough to alert me that I would only have a half-hour to shop there instead of the hour I indicate because it would have crawled Costco’s website.
• Geo-location – If you check-in via Foursquare or Gowalla at a location, then it automatically knows to make your task or event complete.  Even better would be the ability for the iPhone to sentiently notify your location to apps like Diacarta, Foursquare and Gowalla.
• Social Sharing – This is already integrated into many mobile apps and websites, so it would be seemingly simple to add.  The ability to share an even to a Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn stream, or even add a photo to build into the Diacarta library.  For a calendar event that involves a public place (like Staples Center), it could add a photo icon of Staples Center.
• Marketing – While I hate being marketed to, I see an opportunity for a brand to “purchase” an icon for given demographics.  For example, an activity like running could have a Nike Running icon integrated, particularly if the scheduled item is the Nike Women’s Marathon.

Diacarta is available from iTunes [link opens iTunes] for $1.99.

Being E-Booksmart

A recent post at BusinessInsider reads  “One huge bummer about e-books: No one can see how smart you are“, citing that publishers find the transition to e-books the beginning of the end for them, as well as retail bookstores. The reasons cited in the article appear to be two-fold:

1. the cover image as a marketing tool becomes benign, and
2. books on a shelf in someone’s home serves as personal testimonials to the value of the book.

The real bummer here is that book publishers are not seizing the opportunity to transition a reader’s behaviour to “show-off” from their intimate living rooms to “sharing” on the vast Social Web.  The two reasons above are simply excuses that will likely fail at buying traditional publishers time.

Book publishers and sellers alike could instead be spending their efforts addressing the demise of the printed book (glass half empty)… or rather, the rise of the e-book (glass half full).

Cover art is dead?

Far from it, in fact.  Cover art is now more important than ever.  With e-book readers like the Kindle and iPad, publishers have the opportunity take a single image, and create a dynamic cover that gives a potential readers more than a singular visual impression.

Apple Wii-mote

Apple exploring Magic Wand controller for next-gen Apple TV.  More from Apple Insider.