The Lauri Monroy Blog

"Haptic technologies based on the sense of touch can be used to provide user feedback on handheld devices in the form of pulses, vibrations, mechanical movements, etc. For the most part haptics is currently used only to support other means of feedback."

I think that the future of HCI design has to do a lot with haptic design. We want more interfaces where we can touch things and get feedback via sensing something with our hands rather than just using the plain old mouse.

It seems that lots of companies including Audi, Nokia and obvisouly Apple and Microsoft are researching the subject. All mobile phones will be more and more haptic every year - especially touch screen based mobile devices. Sony playstation was one of the first game consoles several years back to introduce haptic feedback on their game controller - basicly it vibrates when things are not going so well. Also Nokia phones have had vibrating alerts for a long time. But I have have not seen haptics so much on a standard computer - yet.

The next evolution on haptic design is a computer mouse that gives you haptic feedback when you touch things on the screen. This could be useful on CAD programs and in other 3D design applications. And if you combine haptic design with 3D computer screens you also might create haptic gloves that allows you to move objects in space and the gloves would also give sensory feedback. Apparently there is one device on the market already, see the links below.

http://www.islco.com/blog/haptic-interfaces-something-replace-mouse-finally

http://www.3pointd.com/20060510/100-3d-haptic-mouse-next-year/

http://www.ucreative.ac.uk/index.cfm?articleid=18920

http://research.nokia.com/publications/new_touch_amp_feel_communication_0

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.jsp?url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fiel5%2F38%2F28513%2F01274059.pdf&authDecision=-203

http://www.springerlink.com/content/kk60210p0j3tk413/

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I rarely really like a new piece of software but Digsby is an exception - it combines all your social media sites into one easy to use application. Facebook is only one click away and you can deep dive straight into the right content. Highly recommended... download from http://www.digsby.com/ worth a try!

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So long free speech :) I understand they are searching for the baddies but I think this is a bit too much. Hyde Park speakers corner is one of the most exciting tourist attractions in London now it was completely empty. A bit of good old London gone, at least today.

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Every company has one or two key persons who are the main brains behind the company's products and success - even big companies do often rely on one person only. In Apple this is Steve Jobs, in Ferrari this was Ross Brawn. Officially Ferrari does not recognise it but it is now clearly visible how important Ross was for Ferrari. This is the same for any company or project.

For example on the day Steve Jobs cannot influence Apple anymore (hope he gets well) this may mean a decline to Apple in the long term. A clear leadership is vital for any company - and not just leadership. The key thing is to understand the industry, be visionary about future and have detailed knowledge how to build cutting edge products that perform best in the current market conditions. Usually in any company this drills down to one person or one team which does the thinking.

Nokia's smartphone decline (against iPhone and Blackberry) is another good example of what happens when you loose that vision. Nokia was the marketleader on mobile phones and smartphones few years back - now they have lost that position since their thinking is not cutting edge anymore. Nokia stopped innovating and played safe. Nokia is excellent in producing low cost phones - but it has lost the vision how to produce best smartphones. Now they are just copying iPhone instead of innovating beyound iPhone. iPhone is not perfect but its user experience is second to none - it is a breakthrough in the smart phone market. Everone loves the iPhone allthough typing long emails using its touchscreen is difficult.

The mistake that Nokia does is that it outsources it's thinking to design companies. Nokia is a typical engineer driven company which has forgotten how important user centric design is. They are now recovering by improving their user interface for the new touch devices - but lets see if the improvement is good enough to recover their position in the marketplace. Nokia's Ovi portal has not yet impressed me at all.

In the end it's all about having a proper understanding of the technology, the market and the users. Ross Brawn is a master of it all: He understands F1 engineering, F1 drivers, F1 tactis and the F1 business. This is the recipe for any product's success. Good luck Brawn GP!

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And now Brawn GP has created the winning car... well good luck for Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. As Barrichello said Brawn GP is Ferrari without Schumacher which seems to be the case. Bad for our Finnish hope Kimi. Now there is no sports where Finns are winning anymore... Help!

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And what features / services you like seeing in the site? What's a deal breaker for you and what makes you excited?

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As the Best Newcomer Award at the UK Online Recruitment Awards ceremony

http://www.onrec.com/newsstories/24444.asp

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