It all starts here.

The eggheads over at User Centric published an academic analysis of the UI of the instrument panel and center stack on the new Mini Clubman. Despite in all their scientific vigor and application of UI expertise, though, they didn’t get it quite right. It all starts off on the wrong foot with the title of the post, “What’s Driving the Mini Cooper? Not the User Experience.” Oh really?

I don’t think User Experience means what they think it means.

The User Experience of driving a Mini is far more than the act of changing the radio station or customizing the tach’s digital display. It starts with the emotional appeal of the body design, the look of the oversize wheels and tires, and the diminutive dimensions of the car. It builds with the sporting mechanicals – the taut suspension tied to the thick, communicative steering wheel, the whir and throttle response of the high-tech 4-cylinder motor, and the snickety shifter. It settles in with the nostalgic dash design, the bucket seats, and the fine craftsmanship of the interior materials.

Speedometer. And Radio.

Then, we get to the dials and buttons. Are they important? Of course. Does their functionality play a role in the user experience? Absolutely. Are they faulty? Yeah. But taken as a whole, the dashboard buttons and readouts are a small fraction of the experience.

What about User Centric’s critique of those controls? They got a lot of it right, primarily the analysis of the radio’s relative disembodiment from it’s buttons, and the volume dial’s distant location. The radio’s dials – not just the buttons – though, are tiny. Why no remarks about that? Also not mentioned: the secondary controls at the bottom of the center stack – which are indistinguishable by touch, even though they perform a variety of tasks.

Speedometer over there, to your right.

One key interface design decision that seems to be an obvious UI element worth examining, and yet  here merits neither comment nor  question, is the placement of the speedometer. Arguably the most important dial for the driver, the Mini’s speedo is mounted in the middle of the dashboard, rather than it’s conventional location behind the steering wheel, directly in front of the driver’s line of sight. This unconventional design choice is exactly the type of thing usability studies like this are meant to evaluate.

The old switcheroo.

This study was worth doing. But based on the published report, it seems that the researchers got caught up in the details or their reportage and lost perspective on the bigger picture. Some important things were overlooked, while the relative significance of the UI is over emphasized. I think that’s too bad. I’m sure the researchers are capable fellas. But this piece doesn’t really do the field of user experience justice.

I love this story. This “graffiti artist”, Poster Boy, took his very limitation – no money to buy supplies – and from that limitation established his art form. I think there is a lesson there for everyone who works in a creative field. Often, when presented with a blank sheet, a huge budget, and to deadline, the result is stasis, wheels spinning and gears churning, but no true progress. Meanwhile, when faced with limited resources and a hard deadline, so often the result is inspired (though not always polished) work.

You can debate whether Poster Boy is defacing property or committing a crime, but you cannot argue that his work is creative, funny, and thought provoking. The fact that his only tool is a razor blade makes it all the more remarkable.

Kicker Studio designer and author Dan Saffer speaks about the designing and documenting for gestural interfaces. Kind of long, but worth a watch.

I guarantee that you will love this video. For a high-def, albeit briefer, version, visit Capacity’s site.

Although it is tons of fun and entertaining to watch, what is most compelling is the huge leap forward displayed here in the notion of what a logo and a brand can mean. Conventional ideas of brand identity, shaped by decades of emblems and tag lines, still seem to confine it to a word mark or a glyph. This campaign demonstrates how much more fertile ground there is (for the right brand, of course) to define and display the vibrancy of their identity.

The idea is that Cartoon Network is a palette of characters (the Noods) who interact – and not just a cable chanel with an animated bug in the corner of the screen. It is brought vividly to life by first showing us cute but featureless dolls who are then injected with personality by pops and bursts of color and motion. The brand is alive. It is interactive, fun, and playful. (Of course the phenomenal soundtrack plays a key role). Try and get that message across with a logo and a tag line.

For more background and analysis, a good write up from CartoonNothing:

The latest jewel in [LA-based Capacity's] crown is a massive rebrand for Cartoon Network built around Noods, blank Dunny-esque figures created by the crew at Kidrobot. Props to CN for dreaming up such a clever, collaborative concept.

Capacitys CN montage starts off in a minimal white space but builds in complexity and vibrancy as more characters, environments and seasons are introduced. [...] Yoda reducing General Grievous to a puddle of paint [is] a clever way to deconstruct the underlying concept of the rebrand.

The frenetic soundtrack (also created by Capacity) tinges the entire montage with a playful 8-bit tone and moves things forward with a cheery optimism befitting such a grand undertaking.

I might have to rip that soundtrack into an MP3.

Here we have a conceptual version of Ford’s second generation Sync system, to debut next week at the Detroit auto show.

Beyond the flawless voice recognition capaciy, there are two striking things about this video.

First, the natural language the model uses to control the SYNC system. The ability to use voice commands without necessarily utilizing specific code words is a vast leap forward that really can move this technology from the hyper-focused capacity it now occupies, to a vast frontier of mobile applications. Delivery drivers and iPhone tools are two that pop to mind.

Second, the example shown in this video exemplifies how new cars are transforming from transportation tools to a pseudo-office, with all the comforts, tools, and connectivity we once associated with a luxurious office space. It seems that in this new age driving is, uhh, taking a back seat.