Amy Hoy — Double click to edit

By Ben Kepes, 2010-02-19 11:42:05

Watch out, there's a plague afoot! A plague of what, you ask? A plague of same-y-ness! Blogs, apps, sites—they all look the same. The web has become a place of templates rather than innovation. That means big wins are available for he and she who would dare to break the mould. Learn how to break out of the same-y rut, catch your accidentally copying, and create sites and apps that dare to be different. It'll be just like Zero-Based Accounting, but fun.

Daniel Burka — Iterative Design Strategies

By Ben Kepes, 2010-02-19 10:33:24

User interface design is an iterative process — the design of Digg and Pownce have been a study in evolution and adaptation. This talk will inspect the why and how of these iterations by looking at specific case studies from the two projects as well as previous client work Daniel has tackled.

Eric Ries - The Lean Startup

By Ben Kepes, 2010-02-19 09:46:48

High-tech product development projects are notoriously difficult to manage. They come in over budget and behind schedule, draining cash reserves and squandering revenue opportunities. Many fail outright. Often times, when customers hands finally touch the product, it is unusable, buggy, or defective. Worst of all, the software may work as specified, but there are simply no customers willing to purchase it. All of these problems share a common cause: the tremendous waste inherent in an undisciplined approach to imagining, designing, and building new products.

Shelley Bernstein Fostering Personal Connection to Place

By Ben Kepes, 2010-02-18 14:48:23

How does a museum in Brooklyn foster community? Through a willingness to recognize the what the power of people can bring to its content, an understanding that experimentation is key and failing (fast) is optimal and working to do more with less by empowering our community to help tell our story.

Lachlan Hardy - Building The Open Web

By Ben Kepes, 2010-02-18 13:07:10

The Open Web is an evolving term that encompasses technologies from web standards stalwarts like HTML, to almost-mainstream buzzwords such as OpenID, and on to emerging specifications like PortableContacts, but it's more than that. It is a philosophy.

Brian Fling Brian does the Andrew Sisters

By Ben Kepes, 2010-02-18 10:20:39 | 4 comments

Brian Fling performs songs by The Andrew Sisters and from popular Broadway musicals.

Scott Thomas - Web design that grabs people

By Ben Kepes, 2010-02-18 09:54:00

Online communities? Useless without adoption - Scott Thomas gives us the ins and outs of building attention grabbing sites

TED2010 Day Four

By James Hurman, 2010-02-15 10:41:07 | 2 comments

Many of the speakers at TED touch on their lack of education or conventional intelligence. But there's one thing they all have in common.

TED2010 Day Three

By James Hurman, 2010-02-15 08:31:52

Today we heard from Sergey Brin, Bill Gates, David Rockwell, Natalie Merchant, David Byrne and Chris Anderson (the Wired one, not the TED one), yet despite such an auspicious roster, the ‘wow’ moment today came from a humbler corner.

Webstock time again!

By Ben Kepes, 2010-02-12 21:37:00

It's that time again - when the world (or at least the Wellington web-world) stops and spends a week immersed in... well itself pretty much. Welcome to Webstock 2010!

Infinite zoom

By Matt Cooney, 2010-02-12 16:51:25

A ten-minute video zooming into the Mandelbrot set. Woah. It must be the weekend.

TED 2010, Day Two

By James Hurman, 2010-02-12 16:03:54

My ‘wow’ moment of today was the discovery of an American barista who knows how to make a flat white. The ‘wow’ moment for everybody else was ex Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold.

First taste of TED

By James Hurman, 2010-02-11 18:29:16

It’s bloody difficult to choose a standout from the 18 speakers and performers we experienced at the first day of TED’s 2010 event, themed ‘What the world needs now’. But here’s the biggest collective ‘wow’ and the quote of the day.

How neat

By Cassie Doherty, 2010-02-11 09:48:00

I'm not sure if this is art or obsessive compulsive disorder but I like it …

Permalink

Insufficient, incomplete, uninspired

By Vincent Heeringa, 2010-02-09 23:31:00 | 1 comment

After so many hints that a major overhaul of the Kiwi economy was to come, Prime Minister John Key's speech today records a blow for mediocrity.

Augmented intensity

By Matt Cooney, 2010-01-27 12:49:27

It’s one thing knowing where the nearest pizza joint is ... but when augmented reality has becomes the norm, it’s going to get intense. Witness this concept video, complete with mode switches, Basic Life Skills tuition and even computer-assisted encouragement for those whose self-image needs some augmentation too.

Flying by the seat of your pants

By David MacGregor, 2010-01-27 10:31:48 | 1 comment

In the notoriously competitive and difficult to differentiate airline business, Air New Zealand invests in design and experiential marketing

An intelligent machine

By Matt Cooney, 2010-01-05 09:44:28

A bit of wood, a battery and a switch, and you practically have a sentient machine. Just the thing to get the thought process restarted for the new year.

The TV show

By Su Yin Khoo, 2009-12-09 21:18:39

A fun music video to watch—several times at least!

Beatles 3000

By Su Yin Khoo, 2009-12-03 15:30:32

A thousand years from now, the legacy of John, Paul, Greg and Scottie remains.

8-bit Thriller

By Su Yin Khoo, 2009-12-01 11:57:46

Saitone takes Michael Jackson back to 8-bit

Permalink

Rings around planet Earth

By Su Yin Khoo, 2009-11-24 09:24:50 | 1 comment

What would Earth look like if it had a ring system like Saturn? Pretty spiffy, that's what.

The Complex of All of These

By Su Yin Khoo, 2009-11-18 09:18:25

2 months, 3,000 photographs, 35 books handcrafted with love.

Some percentage pure

By Matt Cooney, 2009-11-13 09:57:54

Well, this was only a matter of time: Guardian columnist takes a quick look at our green credentials and doesn’t like what he sees. “My prize for the most shameless two fingers to the global community goes to New Zealand, a country that sells itself round the world as ‘clean and green’.”

This is hardly news to us here in Godzone, but will certainly be a revelation to some of our customers.

It’s not too late to give some meaning to our national brand, but it will be infinitely harder to do under international consumer pressure than it would be to treat the issue with the importance it deserves and to do it ourselves—quickly and properly.

There’s an active thread on the topic at interest.co.nz.

Permalink

Building a chocolate brand

By Su Yin Khoo, 2009-11-11 12:45:10 | 1 comment

Taste of Yellow guy, take note.