PixelMEDIA Inc.

Last month, our Director of Engineering landed a few Google Wave invites and shared them with the team.  When I started playing with mine, I wasn’t even interested in talking with other people: I wanted to start playing with bots.  Google Wave is a terrific environment for bots and other automated tools, and with Google, they’re easy to code and deploy.

“Bot” is a term for any piece of software that can run tasks on the Internet.  Chatbots or chatterbots can carry on simple conversations or relay information to you; spyware bots can hack into your computer and plague your hard drive.  Used properly and legally, bots are convenient and helpful devices that can look up or process information for you.  Or they can just tell bad jokes. Read More…

It’s the conversation you never want to have with a client. You’ve been working together for six months, and your customer’s over the moon about the work they’re getting – and they credit it all to one person. Since day one, one of the key members of the consulting team – let’s say it’s Rachael, the lead designer – has been working closely with them, and they love her. She is not just a senior-level billable resource. Rachael flew over for a three-day workshop at the client’s headquarters. In Minot, North Dakota. In February. Rachael led the team that produced the designs that made their stakeholders’ and investors’ and spouses’ eyes light up with joy: “This design captures the vision of our widgets! We didn’t even know we made this kind of a widget until Rachael set us straight!” Rachael knows the names of their kids. Rachael is the reason the client’s talking about a phase two, and a phase three.

And you have to tell the client that you’re giving them a new lead designer. Read More…

In gaming, playtesting and user research are crucial. The interface and the user experience don’t just have to work; they have to be enjoyable and engaging. That’s why game companies invest so much time in prototyping and user testing, and why they collect so much data.

But this doesn’t have to stop at the test lab. With online and networked games becoming more and more popular, game companies have an opportunity to monitor their users remotely. Some companies, like Valve – makers of the hit Half-Life franchise – constantly monitor their players, which yields some interesting statistics.

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This article on VentureBeat just caught my attention. It’s a great summary of a design approach called “funware,” which Dean Takahashi defines as:

applications with game-like mechanics and game-like behavior that really aren’t traditional video games.

He’s summed up a trend where social networks, business apps, and even some fairly utilitarian (read: dull) websites try to engage users with game-like mechanics. His examples come from both directions – games that liven up social networking sites like Facebook, and applications such as eBay that use points systems, competition and collection to reward and incent their users. The industry experts Takahashi speaks with see big rewards in the proliferation of mini-games, Facebook games, and game-like applications in our everyday lives.

Read More…