The complete opposite to the new law recently in effect on sending SMS text messages while operating a motor vehicle. Simply astounding.

Lots of changes are happening around here. Not physically, but here on the web. After overcoming my denial with how broken the experience was around the site, I finally got off my ass to consolidate my pages within Wordpress. After a healthy update to the admin interface, I am now on my way to unified bliss. I must say that the new v2.5+ WP update is a huge improvement. Plus, I’m diggin’ the orange highlights. I digress. In any case, there might be some hiccups along the way, so I’d be great to get your feedback when something looks or smells funny. In terms of visual design, that’s not my forte, so using themes is the way to go! Weee!

How this is going to work:

The root directory of kvwong.com is now the main featured posting page. No longer a blog, per se, but a journal of thoughts that I find interesting both online and in the real world. Thus, I’ve called it Fieldnotes. A record keeping medium of all the work-arounds, unique uses, or exciting examples of people interacting with technology. This is going to be pretty raw and lightly processed. My goal is to two fold:

1) Improve my critical observation skills
2) Incorporate more media, like photography and video, into my work in interesting ways

Within Fieldnotes, you will still find the usual suspects like contact information, general background about myself, the curriculum vitae and lastly, my ever aging portfolio - not metaphorical to wine.

Now here’s the tricky part: I’ve recently begun planning KVW Studios. I will soon be launching my official photography portfolio to the masses separate from Flickr. There I start my path towards small business endeavors. What that entails is still a bit fuzzy, but exciting none the less. The other critical component to KVW Studios is the educational component. While there are plenty of sites that help people get off the ground with photo 101 stuff, I hope to bring something of value too.

Suggestions and ideas are warmly welcome. I’m big on collaboration, and working together. So, hopefully thing will be more of a partnership than anything else.

Cheers,
Kevin

Because they are a cycle or two behind. While they are catching up with features and throwing in an extra bit or two (see 3G and GPS), companies like Nokia and Apple are already testing their next revisions for the next release that elegantly solves major issues and more.

So a whole bunch of news is trickling down the pipes with new phones coming out of every mobile handset carrier. The ones getting most attention are the ones with touch screen, 3G, television, music, fashion something, blah blah blah. However, a lot of these kinds of ambitious handsets came out post-iPhone (speaking more to the marketing than actual technology/implementation). What I’m trying to say is that without companies like Apple and Nokia taking a leap in design, consumers wouldn’t have these kinds of wonderful interaction models for another several product cycles. But ever since big names like Apple entered the market, the whole house goes crazy with finger flicking interfaces and tiled buttons. Yes, these are great products, and they are designed and developed by smart people, but the business side didn’t get it until someone else did it first. What does that say about the whole vertical (in America)? Do you believe you will get the same kind of awe inspiring experience daily from such a thing? I question that.

Japan is way ahead of us because of their bold steps to try something different or created a handset that was for a very specific niche. What’s nice is that they get to try out very interesting and immersive user experience models that could inspire new ways to do mobile for the regular joe. These companies are the same ones thinking about the future and are positioning themselves for success with multiple product/service deployments for the next several years. Game changing models. Not the, “well people want 3G so lets give it to them, or and a 10 megapixel camera too! too expensive? okay make that 5.” WTF would you do with 5 fucking mega pixels on a lens smaller than your IQ? Wonder why you couldn’t get that night shot of that Justin Timberlake picture with your phone? because you fell for the marketing. 3G? why do you think the Black Jack comes with two batteries?

My point is not to say my needs are your needs, because their not and you have every right to want certain things. However, you should think about the details: the interaction you have with your phone on a day to day basis. Is it fun to use all the time? Is it easy to get to where you want to do? Do you feel delighted to have such a product? How do you talk about it with your friends? What kinds of words do you use to describe it? Are you even excited about it when you talk about it?

Those “Wow” features are only Wow-tastic if it really does enable something greater, like saving me time and frustration by finally letting me listen to voicemails in any order I want and stop and play as I want. Or show me text in a way that acts like a conversation (IM) thread as opposed to an ugly list of text where I need to click in and out of screens to read the messages from the same person within the same conversation! Form and Features (should) follow Function.

What does your phone really enable you? Notice the commercials Apple used to show off the iPhone. They didn’t talk about features, they told stories about how those features affected your life beyond the phone. That’s a forward thinking product. That’s a design thinking company. That’s the kind of company I can trust in making sure I enjoy what I buy, even if it cost me $600.

Okay, so the new iPods are out, and they are hot (minus the nano, sorry). Wireless iTunes. Ringtones. 8GB iPhones get a $200 price cut. Starbucks partnership. So while everyone is getting their knickers in a bunch for whatever reason, this announcement brings many compelling questions to mind:

Apple is leveraging the huge iPod user base and pushing their technology adoption rate at incredibly fast speeds. By lowering the barrier of entry and by eliminating any major switching costs, more people will be familiarizing themselves with virtual keyboards and mobile web experiences.

Multi-touch interfaces are going to blow up and just about every mobile handset creator will be on this bandwagon if not already. We are looking at a periodin time where gestures, touch based computing and the like will be even more important to figure out in interface design than ever before. This is more complex than the mouse and keyboard days. Touch based computing will go beyond just these tiny screens. We might start seeing these screens embedded in the physical world. Crazy huh? Think Minority Report.

Anyways…

For most consumers, the iPod and iPhone will be their first significant experience with touch based computing. They will shape their understanding and model these interactions based on how Apple defines that experience. Given Apple’s track record, they do a damn good job of creating magnificent user experiences, so other competitors will have a very hard time overcoming this when everyone is deeply invested in this way of doing things on the iPod’esque interface. This is more than just a feature, this is building the right interaction model. This is about making sense with new technology and using it the right way. It’s the small details. Boy do I feel like my studio will be getting a lot of proposals on touch based interface work.

Exciting times.

Also, just extrapolating this idea: imagine gesture enhanced touch pads on mac portables, cinema displays with touch based screens and more. Use your imagination!

And finally, the whole Starbucks thing, should include a 1-touch ordering system that also keeps a history of your favorites. I mean c’mon! I’m expecting that within the year, otherwise I’ll be a little disappointed. For the record, this was a problem I had to solve as part of my interviewing process. Yea, my studio rocks.

This is something that I’ve always known about (and most of you), but it has come to a point that its significance has changed my actions.

If you follow the Terms of Service on Facebook, it states:

…By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.

In short, they own you your work, your pictures, your information, everything. Even if you take it off and it expires they most certainly have a backup of it someplace and thus can do whatever they want with it, like sell it to marketers. I’m not saying they do, nor do I fully understand the scope of their business model, but that is something I can’t really abide by with respect to my photography.

While I love to think that my photos have some merit and are worthy of publication, even in the smallest sense, there is a possibility that they can be used without complete consent or credit.

Flickr on the other hand has incorporated the Creative Commons policy that protects me (bless the hearts of the original Flickr creators and their open source mindedness.

The message I’m getting at is that I won’t be posting any more pictures on Facebook that I have taken time to compose, process and share with my friends. If you’re really interested in what I do, you can check out my photos on Flickr and leave your comments there.

Some may think that my photos will get taken anyways because people can just right click and save to their desktop. Well that isn’t true. That’s been disabled so ha!

Finally, yes, I’m still working on getting my Europe pictures processed, and to Richard, Alex and Brolen, I am burning DVDs of all 3,300+ photos now. I can give them to you later this week over a couple drinks.

Hi, my name is Kevin. What’s yours?

As everyone and their mother knows, summer is nearing an end and I have yet to write anything about it. This will be a preamble if you will of future posts. First will be a quick brief on my travels across Western Europe, followed by my first couple of weeks at my new job, and finally to round things off, my short reflection on moving past the college years. That’s a lot to go over, and it already sounds like it could be an autobiography. Well, it probably will be, and to keep things relevant, I’ll try to anchor these stories around a central theme:

Nuances.

Good word huh? I learned that in 11th grade AP English. Drew a picture of it too to help me remember it.

So until I get off my ass, I’ll leave you with these bits of information to chew on:

Lifehacker posted my picture, along with many others, of all the shit I carry in my bag. In actuality, I carry some of what’s shown in my pockets, but who’s counting? Why? because I was really, really bored.

I will be moving to Eastlake in the following weeks with Scott’s older brother, Jeff in a great 2 bedroom condo. Everyone is welcome to come and hang out, especially when I get my hands on a Wii.

Hope everyone else is doing great, and I will try harder to get some lunches and meet ups scheduled to catch up!

Anyways, I just wanted to write to tell you all that everything is groung great and I am safe, eating 3 meals a day and walking a lot. It’s definitely a healthier routine than what I’ve been going thruogh back in the states.

I’ve taken about 600 photos so far, and you can find some of them here: http://alexkingdesign.com/europe/

I haven’t had a chance to put them on flickr or anything, but I hope you enjoz what’s up so far.  I wish I had my computer so that I can work on them, but whatever. When in Rome.

Even though it’s been great so far, there are some things that I do miss, like family and friends, but otherwise, Europe has a lot going on that I enjoy.

Anyways, hopefully you’re all doing fantastic and please tell me what’s new with you guys and any other update.

Oh yeah! I got a job. I will be starting work in Belltown (Seattle) at a great design consultancy named Artefact.  I will be employee number 12 as their User Experience Design Researcher. It’s perfect and the group is wonderful.  So hurray for disposible income!

Okay, that is all. Bye.

Anyways, so I got off work a little early to check out the University Village Apple store to check out the crowd during the unveiling of the most highly anticipated/marketing/sought-after/lusted/flamed/beautifully-built consumer device known to man and history. The Wii and Playstation 3 lines across the nation did not have this much attention prior to and now after. Well maybe the Wii, and also, I’m speaking to America only, not internationally. Otherwise, the Wii is just fucking amazing.

It was just hilarious to see the line form wrapping around the village and across the street. In the end, I made it inside after snapping a lot of pictures and had my mittens on a shiny new iPhone.

Stunning.

Reviewers say it lived up to the hype, and it does. It’s a beautifully crafted device that earns its strips not because of it’s features, but because the features it does include, they did is near perfectly. That’s saying a lot. Many times you find reviews doing those silly comparison charts of features where product A has 35 features (that are arbitrarily picked) while product B has 29, therefore product A is superior. Not so. Not ever. Hopefully you will learn not to fall into that mistake again.

It’s a great little device that in time will promise to be even better. Why? How? Well, Apple promises to provide free software updates. That is HUGE. You won’t have to buy a new phone when technology and features become more advanced. Instead, you just plug in, download and update your current iPhone and it will be like a brand new one! Save your $100 or $300 in the future for something useful, for like say… a pair of jeans you always wanted. Seriously.

Yes, like any other first generation device, or any device for that matter, there will be shortcomings. However, the value you gain from what is currently available will help alleviate any frustrations for a few missing elements. Some may have more dire needs that the iPhone can’t support, but then again, you can always get something else. Design 101, don’t design for everyone. Design for specificity and you will succeed (mostly). In time, everyone will be happy.

Aside from drinking the Kool-aid, you have to admit that this is completely unprecedented and Apple products are executed very well. That much is true. Casting aside your personal preferences and biases, this is a great example of a company believing in good design and the people who use it.

I love great design, and Apple does a pretty darn good job. Is that so wrong?

Daring Fireball First Impressions
Drop Test
WSJ Review
Crunchgear Review Round-up

Since graduting from the wonderful University of Washington, everything seemed to just cruise along. I’ve moved back home over on the east side and it has been the most unmotivating experience ever. It reminded me of why I don’t live here. I don’t really do much of anything except eat, sleep and watching a ton of Food Network. Not exactly the ideal post college lifestyle. Fear not though because it really has only been a little more than 2 weeks since walking down the soggy lane where I was presented my emtpy pleather portfolio signifying the milestone of intellectual achievement, if you can call it that.

Anyways, aside from the meandering, I’ve been spending late nights as usual trying to set myself up as a competitive candidate for employment. Right before graduating, three companies reached out to me and expressed interest in my skills. Teague, a product design consulting firm was the first. The position is a Flash design prototyping position. What that means is I take pictures of what software looks like and make them interactive. Valve - as in Counter Strike and Half Life Valve - showed me around their headquarters in downtown Bellevue. I had the privilege to sit in on one of their design discussions, which was quite interesting. The position was actually one that flexed between a lot of responsibilities, but their immediate needs were in marketing and communication (web design). Last to reach out is Artefact Group. This small firm helps software comapnies like Microsoft conduct research and create prototypes of how execution should be accomplished. There are only 11 or 12 people (I was told both) and about a year old. However, the experience in the house per person is anywhere between 5 to 10 or more years. The position I would primarily be researching people and how we can integrate software into their lives without frustrating them (read: Apple).

Each place has been extremely impressive and it’s great to know that there is so much talent in Seattle. It’ll be a hard decision to make no doubt. My professor, Axel, is happy to hear that I’ll still be in town so it’s also good to know I have his support.

Wednesday I’ll be flying out to Amsterdam meeting up with Richard aka “Giggles” Paterson and two other hooligans to experience what everyone should experience, life. Ha. I just picked up the last of the supplies I needed before venturing off into manhood and I plan to keep everyone informed of the misadventures via this blog. I’ll be creating an RSS feed for those who need’em, but otherwise, this will be showing up on Facebook anyways for the majority of my readership, all -9 of you. Be sure to check up on my Flickr account too. I’m going to try to do some moderate uploading as the days pass, but not too much since I need to take more than share for the time being.

Otherwise, I will hoepfully be seeing a lot of you when I return August 5th to share forgotten stories and and photos that would make any man cry.

One final though: I miss school already, I miss the house and I can’t wait to move out into my own place.

Updated
Here is the RSS feed to any and all entries to my time abroad: Travel Log [Yahoo Pipes]

A lot of people don’t know exactly what I do. What is Informatics? What is Interaction Design? You’re artsy fartsy (wrong, but I do love art, and especially great design). So on and so forth. Well it occurred to me that while I have spent my long summer hours exploring Flickr, it came to me tonight to use it as a way to showcase my portfolio work as of late. This is just a nice little intermediate step to show off something while I come up with a more complete design for my online and print portfolio - it’s just so hard committing to a design that will last a long time.

What would I use this for? Well, for jobs of course! Actually, it turns own that Teague and Valve are looking to contract some prototypers/designers (me) on their team because of increasing demands. On the 27th, I’ll be going through a portfolio review followed by four hours of interviews with the Artefact Group. It should be interesting. They are working with some new Microsoft technology that many critics have been raving about. Sounds like a ton of fun. All three opportunities have something in common that I really enjoy, that start up feel.

Enjoy! and wish me luck!