Related Topic Projects

Related Barbarians

User Interface

posted 02/16/08 by Rick Webb

We’ve always been passionate about user interface design, from day one. Keith
Keith Butters
Keith Butters

Co-founder, ECD : New York

topics: Barbarian History, Flash, Design, Rock and Roll, and Agile and Scrum

, especially, was a renowned user interface designer, even before this company got off the ground. Robert
Robert Hodgin
Robert Hodgin

Co-founder, ECD : San Francisco

topics: Visualizers, Art Direction, Barbarian History, Barbarian Labs, and Processing

as well – the two of them making some fascinating, pioneering user interfaces in their Arnold days for projects like Turbonium and Microbus.
We face a series of interesting challenges in User Interface, chiefly owing to two things: the diversity of our project types, and the two development methodologies we use as appropriate, water-falling and scrum. Our user interface design approach is obviously different for something like the Escape the Paparazzi game or the Subservient Chicken than it is for something like Kashi. Then, of course, there’s traditional user interface design, where we whip up some wireframes and sitemap in advance, and then everyone works to build that, versus the very interesting and developing field of having the user interface designers be a part of the scrum development team, iterating and adapting along with the rest of the team.
Top-level, though, regardless of the project or methodology, we believe that User Interface Design is a vital discipline, as important as the creative of the tech. In recent years, we’ve taken a much more methodical and disciplined approach to user interface, when the situation warrants it. User Interface is its own department now at the Barbarian Group, lead by Justin Baum
Justin Baum
Justin Baum

User Experience Head : San Francisco

topics: Automotive, User Interface, Strategy, Rock and Roll, and Internet Culture

, on par with Technical and Creative.
Lucky, Justin’s a prolific blogger, so I’ll let him take this topic over after launch!

Here are some recent posts from our employees about User Interface:

On this day, BW3 began.

posted by Sabih Mir
Sabih Mir
Sabih Mir

User Experience Designer : Boston

topics: User Experience, HTML, User Interface, The Internet, and Design

 on September 02, 2008 at 01:37 AM
filed under: User Interface
Shit just got real(er).
Google has just announced their entry into the web browser arena (and has created a handy comic about what went into making it): Google Chrome.
While my first inclination was to moan and fret about the start of BW3 (not the chicken wing joint, but the third browser war), reading through some of the features and reasoning behind the endeavor changed my mind…and I’m curious how these innovations (a new Javascript engine? a Javascript Virtual Machine? Tabs on the OUTSIDE?) are gonna change things.
Here are some (blurry) screenshots.
more from this post » No comments

The Virgin Touch

posted by Justin Baum
Justin Baum
Justin Baum

User Experience Head : San Francisco

topics: Automotive, Internet Culture, Apparel and Footwear, Rock and Roll, and Strategy

 on August 31, 2008 at 10:55 PM
filed under: User Interface

During the last flight I had on Virgin America a passenger turned around to the person behind them and politely but firmly pointed out…

“Whatever you are doing is bouncing my seat!”

The women behind him replied…

“I am just trying to turn the volume down, sorry!”

I nerdily chortled to myself.

This is a pattern I see over and over again. The touch-screens on Virgin America’s entertainment system, “RED”, require a certain finesse that when not mastered result in a huge nuisance for the person sitting in front of you. Good luck if you get a kid behind you punching away at the touchscreen or a channel surfer changing channels the whole flight. In all Virgin America’s orchestrated experiential glory this design problem haunts nearly every flight I am on.

I can see the mental models and personas of the experience designers for the airline staring at passenger goals like…

  • peace&quiet
  • focus
  • comfort
  • relaxation
  • sleep

But what they didn’t catch is that their choice of user interface is essentially teaching people to push incessantly at their fellow passenger’s seats. A seat mounted In-flight touch-screen is the new kid kicking your seat. All of this was an interesting reminder of how these emerging natural user interfaces and touch user interfaces leave marks and make ripples in the physical world. So how do they fix it? Higher quality touch screens? Too expensive. I would wager mounting the touchscreen in a similar fashion to the tray table could work?

more from this post » No comments

The world's first...

posted by Nat Wales
Nat Wales
Nat Wales

Art Director : Boston

topics: Viral Marketing, Internet Video, Creativity, Banners and Rich Media, and Animation and 3D

 on May 12, 2008 at 12:01 PM
filed under: User Interface





































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































v
































































































































































































































scrollbar – Xerox Parc, 1977
more from this post » 2 comments

Adobe Photoshop Express

posted by Rick Webb
Rick Webb
Rick Webb

Co-founder, COO : Boston

topics: Barbarian Style Guide, Strategy, Automotive, Social Networking and Community, and Brands

 on March 27, 2008 at 02:06 PM
filed under: User Interface

We’ve had our heads down for a while working on some SERIOUS BUSINESS, as well a new website, for a while now, but one of the projects we’ve been working on for months now made a debut on the internet today and we thought we should poke our heads up and let you know.

Today Adobe launched Photoshop Express an online, web app version of the venerable Photoshop. Except it’s cooler than that. Like it does more. Online stuff. Galleries. Hosting. Sharing. That sort of thing.

We’ve been working with Adobe on this for months now, and there’s more to come, but this marks the auspicious beginning of an extended friendship. Congratulations, Adobe, on your launch and thank you for being such a good partner.

And feel free to become a fan of this fine product on Facebook! The app is integrated with your facebook photos and can edit and stick them back in your album, which is seriously hot.

more from this post » No comments