The moment I saw screenshots of Roundarch’s work on the real-time stats dashboard for the New York Jets’ new stadium I was smitten and not just because I’m a huge fan of the Jets (as well as Rex Ryan’s leadership model). I love how they’ve taken really complex information that spans different categories (food, parking, merchandise) and made it clear, accessible and actionable (and very much on brand, btw).

The Jets’ executive team gets:

What exactly is the system capable of? Let’s start with concessions and merchandise. While a game is underway, NY Jets’ owner Woody Johnson will see a four-panel layout that shows a variety of metrics, from gross spending to total transactions to average amount spent per transaction. The stadium is virtually divided up by each level, and Johnson can zoom in on individual stores and concession stands to see which jerseys are selling, or which beer isn’t. The stadium is heat-mapped too, so if lines are getting to long, mobile vendors can be directed to help ease the burden.

While the fans benefit as well:

The Command Center won’t just help managers and executives, but will soon aim to improve the fan experience as well. Cisco has invested $100 million into the stadium, and one rep estimates the company’s technology could provide fans with estimated wait times in the near future. The dashboard will also warn of choke points at stadium gates and concession stands, so fans can be informed of how to avoid the longest line for a burger, or the best way to exit after the game.

Companies have always had data at their disposal to use to help them make decisions but I think we’re going to start seeing companies seeing the value in thoughtful interface design as a window to that data and that makes me really excited.

Read more about it over at Fast Company

Other game companies at the time assigned alphabet letters or colors to the buttons. We wanted something simple to remember, which is why we went with icons or symbols, and I came up with the triangle-circle-X-square combination immediately afterward. I gave each symbol a meaning and a color. The triangle refers to viewpoint; I had it represent one’s head or direction and made it green. Square refers to a piece of paper; I had it represent menus or documents and made it pink. The circle and X represent ‘yes’ or ‘no’ decision-making and I made them red and blue respectively. People thought those colors were mixed up, and I had to reinforce to management that that’s what I wanted.

After all these years, it’s great to hear the rational behind the symbols on the seminal controller. Triangle, Circle and X make sense (though I’m with “management” on the color choice for the last two).

I find Square = piece of paper to be an interesting relic of a tool that was designed before “digital” became the norm and we still had to hold on to analog metaphors.

[Read more]

There are a lot of reasons Flipboard is special and they absolutely deserve all the attention (and melted servers) they’re getting.

I suspect that many folks don’t even realize the potential they have to really have a profound effect on how people consume content going forward, particularly as we continue to find ourselves with more and more channels of content to make sense of.

Frankly, I think they’ll find themselves in that product design sweet spot where there are so many things they can do with their product and they’re going to have to be very smart in choosing which ones to pursue.

Rather than focus on their innovative interface, as many others already have, I wanted to write up a quick note on a feature I saw them tweet about recently: Sharing your Flipboard covers. It allows you to grab a snapshot of your dynamically-generated cover and share it via email and Twitter:

Did a friend of yours show up on your Flipboard cover and you want to let them know? Did a beautiful picture show up that you want to share? Tap the “share” icon in the top right corner of your screen to retweet the image on twitter or email it to friends and family.

It’s your magazine, share your covers.

For me, this feature loosely touches on the one thing I really miss as I’ve made the move to e-books – the loss of the book/magazine cover as both design artifact as well as social communication tool.

While I don’t think this is a feature a lot of people are going to use, it makes me confident that the people on the Flipboard team are aware of the subtle nuances that are part of the content consumption experience and that makes me even more excited to see where they take their product over the next year.

Read about the new feature here and check out their cameo in Apple’s most recent (and by far the best/most informative) ad for the iPad:

Awesome awesome visualization of Inception. The more I think about and talk about the movie with others, the more I need to see it again.

(via Inception Infographic by ~dehahs)

In 2007, Spanish bank BBVA engaged IDEO to rethink the way their ATMs worked. In 2009 the fruits of that labor began to see the light of day and the companies have done a really great job highlighting their insights and subsequent designs.

The average ATM experience is nothing special so the opportunity to innovate is there for the taking but few companies seem willing to put in the effort to really do so (BofA’s smart Enter button was one for me).

The IDEO/BBVA video’s got a few “how did it possibly take so long for someone to do it this way!?” ideas (the 90 degree shift in positioning of the ATMs and the “one slot to rule them all” stand out for me ). They also take a page out of Apple’s recent playbook of success in two ways: integrating the hardware + software from the get go and choosing to go full touchscreen to give them the flexibility to always provide the best interface to the user, no matter what they’re doing.

As devices like the iPad go more mainstream and touchscreen prices go down, I look forward to seeing more industries be forced to reconsider the interfaces that stand between them and their customers.

Be sure to check out the IDEO/BBVA case study.

How did it take civilization this long to come up with something that makes SO MUCH SENSE? Sadly, you can’t go out and buy one yet but hopefully someday soon you will be able to.

Speaking of economy, it unfortunately looks like you can’t buy these yet, but now that the idea is out there someone will be marketing them soon. Nothing that’s invented ever dies. Especially not when it’s this cute and immediately useful.

Read more here.

I totally *love* this visual style. They’re all pretty rad but this one’s my favorite. See the rest here.

Candy’s developing quite a portfolio of projects that toe the line between art and service (with a little social commentary thrown in for good measure) Her most recent work for GOOD Magazine invites neighbors to meet each other thanks to the Please Disturb/Can I Borrow? placards included in the most recent issue.

What I love most about this is how it takes the sharing behavior we’ve become all-too-comfortable with online and challenges us to bring it back to real-world situations.

One side says, Please Disturb! and allows you to list the things you have to loan (an extra ladder, salad, ammo, etc.) The other side says, Can I Borrow? and you can list the stuff you need. “Our neighbors have a lot of resources, skills, and odds and ends that we can share, borrow, and trade,” says Candy. “Think of it as an invitation or a low-tech status update for your front door.”

If you’re into this sort of thing, definitely check out her previous work visualizing the laws governing New York City Street Vendors and these flash cards demystifying NYC Tenants’ Rights.

To read more about her most recent work, check out: KinoSport | Mayor Chang

Now this is the kind of jump in digital storytelling that gets me excited. The video is a little frenetic but it does an amazing job of showing how we’re only scratching the surface in terms of what’s possible for next generation storytelling on devices like the iPad (bonus points for clever use of the accelerometer).

My enthusiasm for things like this doesn’t mean I think (or want) children’s books as we know them today, to go away. I believe there’ll always be a place for tangible, tattered children’s books but I think we’ll create a new kind of vehicle through which to engage users (they will be more than readers) and Alice is just the beginning.

Read more about here: Alice on the iPad: Is This the Future of Books?

I LOVE this quote. It evokes a powerful confidence that we should all strive for in the work which we do every day.

You can read more about the story of Paul Rand and the NEXT logo here.

(via Gizmodo)