Offf first day was so amazingly intense the the second day gone thru lightning fast and as I start writing this notes I’m already about half of the third day, so I just decided to sum all my notes from this two last days in one post.
Add comment Bookmark on del.icio.us May 11th, 2008
I’ve just got home, but my mind is still wondering on all the visual input it has been submitted today! It’s as if a part of my brain has just been upgraded to the speedy lane! It’s still wondering on fluid animations, particle simulations, typography, colors, dynamics…
Offf’s first day was impressive! And the funniest thing is that it all started the minute I parked my car! I was running late and didn’t even bothered to check the exact street of it, so I ended up arriving without a clue of the Offf’s venue place (exact) location! Once I got out from the parking lot and onto the street something remarkable happened, I noticed how some people in the plaza were moving towards a particularly tiny street, I decided to follow and this was the image that stayed with me until now of the very beginning… can quite explain but all people moving towards a same destination, impelled by a common desire (reach Offf as soon as possible 
got imprinted in my mind as one of those compelling moments.
The first few minutes/hour didn’t go as expected, the sound was poorly distributed and at some point I could only feel that I was in class with Charlie Brown. Thankfully the day was just about to start and I certainly wasn’t ready for what would come next.
I’ll just take a few seconds to write a bit about some of my personal highlights of the day:
TYPEFACES PANEL - got a lesson about typography like I’ve hopping to get for a long, looooong time…
ERIC NATZKE - Eric’s presentation was the one who got me into the mood, I had barely arrived, got a few things from the typographic panel, and then BOOM… Eric started showing of his particles generators, than ribbons and waves and although my belly was begging for food my eyes and mind were drowning video compositions of generative art, amazing. I recorded two small videos from his presentation ending video:
Simply mind blowing!
The Mercadillo idea is amazing and I’m even surprised how I hadn’t seen it in other kind-of/alike events. Managed to spend some money and regret for not having more with me at the time. Spoted a Buddha Machine’s and a great 1976 t-shirt that I hope to get tomorrow…
It’s funny, but I’m really eager for tomorrow…
2 comments Bookmark on del.icio.us May 8th, 2008
It took us a bit more time than we wanted, but we finally managed: The portuguese branch of Interaction Design Association - IxDA is finally a reality, so if you’re interested in Interaction Design, User-Experience and Usability do add yourself to the google group we’ve just created. Any ideas for a discussion theme?
Add comment Bookmark on del.icio.us May 8th, 2008
3 comments Bookmark on del.icio.us April 18th, 2008
Hoje é um dia importante aqui pelo SAPO!
É que o SAPO ficou um bocadinho mais global! Que neste caso é mais ou menos o mesmo que dizer que o SAPO já não é só .PT mas também .CV:
O SAPO.cv é um projecto marcante aqui pelo SAPO não por ser o primeiro SAPO fora de Portugal mas por todo o impacto que teve na forma como se desenvolvem os serviços SAPO. Foi necessário pensar em tanta coisa! Desde de as limitações técnicas próprias de uma sociedade insular ao simples facto de que diferentes culturas correspondem diferentes necessidades e formas de ver o mundo, pelo que uma simples cópia do SAPO não iria provavelmente ser suficiente 
Custou mas está aí! E até vem bem preparado, ora confirmem só:
UPDATE: O Celso escreveu um post com (quase) todos os detalhes técnicos envolvidos neste projecto! Vale a pena ler…
4 comments Bookmark on del.icio.us April 15th, 2008
Dean Kamen, to me one of the most brilliant contemporany inventors of our time (know segway? AutoSyringe’s?, Insulin Pumps? and so much more…) seems to have come up with something extraordinary that might as well solve a lot of today’s health problems, have a look at his demo on the Colbert Report for the Water Purifying machine:
you can read a bit more about it at the US patent office.
Add comment Bookmark on del.icio.us April 15th, 2008
Yesterday I’ve assisted to the Conversas Unicer (an informal meeting organized and sponsored by Unicer a major beverage player in Portugal) where Bruno Giussani was the main speaker and some very well knowned portuguese bloggers (Maria João Nogueira, António Granado, Luís Paixão Martins, Eduardo Correia, Paulo Ferreira and Paulo Querido) joined in in yesterday’s conversation.
1 comment Bookmark on del.icio.us April 11th, 2008
I’ve been working on a presentation about a special aspect of interface design: the need for PLAY! Boring interfaces don’t go far! And we as Humans have this inner desire for play so the more engaging a service/site is the better especially on the web where our attention span is so scarce!
Although the hard core of the presentation content is done (I’ve made a demo of it at Tecnonov last Saturday), and I’ll be posting it online in a couple of days, but the thing is that I would love to enrich it with a lot of good and bad examples of interface design! My Request for Help here is precisely for that, I would love to hear from your most loved or hated interface designs that you have to work everyday! Please drop me an email with a screenshot and why you actually that particular ’strong’ feeling about it! I promise to give full acknowledge of each submission if it actually makes it to final presentation!
Email: pedro (.) custodio (at) gmail (.) com
2 comments Bookmark on del.icio.us April 8th, 2008
This image and the idea behind it, it’s simply AMAZING! Just read along and tell me if you don’t agree!
The Torino Colors project aims to change the way we navigate a city, the image i’ve reproduced here is the colored map for the Torino city in Italy. The idea behind it is very simple:
STEP 1: pick a color for each region of your town.
STEP 2: paint all the city appliances and structures (like trash bins, light posts, sign holders, etc.) with the corresponding color…
With a little twist and it’s here that this idea really get interesting!
STEP 3: As soon as you start moving in any direction, you add some blending to starting color, or simply put, when you walk in any certain direction towards another part of the city, the color will react to your movement and start to blend with the color selected for the region where you’re headed.
This way you can always know where you’re headed!
Pure genius hein?
If you’d like to know a bit more, and can read italian I strongly suggest that you check their site. In particular have a look at the official press-release and the Google Earth KML file
Add comment Bookmark on del.icio.us March 28th, 2008
