The worn interface
There’s a human-made path next to the paved one. Even though dogs seem to like it, it might be made by runners in hard shoes.
Visiting someone here? According to the wear on the doorbell, there’s a good chance you’re here to see Øresundshuset.
Not sure which ice cream to choose? Take the most empty one for a popular choice
In the physical world, we’re able read hints of usage by how worn out things look. On the internet, everything is new all the time.
Here’s what a worn interface could look like. Notice the heavily used support area. Hm.
or, simply reversed, people’s clicks (or fingers for touch interfaces) that actually clean up the most commonly used areas of the site.
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September 2nd, 2008 at 7:50 pm
heatlink (free js script) shows this well
September 9th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
can you elaborate?
September 19th, 2008 at 1:49 am
Hi, I found your blog on this new directory of WordPress Blogs at blackhatbootcamp.com/listofwordpressblogs. I dont know how your blog came up, must have been a typo, i duno. Anyways, I just clicked it and here I am. Your blog looks good. Have a nice day. James.
October 28th, 2008 at 12:29 am
I like your real world photo references :-)
Try a search for “Heatmap” and you will find javascript samples like
http://blog.corunet.com/english/the-definitive-heatmap
November 4th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
@Lars – Nice – it seems a bit more doable. I guess what I need now is to find out how to make a Firefox extension that runs this Javascript and somehow saves its values on a server. Any hints?
May 23rd, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Very interesting blogpost and nice pictures.
You call it worn interfaces – but is it not some sort of social navigation?
(as defined in Munro, A. J., Höök, K., & Benyon, D. (1999). Social navigation of information space. London ; New York: Springer.)
Actually I really like the term worn interfaces ;-)
December 3rd, 2009 at 11:00 am
Halå Morten,
Interesting. Back in 2001 I tried to incorporate patina in the digital material:
http://www.cs.chalmers.se/idc/ituniv/student/2002/reevolution/projectbottledsouls/forside.html
It’s a very abstract project though compared to the wornweb but the the idea is similar; to patinate the digital material – which in itself isn’t ageing due to the core material qualities (0101010101).
See conceptual designs: http://www.cs.chalmers.se/idc/ituniv/student/2002/reevolution/projectbottledsouls/forside.html
René
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