Microsoft Research Community

I’m really blown away by the Eco Zoo as the first very compelling example of the use of 3D in a Flash website. The art style is lovely, very reminiscent of the shots I’ve seen of the forthcoming Playstation 3 game, Little Big Planet.

I’m a bit of a 3D UI sceptic. I just have some history in the area, and it’s left me thinking that 3D interactions are often cumbersome and rarely have a life beyond what their cool factor gives them. Case in point is this Tag Galaxy search. I really find it compelling. I’m not sure...

Great bit of coverage on Gizmodo for some force-sensing work coming out of our team in Cambridge. Microsoft: Touchscreens Old and Busted; Force Sensitivity Is New Hotness“Researchers have come up with a prototype of their force-sensing tech that’ll let you apply different kinds of force to...

A year ago Abi and Richard helped organize a gathering of 40+ “luminaries” from the field of Human-Computer Interaction to debate how the relationship between people and technology might change in the next decade. That event has resulted in a really great read, a report entitled “Being...

There’s an irony in green product design that we may just never get passed since you need to purchase new stuff, and creatively recycle/throw out the thing you’re replacing, in order to follow your ethics. Sometimes it just feels better to keep going with what you’ve got until it “naturally”...

Edward Tufte has posted a video that extols and criticises the iPhone UI design. He’s clearly a fan, and having played with the device I can understand why. I thought his critique on the Stock widget was particularly interesting, though, calling the UI “cartoon like” and wishing that...