WorldWide Telescope

Today, the WorldWide Telescope was released as a public beta by Microsoft. It is now available for download at http://www.worldwidetelescope.org.

The WorldWide Telescope is virtual telescope software for browsing imagery of the universe from a variety of sources. This learning resource provides a smooth and seamless user experience that allows users to explore the sky, while understanding context and scale of what they are looking at. The exploration experience is enhanced by a highly visual interface for finding the good stuff in the sky and guided tours made by other users.

Over the last year Artefact collaborated with Microsoft researchers Curtis Wong and Jonathan Fay on the design of this simple user interface that always provides a sense of context, scale, and direction. We consulted on the overall user experience design of the application as well as the WWT branding and website.

Congratulations to Curtis and Jonathan on releasing such a compelling experience that will captivate many people around the world!

Add comment May 13th, 2008

S&M in NYC

Look. I know why you’re reading this, and just to get it out of the way, this post has nothing to do with erotic bondage. Now that we’re clear, I’d like to share with you a little project I scoped at MOMA’s “Design and the Elastic Mind” exhibit last weekend. This interactive table combines old school arcade gaming with super old school gladiator pain and suffering. Compete head to head with your best bud. Win a point and dude gets subjected to mechanized assault via rubber whip, electric shock, or singeing blast of hot air. Lose a point, and you get the same snappy torture. Force feedback is great, but I’ll stick with dual-shock controllers for the time being. Discover your inner masochist at the official painstation site.

Add comment May 13th, 2008