One Show Interactive Annual by Jeff Hirsch
Article by Martin Gibson – @embody3d @martingibson – 17.03.2011
One Show Interactive Annual by Jeff Hirsch and published by Club publishing is dedicated to interface design and interactivity. It is of particular use to industrial designers, especially ones working in the consumer electronics space especially where web and screen based interfaces are utilized. The quality of the work is simply outstanding. Some of the winning entries aren’t just great visual designs, many are just good ideas. For example one was Best Buy having a customer service Twitter that was well manned and ready to take store questions. And an Iphone application that promotes Puma underwear by having it linked to stock market results. So when the stock markets go down the model takes a part of their clothing off, putting a nice spin on bad news? Quirky concepts perhaps, but interesting ideas and successful strategies for brand awareness. A Point of interest is the prominence of the Iphone in this book. It is unmistakable; it has become the real default platform to design, develop and present on.
The quality is amazing, the presentation is amazing. However probably the biggest reservation about this book is that although it is fantastic to see a book treading new territory, this subject matter would be far more immersive and rich if it were presented in a more appropriate medium. Is it somewhat ironic that the most ground breaking, highly technological, interactive and award-winning interfaces are being presented in the oldest and most static mediums of the humble book? Oh how much greater would it be if these designs weren’t just still images, but rather allowed the reader/user to explore these great interfaces first hand? Of course I am asking too much, the resources to undertake such an offering would increase this books budget 100-fold. However there are many websites that are featured throughout, why not put a link to all the websites that are still live?
As well as the great designs another strong point about One Show is the good descriptions and captioning. Despite there being no true interactivity at least the book went to the effort to explain the key areas of innovation and interactivity. For anyone in charge of marketing of products, brand managers, or developing new age design interfaces this book is a great resource.
[rating:4]
