Although roomy, quick and clean, the most interesting thing about Singapore’s underground system is not traveling on it, but planning your trip and purchasing your ticket (at least from an interaction design perspective). Both these steps are in fact integrated into one machine and are part of the same process:
The main interface of ticket machines consists of a screen embedded into a backlit map of the entire underground system. This map, however, not only visually aids the customer’s choice of destination, but is actually touch-sensitive. So after choosing, say, the single-ticket option from the screen on the left, customers select their destination by pressing the respective station.
If one assumes that the average traveler’s picture of the underground system is that of its standard map, then this process appears to be much more intuitive and ultimately superior to selecting a destination from a multi-page alphabetical list (as is the case in London or Berlin). This combination of selection and purchasing, however, also has its disadvantages as undecided customers may block the machines for those who know where they are heading.

Single-trip tickets are dispensed in the form of reusable plastic cards (contactless smart cards using RFID technology), for which a S$1 refundable deposit is payable (about 50 Euro cent). This approach not only saves ink and trees, but effectively eliminates any wastage resulting from used tickets, as the cards are fed back into the machine to reclaim the deposit.

It is somewhat peculiar, by the way, that I did not find any ticket machines at Changi Airport station to get my dollar back before flying home…

When taking pictures of these snazzy 24h book return terminals outside the National Library in Singapore, some lady selling t-shirts nearby noted sarcastically: “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Only slightly embarrassed, I told her that this was part of my job (cough, cough). Still amused, she was nice enough to explain to me how the system worked.
Basically, books are passed through a large rectangular slot, being identified by a barcode scanner. Once a book is identified, the customer receives two forms of feedback. One is via a text display (changing from “Ready” to “Returned” and then back again), the other is via a live video feed from inside the terminal, showing the book actually slide into the return box inside: a simple but very elegant way to give the user instant positive feedback!

Berlin winters can be notoriously cold dark and depressing (as many other places in the northern hemisphere). Families take their kids to school in the dark, and then go to work in the dark and then by the time school and work are over its dark again.

It was when watching one young family all on bikes, on one of those dark dark journeys to school, we came up with a little idea: a simple, customisable, engaging replacement for these numerous reflectors parents cover their kids with in order to make sure they can be seen by other traffic participants.

On one side the badges would be covered with super bright LEDs, which play simple individualised animations. On the underside the badges are covered with solar cells, charging capacitors.

So during the day, when at school, the badges could be turned over and laid onto the window sill catching light beams.

And once back at home the kids would have the possibility to assemble their very own animations on a PC and play the animation onto the device via a USB connection.

Powered by the incredible forces of a late spring, we thought it is about time to breathe some fresh air into the WordPress world of themes.

We present Liquorice Allsorts as a solid base of a theme for WordPress and we want to encourage its users to change and customise it in any possible way. And this wish of ours informed very much how Liquorice Allsorts has been designed and constructed: Liquorice Allsorts is bold, fresh, direct and … the perfect antidote to drop shadows.

Ranging from small improvements like the addition of microformats to the introduction of a shortcut menu potentially useful for disabled users and the use on mobile devices, we added a couple of bits which should make you, the user, very happy and encourage you to have a go on your own.

Liquorice Allsorts is edgy – and it does want you not to stop expressing your own self by simply choosing it as a theme, but wants to encourage you to have a go. It is much easier than you might think. Make this world a bit more colourful and do your own thing!

Have fun!

Someone in Berlin is clearly not that impressed with this new designer lifestyle all the unrenovated buildings are being dressed in.