Do Us A Flavour!

Smith’s Crisps are running a competition at the moment called ‘Do Us A Flavour’. Simply come up with a new flavour for their chips (with an accompanying image) and you’re in with a chance. This is my entry…


When I first saw the competition ad on tv my immediate thought was Pumpkin flavour, which my flatmate watching it expanded to Butternut Pumpkin, which prompted me to think of Butter Chicken- the one I stuck with. I was then a little disappointed to see that on their website they have two guys thinking of joke flavour combinations (like Lettuce & Liquorice), one of their random suggestions being… Butter Chicken. D’oh! If my idea had only been that and not a sexy Indian chicken to go with it I would have abandoned the idea, but I carried on regardless- mostly because I genuinely think Butter Chicken would be a great flavour for a potato chip, but also because I wanted to experiment drawing in Flash- something I've not done before. I like the result, I think it’s pretty funny, I learnt a few things on the way, and it was fun to do, so whether anything comes of it or not, it's now a new post for my blog. Huzzah!

Cheers,

M

The now even newer iPhone ELITE!

Or should this be called the iPhone L33T?

When I saw the LG Versa's Game Controller something clicked. I now believe a duel-sliding front face would be the most obvious and elegant solution to integrating game controls to the iPhone.

I have enjoyed other peoples attempts on how to do this, but (no offence, Jesus) I think this has nailed it. :)

Two quick notes on the design...

The keyboard has changed!
The new keyboard is not ideal, but it at least uses the entire length of the phone now. I think it's too complicated and looks ugly, but as far as physical keyboards for phones go, this isn't too shabby. And best of all, you can hide it away when you're done with it. :) (If you know of better physical keyboard designs feel free to send them to me)

The camera still zooms out!
While I would prefer no moving parts, or at least no exterior moving parts, I think it's important to put the best camera possible camera into the phone as you can. This, unfortunately still means a 3xzoom and lens shutters to cover the lens when its inactive. These features all use moving parts. If you have any ideas to improve this, be it leaps in technology or just clever work arounds, I'd love to hear them. :) (To pre-empt, I loathe with a passion the manual covers that slide across camera lenses. Tacky!)

Lastly, I must say that the reaction to the last iPhone ELITE image was nothing short of spectacular. Thanks so much to everyone who intelligently contributed in the comments section. Whether you enjoyed it or despised it, your insightful comments were much appreciated. Thanks!

Mat Brady

Designing a 'news-filtering' website

I was emailed from out of the blue by a news filtering website that was about to go public -veri.com- and, based on my other reviews in my blog, they asked me to give them constructive feedback. What follows are some high concepts about, not just their site in particular, but about news-filtering sites in general. I've asked their permission to blog my feedback and, bar some side comments about minor bugs and issues, here it is...



FEEDBACK

I can't comment on the technology behind Veritocracy as that would take a period greater than two weeks to really study, but I've commented extensively in other areas.

When I looked at your site I immediately made comparisons to digg and google news, and since you won't be able to escape this comparison it's better to embrace it and go from there. It appears as though Veritocracy is a blend of these two sites, but I don't think it elevates itself higher than either, mostly because it doesn't take advantage of its strengths. But more on that later...

ABOUT DIGG
Digg has the enormous advantage in that it has established itself and, in this time, has expanded its product to include video and image results. People know what digg is, how to use it, and what it can do for them. It does Amazon-like recommendations, and has a strong user-based community. It appeals to a younger, more frivolous youtube crowd. It's mainstream, popular, and garish. It's very easy to go there with noble purpose, but end up wasting time.

ABOUT GOOGLE NEWS
Google is a diverse behemoth, yet the news arm of its website is as impressive as it is bland. It resembles what you would imagine an information-dispensing machine to look like, rather than a beautiful and intuitive news filter that is a joy to interact with. It's simplicity to a fault. More so, it is purely functional, but it delivers its intended function better than anything else on the web.

ABOUT VERITOCRACY
Veritocracy cleverly groups stories together into focused collections of interest. The way it packages information is its strength, but it looks clunky and ugly in a blog-like way and doesn't provide pictures or video like its competitors. Veritocracy also invites you to write and submit articles, but who's got time to write an article about every article they read, let alone go to the extent of copying and pasting urls to sites that it should pick up in the first place. What's wrong with a comments section? And what is a veritocracy anyway?

This is what I would imagine you'd expect to get from the blogosphere's quick reviews / comparisons...

(Veritocracy website - unchanged)

I do believe veritocracy's strength is the way it groups information, and in that sense it has a natural appeal to a more intelligent crowd. Readers, basically. People genuinely interested in news, but more so to get a broader perspectives on specific subjects. People who want to gain a deeper understanding of an issue rather than be satisfied by the first article they see. To appeal to this group and present yourself as a serious university/business-level news filter (and then broaden out from there) I believe will be key to creating a long and happy future for veritocracy. Unless you can introduce images and videos though (along with a sensible and accessible comments section) I doubt you will ever be as popular as digg, which, conversely, means that digg need only to incorporate key features of veritocracy to then make veritocracy far less valuable, if not redundant. This underlines the need to distance your appeal to a specific audience. There's the digg crowd and then there's the veri crowd.

I never got into digg because I never found it appealing as a source of information. I personally use iGoogle with gadgets from The Guardian, BBC, Google Technology, etc, for my immediate news and will visit dedicated news sites like crooksandliars.com or guardian.co.uk for a strong stream of focused news when I want to indulge. The bulk of my news information though, comes from a mixture of podcasts (of democracynow/ countdown/ rachelmaddow/ realtime) or online videos from the same shows' websites- mostly because I listen to them as I work.

As mentioned, I genuinely like the way veri collates its news stories and could see myself giving veritocracy a good period of time as my regular first news site to visit, which could possibly establish itself as that if it were to fulfill my news-gathering needs (producing focused clean easy-to-navigate information, be visually satisfying, and continually evolving. The fact that right now I don't have a news site like this tells you there is room in the market for veritocracy, and therefore opportunity). Unfortunately there's no escaping the fact that a good part of a site's satisfaction, for me at least, is visual. An image goes a very long way sometimes, but I'll address this further into my feedback. Right now, even without the images, Veritocracy has areas where it could be improved- so let's get into some of them right now...

VOTING

I don't know why people vote on things. Maybe if I had a personal investment in an article I would vote on it, but for 99.9% of articles- I just don't see the point if I don't need to. I'm certainly not against it, I'm just not motivated to do it myself.

It's like Google Images wanting me to provide keywords for the images it finds, not for my benefit, but for Google's- so that in the end their technology can improve and eventually give me a more accurate and fulfilling user experience. Ok, I get the reason, but on a practical and immediate level I don't feel the need to give it the energy. Same goes with voting on articles, images, comments, whatever. (There are some comments I make an exception for though, but this is because I'm assuming the positive feedback will get back to them- which is very different from voting on an article/url/etc). So my point is: Why would I go out of my way to take the time, even if it's the smallest amount of time, to tick either yes or no, to something. After all, most of the stuff I read is fairly complex, so for me to expend even one thought to simplify an article's concepts down to a black or white yes or no conclusive answer ends up being too much energy for too little reward. What do I get out of voting 'up' or 'down' on an article? I've just finished the article. It's over. The only energy I'm going to expend on it is to close its window. And that's it! From the perspective of Veritocracy- I'm a free loader. A filthy non-voter. A blight on any system designed around the quality of user input.

So how would a website convince me to do something I don't want to do and yet still keep me happy? That's one of the tasks I've decided to tackle. In fact, most of this feedback will be about trying to increase ways people can provide feedback, which can be done primarily by rearranging your User Interface. My self-imposed guidelines here is that any change should either: retain the quality of my overall user experience; or improve the quality of my overall user experience.

It is also important to tell you that this feedback will be completely without restraint or sympathetic in any way to the efforts you have already made. If I was being paid for this feedback you'd get a more tailored opinion, but as it stands, this is free in every meaning of the word. :)

ENERGY RETURNED ON ENERGY INVESTED

What I love most about Veritocracy (visually) is the way it opens up a separate window within it's window, all complete with a tidy drop shadow and a close tab at the top. Lovely. Bravo. I also really like the idea of reading an entire article within this window.

The main problem with voting (and corollary to this- the article's window) is that you really need to keep the reader within the veri window to have the process of voting make sense and not be burdened by clumsy steps of going backwards or as afterthoughts to the event. This is made even more difficult when you get incredibly good articles like this one which divide the article into two pages. You actually need to go to the original article to read the whole thing- necessitating the need leave the veri site (and therefore veri's article window).

This prompts me to think of new solutions (for those that like to vote): Could veri take a snapshot of the window it's going to open up and use this as a thumbnail in a new (small) pop-up window with a ratings bar there. Could this pop-up ratings window close upon the main veritocracy window closing? And be grouped together with other pop-out windows so that the user doesn't have a patchwork of pop-outs over their screen, but just the one with other ratings windows in its history? I'm sure there's some solution there somewhere, and it would be interesting to play with ideas about getting there, keeping in mind never to cross the line where something gets annoying enough to the point where the user goes somewhere else. There is definitely some leeway with users, they'll put up with a little, but not too much. In that space is room to experiment.

Right now, on the current veritocracy site, if I were to vote on an article I had just read in a veri.com window, I have to scroll up to the top of the article, find the small up and down arrows, make my decision, then choose the next article, or close the window to get back to the list of subjects.

That's more work than it needs to be, when all I'm there for is to read about something and, in this particular case, to vote on it. It's one click and one scroll up too many and by only rearranging the UI so that the rating box is at the bottom of the article, or better still- outside the scrollable window- is all it would take to minimise the hassle of this simple task and make each experience of reading and voting smoother.

As mentioned earlier, I'm looking to expend as little energy as possible once I'm done with an article, which usually equates to finding out how to close its window. One of the ideas I played with in my mock-ups is to rate the article in order to actually go to the next article. By that I mean: When you go to click on the 'Next Article' button, the button will disappear, and appearing in its place will be a rating box. Rate it and you get automatically sent to the new article. It's the same for the Previous button. Rate the article to perform a function. This does not happen if you want to go Back however. If you click Back you are simply taken back. (There's got to be some free way out at least). It may sound annoying, but it's the same amount of clicks- one. You rate the current article to go to the next article and the only tax you've been given is a momentary deliberation about something you've just read- therefore you're already primed to rate it anyway. (And this, coming from a non-voter such as myself, is really saying something. In fact, it would actually be saving time for people who do vote, and promoting people who don't vote to vote, so... Huzzah!)

MOCK-UPS

I have strung together a few mock-up images to explain my ideas much more clearly, however these will not be what I would consider "definitive". They are first steps, albeit visual steps, towards various UI solutions. The are not necessarily the solution itself. The idea I would most like to emphasise through these images, however, is one principal concept: If the user can comprehend how the tech underneath works just by looking at the UI then s/he will more likely use it to their maximum benefit. Ie. If I understand how the website works, then I can help it do what I need it to do better- to help me better. Win:Win. Right now I don't know how the tech underneath Veri.com works.

DISCLAIMER: It's also very important to note here (again) that these mock-ups are completely unrestrained. Be prepared to see your website wildly different to the one you've nurtured and bravely allowed me access to. So with that let me now walk you through what I've come up with in the last few days: (Deep breath...)

(Login screen)

(Think of this as a slide show). You'll see a few immediate differences in my design, but the first thing you'll probably notice is the...

TAG CLOUD

For a website dedicated to focusing and refining information you need more than just a row of general subjects to choose from. A tag cloud provides a visually beautiful block of information about things directly related to what it's receiving. For the user it's like having a live feed about what's happening just beneath the skin of the website. And it's also something users can interact with, but more on that shortly...

(Side comment: The "Skip Login" option shown here is for people who want to use Veritocracy without logging in. Perhaps they want to try it and see what it's like before signing up- how many other sites let you do that, eh?)

(Instructions - page one)

(Instructions - page two)

TRANSPARENCY

These images should be self-explanatory, but the idea here is that you can further refine your search with the tag cloud and, visually, it's immediately identifiable what's happening, what veri is picking up, how popular the topics are that appear in the news stories, etc. (You'll see more of this in the next image). At a glance I can see that everything red is me.

(Side comment: The small maximise button (down arrow) at the right of the top row, when clicked, reveals a list of sub-topics. It will push the page elements down to allow space for the sub-topics list. I didn't have time to complete this mock-up)

(Main screen)

REFINEMENT PLUS

The fact that I have a regularly updating tag cloud (daily) that I can interact with to provide new content into my information stream is enough to warrant long term use of such a website, but the further refinement of stories that can appear from using the 'My Topics' tag cloud *really* personalises my search. (I'm from Australia. That's how we spell personalise). Again, they concept here is: "Everything red is me". A user will understand how this news refining website works simply at a glance, which means that they know exactly what the result would be by filling out the My Topics tag cloud. The simple satisfaction of seeing an article appear that has one of your keywords in red in the subject heading will gain not just a great deal of affection towards the website, but a deep sense of ownership toward it as well- and that's powerful stuff.

(Side comment: If a topic is selected in the Popular Topics tag cloud, but it drops in popularity enough to not be included in the tag cloud anymore- it will automatically be moved to the My Topics tag cloud. You can deselect topics as simply as you can to select them- by clicking on them).

THE SLIDER

This is probably my favourite idea I came up wit through this process. It's my favourite because it solved a lot of things I overlooked previously, and solves them better than I had anticipated. So... If you look along the top row of subjects where it says: Chosen, World, Nation, Politics, etc. you'll see a small box around the word: Chosen. This is what I call The Slider. Notice the left and right arrows on it? That's to tell you that you can slide this little guy left or right along the top row. Right now The Slider is on 'Chosen'. This means that everything you've chosen that appears in red will be coming up in the articles section. Ie. You're saying to the website: show me articles about the subjects I've "Chosen". If you then slide The Slider to any individual subject, then the website will only show articles to do with that individual subject- no matter if that individual subject is red or black! It will give you complete access to any subject with impacting on your preferences. This is a much better solution than usual tabs because it doubles the functionality of the same row of information without cost to space or aesthetics.

IMAGES & VIDEO

By now you would have spotted the link that says: " news | images | video | all " This is a direct reference to digg, but it's one that needs to be included here. I've not put any images in these mock-ups, mostly due to time restrictions, however it would be interesting to see what it would be like with "all" selected. (I'll leave that one for your art dept). As you can see the design still stands up without the need for images, but it's something to account for in future versions of veri.com.

(Subject opened)

EVERY ACTION CARRIES VALUE

If I receive my groupings of news as just their subject headings (pictured in this mock-up) and not immediately exposing their related articles below it, this will do two things: 1. It cleans up the information on the screen by a country mile. And 2. it gives the website a measurable action. The website knows that if I select that Subject Heading then I must think it's interesting- and so it can be measred as being more popular than those I didn't select. That can be considered a one point increase to all articles inside this selection. If I then click on one of those articles then that article gains two points- one for being clicked on and another for being the first one I clicked. If I look at the article and scroll down its page- it receives another point (for being interesting enough to scroll down). If I have chosen a general subject, like Politics, (in the top row) then this adds five points to the popularity of an article with politics in it. If it has a topic that I selected in the Popular Topics tag cloud (on the right) it receives 10 points. And if it contains a keyword I typed in to the My Topics tag cloud that increases it a whopping 50 points!!! And taking the time to vote on an article gives it -5 to +5 points depending how you rate it, etc, etc... The idea here, which I have clearly over-explained, is that the website should be paying very close attention to everything the user does because- from the website's perspective -the user is the centre of the universe. (That's how Aussie's spell centre).

(Side comment: This idea of how important the subjects, pop.topics and my topics are to the popularity of articles that appear in the articles column would be explained (with images) by hitting the "How veri works" button under the My Topics tag cloud).

This is an opportunity to again stress the importance of a clever UI. If you were to [rearrange your UI] so it will take advantage of [the minimum number or clicks a user must make] to allow the technology underneath the website to [measure the level of interest associated with each action] then you could effectively find new and more complex ways to measure the popularity of articles- thereby improving the information that "finds you"- without taxing the experience of the user.

Or in other words: Get the user to work more for you without them even knowing it, and do this simply through a clever use of UI design.

(Side comment: Right now, when I click on a link from the main page, Veritocracy brings up the list of articles from the main page again, even though I've already selected the story I wanted to read first. This means I have to click a story twice to read it. That's one click too many).

(Article opened)

This is the only time I've really remained faithful to your original website. Kind of. I really like the shadowed window, and the thought of viewing news articles from across the web from one single website- especially one I've tailored to suit my interests.

(Side comment: In the current veri website, I'll click on an article to read the whole thing, but instead it will only register the heading and sub-heading as the full article (which is exactly what I read right before opening it), and will have no body of text to it. I'm guessing that's because the website it's referring its information from has not named the body of the text correctly so that it's reading the subheading as where the main body of text should go. Since this is a surprisingly regular occurrence would it not be crucial to find a way around this? Perhaps with people who have syndicated their content to your website you could have a way their website information is always tailored to be read by veritocracy).

(Side comment: What worries me is how an article can be voted on from the main page with only a sentence or two displayed (and sometimes not even that) with just as much credibility as a vote made by someone who has read the entire article)

(Rate article)

THE EASY RATE

Note the lack of a close button here. By clicking on the Subject Heading for all the articles (in this case it's: "Spending on War in Iraq continues to escalate") will take you back to the previous list of articles- this essentially acts exactly the same as your 'close' button, or a 'back' button- It does the same thing. In my mock-ups, you don't have to rate anything if you click this 'subject heading' link. You simply click on the Subject Heading and it will take you back cleanly and without hassle. But... If a user were to click on the Next button (if the article hasn't been rated yet) this action will hide the Next button and, instead, a rating bar will appear! It sounds counter-intuitive, but hear me out... The user must rate the current article in order to go to the next article. The only way the user can avoid this is by clicking on the Subject Heading (to go back) and open up the article they want. It is only the Next and Previous functions that have the 'rate first' feature. By making a rating selection you are automatically taken to the next article- you do not have to click Next again. It's one click only. Note that the centre circle of the ratings bar matches the centre of where the word, "Next", used to be. If someone rates it only to see the next article (without caring what rating they are giving) they will most likely hit an average score, which reads as zero points anyway. To understand this idea in terms of your current veri.com website: This would be exactly the same as if you surrounded your 'Next' button with a 'Vote Down' and an 'Vote Up button' on either side of it. All buttons (Down, Next & Up) in this case would do the same thing (take you to the next article), however two buttons (up & down) would also apply a rating. Since they're right next to each other, and no extra clicks are needed, then the task of rating something would be made very easy and simple to do. In this case (in the mock-up) the Up and Down arrows are replaced by a neat little rating bar, and the Next button disappears behind this bar. (Note how the most positive rating symbol- the full red dot -also appears in the veri logo in the corner).

(Side comment: This is not the official way to rate an article in my mock-ups. The official way to rate an article is by putting your cursor over the Unrated circle near the centre-bottom. A ratings bar will appear just like if you were to hold it over the Next or Previous buttons. The only difference between rating an article here or via the Prev/Next buttons is that under the official rating bar would be a small link saying: More which is explained in the next paragraph).

A DEEPER RATING SYSTEM

If you were to adopt a "measure everything" approach then you could really go to town with people who genuinely want to give a website useful information. They're out there, I'm sure. People like that would be a blessing to websites like yours. To take full advantage of this you could have a small link near each ratings bar that simply said: "More", then it could extend the bottom of the window to reveal what would look like another tag cloud. To the right of this 'rectangle of words' may have descriptions like: Inspiring. Beautiful. Poetic. Exciting. Motivating. Insightful. Moving. Hilarious.
Towards the middle may have adjectives like: Funny. Witty. Decent. Interesting. Plain. Inoffensive. Dull.
And finally, towards the left would have words like: Ignorant. Uninformed. Biased. Offensive. Racist. Sexist. Gross. Depraved. Inarticulate.
By clicking any number of these words will give you an extra level of depth and complexity by which to narrow down articles' popularity. If I keep looking at articles that others have deemed, "Motivating", then they can be given higher popularity in my article results. At some point in the future, depending on the popularity of this "deeper rating system", it may necessitate including an additional subject along the top row of subjects called: "Special". Expand the top row menu list to reveal the descriptions beneath and you would see the words below "Special" to be- Inspiring, Poetic, etc... all the way to ...Depraved. Inarticulate. (You would need to have all of them available to choose as filters because some people might be actually be interested to read articles tagged as "Offensive", etc. Weird, but hey, whatever flicks your switch, I guess).

(Side comment: On the current veri.com website, on the Reason Watcher- the option 'Sort By', when choosing between Newest and Oldest, gave me the same results. Personally I don't know why this option is even there. Who would ever need this for a site like veri.com? This option box is taking up a whole row of very precious screen space. Perhaps I am missing the value of this feature, but right now I don't see why it needs to stay).

NO COMMENTS

I will be particularly honest here and own up to the fact that I couldn't actually find where other people's articles are stored. And I tried. I wrote an article just to test this function, and once sent- I couldn't find where it went. I think this points to something larger though. I think the lack of a comments section is an oversight. Thanks to the influence of the internet, comments sections are now an integral part of the overall experience of reading an article. More often than not, comments in a comments section can be just as revealing as the article itself- if for no other reason than to gauge public reaction to it. This subtlety is lost on veritocracy's current up or down arrow voting scheme.

Even though the comments section I have included in this mock-up nas not been fully worked out, it does offer a basic visual as to how a comments section might be incorporated into the veritocracy website. In this mock-up, by clicking the "view comments" link, it would snap the top of the comments list to the top of the scrollable window. By clicking the "add comment" link would snap the bottom of the comments list to the bottom of the window (where the comments entry fields are).

(Side comment: Using the current veri.com website, at the list of articles, I did a search for the name of the author whom I knew wrote one of the 5 stories in the list. Even though it appears very clearly on the actual story itself (just under the headline) it wasn't found by the search. In fact, other searches didn't pick up very obvious keywords. Under the subject heading titled: "Spending on War in Iraq continues to escalate" there were 5 articles. A search for the word "war" revealed only 3 articles as having matches).

(Pop-up window)

EVERY NON-SOLUTION...

...paves the way towards a real solution. This would have to be my least favourite idea I came up with, however, I thought it would be at least fun to see what it looked like when mocked-up. As mentioned earlier, there will be times where the rating process will be interrupted by a user being forced to leave the veri site. The pop-up menu is one way that may keep them connected, entice them back, or at the very least band-aid a broken rating process. The back button in this pop-up window shows that there are other sites the user has opened from veri that are waiting to be rated.

(Side comment: These mock-up images are uploaded onto my blog site, however I haven't put out a blog about them. Ie. They are saved there, but have not been published).

THE FUTURE

I very much enjoy watching the slow evolution of Gmail. Every month or so I find a new feature, or alteration to the UI, and they are always in very unobtrusive and subtle ways, but always making it better, cleaner and smarter. I would hope that veritocracy adopts the same strategy. It's a safe bet that you most likely will, however I'd still like to point you to two websites that I referenced when brainstorming ideas for this feedback, and I'll point to these sites if for no other purpose than for you to imagine with me where a news filtering site may go...

Newsmap - An incredible site that will be more popular as the internet connections of people around the world get stronger. This not only looks incredible, but it's clear, dynamic, informative ...and just flat-out cool!

OwnYourC - Reminiscent of the game You Don't Know Jack, this website is the most fun I've had filling out a questionnaire. Ever. Period. The fact that it is as informative as it is entertaining makes me giddy with possibilities of how you could use an interface like that in other applications.

And finally...

THE NAME

Drop the tocracy. Just keep it as Veri. It's veri.com. Just be Veri. The actual name Veritocracy carries with it a concept, and even though it's a clever concept, it's a halting thought. This is an exaggeration, but... when you read the title "Veritocracy" you are invited into a mental drama about the meaning of what a veritocracy is, and... if you approve of the concept. Whether you ever get to an understanding of an approval or not, it doesn't matter, but that's where you're going to end up if you look at that word. It carries a meaning, and by this association it also carries opinion, bias, interpretation, status, judgement, etc. It weighs down the idea of the website with other associative ideas. (And besides which, I keep reading it as Verocity).

Look at Hulu, Google, Wii and Digg. These are powerful names because they don't immediately mean anything. When I'm browsing through Hulu do I really care what Hulu means? I get a sense of what Hulu means when I'm browsing and watching and being entertained. Hulu, the word, means browsing, watching and being entertained. Even if it doesn't! The people behind Hulu chose the word because it's "short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and rhymes with itself." It's an empty word in which I'll inject my own meaning into it from the experience I have with the website. Simple. Empty. Free of meaning. Free of burden.

Veri. Veri short. Veri simple. Veri good. Keep Veri. Drop tocracy. That would be ...veri clever. :)

And now an addendum to my previous "And finally..."

THE TAGLINE

"Better information finds you". This, unfortunately, is way too long. You don't need to tell us all of that. Just put: Better information. That way you are saying much more, for example: Better information (period) tells us that no matter who comes up with another type of website like yours, or an older more established website like yours undergoes vast improvements, Veri will always have... Better information. Simple. When you stick the "finds you" on the end of it, you're already weakening the strength and simplicity of what you began with. "Better information finds you" is like saying: There's a whole bunch of information over here that's better and there's this process that we hope to give you in this website that will allow that information to find it's way to you. Immediately the reader is put into a position of thinking about the technology behind the information, instead of the information itself. By cutting off the fat and just having- Better information. -you're saying clearly and simply: This is better information here on this website than any other website. ...and that is exactly the message you want to be conveying.

CLOSING COMMENTS

I hope you have enjoyed my feedback. As I mentioned in my introduction, the feedback I provided had absolutely no sympathy to the work that has already gone into veri.com and approaches the concept as if we were both in the original design meeting with a blank whiteboard in front of us.

With only a week left before you release your Beta I don't expect to see any of my suggestions implemented, however, regardless of what I've written, I wish you the best of luck with the public launch of your site.

Best regards,

Mat Brady

My iPhoneCTO Interview

My iPhone redesign, called the iPhone ELITE (see previous post) was chosen by the website 9to5Mac as making it to their list of "10 Great iPhone designs". The website iPhoneCTO caught wind of this and displayed my design to flag the article containing the other nine. (Boy, how I regret putting that stupidly cheesy image of me on that image now). It seemed that my design resonated with the iPhoneCTO website mostly because of the slide-out keyboard I added. So much so it seems that they went ahead and asked me to do an interview for them- Wow!

My iPhoneCTO Interview: Part One & Part Two

I even mocked up a new image for them as well. (See above). Not too provocative to Mac fanboys, is it?

In the interview I talk about crazy future phones (check out The Pomegranate), a strange trend in people designing their own products (see Trendwatching's article on the people like me: Customer-Made) and what Apple might do to bridge the odd gap now created by their innovative designs which now divide the needs of consumers with the goals of the company.

It's a hoot. :)


NOTE: The last two links won't appear in the interview as none of the links I included in the original transcript of the interview appear on their website. I do urge you to check out The Pomegranate (for a laugh) and the Customer-Made article.

The new iPhone ELITE

UPDATE: A newer (and better) version of the iPhone ELITE is found here

Original post below...


I think my email to Mr Jobs says it all really...


"Hi Steve,

As you can see I've made a few design suggestions to your iPhone.
I've held off getting an iPhone until it gets a better camera. (See pic)

Let me know when I can get rid of my N95.

Cheers,

Mat Brady"



Cheeky? Maybe.

Honest? Absolutely.

Offensive? I hope not, but really... we already know he's brewing away on something like this, if not, much better. What I have here isn't in the realm of the iWish (see previous post), it's merely the next stage of the iPhone's evolution that I'm deliberately prompting.

I make this plea, this dare, in order to expedite the iEvolution so that I can finally get rid of the old N95 clunker I have now and play with something decent. Sure, my N95 may (technically) do a lot of what this 'ELITE' fantasy dreams to do, but the the Nokia UI that binds all these functions together does about as good a job as duct tape would.

I was never a Mac fan until a few years ago when I bought my 17" MacBook Pro, and since then I've bought a 24" iMac for work, and all I need now is an iPhone and I'll be a complete kit. But truth be told, my N95 is still far superior to the iPhone for me because it has a real camera to take quality photos. This key feature allows me to do a 3-day trek through New Zealand's lush South Island, staying in the remotest of locations, and all I need to carry for the journey is my N95. It's been great like that, and I've appreciated it as a camera more than I ever have as a phone. But I've been teased with what a phone experience could be from the iPhone for almost the same number of years I've had the N95 and it's now time...

Time for the new iPhone ELITE, Mr Jobs. Whaddya say? :)

M


Update: The slide-out keyboard has generated the most response from any of my suggested features. The general consensus stands firm on two opposing viewpoints:
1. Most people would prefer to have an optional slide-out keyboard,
2. but don't believe Apple will ever "go backwards" and release anything like this.

In response to one comment (Mike) I have created what might be an answer to a third-party product which could solve this dilemma. (Pictured below)

Introducing... the iWish

I call this the iWish because I wish Sony would get their act together and improve the PSP. So many people are doing such amazing and innovative things these days, and yet the only innovative thing to happen to the PSP since 2005 was that it got a little slimmer. Whoopedy-frikkin-doo-dah-day.

But I didn't make the iWish image to talk about that.

I made it so I could talk about THE FUTURE OF GADGETS!!! ...and, in particular, about two main trends taking place:

1. All types of hand-held gadgets are being integrated into one- becoming a single do-all device.
2. The need for a single User-Interface to link all the functions of this "do-all device" is beginning to emerge, but has yet to be created.

This post will discuss the limitations of designing a do-all-device and then explore the exciting possibilities of an omni-UI.


ALL GADGETS ARE BECOMING ONE

Eventually there'll be simply one gadget that does everything. Period. Or to be more specific- everything related to information. This uber-device won't blend your cocktail, trim your hedges, or replace your electric shaver, but it will do everything else besides. It's your phone/ internet/ GPS/ camera/ tv-tuner/ projector/ gamepad/ media-player/ umpc/ scanner/ RFID/ universal-remote-contol/ game controller/ flashlight/ laserpointer/ etc, etc... in one. I call this do-all device an Omni-Gadget (if only to put an air of godliness around the idea). The iWish is a whimsical glimpse of what an omni-gadget might look like.

If you're wanting to design a do-all-phone, then you only need to wait for the next iteration of the iPhone, as you won't get much better a design than that. But if you want to design an omni-gadget, a device that does everything, then you've got to make some design sacrifices- and here's why...

If an omni-gadget actually really genuinely does do "everything" then it should also play games. And properly. If it does, (and it should if it is to meet its own definition) then this automatically adds the need to hold it like a controller, not to mention adding about 12 points of input to go with it (buttons, triggers, sticks, etc). You'll never be able to play Grand Theft Auto on an iPhone. You will have to have a full amount of gamer user inputs in the final omni-gadget design regardless. This will inevitably make any design of an omni-gadget a clunky, unweildy, brick-like behemoth. If you didn't need to play games, then you could essentially do away with everything and simply have a touch screen and nothing more. ...However you would still need the screen to slide up to reveal a space for keyboard/trackpad functionality firstly because typing on a touch screen isn't very good, but also because the device will be used for so many different applications that it will require a trackpad/keyboard area. So that's another design hindrance. Then we run into the size of the screen itself. Since the omni-gadget will also act as a UMPC (ultra mobile personal computer) the screen must therefore be big enough to make this a happy experience. And if that isn't enough, the omni-gadget will also be your main photo-snapping and video camera as well, not a secondary one, so it needs to have an overall depth to the device large enough to house a decent photo-capturing mechanism inside it. This would include a zoom function of at least x3 capability. This, with the thickness of the sliding screen and keyboard, already makes it quite obese as far as gadgets go. Aesthetically, it needs to make an even further sacrifice by leaving a space large enough near the front panel for a web cam so it can make video calls. All these are restrictions to design.

An omni-gadget must include:

• the buttons of a full controller
• as big a touchscreen as possible
• a keyboard
• a decent sized camera and zoom
• a webcam right next to the screen

...and yet still be small enough to fit in your pocket. ...That's tough.

The best design solution I've seen that goes towards satisfying all these requirements and still manage to look pretty is the PSP (minus the camera and webcam of course). And, indeed, the PSP is a very sexy looking thing. When it first came out it was eye-poppingly beautiful. Well done to Sony. The PSP provides a good starting point to what an omni-gadget might look like, which is why I ripped it off with my iWish image. Ironically though, a PSP is not the ideal design for playing games. The ergonomics of holding it for long periods of time is less than ideal. From a purely ergonomic perspective, if you cut a gamecube controller in half and put a screen in the middle, that would be the template for the perfect ergonomic games-playing omni-gadget. The trouble is that this design would be as ugly as sin. There is actually a way to have proper controller ergonomics, still with the PSP design, but I wasn't able to show that here with the iWish, however I hope to do so with further iterations of the concept. So, using the PSP as a starting point, squeeze in all the extra functions, like: Camera, GPS, wi-fi, infra-red, keyboard, webcam, SSD (solid-state drive), phone connectivity, etc, and this would be... an omni-gadget. Huzzah!

(NOTE: You wouldn't put this thing to your ear when you get a call though, as my friend assumed, because that would look ridiculous. You'd either speak into the mic along the earbud's cord, or speak at the screen as you would a friend on skype infront of your PC. It's not a phone. Besides which, bringing an entire device near your head in order for you to operate it is probably a concept that won't be around for much longer, historically-speaking).

A lot of people will ridicule me about integrating a keyboard into the design and accuse me of out-dated thinking. Keyboards are old-tech, they'll say. Well, besides my practical qualms I have with touchscreen-only devices, the keyboard in the iWish image is meant to represent a keyboard that also doubles as a trackpad. (A touchpad-keyboard? A track-board? A keytrackpad?) Imagine a trackpad three or four times the size of the trackpad on your laptop. Now imagine this over-sized trackpad with keyboard buttons cut into it. If you press your finger on a key it will depress like a regular key on a keyboard- making a satisfying click! But if you run your finger across the keys without pressing any of them, then it acts as a trackpad. This allows for much more functionality and flexibility that was previously unachievable.* At the side of the keyed-trackpad you would have a dedicated toggle key to switch between this surface acting as a keyboard and acting as a trackpad. It is another example of gadgets becoming integrated into one another... and goes towards the argument of not relying on a touch screen as your only input device. (Besides, if a keyboard is as undesirable to look at as what Apple wants us to believe, nor used all the time, then making the screen slide over it is the perfect design solution. 'nuff said).

I may also get a lot of criticism talking about an omni-gadget with such a large part of its design being dedicated to games. As you can see from the extra icons around them, these gaming buttons are multi-functional depending on what the omni-gadget is doing. It means that you can not just:

• play games,
• but also have full functionality of a digital camera,
• and be able to interface with any games console (so you'd always have a spare controller when you go to a friend's house. (Only possible with two thumb sticks (A wasted opportunity from Sony)))
• and these extra game buttons also enable the device to act as a universal remote control converting the gaming buttons to volume, channel, play, pause, etc.

So these extra gaming buttons enable the device to be much more. The tragedy is that it makes the final design look comparitively ugly next to the iPhone. I struggled with the idea of not including gaming buttons until I realised that this is like comparing apples to oranges because an omni-gadget isn't a phone. Right now the iPhone can do a lot, and the new version (iPhone 2?) will do a whole lot more. But the iPhone is still, essentially, a phone that does a lot, but it isn't every gadget all in one. That's an omni-gadget. Different.

Think of a phone as something you would take with you most places that can do extra things adequately.

Think of an omni-gadget as something you'd take with you everywhere- trekking, on research assignments, lectures, work- and be able to do everything brilliantly without compromise.

Using this comparison a phone and an omni-gadget seems to be a different product. In a lot of ways I see the omni-gadget as being a version of that utopian sci-fi vision of the future where everyone has a personal robot who does everything for them. It's their friend, their servant, their teacher, and their connection to the Global Brain that links all knowledge. (Which will most likely end up being called Google Brain).

Design-wise, some people will then ask: If there are so many gaming buttons around the screen, then why put 6 more buttons along the top? (A, B, C, 1, 2 and 3) Originally it was to fill up the dead space on either side of the iSight camera, but when it came time to thinking about ideas for the omni-UI (not shown) I felt that even with the best UI in the world... you would still need the reliability of a dedicated button for your favourite or most used functions. A lot of iPhone users won't be able to (or won't want to) understand this, but real buttons are essential, particularly when you need to get to a function without actually looking at what you're doing. I want to be able to not even look at the device and still be able to access its main functions. For example...

Let's say there's an event that needs a photo as quickly as possible. You're at an international press conference and take the wrong door. You enter and see George W Bush with his hand down Condi's pants! It's a photo for both the history books and the tabloids. They both look up as you grab your omni-gadget. The last thing you want to do is look at what screen you're in and find where the camera icon is. By that time George's hand is out and it's only you who knows the truth- not the world. So ideally, you want to hit a button dedicated to the camera as soon as you grabbed the device from your pocket, so that by the time the camera is pointing at them you are ready to take the shot (and let the World know what everyone has suspected all along).

At the end of the day I believe the omni-gadget of the future will look a lot like the iWish (except for the UI shown here), and that it will be a tussle between the iPhone clones and the omni-gadgets. This battle will take place on cafe tables and boardroom tables across the world. One person will put down their iClone, the other will put down their massive PSP-like omni-gadget, and it will be the scope of functionality that will decide the victor, not the design. You'll most likely get a version with gaming buttons, one without, and an accessory that everyone will despise that will try to solve the disparity.



ONE UI TO RULE THEM ALL

The UI aspect of an omni-gadget is what fascinates me the most- even though I haven't provided any images of the ideas I have for an omni-UI design in this post. The mock iPhone UI that I placed on the iWish was only meant to be funny, and a little provocative. I don't believe the iPhone UI, as pretty as it is, will be able to cope once more PC-like functionality becomes integrated into iPhones, however the slow crunching of gears when it tries will be interesting to watch. Most likely we'll see many companys' attempts end up as a collection of bits stuck together, rather than a seamless intuitive UI experience. The main reason why I believe this will occur is because of how we currently look at communication. Right now we differentiate between texts, chat messages and emails, and then create further divisions between their sources (Gchat, iChat, MSN messenger, Skype chat, etc). If the gadgets that provide the communication are becoming integrated, then why wouldn't the mediums of communication become integrated also? For example: If a friend wants to send me a written message, and I receive that message, what do I care if it's a Gchat or an iChat or a Yahoo Mail or a hotmail? They are words, and I receive them. That's all I care about. Period. The same goes for voice and video.

Essentially the omni-gadget UI will act as shell for all forms of communication to operate underneath- The user only being able to see the shell. I could have three different kinds of text communications sent to me in three different formats, but all I would see would be simply: 3 messages.

A txt can be as long as an email. An email as short as a txt. Formats defined by their size no longer matter. Nor should data attachments.

If I were to write a message on my omni-gadget and send it with a data package attached, the UI shell would be intelligently choosing the best way to send that information on my behalf- in whatever format- as I'm typing it.

With communication completely integrated by the omni-gadget's UI it means that my device will show me only four types of mediums:

• text
• sound
• video
• data (ie. programs)

Stripping down to just four formats will make organising files and information much easier than today's file sorting on PCs. And with future UIs being a mixture of a 2d and 3d interface, file sorting will be easier still. The desktop as we know it today may emerge into something quite different in the coming years- and following on from that, how we use them will change also.

An example of a completely integrated UI in action would be a white screen with a single cursor in the middle. All input is case sensitive. As soon as I type in a word or a number I should be able to see icons appear that correspond to what I may need. Type in a number and calculator buttons and unit conversion buttons appear. Type in a word and icons for search engines, or contact lists appear. Let's say I type in: "Hey, what are you doing?". I touch my contact list icon, and a screen of faces appears. I touch the face I want, let's say Hayley's, and I get prompt: Send / Attach / Cancel. I touch Send and I've just sent this sentence (as a txt/email/whatever) to Hayley, and in just three taps. From this "Info" screen I can access many layers of functionality within the same device.

The understanding that there is so much the omni-gadget can do, yet it's the UI's responsibility to get you to every function as quickly and intuitively as you can means 2 things need to happen:

1. Dedicated buttons/icons for favourite functions need to be one tap away.
2. If there is no dedicated button/icon available to get you to a function then you need to be able to get to where you're going as simply as possible.

This last point requires an interface all unto itself, otherwise you'll get the iPhone screen with page after page of icons- which would look messy, and confusing. So without using the smörgåsbord option, yet still be able to get to everything, you would need a Hub screen. From here, in order to contain the omni-gadget's entire spectrum of functionality into one branching tree we would start with five pools of basic motivation:

• Camera (Take/Shoot/Record/Collect) Access to the cameras and mics on the device.
• Info (Search/Find) Access to the internet, calculator, unit-converter,etc, but with cross-over with other pools of functionality (like Contact Lists, etc).
• Work (Sort/Organise/Create) Access to Hubbub- a file sorting and clean-up screen, iProject (more on this later), Office Apps including Photoshop, Data-backup, etc.
• Play (Entertain) Access to a Windows Media Center-style screen accessing all media, including games, podcasts, radio, tv, and iProject files.
• Contact (Share/Communicate) Access to the phone/vid-phone, Contact List, etc.

Items like the Diary, Time, and technical asides (like battery life and signal strength) are always easily accessible from almost every screen.

Two more ideas...

iProject - This is essentially a Flash-movie maker. With access to more information these days, and the ability to share and spread that information, I believe a public and global self-education system will emerge and this will take the form of micro-docos (small documentaries). These small edu-packs will be between 1 to 15 minutes long and use simple animations, graphs, videos, music and speech, etc, and be packaged as either youtube videos or sent as iProject files. These small education packs have so far been highly effective ways to expose ideas and inspire others. I personally recommend the video podcasts of TEDtalks. iProject would enable people to articulate and spread their ideas as efficiently and effectively as possible from their single do-all devices.

Handshake*- Instead of having a separate profile for Blogger, Facebook, Gmail, Xbox live, Sony Home, etc, why not have an Omni-profile. One profile that collects all your profiles together. You could then share your profile with others just as you would when swapping business cards (except this business card would also have your date of birth, a photo, plus a few other stats). When you meet someone new, who also has an omni-gadget (or a device with an Omni-UI) you could ask if they would like to 'handshake'. You would hit the shake icon, which would send out your signal, and they would do the same. You would then verify that you want to shake with this person. You now have added their photo and contact details directly into your Contact List, along with an annual birthday reminder added into your diary.



CONCLUSION

Originally I started thinking about an omni-gadget when I was sitting with a friend in a cafe in India. An old man came and asked if my friend had the latest Lonely Planet, which she did. As they pored over this heavily-bookmarked 2-inch thick tome, I started thinking about how that thick wad of tourist information could be easily condensed to a digital file and read on an e-reader of some description. Then... I thought about all Lonely Planets collected into one digital volume. Then... I thought about integrating that information database to a wikipedia database, then integrating that into google earth, and what kind of a device I'd use to look at that information on. Then I thought:

What would the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy look like if we were to attempt to make it today?

This thought propelled me on to the idea of a single and indispensable device that would do everything you would need it to, or want it to, if you were to travel the world. From the middle of the ocean, to the densest city, to the harshest desert, to the highest mountain. No matter what country, culture or language. A currency converter, a language converter, a dictionary, and knowledge database with or without an internet connection. From then on I've been engrossed with the idea and have yet to let it go.

I hope, at some point in the future, to make a working 3-d model of the omni-gadget incorporating everything I've talked about here and more. I'm particularly interested in exploring the ideas for the omni-UI.

Please feel free to share with me your ideas in the comments section.

Cheers,

Mat Brady



*This indicates an idea I haven't patented, nor ever will. Feel like using it? Go right ahead. And if, by chance, you have an opening for someone in product development, then by all means look me up. :)

Cloverfield 2

(SPOILER ALERT!)

(Updated post)

Having just watched Cloverfield -the film that finally outdid September 11 for the biggest Big-Bada-Boom. (Who would have thought real world events would out-Hollywood Hollywood itself?)- this film has inspired me to plot out, with disconcerting ease, the script outline that will be Cloverfield 2...

• Cloverfield 2 will have you experience the same event, with the same handycam mode, but through the eyes of a soldier via a helmet cam. If you notice in the first movie all the marines have cameras on their helmets. (Ha!)
  
• The movie will begin at the start of the emergency. The helmet cam buzzes to life with your best mate checking your cam.
  
• The captain tells you to look lively and explains the shit going down in NYC right now. (The captain is a nasty piece of work, and despises you) You're scrambling into a chopper as this is happening. Your camera will be faulty, and will turn off and on with strong blows to the head. This will allow the filmmakers to cut out bits of the movie that will drag.
  
• You (the cameraman) will have another stupid camera-based name like Zoom, or Andy (as in "Andy Cam"- geddit?) and you will be part of a 12 man unit assigned to the NYC shit storm.
  
• As the main character you'll have several cross-over points to the original story with the original cast, and eventually carry the story further than the previous.
• There'll be more focus on the smaller bugs in the sequel, and the extra number in your team will be used to have more gruesome deaths and with extended visceral action. (Think 'Aliens').
• Since the first one was a very romance-based quest, this one will be much more actiony, and lots more room for comedy as well. Then motivation will be to get back to your girlfriend (who is constantly calling you- your mobile phone and intercom will be crucial story drivers in this sequel).
• The conversations you'll have with your sexy, but dumb girlfriend will be hilarious and provide much needed comedy relief. He will constantly placate her and put up with her hounding because he's so horny for her.
  
• You'll act as part of a concerted well-organized military force until the Captain dies early on- the Creature lands its paw directly on him- and this fragments the team.
  
• The ground force will be shattered and bewildered until the tanks roll in -this is where you get your mojo back and hitch a ride on the back of a tank (you'll pass Rob, Hud, and the others in the street- glancing at them briefly) to make a heroic bid to destroy the Creature head-on. This will have a small effect, but mostly just get the Creature's attention, at which time it starts playing Whack-A-Tank and begins throwing the other tanks around. (The one you rode in on will be thrown into the big tv screen at Times Square making a very satisfying explosion -with yet more way-too-obvious product placement advertising).
• The Creature approaches and then stops straight over you. You panic, but then see a group of soldiers with RPGs (Rocket-Propelled Grenade launchers) arrive. They fire at the beast while it is directly over you. It seems to do incredible damage, because the monster rears back and screams. Its feet land with a thunderous boom and everyone is knocked to the ground.
• Your teammates will think that its dying as it screams again, twisting its head. Just as the RPG guys reload (with the Creature over you) you'll be rained on by bugs (which will be filmed by a news reporter -which is the footage that was seen in the first movie) and you'll need to run and fight your way to safety into an underground car park (destroying several beautiful cars in the process). It's bug mayhem.
  
• Scattered you'll get the message to regroup at an emergency head quarters where they've set up a make-shift hospital (re: first movie). One of your buddies will have lost his hand to the bugs and is bleeding badly.
  
• Your remaining team mates (7 of them, including stumpy) will head down a sewer and shoot their way to the meeting point. There'll be bugs galore, and after a major shoot out three of your team mates will be bitten. Your handless buddy will look like shit, and will explode with wriggling larvae- which are already bursting out with small claws. Your unit treads on them all, then look at each other knowing what will become of the bitten and double-time it to the hospital with the screeches of more bugs on your tail.
  
• You'll be relatively safe, then glance up and see a solitary bug lunge at your head knocking the camera to black.
  
• Your face is the first thing the camera sees again. You just fixed it (and re-established who you are to the audience). There'll be a comment here about how that last bug was killed.
  
• You put your helmet on and see yourselves in the emergency HQ/hospital. The quarantine boys in plastic blue uniforms see the bites on your buddies and tell you to take them to the quarantine area. They're asking a barrage of questions: "When were you bitten?", "How long ago?", etc.
• They never make it. One explodes along a corridor wall. You and your buddies start squashing the bugs and the quarantine boys yell at you to stop. They open a cooler room door and drag the body bits in there as the other quarantine boys take the other two away.
  
• You glance in to the cooler room and see layers of mutilated corpses. In amongst them are frozen smaller bugs from the bodies- twitching, fighting the cold.
  
• On the way back you hear someone screams, "Bite!" You see Marlena being taken to quarantine and watch her explode much more clearly than the first movie. Rob, Hud and Lily pass you, panicking.
• (UPDATE: You see another person in quarantine that hasn't been bitten, but is horribly mutated. You ask: "What happened to her?" No-one knows. She mutates larger, fights off some troops, and runs away. (Her name is Jamie Lascano- you'll hear more about her in the third movie) -see my post below)
  
• You report to the commander. He's giving orders- talking about the final round of air strikes, and the evacuation of the citizens and military for the Hammer Down Protocol.
• A hot female lab-coated biologist is with him and begins talking about the Creature's regenerative powers.
  
• There'll be some dialog here about where the Creature came from and what it's weaknesses are. (My guess is it fell to Earth. (UPDATE: This is wrong, it's a sea creature from Earth) And it's weakness could be the kind of air it breathes- the puffers on the sides of its mouth are to siphon nitrogen from the air and convert it to a nitrogen-based highly explosive gas- which it breathes).
  
• The plan is to get to the safe zone and initiate Hammer Down (a mini-nuke).
• Bugs will then fall out of the roof and get the party started again.
  
• You'll be chased through the building. The way to the roof will be blocked. Another way will need to be taken- through the stairwell and then through a vacated floors. The Creature will look into your floor with its huge eye and yell- just to establish its presence for an upcoming scene).
  
• You'll run out of bullets half-way through the vacated floor and be down to your pistol and a lead pipe.
  
• (You may also meet at this point a crazy French film-maker who asks you a bunch of strange questions- his entire quirky movie will be a short film in the special edition dvd).
  
• You, the captain, the hottie and your two buddies reach the building's roof- followed by the most amount of bugs you have seen so far. You all barricade the final door as bugs gnaw at the other side.
  
• The Cloverfield monster walks right past you as a wave of air strikes screech overhead. Boom!
  
• You see the chopper and hail it down. As the chopper approaches you'll get to see the creature almost dying -like you saw in the first movie from chopper- and at the last second you will see it attack Hud's chopper. The Creature will turn to you, huffing, and approach, just as the bugs get through your barricade and attack. One of your mates dies- swarmed by bugs.
  
• You hold the bugs off as the others get on. The creature approaches, the chopper starts taking off, you're still on the roof gunning and clubbing bugs. Your best mate in the chopper calls for you- C'mon! There is a razor-thin escape as the bugs leap to attack your chopper, just as you leap over the building's edge to grab it's landing leg. A bug also leaps and grabs your leg! Just as you grab the chopper, the Cloverfield monster hurtles into the building you were on, which you can see perfectly from your aerial perspective, and takes out all the bugs that have just been attacking you for the last 10 mins (except for the bug on your leg).
• The bug on your leg runs up your body and into the chopper causing pandemonium inside the cabin (remember: you're still hanging from the landing beam). The rogue bug attacks the pilot and in the process the chopper is getting closer to the ground (Central Park). It gets closer and closer to the ground as gunfire goes off in the cabin. The commander divesout over you, yelling "abandon vehicle", landing in the trees. You let go soon after and watch the helicopter crash.
  
• You go over and rescue the hottie. And rescue a bag of munitions for good measure. The pilot is dead, and your best mate is trapped in his seat and pleads for you to help him. He has bite marks all over him. You point the gun at him. The hottie tells you- don't. But your mate begs you to kill him. You see the burning of the engine and let the explosion take care of him for you. The hottie (the bag of munitions) and you dive to safety.
• After a quick chat with the hottie for more exposition about how to kill the monster, you find the commander wounded.
  
• The Cloverfield monster limps towards you into Central Park, but stops short at another helicopter crash. It stops right over Hud and bites him in two. We see it in clear and gruesome detail.
  
• You help the commander get to a protected safe spot, hottie behind you. He apologises to the other two- I gotta do this -and radios in to initiate Hammer Down. They look over and see the creature limp away.
  
• You tell the commander to wait, and give you the chance to plant an explosive inside the creature's puffer glands. He tells you it's no use, he's going to initiate Hammer Down regardless. Then you make a 9-11 reference and tell him that this city has seen its share of devastation, you just need five minutes. He tells you you've got two- Go!
• You actually climb up the Creature's body, onto it's head (your girlfriend calls at this time, but you ignore it) and you cut into it's puffer gland- sticking your hand with the explosive into it. The Creature shakes you off (to a safe distance) and you land in the lake. The screen goes to black.
  
• The cam blitzes back to life- You see yourself crawling out onto the shore with the detonator in your hand. And the creature in the distance. Breathing heavily you say something witty before clicking the detonator. The Creature goes boom, and the explosion expands out in all directions. The shock wave hits you and the screen goes to black again.
• It comes to life seeing your blackened face. "There ya go. (exhausted) Gotta keep rolling..." You put your helmet on and walk towards the Creature's ground zero. Then a piece of meat falls near you. Then another. And suddenly it's raining meat- ala the exploding whale- (American ingenuity at its best).
  
• You run for cover which just happens to be the collapsed bridge Rod and Beth are now trapped under. When the meat rain stops you hear a whimper and realized someone's trapped under there. You rescue the two- they're okay, but their camera's busted.
  
• Your phone rings and it's your girlfriend. We hear him try to explain his way out of why he didn't answer her last call when she just tried ringing him (he was on the Creature at the time). Credits roll over this conversation.
• (UPDATE) After the credits have rolled we look over to see a fallen building from the Creature's blast. From out of the rubble a now enormous Jamie-Monster gets to its feet, gives a big Godzilla roar to the sky and disappears into the streets of Manhattan. (For an explanation to this read my post below)
  

And that, in ridiculous detail, is what I think will happen in the sequel. :)

Now a short review...

Cloverfield, for me, was the B-movie I never knew I was waiting for all my life. As much as I realise it's bad, (paradoxically) I can't fault it for being everything I want it to be. It's an extra-cheesey creature romp set in the only place it can be set in- New York- and it is the closest thing I've come to getting a computer game experience on the big screen. To break it down: Blair Witch + Godzilla = Brilliant Rubbish. Recycled rubbish at that. Cloverfield is so perfectly generic and profoundly cliched that there's a respect I am going to have to give to it when I call it a modern-day classic. And yet, at the same time, it's completely disposable. I hate myself for loving it as much as I do, but I can't help but love it. What a fun ride.

Personally, I can't wait for the slew of home-made Cloverfield short films that will be done by all the Star Wars fans that now have nothing to do. Go on, fellas. You know you want to.

M