BioDesign

The idea of Stic Stac Code blocks was born when I realised that most of the augmented reality (AR) based mobile applications out there let children only consume digital content. These apps impress you with polished 3D models, textures and animations, but they lack cultivating creativity amongst its users. Creativity lies in the power of Making and Tinkering and I believe a better part of technology should be designed to foster learning. Thus the question was – How might I design a creative tool that let children manipulate, create and express their unique content?

Nest thermostat users were invited to take part in an initiative that would champion clean energy during a critical moment – when the path of the eclipse would darken over 100 million solar panels, creating a temporary dip in the clean energy supply. And they were invited to participate directly from the screen of their Nest thermostat. They tapped “Count me in” to opt-in right from there, as well. Their thermostat got to work pre-cooling their homes in advance. Nest thermostats have long been heralded for their innovation, on this day they were also able to make championing clean energy, a simple and easy choice.

Inspiration doesn't always come when sitting in front of a computer screen. Sketchbooks are great for capturing ideas, but not so much for sampling a color. Kuler wanted to address this by giving people a tool they could use 'out in the field' for sampling, creating and editing color themes. Having the tool on a phone means that inspiration can be captured at any time and from anything - even a source that appears to be colorless.Creating color themes in a fun and engaging way allows everyone the freedom to explore and interact with the world around them with new eyes. Kuler's purpose is to facilitate access to the inspirational nature of color, and bring joy to its users as they explore the colorful world around them.

Xero is beautifully designed accounting software that lets you manage your small business finances anywhere, anytime. See your cashflow in real-time with online accounting, invoicing, billing & banking.Xero improves the performance of your business by giving you and your financial advisors instant access to your real-time financial data – letting you take advantage of business opportunities and avoid problems when it matters, not months after the fact. The Xero Touch mobile app lets you check all your account balances, upload receipts, invoice customers and run your business on the go. With Xero, it's a pleasure doing business.

With the increase in unforeseen climate-related disasters, designing educational and risk communication tools that are engaging and effective has become vital. These tools are essential for improving the responses of vulnerable communities.

TactorBots is a haptic toolkit to empower designers to explore emotional robotic touch. It contains eight plug-and-play wearable tactor modules that render a series of social gestures driven by servo motors. Our specialized web GUI allows easy control, modification, and storage of tactile patterns to support fast prototyping. Taking emotional haptics as a “design canvas” with broad opportunities, TactorBots is the first “playground” for designers to try out various tactile sensations, feel around the nuanced connection between touches and emotions, and come up with creative imaginations.

Mobile is intense, intimate, and frequent: the ultimate medium to connect with consumers and gain their loyalty. In order to preserve its role as a supermarket pioneer and innovator, the mobile application 'Appie' was launched in 2009. It's now available for iPhone and Android (and the web, which is outside the scope of this submission) and is still being expanded with new and useful features. With Appie, users' experience around grocery shopping is elevated to a fun, inspiring, and easy process by taking the classic shopping list to a whole new level. Before going shopping, users can browse a database of tens of thousands of recipes, find stores near them, check opening hours, and create their shopping list using numerous 'sources': previous purchases, special offers, recipe ingredients, a bar code scanner, and manual and voice input. The list can even be synchronized across devices, enabling people to work together on the weekends' groceries. In an Albert Heijn store, Appie will help customers find the most efficient route by sorting the items on the list in the right order. And after shopping, users can switch to Cooking Mode, making it easy to follow the steps of recipes, using the ingredients they just bought.

Pas a Pas is an interactive educational tool that enables children to learn and experiment through animation. It is designed to support and integrate in to an existing curriculum and is not meant to alter the natural learning pace of children. Pas a Pas incorporates physicality and the animated outcome of stop motion animation to bridge the gap between abstract concepts from maths, physics or arts - usually represented by graphs, equations or words - and reality. Pas a Pas contributes to an education that integrates 'play' and 'create' in to the learning process.Due to the inherent tangibility of stop motion animation, the concept fits into Montessori education methods - it is aligned with the idea of self-directed learning, indirect teaching and multi-age grouping.

LoopLoop is an interactive music toy for Sifteo cubes. LoopLoop uses hyper- minimal visuals and rich, smile-making sounds to let anyone make music without knowing a thing about music. Because of the Sifteo cubes' 1.5" screen, it might just be the world's smallest music sequencer. Stimulant was the only third-party design and development agency engaged by Sifteo to create a launch game for the Sifteo Intelligent Play platform.

Advances in computer vision and natural language AI continue to unlock new ways to explore the billions of images across our devices, websites, and the public domain. However, it remains difficult to express subjective concepts, such as visual tones (‘vibrant’) or moods (‘eclectic’) to current systems, where visual interpretation is shaped by culture and community and is personal to the individual.