06 Oct 2009 Showcases , ,

Doodlebuzz

Does the web really need yet another news aggregator? Interactive Designer Brendan Dawes answers this question with an enthusiastic “No Sir”. So he created Doodlebuzz – an entirely new way of exploring information. One that allows for a kind of “quiet chaos” that gives people the opportunity to explore unthought of paths and connections along their news gathering journey.

The interface for DoodleBuzz is simply a scribbled line. Draw a straight line. Draw a curved line. Draw a crazy, chaotic, all-over-the-place messed up line. It’s up to the user how he wants to layout the information.

doodlebuzz_01doodlebuzz_02

The application is programmed in AS3 and it uses the News API from Daylife.com. Furthermore for the default search Brendan used Dapper to scrape the top headlines from the Daylife.com homepage.

I have to admit I liked the idea of a more playful interface to news reading, but got quikly distracted by the aesthetics of scribbling with the pen and seeing the typographic results. How about you? Did you like the playful interface? Did it provide any help in finding related or maybe unforseen news stories?

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  • http://www.antoinebonnin.com/ Antoine Bonnin

    Cool idea but same problem as you, quite distracting UI. Again, another example of an “artsy” visualization which defeat its primary purpose: exploring information. This doesn’t help anyone getting a clearer picture of a news topic.

  • http://www.antoinebonnin.com Antoine Bonnin

    Cool idea but same problem as you, quite distracting UI. Again, another example of an “artsy” visualization which defeat its primary purpose: exploring information. This doesn’t help anyone getting a clearer picture of a news topic.

  • http://relojesdecuco.blogspot.com/ Sombra

    Yes, it’ s a cool idea but with disconcerting result. I agree, anyone can’t get a clear idea of the related topics and term. However, I like the idea of the pencil interface, may be for other purposes.

  • http://relojesdecuco.blogspot.com Sombra

    Yes, it’ s a cool idea but with disconcerting result. I agree, anyone can’t get a clear idea of the related topics and term. However, I like the idea of the pencil interface, may be for other purposes.