Eddie Harber, product designer at the Apparel Innovation Team at Nike, gives a behind the scenes look at the Nike Pre-Cool Vest. Made from lots of recycled materials, the vest is designed to be filled with water, frozen, and worn prior to an athletic event or workout to keep the body’s core temperature cooler longer. It is great to see how such wonderful form is derived purely from function.

Project Natal, a gestural input device, is being promoted by Microsoft this year at E3 is attempting to promote their ubiquitous computing platform. Hot off the heals of several other videos promoting Microsoft’s vision for the future, Project Natal focuses on the video game arena. Nonetheless, the vision is illuminating and enticing.

Microsoft’s Dane Storrusten directs this short concept video imagining a future where technology is invisible to end users but allows the full benefits of gestural recognition, context awareness, and more. The video is one of two videos produced by INVIVIA. Also check out August de los Reye’s slightly less intricate concept video for the home environment.

Industrial design and human factors legend Niels Diffrient talks at TED about his quest to design the perfect chair. In full director’s commentary, Niels shares how he redesigned a chair by looking at the human body in all aspects, including the user experience of using a chair.

Why can’t furniture fit like a suit?
- Niels Diffrient

Jeff Veen, a founding partner of Adaptive Path speaks at the Web2.0 Expo in San Francisco about data visualization and the future of Big Data. Jeff gives a brief history of information design and talks about the future of visualizing self-generated data to find stories important to individuals.

Continuing to innovate and take inspiration from nature, Festo has launched their Bionic Learning Network and in doing so shows off their new AquaPenguin and AirPenguin technology. The technology and lessons learned are also being applied in other forms such as architecture and manufacturing.

Vermont Public Television presents the TV series Emerging Science, a show that explores the latest scientific developments in Vermont and elsewhere. The program covers topics including energy, food, social science, transportation, and many more. Now on it’s second season, all of the 30 minute episodes are viewable online.

Bill Buxton Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and author of Sketching ser Experiences, takes the first 30 minutes of the MIX ‘09 keynote. One of my favoUrite speakers, Bill talks about the importance and power of sketching user experiences. Citing many examples, Bill stresses the importance of experience design in a bad economy and thinking about the transitions between states and not simply the states themselves.

These things are far too important to take seriously.
- Bill Buxton

Released in February, Peter Arnell, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Arnell Group, defended the latest rebranding effort for Tropicana. It’s recent 20% drop in sales after the rebranding has lead hit Pepsi-co in the wallet and the company is now reverting back to its previous design. Read more on AdAge.com.

Jacek Utko, art director of several European newspapers, talks about how a focus on design has lead to significant growth in newspaper sales. Inspired by Cirque du Soleil to transform the mundane into something extraordinary, Jacek has accomplished that with great vigor and has the awards to show for it.