A nice review of The Surveys, the project I worked on with David Hume last year (and we hope to get going again at some point… spare time, what a pleasant concept)

blog.myspace.com/154568966
Tuesday, February 06, 2007

The happiness survey

“What we witness in the “Happiness Survey” web site is a visually stimulating version of a survey instead of the orthodox chart survey. Because the main critirea is what makes a person happy, David Hume and Chris Joseph created a colorful panoramic virtual city that is filled with picture bubbles, and each picture symbolizes the contents of the survery question. For instance, we find a house with a phone picture next to it, evidently when you click on the phone the question “do telephones make you happy?” pops up. The site is very nicely designed and it presents a large array of objects. Some objects are more tangible such as a hospital, a cinema, the sun, the moon, rain or snow while others are more abstract such as feelings of pain, pleasure, care or anger. In this virtual city of survey questions there’s almost no wasted space; wherever you point your mouse whether if its the earth, sky, or whatever is in between, you will find a survey bubble associated with that area. It’s a very interesting attempt to transform a survey from a formal document into an enjoyable interactive experience.”