Microsoft Tafiti Is Beautiful, But Will Anyone Use it?

We’re pretty big fans of Microsoft’s new Silverlight platform. And just about everyone will agree that Tafiti, a new Microsoft search site built on Silverlight, is pretty darn easy on the eyes. They even got the Jackson Fish Market team (they are creating new visually stunning products) to help out on the project.

But will many people use it? It still uses Microsoft search, which in my opinion is not as relevant as Google or Yahoo. And the site, while pretty, runs very slow.

I think people want fast results served on a clean white page with as little clutter as possible (example). Bells, whistles and pretty graphics are fine, but functionality rules.

That being said, Microsoft isn’t out there claiming that this is their new search paradigm. It’s an experiment to show the power of Silverlight, and at that it succeeds.

iPod v. The Insulin Pump: Adaptive Path Rises To The Challenge

When I wrote about Amy Tenderich’s call for someone to design a better Insulin pump, perhaps by taking inspiration from the iPod, I didn’t really think anyone would actually do it. This certainly wouldn’t be an attractive market for Apple, and there are only so many design firms out there who would be willing and able to dedicate time to the project without being paid.

But I was wrong. Almost immediately San Francisco based Adaptive Path met with Amy and decided to spend time trying to design a more attractive Insulin Pump. They’ve now completed the initial design work and have been writing about it on their blog. Amy also followed up today with a long post describing the project. A video overview is below.