Baby Name Brainstorm
Yet another age old problem being tackled by digital media: the naming of little 'uns. A simple concept executed flawlessly, a great interface which just cries out to be used.
I just love watching the nodes drift around the screen, although i'm not currently on the look out for baby names so i can't vouch for its true usefulness, but it seems like it would be a more natural experience than leafing through a book, hyperlinking endlessly.
The typography is a little pissy though. Apart from that: exemplary.
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posted by Malcolm Garrett
on 28 January 2009
digital babies names?
does it work in Second Life?
posted by Malcolm Garrett
on 29 January 2009
and what about ...
... an extra link listing words that the name 'will be shortened to' or 'will become known as', in order to anticipate the stupid/offensive nicknames your child will be given at school?
posted by Francesca Granato
on 29 January 2009
What a cutie
I always love this kind of thing: digital interactive web-programming successfully translated into an emotional, cheerful, feminine, almost poetic application.
posted by Lachlan Cotter
on 01 February 2009
Thanks for the mention
Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to say thanks for the mention. Very glad to see this idea has found an appreciative audience. At the moment it links primarily on relationships found in the word spelling, but we're building up the database with richer information about meanings and origins etc. (yes, perhaps even nicknames).
I was recently on the hunt for names for my daughter and found the endless alphabetical lists I found on most baby name were only really useful as a sedative. I wanted something a bit more exploratory.
I'm not foremost a graphic designer, so I'm not quite sure what you meant about the typography. I'm very open to suggestions though : ) Please elaborate.
Cheers, Lach
posted by Matt Cooper
on 02 February 2009
Typography
I sometimes forget that when you put a message out on the internet it may well get back to the 'real' person out there. Thanks for leaving a comment on dynamo, it's great to get a direct response.
My apologies for the remark about the typography, it could have been worded a little more constructively. And please don't read too much into my quickly formed opinion.
My main feeling is that the type is a little 'light' in places and as the typeface has such thin stoke weights in certain places that it 'breaks up at smaller sizes, this is probably not helped by Flash's somewhat basic typographic features. This is most evident on the small light grey text at the top and bottom of the page.
On screen typography is a minefield, especially when it comes to cross platform consistency (something i've learnt the hard way) and i should say that the site is by no means illegible. I really like the level of refinement you have achieved in an almost exclusively typographic interface.
Also, i'm looking at the site on a big screen Mac and I probably only represent less than 5% of the viewing public. So please take it all with a pinch of salt, and keep up the good work!
matt
posted by Francesca Granato
on 02 February 2009
Great to hear from you Lachlan.
Lovin' the Baby Name Brainstormer :-) Would love to hear more about why and how you decided to make it.
posted by Lachlan Cotter
on 07 February 2009
Thanks for the suggestions
Matt: Thanks for the suggestions on typography. I see what you mean about the type. I'm changing the fonts a little in the next release. While I'm still keeping a light-ish serif font for the graph nodes (I like how this feels), I'm going to use a weightier san-serif font on the buttons to aid usability.
Francesca: Thanks for the positive feedback. Why did I make the Brainstormer? Basically I was cursing the web for baby name ideas for my baby girl and found while there was an abundance of baby name sites, they were, with very few exceptions exceedingly boring and pretty much all carbon copies of each other.
Reading hundreds upon hundreds of names in alphabetical order looking for ones that you like isn't that inspiring. I thought there must be a better way and started to think about ways to visualise a database of names and gauge the similarity of names. I am personally interested in the sounds, and the meanings of words so that was my focus.
The first prototype of this tool actually visualised the relationships in a 3D space and tried to represent relative similarity by the proximity of names. It was more of a clustering idea than a graphing idea. This was interesting, but I found it wasn't very usable, especially if you didn't understand the background. So, in stage 2 it evolved into a web of names that are connected by a variety of criteria.
I've been assimilating all the great feedback I've been getting to keep making the tool better. I'm excited about the next release which will incorporate the origins and meanings of names. That should be out in about a week or so, so stay tuned : )
Cheers, Lach