Thinking Interactive

1. Auditorium

This game is one of the most pleasurable experiences I have had online in a while. The interface is breathtakingly elegant and remarkably intuitive.

2. Wired Deconstructs a Girl Talk Track

Wired does some brilliant information design to show the 35 samples and their relationship to one another on one of the tracks from Girl Talk’s Feed the Animals.

3. The Independent Explores Torrent Legend aXXo (Thanks @hartleyglobe)

The Independent delves into a subculture that you surprisingly don’t hear much about given the abundance of articles written about piracy in general. This is a must read for torrent fiends.

4. Twit Apps’ Replies

I find I am either in Twitter mode or I am not, but I am always in email mode. Twit Apps‘ Replies forwards any Twitter replies to your email inbox and you don’t even have to give up your Twitter credentials (UX folks check out the registration flow, it is pretty clever, if not a little limited). 

5. The Best iPhone Apps of 2008

Bryan Barletta from AppVee has done a great rundown on some of the top iPhone applications for 2008 for TechCrunch. For anybody looking to pitch or build iPhone applications in 2009, you could do a lot worse than to start by looking at this list.

I went into this keynote with no expectations, having never heard of either Jane McGonigal or Alternate Reality Gaming (for a great example of ARG, check out World Without Oil, one of Jane’s creations) before. In fact, I was debating whether or not to go to this or Secrets of JavaScript Libraries. However, I found this event to be unequivocally, the most inspiring and eye-opening event I attended during SXSW.

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