Unless I'm missing something, this is a container for the web app versions of the chat services listed. It's not a unified chat client, nor is it a UI layer on top of the clients.

You could achieve the same thing by opening a new browser window and then populating its tabs with each chat service... right?

If productivity is real goal with this interface, then it got off on the wrong foot.

Multitasking and constant distractions (triggered via gaze or by any other method) do not improve productivity, despite us feeling otherwise. This interface is essentially an elegantly powerful distraction factory.

I don't mean to be a hater — I think there are some interesting, novel ideas in here. But they're not going to improve productivity much.

Some further reading:

• Multitasking: Switching costs

• Media multitaskers pay mental price, Stanford study shows

• No Task Left Behind? Examining the Nature of Fragmented Work

Hmmm... I'm no historian, but I thought German design was a bigger influence on Apple... ?

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3019401/how-i-taught-steve-jobs-to-put-design-first

Not sure if you meant to link to the interview on Motionographer, but it's here:

http://motionographer.com/2015/03/19/in-pieces-a-rare-specimen-of-css-based-animation/

It's amusing that he chose Futura (born in 1927) for his subheads, but he says that the reason Massimo Vignelli and Wim Crouwel used Helvetica is because "they worked in a different time. There were far fewer good quality fonts."

Elsewhere, he argues for using Akzidez Grotesk because it's"twice as old as Helvetica which obviously makes it twice as cool."

What a mess of an article.

When they get rid of ubiquitous overlay ads and incessant pre-roll BS, then I'll get really excited.

Pet peeve: Using the word "minimalistic" (which doesn't even exist in finer dictionaries) instead of "minimal."

Interview with Bryan James on Motionographer: http://motionographer.com/2015/03/19/in-pieces-a-rare-specimen-of-css-based-animation/

Design + art + code = Robert Hodgin's Eyeo2012 talk https://vimeo.com/45526286

We did an in-depth interview with the whole team behind the project on Motionographer: http://motionographer.com/2015/02/10/superteam-proves-power-of-collaboration-in-title-sequence-for-fitc-tokyo/