Posts Tagged: design

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3
Aug 11

News Designed for Information Overload

Paul Scrivens:

“The design dilemma these sites are facing is that their is simply too much content. Instead of trying to narrow down what content needs to be shown on the homepage, they try to find ways to ensure that all content is shown on the homepage. [...] The only reason I scan a news page is because I have a hard time keeping my eyes focused on one spot. [...] The trick is to not allow your readers to scan the page, but to force their eyes to go into a state of perpetual motion until their finger saves them and clicks on a link. Brilliant.”

 

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3
Mar 11

The Qualitative iPad 2

TUAW gets it:

“Last night, I was browsing through story after story on the interwebs that hoped to help people decide on a tablet purchase by comparing the Xoom specifications with the iPad. From multitasking to chip speed to RAM, analysists attempted to find consumers the best possible value for the money.

And they completely missed the point.

When it comes to tablets, it’s not about the specs. It’s about user experience. It’s about the way we use the device and how the device fits itself to the way we want to use it.”

Andy explains:

“But you kind of have to hold the iPad 2 to really get the redesign. It’s thinner by a third, plus its edges taper to a thin line of metal. It’s almost inconceivable that this thing you’re holding is a multicore tablet computer. The Xoom tablet is trim, light, and very pretty … but when you place it next to the iPad 2, it looks as though it was designed and built by angry Soviet prison labor instead of by Motorola.”

And who wants to surf the web, watch a movie, or try to be productive on something designed by Soviet prison labor? It’s suppose to be a joy to use, not a chore. Right?

Specs are a nice place to start when it comes to comparing one tablet to the next, but if you never go beyond the quantitive specs, you’ll never understand the qualitative aspects. And I’d argue that the qualitative aspects are far more important.

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9
Feb 11

Focus

Hoarce Dediu; Why focusing on a few products is hard:

But “focus” is the willful rejection of this theory. By saying no to alternatives you increase risk disproportionally to the reward. If you have the means to maintain a portfolio it certainly seems imprudent not to do so.

So why would someone want to focus?

The answer is that too much diversification is dangerous. It’s dilutive to everything the company uses to create value: its resources, its processes and its priorities. It dulls the mind and tarnishes the brand.

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22
Oct 10

Apple’s Next OS, Lion

This week Apple gave a demo of their next operating system, Lion. You can see their sneak peak for details, but here’s what I think it means:

The desktop metaphor is on the way out.

Sure you still have files, and may sort things into folders. But this is becoming a per-app thing, not an operating system wide thing. If you look at all of their major apps: iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie … they all use files, but you never see them. This is all the more clear to me with the focus on full-screen applications. There is no longer the ability to drag something from another app (say the desktop) into an application.

The Launchpad and Apple Mac App Store further this. Applications simply exist now, and there is no need to ferry them into being with physical CD’s, installers, uninstallers, and the like. Today there is an Application folder where you keep most of your apps. Tomorrow, they will all exist in the folder-less entity, the Launchpad.

So then, what is the “desktop” good for, if you don’t use it to install apps, and files are stored within the applications themselves?

As for the Mission Control feature, all I can say is that it looks like a bridge technology. It isn’t the destination, but it will help us get there. It’s far to dependent on gestures, which didn’t demo terribly well in the keynote presentation. People understand (some) 2-finger swipes. 3 or 4 is too over the top. Sorta like keyboard shortcuts. Good for power users, and that’s about it.

The future is Touch.

Between the design of the new full-screen apps, the Launchpad, and focus on switching between applications in Mission Control, what I’m noticing is an entire lack of on-screen controls that wouldn’t work well with a touch interface. That is to say, Apple is not taking advantage of the high precision and capability of a mouse and cursor.

Apple has mentioned multiple times that you can’t slap a touch screen onto a laptop and call it a day. And in the sense that your arm would get tired, I’d say they are right on the money. But when they say the future of laptops and desktops is to be used with a disconnected Magic Trackpad of some kind … that’s a whole lot of misdirection.

Apple has to have something they are working on that will let you touch the screen of a desktop or laptop in an ergonomic sort of way. What it is, and how it works is anyone’s guess. But it won’t be your traditional laptop form, desktop form, or even tablet form. It will be something new, something unexpected, and I can’t wait to see it.

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31
Aug 10

Word v Pages

If you can’t get excited about your word processor, stop reading now. But if you can get excited, Betalogue offers a great side-by-side compairson of Microsoft Word and Apple’s take on the classic word processor, Pages:

“In Word 2008, you have at least three different ways of viewing the same information (the style[s] of the current selection), i.e. a palette, a toolbar control, and a dialog box, and none of them is able to provide any useful information. In addition, each of them provides a difference piece of false information!”

Lots of screen shots. Good write up. Check it out.

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