Posts tagged design
Why Can’t PCs Work More Like iPhones?
Back in the dark ages of personal computing, if you wanted to look through the programs on your machine and, say, open a Microsoft Word document from the floppy drive, you would need to type a list of arcane commands that went something like this:
DIR *.EXE
MSWORD.EXE A:\REPORT.DOC
In an effort to win over less technical users, both Apple and Microsoft dumped that command-line interface for personal computers more than two decades ago, replacing it with visual icons for files, folders and applications. Over the years, they added animations and search technology and other features to make navigating a Mac or Windows PC even easier.
Yet all of the gloss and glitter doesn’t hide the fact that both operating systems are still pretty geeky and difficult for many computer users to navigate. I frequently get calls from family members asking why the font size on their Web browser suddenly changed or where they should look for the photos they have just downloaded from their digital camera.
I never get that kind of call about Apple’s iPhone.
» via The New York Times
Why You Can’t Pry IE6 Out Of Their Cold Dead Hands
Most web developers gnash their teeth at the thought of having to support their applications under Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 browser. IE6 isn’t standards-compliant, it’s insecure, and it does not play well with anything else on the web — especially the software you long to deploy. But a minority of companies still use IE6, to developers’ consternation.
I began to wonder: Why? I found myself curious about the reasons a company might hang onto the old browser despite all its bad press. It would be easy to cop an attitude (and most developers whom I asked about this issue had a violent emotional response). But my motivation was not meant to evaluate anybody’s reasons, only to learn them. This is not because I am a kind and understanding person who is above petty whinging like, “What the heck is wrong with those people?!” but in an effort to listen to the user before designing software for them. You can’t solve people-problems unless you understand the users’ reasons. You can’t sell someone on your strategy unless you know what holds them back. (I simply whine later, to myself.)
Granted, in some businesses it would seem like there isn’t a big rush to change, as Microsoft has said that “Both IE6 and IE7 will continue to be supported with Windows XP. They will continue to be supported until the end of support for Windows XP on April 8, 2014.” Yet, vendors are (finally, some would mutter) dropping support for IE6, and that trend can only continue. So I asked for input from people who work in companies that are still standardized on Internet Explorer 6 why they do so — with some results that surprised me.
» via IT Expert Voice
Advertising is the price companies pay for being un-original.
The future of magazines? We don’t know. But those are some very interesting interaction patterns here in this video by Bonnier R&D.
Above is “A Graphic Language For Touch” (Timo Arnall, 2005) which hopes to visually represent different interactions between information and physical objects or spaces. Using a universal set of symbols would be ideal, except the technologies are not yet standardized. If RFID were to become mainstream, imagine one of these graphics placed on an in-store object or in a taxi cab.
Apple iPad and the Radical Innovation of Meaning
OK, if iPad is innovating meaning even more than it is technology, what meaning might that be? Here’s my best guess:
iPad is tapping into an emerging dynamic of a more interactive, tactile experience with digital technology and information. These interactions make technology less of an interface, and more of an extension of ourselves and our environment.
The tweets above are a couple that show the natural way children engage with technology. Given the iPhone experience, they turn around and want to apply it to other devices. Buttons on devices, our traditional form of interaction, are divorced from the screen. They provide a measure of distance from the digital experience.
Touch, however, represents a new level of intimacy in the digital experience. In technology terms, it’s just an alternative form of interface. Touch, mouse, tab, whatever. But touch is a vital human sense, and a core part of experience. It’s how we interact with others, how we shop, experience textures and so much more.
» via I’m Not Actually a Geek
The iPad Solves the E-reader's Design Problems
With few exceptions, makers of e-readers are still failing to address the bigger problem, which remains the creation, distribution, and monetization of content. When it arrived, the iPod was more than a music player; it revolutionized music sales. Similarly, a successful e-reader will need to be more than a compelling interface (which the Kindle severely lacks); it will need to introduce a whole new way of thinking about what’s onscreen and how it will get there. The questions haven’t changed: Who will pay for content? How much are people willing to pay for it? Will advertising continue to be the core of content business models? Will some sort of pay wall work? How will content be shared or restricted?
» via GOOD
Steve Jobs and the Economics of Elitism
Great products, according to Mr. Jobs, are triumphs of “taste.” And taste, he explains, is a byproduct of study, observation and being steeped in the culture of the past and present, of “trying to expose yourself to the best things humans have done and then bring those things into what you are doing.”
His is not a product-design philosophy steered by committee or determined by market research. The Jobs formula, say colleagues, relies heavily on tenacity, patience, belief and instinct. He gets deeply involved in hardware and software design choices, which await his personal nod or veto. Mr. Jobs, of course, is one member of a large team at Apple, even if he is the leader. Indeed, he has often described his role as a team leader. In choosing key members of his team, he looks for the multiplier factor of excellence. Truly outstanding designers, engineers and managers, he says, are not just 10 percent, 20 percent or 30 percent better than merely very good ones, but 10 times better. Their contributions, he adds, are the raw material of “aha” products, which make users rethink their notions of, say, a music player or cellphone.
“Real innovation in technology involves a leap ahead, anticipating needs that no one really knew they had and then delivering capabilities that redefine product categories,” said David B. Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School. “That’s what Steve Jobs has done.”
» via The New York Times
The engineers and I handle customer support. When I tell people that, they look at me like I’m smoking crack. They say, “Why would you pay an engineer $150,000 to answer phones when you could pay someone in Arizona $8 an hour?” If you make the engineers answer e-mails and phone calls from the customers, the second or third time they get the same question, they’ll actually stop what they’re doing and fix the code. Then we don’t have those questions anymore.
— The Way I Work: Paul English of Kayak (via soxiam) (via superamit) (via joshmohrer) (via arigreenberg) (via mikehudack)
Google doesn’t index design! I mean, stop and think about that for a minute: Google doesn’t index design.
If print is dead then this is a very long goodbye
And the pace of change will only get greater: the most heard client request last year? ‘Can you show me what it will look like on an iPhone?’ Not many of them say ‘I know, let’s do this as a limited edition foil blocked book’.
There’s probably now a clear age-divide over print versus digital. Designers over 35 were drawn into the profession by traditional means – album covers, posters and club flyers, messing about in the screenprinting department at school. Generation Y (or whatever letter we’re up to now) has been using and abusing Powerpoint for a decade at school or dabbled with their MySpace backgrounds. ‘Album covers’ are now 50 pixel-wide pictures on their iPods, not gatefold cardboard experiences. Digital ‘stuff’ is home, not away and it’s unlikely that they’re drawn to design via traditional means. ‘Doing a nice bit of print’ is more a creative curiosity rather than a craving.
» via Thought for the week
Original Content — Copyright © 2010
Christopher D. Barth.
Excerpted Content — Copyright held by the original publisher. Email copyright inquiries.
