The latest posts tagged with “Design”
Thursday — May 24, 2012
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Design
UI
UX
interface
howto
explanation
definition
example
cereal
datacenter
subtle
1 note
The wallpaper in my hotel room. No, not the lobby. Not the bar. Not the pool or fitness area. In my room.
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ladybug
design
decor
decorating
photography
Not design, but intent
I’ve been reading a lot of riffs lately comparing the upcoming ribbon toolbar in Windows 8 Explorer to the current minimalist design of the Finder in Mac OS X. From most Apple-focused pundits, they view it as a failing of design. They point out that most typical users can arguably achieve the same results on a Mac without 137 different mousable actions. Microsoft must be mired in groupthink and is therefore is unable to winnow out the unneeded elements.
I think they’re making some correct aesthetic assessments, but for the wrong underlying reasons. (I’m looking at you Gruber, Marks, Dalrymple, etc.)
Yes, Apple has less menu items, buttons, whatever in their Finder interface… but not because “it looks good” or for any other aesthetic. They put less in the Finder because they think the user shouldn’t have to be aware of the functionality at all. Just look at the Auto-Save and Versions capabilities introduced with Lion. If Apple has its way, you shouldn’t have to worry about saving a document/file. It should simply be automatic.
This is even more clearly evident in the iOS devices. The user has zero ability to interact with the underlying filesystem at all.
Microsoft is taking the completely opposite tack with Explorer. They don’t want to hide filesystem operations from the user… they’re actually trying to expose more of the commands and actions.
You know what’s more confusing/time-wasting/frustrating than having a lot of items to choose from? Having none when you know what you want has got to be there somewhere.
And so this all comes down to compromise. Apple’s compromise is that they cannot give regular users their perfect vision of UI… yet. As far as power users go, they can fall back on the UNIX command-line.
Microsoft is, I think, in some ways actually closer to their perfect vision. They want everyone to be power users and are willing to make buttons out of anything to do it.
Believe it or not, I don’t even know who I want to be right.
I do think that the entire point of computers is to alleviate the need for us to perform redundant, simple tasks. Why should any novice user even care what a file is at the disk level?
I also get that something as trivial as deciding who to share one’s photos with has a range of repercussions at the OS level. Maximizing the performance of such intentions can frequently require an in-depth understanding of what’s actually happening on the network, in the OS, on the disk.
I like this kind of competition. Both sides have merits and both have drawbacks. It all comes down to dealing with people, but defining who those people are - or, more correctly, who they will be - is the real challenge.
I can’t wait to see where this all ends up 10 years from now.
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apple
microsoft
finder
explorer
design
intent
43 notes
Dell’s new laptop - the XPS 15z - puts new meaning to the term “minimalistic design” when shown next to a 15” Apple MacBook Pro.
Where Apple expends much design energy to pare down their device to its most minimum form, it appears that Dell simply does as minimal a design effort as they can muster to get a form they hope is close enough to fool folks that don’t know better.
Seriously, every picture in this comparison photo essay by Engadget shows where Dell has made numerous compromises, and not for the better. The photo I chose for this post notably illustrates that the XPS 15z has:
- visible, prominent screws
- a thicker case (or is that maybe just taller foot pads on the bottom?)
- a blingy bezel
- the opposite of a close-fitting lid
And then they try to claim they’re actually competitive just because they matched price… man, those marketing guys have no shame.
Ugh… it certainly doesn’t help that they’re still festooning this turd with those crappy Windows and Intel logos either.
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engadget
dell
xps
apple
macbook pro
mbp
comparison
photos
laptops
aluminum
design
minimalism
27 notes
“We must never mistake freedom for creativity - they are two totally different things - because it is the limitations that allow us to be creative.” — Walter de Silva, head of Volkswagon’s design team, talks about the Leica M9.
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creativity,
leica
design
quote
Award-winning design using silver coins to advertise a set of travel books.
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rough guides
advert
coins
silver
award
penguin
design
I see you, iconic promotional unit.
First: No, I ain’t ever gonna pay five bones to have my avatar/icon meander thru some dang list for an arbitrary amount of time just in case someone likes it enough to try and follow me. And since I’m not running any Google ads, what do I care how many followers I got?
Second: Holy crap, I thought it was an April Fool’s joke… but if it is, then Tumblr’s dedicated to it because it knows your flavor of credit card (Visa, MC, AMEX) and can deduce the checksum on the fly.
Third: This is perhaps the single best implementation of a credit card info prompt I’ve ever seen. It’s almost worth $5 to me to see what’s on the other side of that Next button.
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iconic promotional unit
$5
avatar
credit card
dialog
interface
design
ui
hci
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Blackwork Prints
(via BibliOdyssey)
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compass
rose
corwinian saur
print
design
art
2 notes
Information Resolution on the Windows Phone 7 Series →
Clean and elegant interface design is about much more than colors, space, and typography. It’s about getting out of the way and letting people achieve their goals quickly, efficiently, and intuitively.
Luke Wroblewski, design architect at Yahoo!, explains how Windows Phone 7 Series is already in danger of running off the track and into the ditch.
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7 series
comparison
design
windows phone
interface
ipod
app store
photos
navigation
Airline boarding passes (and receipts in general) aren’t just ugly, they’re hard to understand. Here’s how to fix ‘em.
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fast company
boarding passes
receipts
design
usability
3 notes
The real evolutionary chart of Pepsi and Coca-Cola logos. Coke hasn’t been sitting static at all. It’s just that their last major typographical update appears to have been made in the 1940’s (if you don’t count New Coke… and I don’t).
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pepsi,
advertisements,
coke
cola
design
logos
history
Rizk Auto
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rizk
auto
design
speed racer
want
Five new limited-edition Coca-Cola can designs for summer.
(via bad banana blog)
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coke
coca-cola
design
cans
summer
1 note
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smashing magazine
design
logo
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smashing magazine
design
logo
