Category: Reposts

Why do these devices work so well? The basic reason is that they were all developed with a deep understanding of the activities that were to be performed: call this Activity-Centered Design. Many were not even designed in the common sense of the term, rather, they evolved with time. Each new generation of builders slowly improved the product upon the previous generation, based on feedback from their own experiences as well as from their customers. Slow, evolutionary folk design. But even for those devices created by formal design teams, populated with people whose job title was “designer,” these designers used their own understanding of the activities to be performed to determine how the device would be operated. The users were supposed to understand the task and to understand the designers’ intentions.

If our work drains a user’s cognitive resources, what does he lose? What else could he have done with those scarce, precious, easily-depleted resources? Maybe he’s trying to stick with that diet. Or practice guitar. Or play with his kids.

That one new feature you added? That sparkly, Techcrunchable, awesome feature? What did it cost your user? If the result of your work consumes someone’s cognitive resources, they can’t use those resources for other things that truly, deeply matter. This is NOT about consuming their time and attention while they’re using your app. This is about draining their ability for logical thinking, problem-solving, and willpower after the clicking/swiping/gesturing is done. 

Google and Facebook give kids money if they manage to find and exploit security vulnerabilities in their systems. In schools we exclude kids for attempting to hack our systems. Is that right?

Familiar logos are like overly attentive suitors: They’re so naggingly present that their charms are lost to you–until, one day, they’re gone. Then you realize just how much you took a shine to that Gap, Tropicana, or American Airlines icon. The replacement logos only serve to remind you of what you liked before everything changed.

That’s how we usually react when a brand is overhauled–we notice only the “bad” redesigns. But occasionally, a company’s logo undergoes such a subtle transformation that it’s barely noticeable, even though if you were to compare the old and new, you’d see an actual improvement. That was the case with Mail Chimp’s recent revamp. The online marketing service commissioned graphic designer Jessica Hische to make their logo look more modern without drastically redirecting it. Writes Hische: “They just wanted a facelift–one of those classy facelifts that make your friends ask you if you’ve been sleeping better lately or lost some weight because you look like a more vivacious version of yourself and not like a different person.”

One of the most satisfying things about the iOS platform is the affordance and tactility of the interfaces which urge and woo you into touching them.

This is the most logical UI speculation about iOS7. Designers kept on making design speculations about the iOS7 UI and stuff. They forgot one thing, usability and clarity comes before making UI “look” good. 

In case of windows flat UI (Designers are in love with it, few even think its modern!), lack of affordance is the basic problem. Making something simple doesn’t mean making it minimalistic. Clearly while trying to reduce complexity and simple, Microsoft team took it way ahead and made it confusing.

Designers very often break a simple rule, they see how it looks and forget to check how it works.

Alcatraz is an open-source package manager for Xcode. It lets you discover and install plugins, templates and color schemes without the need for manually cloning or copying files. It installs itself as a part of Xcode and it feels like home.

Which isn’t to say that photography hasn’t changed over that period. Of course it has. The most popular camera in the world today isn’t even really a camera—it’s an iPhone.

Typography, I find, is still a bit of mystery to a lot of designers. The kind of typography I’m talking about is not your typical “What font should I use” typography but rather your “knowing your hanging punctuation from your em-dash” typography. Call me a little bit purist but this bothers me.
So, in an attempt to spread the word here’s the first of five simple steps to better typography. To kick it off, part one is about the Measure.

Typography is an huge field. People devote years of their lives to this ancient craft, and yet there’s always something new to learn.

Grab people by the heart. Make them remember who they are. Show them what they can be. Change their lives and exist forever in the ether.