Simply put, this is why I build the vast majority of what I design.
The more parts of the project you can influence with your skills, the more you are able to [innovate].
Jeff Croft, Why I’m a hybrid. (Like a Liger. Or a Tigon. Or a Prius.)
[+] Open the Meta Bar Tag: design. There are 151 posts tagged design. Open the Meta Bar to choose a different tag.
The article is about the new Magic Trackpad, but the quote references design for touchscreen devices. Dave Caolo at 52 Tiger referenced it in an article on the difference between introducing new users to a touch interface versus a point-click interface. Both are excellent reads.
If the appropriate action is obvious to the user, the time actually required for that user to tap the proper spot on the screen is miniscule. Confusion about where to tap wastes far more time than an extra tap.
David Barnard, The Magic Trackpad is Just a Better Mouse
07/30/10
The developer in me only would’ve tested 45 shades of blue. The designer in me would’ve used orange. I don’t know how I get any work done.
But, seriously, good challenge. The norm of the web industry is to integrate multiple disciplines (dev, copy, design) into a finished product. Open source software is a glaring omission to this norm.
I believe it’s partially the developer’s fault as well. Maybe, in this 20 years of engineering championing, we pushed too hard on the designer or the writer. It’s like at colleges where the liberal arts don’t hold as much weight as a bachelor of sciences. That sort of thinking has persisted through careers. Perhaps we’ve backed all of you into a corner and you’re pissed at us because Google has 47 blues tested. I get it.
Kenny Meyers, Where are the open source designers? copywriters? information architects? interface designers?
07/29/10
This is Why Digital Publishing Can’t Have Nice Things
07/25/10
We’ll get there. I have confidence in this. But seriously, even in the interim, how is the above acceptable?
I’m making my way through the first full-length book that I’ll read entirely in digital form, in this case on my iPhone. On the whole, the experience has been decent. I don’t mind the digital screen—it doesn’t strain my eyes. I don’t mind “turning” the page more often. I love being able to highlight, add notes, add bookmarks and have everything be easily tracked. But I lament the loss of good book design.
Panasonic Note
07/19/10
Absolutely brilliant packaging for Pansonic’s Note headphones by Scholz & Friends in Germany.
100 Years Of Propaganda
07/01/10
An interesting look at the last century of political/war propaganda around the world. I’d love to see a collection of non-war propaganda. I think a lot of advertising (especially in the political and non-profit realm borders on propaganda. The distinction is that the propaganda has to intend to mislead, not simply persuade/influence.
Houston Hi-Tech in a Small Space
06/04/10
This apartment is all of 500 square feet, but it’s absolutely stunning. Chris Nguyen has an amazing attention to detail. I could move in tomorrow and I wouldn’t want to change a thing.
Be sure to click Enter the Tech Tour for lots of great photos.
How To Design A Two-Room Apartment With Style
05/02/10
I have a small apartment (smaller than this one, believe it or not). I wish my place looked half as good as this. I’ve got some work to do.
I think he’s right. A lot of consumers are now looking for craft, longevity, sustainability, and, in a general sense, quality in the products they buy. I’m not usually a fan of romanticizing the past, but in this case natural materials and good craftsmanship often trump shoddy fabrication and synthetics—and more people are starting to seek items produced in this fashion.
There is a resurgence in discovering or rediscovering heritage brands of late — the craftspeople who create items in what’s considered old-fashioned methods: by hand with simpler tools as old as the business itself and with materials that respect the world in which they inhabit.
This is good design.
Naz Hamid, Blades
05/01/10
He goes on to talk about making an “investment in space” – I really like that term. The reason most things end up too cluttered is because it’s easier than creating space. Doing the hard work to eliminate, curate, and plan out a good use of space truly is an investment.
Whether you know it or not, you’re designing on a visual budget. How much you’ve got to play with depends on the nature of your content and your audience. Always ask yourself, “how much attention span do I have left to spend?” Don’t get greedy and try to fit more in. You’re almost always on a tighter visual budget than you’d think.
Rob Morris, A Case for Space
04/12/10
Gowalla for iPad
04/09/10
I’m a big Gowalla fan. It’s a gorgeous app and the icon (they call them items) gaming element is what hooked me.
I’m also incredibly excited to start designing apps for Apple’s new iPad. If you’re a ui/ux designer and you’re not excited, you probably haven’t seen this thing in person yet.
Keegan Jones from Gowalla posted a set of behind-the-scenes photos of their new app for the iPad. It’s beautiful—and it takes me places in my head: what will a Facebook app for this device look like? How about a recipe app, or schematics for repairing stuff? If you can dream up something for this incredible 10-inch screen, you can make it happen in a way that you couldn’t on either the desktop or a mobile phone. And that is why I’m so excited.
(feel free to stalk follow me)
The New Carbonmade(.com)
04/06/10
- Fact 1: Unicorns make it better.
- Fact 2: Dave Gorum is good at making the internet.
I did a stint at the beginning of the year helping out the amazing Carbonmade guys (and have another one coming up shortly). It was fun to watch Dave cook up their new marketing site as I was working on other stuff. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you owe it to yourself to take a look. Carbonmade is a web app that serves up online portfolios for its users, but the site is wonderfully unlike every other web app site out there, and that’s kind of the point.
As designers we could improve a lot of things by taking this idea to heart: the human experience is dominated by feeling.
We are human beings; our first responses to anything are dominated not by calculations but by feelings. What Ive and his team understand is that if you have an object in your pocket or hand for hours every day, then your relationship with it is profound, human and emotional.
Stephen Fry, The iPad Launch: Can Steve Jobs Do It Again?
04/03/10
Alan van Roemburg
03/31/10
I think I ran across Alan’s work because he followed me on Twitter. His stuff is beautiful – especially his marks and icon illustrations. I also love his simple, grid-tastic site.
Pete Usborne
03/19/10
I don’t remember how I cam across Pete Usborne’s site, but he has some of the most beautiful work I’ve seen in a while.
super_furry
03/18/10
This guy’s name isn’t even on his Flickr profile, but I’ve fallen in love with his hand-drawn typography and mark design. Excellent stuff. There’s some good illustration in there too.
(via @lifterbaron)
Blogoliolio
by Ben Newman
03/16/10
Illustrator Ben Newman has a fun, colorful style and he shares a lot of his work on his blog. I especially love his character development.
(via @lifterbaron)
Behind Tweety Got Back
03/15/10
Over the last year I had the honor of sharing office space with the Tweety Got Back crew. They are simple wonderful, and so is their new site. If you’re on Twitter and don’t have a fun theme set up, go grab one. They’ve made it ridiculously easy.
The State of The Internet
by JESS3
03/02/10
As always, I’m a sucker for good info-graphics and good motion-graphics. Put the two together and you’ve really got me.
You have to watch this a couple times to really internalize some of the numbers. In particular, Facebook’s overall dominance is simply staggering.
(via @micah)
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