I spent some time last night tweaking my drawing toy. I still need to work on adding a script to isolate areas of the composition to add definition to. So that I can get areas with more abstract lines and areas with more detail. But in general I’m happy with where it’s going.
The original:
Saw this on Engadget and had to post… If your robotic supercop needs to load a “config.sys” file of any kind, run for the hills!
I love seeing old computer interfaces-of-the-future. In fact, Brandon and I had this idea somewhere between Colorado and St. Louis back in 2004: a compendium of past futuristic computer interfaces with accompanying video clips. Licensing nightmare for sure, but it would be my favorite book. From the steampunk knobs and dials of Le Voyage dans la Lune to the blinking nondescript lights of Star Wars to the gestural interface of Minority Report, it would be a great way to track evolution of the computer interface imagination-space.
This has gotten a lot of attention lately, but I think it’s worth a re-post. So sexy.
Digging in the Crates from WE AIN’T PLASTIC on Vimeo.
More screens, more fun. More channels, more touch-points and a more connected, integrated experience. Not just with board-games…
I could do without the goofy bevel and fake wood. But I love the idea of turning the iPad into a rapid prototyping companion. Now if we could only get a stylus, front facing camera and standard USB connector…
He hits all of the major points that plague bad application design. Great read for anyone aspiring to design applications – or even reasonably complex interfaces.
Last week Mulvey and I were talking about the mental fork created by Apple’s app strategy. Specifically, I mentioned I sometimes get confused when I want to “switch” my context from one thing on my iPhone to another – I’ll hit the home button and search for an app if I’m looking for a web page or vice versa. This usually results in me leaving mobile Safari by hitting the home button, only to quickly realize my mistake and relaunch mobile Safari. A mental hiccup that isn’t a big deal, but is annoying nonetheless.
I just read a report on macRumors that states:
Between the developers I spoke to, the consensus was this: Apple doesn’t appear to be opposed to ‘app generators’ and templates per se, but in the last month or so it has started cracking down on basic applications that are little more than RSS feeds or glorified business cards. In short, Apple doesn’t want people using native applications for things that a basic web app could accomplish.
Good! Of course I would never sacrifice the amazing interactive experiences that native apps provide, but do the Huffington Post and NYT really need the speed and power of a native app to accomplish what their apps really do vs a full-web experience?
I have no problem with Apple guiding app builders and leading the strategic direction apps should take. Especially if they’re able to clean up the little mental hiccups that occur along the way.
(from combustion)
Edward Tufte Presidential Appointment
I will be serving on the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel. This Panel advises The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, whose job is to track and explain $787 billion in recovery stimulus funds:
“The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board was created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 with two goals:
- To provide transparency in relation to the use of Recovery-related funds.
- To prevent and detect fraud, waste, and mismanagement.
”
…I’m doing this because I like accountability and transparency, and I believe in public service. And it is the complete opposite of everything else I do. Maybe I’ll learn something. The practical consequence is that I will probably go to Washington several days each month, in addition to whatever homework and phone meetings are necessary.
As the TV wars heat up – to see more check out Method’s recent 10×10 article – more dumb stuff like this is going to happen. This is what I see when I turn on channel 7 (ABC in my market).
Walk by anyone’s desk at my office and you’ll see TweetDeck running or minimized in the background. It started as a great piece of software for the hardcore Twitterer and has matured into a pretty good social feed aggregator. I never really loved the UI though. It’s treatment of the chicklet buttons across the top always seemed to be an inelegant way to execute a button bar.
The other day I decided to incorporate social media feed monitoring into my daily routine (acquiescing is a more appropriate word) so naturally I popped open TweetDeck, but I started to feel the same “ho-hum” response I had when I first noticed the app. Yes they have a few new features, but the UI and experience of using the app has remained largely the same. It was then when I remembered Skimmer, the application built and distributed by Fallon and designed by Andy Gugel. I remember giving it a brief mention on this blog and promising to kick the tires a bit – which I’m now getting to.
Aside from the beautiful visual design of the application – with it’s strong use of a gridded structure and subtle tone-on-tone coloring – I really like how you can commingle the feed to incorporate all of your social accounts into one reverse-chron feed. You can also minimize the application into simply the feed as a widget (smaller footprint on your desktop). This feature is great. I know TweetDeck does that too, but I don’t like the way that TweetDeck’s minimized view is the same main application view – just resized to be smaller. It’s inelegant. Skimmer on the other hand actually repositions and re-imagines the UI for the smaller footprint.
So the bottom line is that I’m a Skimmer fan – great work Fallon and Andy. I prefer an application that (arguably) does less, is positioned as a great user experience rather than a hardcore workhorse, looks great and simplifies the process of interacting with its main objective over anything else.