Tag apple

Entries 6 Total

design decisions & ambiguity

Nov 1, ’11 2:56 AM

Daring Fireball on Android hardware buttons;

Looks like they’re trying to fix this starting with the Galaxy Nexus by eliminating the hardware buttons but drawing them on-screen in the OS. Presumably, a future API revision could allow for apps that don’t need these buttons. Anyway, agree with his criticism of these two buttons completely. The Back button taking me somewhere unexpected was perhaps my single-biggest complaint both times I tested an Android phone.

I agree, the designed ambiguity of the ‘back’ button is infuriating, mostly in the android app I created myself!  I’m no programmer, I’m much more of a hacker (which doesn’t help either), but I’m never clear as a user when to hit the home button or the back button (or both).  Home sometimes doesn’t kill an app — why?

Even better though, it goes on to outline a key difference between the apple and google design models;

The other lesson: the importance of getting things right, from the outset. If you’re designing just an app, you can fix many design errors later; if you’re designing an app platform, though, it’s hard to fix system-wide design errors without breaking existing apps.

This doesn’t mean get it right the first time, every time.  It means you should only go to market when you’ve tested your product so thoroughly (iterating over and over again) and can say with complete certainty that not shipping it now is not good enough.

Constantly shipping unfinished, beta software products fools you into thinking you can do the same with hardware.  Unfinished software thinking, applied to hardware, will only result in long term grief (especially if you’re relying on OEMs to provide your hardware for you).

I can only point to the iPod/iTunes experience and years of testing that allowed Apple to say, with certainty, that this v1 product was ready to be released. Google, on the other hand, only had google.com and a long running suite of software products to go by.  Big difference.

 

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iOS 5 imposes minor feature limitations on iPhone 3GS, 3G owners still bitter

Oct 29, ’11 4:32 AM

iOS 5 imposes minor feature limitations on iPhone 3GS, 3G owners still bitter

via Engadget.

Still bitter.

Take a look at this Android OS update chart for comparison — the iPhone 3G was released just over 3 years ago, and now has been dropped for OS updates and support.  They’re still functional, just not with the new iOS.  By comparison, the Google Nexus One is no longer supported for the OS updates, and it was released just last year!  The full chart is a sad story, I for one own an use an android handset, it’s a paltry UX with fragmented app store, little or no documentation for what my version of android (and flavour, for that matter) offers and how I might upgrade should I choose to.  I recall an old line from Steve Jobs on Android (a little off topic now), about how Android forced the user to solve these small problems themselves, and that Apple felt the best user experience would be reached by Apple taking the role of systems integrator.

I’m all for it.  As a user — I want to forget more and focus on the things I care about.  Getting my work done, getting in contact with loved ones, keeping my things in order — the usual things.  Which mix of hardware/software am I on?  With Android I have no idea!   The tools at my disposal are so poorly designed it almost doesn’t even matter.

 

 

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shut up and ship

Oct 29, ’11 3:59 AM

I came across this post on Binary Bonsai earlier today, mainly focussing on Microsoft Office’s new Vision video (see below).  Michael’s response is fairly gentle, nudging MS and noting how far from reality the future visioning tends to be

The latest is the Productivity Future Vision from the Office division, which like all their videos, looks great (and probably would interact horrible in a real-world scenario):

I suspect these videos are made not only by outside agencies (if you know different, let me know), but entirely by graphic designers who dream about interaction design, but never had to realize their ideas in the real world.

I’m feeling much less generous when looking at this finely crafted, shiny vision piece.  It’s clear that MS has an eye to the future potential of technologies like touch, tablets and the ‘big data’, but it’s so far removed from the reality of what they’re actually producing.  Frank mentioned to me the other day something that’s worth noting here — Apple doesn’t create concept videos for future products.  They don’t make ambitious future vision style images of the future — they just make great products that people can use today.  The magic of it is that these products push us a great deal towards a different future, but they don’t bother trying to impress us with their vision, rather they do everything possible to impress us with what their vision has lead them to create.

It’s a world apart, the two approaches.  Shut up and ship, Microsoft.  If this is the future, create it.  We’ll love you for it, but not if you never bother following through with this vision.

On another note, I have to say the similarities between this vision and the amazing work BERG London have been producing in the last few years is striking.  Here’s a few BERG visioning pieces that have, in my view, been quite influential in shaping the future of products and interaction.  Well done, lads.

 

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Talk to me

Oct 20, ’11 2:40 PM

As usual, Apple’s approach to introducing new-ish technology is to highlight it acting as a human enabler.  Vision impairment?  Here’s the thing for you;

There’s lots of hype (both positive and negative) on the web about Siri, about how it’s an amazing new interface type and how that changes the way we interact with technology.  Of course, there are nay-sayers who would rightly point out that it’s old technology and Apple are claiming to break new ground where others have already been.  Nevertheless, I’m curious to see it in action (youtube videos aside), especially in helping to connect humans to each other, in new, simplified and transparent ways.

This video posted by Ben Bashford made me smile, and gave me reason to track down another, more recent version, from the IT crowd.  Enjoy!

 

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start with the customer experience

Oct 12, ’11 5:47 AM

So cogent, so clear.  Steve Jobs at the 1997 WWDC closing Q&A session.

You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backward to the technology.  you can’t start with the technology, and try to figure out where you’re going to sell it.  When we came up with a strategy and a vision for apple, it started with — what incredible benefits can we give to the customer? I think that’s the right path. 

User experience at the core of any new idea.  And there’s more. 

There is so much more headroom to make the networked world we live in so much more productive, so much easier, and so much more fun than it is now.  That we know how to do, it’s not research, we know how to do this.  To bet on the next 5 years on the results of research [Steve's talking about voice recognition and agent based software], to bet our next 5 years on research would be foolish.  So the core of our strategy is to take advantage of the dramatic headroom to make this connected world so much more productive for the rest of us.

Via Daring Fireball

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As noted elsewhere #3

Sep 24, ’11 9:37 AM

Facebook Profiles

It seems that lately MG Siegler is all hyped up over the new Facebook profiles feature. We’re yet to see it in action, but there certainly seems to be a decent amount of google bashing over +.  I’m not convinced there’s a place for + in my social calendar, but we’ll see.

Panic — the story of Audion

The makings of an empire as told by a close observer.  This sparked fond memories of tooling around in winAMP visualisation generator, it’s amazing to hear how clear and focussed Jobs was back then.

 

Where the wild things are

via fyd

Samuel L Ipsum

 

It really does seem like quirky lorem ipsum generators are all the rage right now.  Each week I hear of a new one, so far there’s been hipster ipsum, vegan ipsum, bogan ipsum and now we have Samuel L Ipsum.

 

 3D Archi-text by Chris Labroy

Chris Labroy has produced some incredible 3D renderings inspired by famous architects, like Tadao Ando, Zaha Hadid and Oscar Niemeyer.

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