February 2012
1 post
“Indifference towards people and the reality in which they live is actually the...”
– Dieter Rams
October 2011
1 post
September 2011
2 posts
2 tags
'Systems architects' →
Great design and user experience must obey a system.
Alan Kay:
People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.
Steve Jobs, on Apple’s Q4 2010 Analyst Conference Call:
[Q: Why do you think you have an advantage on the price point for iPad versus PC manufacturers?]
I think part of it is because we engineer so much of it ourselves. The A4 chip inside it is...
“The lesson the world should take from Apple is that a company needs to become...”
– Horace Dediu
May 2011
1 post
2 tags
“It took cars 40 years to replace the horse, the CD took just 15 years to replace...”
– Mike O’Donnell
March 2011
4 posts
1 tag
“[…] but the great skill that Steve has is he’s a great designer. Everything at...”
– John Sculley on Steve Jobs
The class I'd like to teach →
Jason Fried:
It would be a writing course. Every assignment would be delivered in five versions: A three page version, a one page version, a three paragraph version, a one paragraph version, and a one sentence version.
I don’t care about the topic. I care about the editing. I care about the constant refinement and compression. I care about taking three pages and turning it one page. Then from...
2 tags
Marco Arment on Apple's ecosystem
On the topic of ecosystems, Marco said it best:
It’s not just a matter of interface design. Apple has built an entire ecosystem to support and enrich the iPad for both customers and developers. To be competitive, a newcomer to the tablet software market needs to replicate or sidestep the need for nearly all of Apple’s major efforts, including synchronization of media and data with Windows PCs...
2 tags
Apple's ecosystem and ineffable design stance
Andy Ihnatko:
2) You will indeed need to copy one thing: the iPad’s ecosystem.
Don’t just hand a user a tablet and then say “Good luck with that; tell us how everything works out.” No. You need to give them apps, and content, you’ll need to provide people with other devices that work well with it. Apple left nothing to chance: they released the iPad with a whole suite of slick, affordable...
September 2010
3 posts
1 tag
Getting Made The Scorsese Way →
GQ:
Twenty years after the release of GoodFellas, the good people behind it—Scorsese, Liotta, De Niro!—re-create the making of the truest, bloodiest, greatest gangster film of all time
“Today something which is not timeless is obsolete, longevity is one of the most...”
– Philippe Starck
2 tags
Alex Payne's Twitter catharsis →
Alex Payne:
The call for a decentralized Twitter speaks to deeper motives than profit: good engineering and social justice. Done right, a decentralized one-to-many communications mechanism could boast a resilience and efficiency that the current centralized Twitter does not. Decentralization isn’t just a better architecture, it’s an architecture that resists censorship and the corrupting...
August 2010
2 posts
2 tags
Simon Sinek on leadership →
Sinek starts with “Why?”:
Because there are leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders hold a position of power or authority. But those who lead inspire us. Whether they’re individuals or organizations, we follow those who lead, not because we have to, but because we want to. We follow those who lead, not for them, but for ourselves. And it’s those who start with...
“Nolan’s dreams have the sharp edges of Escher, not the syrup drips of Dalí.”
– Geoff Boucher
July 2010
6 posts
3 tags
What Apple needs to do now →
Adam Greenfield on skeuomorphic iOS apps:
I want to use the strongest language here. This is a terribly disappointing renunciation of possibility on Apple’s part, a failure to articulate an interface-design vocabulary as “futuristic” as, and harmonious with, the formal vocabulary of the physical devices themselves. One of the deepest principles of interaction design I observe is that, except in...
“We’re Apple. We don’t wear suits. We don’t even own suits.”
– Bad Connection: Inside the iPhone Network Meltdown
2 tags
Twitterrific 3: Less, but better →
The pixel-pushers at the Iconfactory are betting on the big picture for their third iteration of the earliest Twitter app, building a holistic and consistent language on top of iOS and OS X. Back to basics and more determined than ever, they have executed with simplicity and elegance, reducing the app to its bare essentials. At a glance, it’s instantly familiar, but as soon as you tap...
1 tag
Make Opinionated Software →
37signals:
Your app should take sides
Some people argue software should be agnostic. They say it’s arrogant for developers to limit features or ignore feature requests. They say software should always be as flexible as possible.
We think that’s bullshit. The best software has a vision. The best software takes sides. When someone uses software, they’re not just looking for...
“My definition of a stupid person. A stupid person is a person who treats a smart...”
– Errol Morris
2 tags
“The iPhone 4 is an object of rare beauty. Noticeably slimmer but a trifle...”
– Stephen Fry reviews the iPhone 4
June 2010
1 post
May 2010
3 posts
Andy Ihnatko on The Pipeline →
Dan Benjamin:
In Episode 13 of The Pipeline, I talk with Andy Ihnatko, noted author, columnist at The Chicago Sun Times and Macworld, a regular on Mac Break Weekly, and Apple geek extraordinaire. We discuss writing, being on TV, inspiration, authenticity, of course Apple, and much more.
Great interview with one if not my favorite personality. Dan is doing a terrific job with 5by5.
“We are human beings; our first responses to anything are dominated not by...”
– Stephen Fry
2 tags
Designing for iPad: Reality Check →
iA:
On a computer we have to take in account that the user physically operates between keyboard and mouse, while visually he moves between monitor, OS, app window and the inner visual order of the window. On the iPad, eye and hand movement are brought together and held captive within a massive black frame.
March 2010
4 posts
“By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it....”
– Franz Kafka
1 tag
52 Weeks of UX →
What Makes the User Experience:
The user experience is made up of all the interactions a person has with your brand, company, or organization. This may include interactions with your software, your web site, your call center, an advertisement, with a sticker on someone else’s computer, with a mobile application, with your Twitter account, with you over email, maybe even face-to-face. The sum...
“There’s a really simple tip almost everybody can use to increase productivity...”
– Lukas Mathis
February 2010
5 posts
2 tags
Old World vs. New World Computing →
Read the whole thing. I’m not going to spoil it for you.
You’re welcome.
3 tags
For the life between buildings - some notes on the... →
Thus the iPad to me feels more like a product for third places rather than a third product. Its form factor and service model is defined for in-between spaces. Although it will float around the home and the office perfectly well, it comes into its own in these third spaces in a way that that phone and laptop cannot, being either too small or too large respectively.
[…]
But what do they...
Shaun Inman on the Mimeoverse →
Before I get to Mimeo, I want to address my love of pixels. The aesthetics of Mimeo (and Horror Vacui before it) are not born solely from nostalgia. Good pixel art strikes the perfect balance between appreciable craftsmanship and the gestalt. A single pixel out of place, one too few or too many, ruins the illusion. There’s an unmuddied, economy of expression, the thankless result of the...
2 tags
Adaptation →
Adam Lisagor:
I think you’re going to find that the interaction model of the Mac OS exists specifically because you have a keyboard and a trackpad below your screen, and those two instruments allow for refined movements within a dense display of information. What the iPhone OS has done is to allow for the removal of that layer of abstraction, and let us touch our information with our actual...
2 tags
A message to the Internets regarding the iPad →
Michael Pusateri:
Well, I am lucky enough to have been at the Apple Event today. Deep within the Reality Distortion Field. I saw the demo live, not snap shots on a web site. I got to use the iPad and see how it worked in person. I talked with other people that had tried it.
And you know what, just like Steve Jobs said, you need to hold it for yourself.
Via DF.
January 2010
8 posts
1 tag
‘A String of Masterpieces’ →
Gruber:
About his work Kubrick is the most self-conscious and rational of men. His eccentricities — secretiveness, a great need for privacy — are caused by his intense awareness of time’s relentless passage. He wants to use time to “create a string of masterpieces”, as an acquaintance puts it. Social status means nothing to him, money is simply a tool of his trade.
Reminds me of someone else.
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Why Tumblr is kicking Posterous’s ass →
Design always prevails. Via Daring Fireball.
1 tag
“And so in answer to my central question, regarding why buy The Tablet if you...”
– John Gruber
2 tags
“But the human need for shelter is lasting. Architecture has never been idle. Its...”
– The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (Via Palola)
4 tags
2 tags
1 tag
December 2009
11 posts
1 tag
“The larger the group, the more toxic, the more of your beauty as an individual...”
– George Carlin (via marco)
1 tag
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A Not-So-Brief Chat With Randall Stephenson →
Fake Steve at his finest.
2 tags
1 tag
Alex Payne on Criticism →
The reason a person is critical of a thing is because he is passionate about that thing. In order to have a critical opinion, you have to love something enough to understand it, and then love it so much more that you want it to be better. Passion breeds critical thinking. It’s why criticism as an academic practice comes out of deep research and obsession, and why criticism as a cultural product...
1 tag
