Few people accomplish in their entire lifetime what Steve Jobs accomplished in half of one. Rest in peace, Steve.
Disappointed
I’m not. Some are, though about the new iPhone 4S. Two things, for those that are disappointed: There’s no requirement for Apple to re-design the iPhone every year and the current design of the iPhone is beautiful, and doesn’t need to be changed.
While I do feel that a re-design isn’t needed, I would certainly welcome one. Everything about the iPhone 4S’ design is perfect — except for the back.
The design of the first-generation iPhone was—and still is—undoubtedly my favorite. The glass front and aluminum back was beautiful and it matched every other Apple product so well. Unlike the first-generation iPhone, the rear of the iPhone 4 and 4S is either white or black, glossy, and a huge fingerprint magnet. The glass gets scratched up really easily and starts to feel sticky after holding the iPhone for a while. Both of these problems would be minimized with an aluminum back. Plus, I think an aluminum back is more aesthetically-pleasing.
I will be upgrading to the iPhone 4S on the 14th of October, despite my minor gripe about the back of the phone itself. The new Siri assistant and camera upgrades are worth the upgrade alone. Everything else is just icing on the cake.
Focused
Using a dual-display setup was for a while believed to increase your productivity. I fell into that trap for about a year, and didn’t realize how badly it was decreasing my productivity until I started using just my Air — without an additional display sitting right next to it.
I discovered that while the 11-inch screen was great for writing and reading, when it came to designing, the smaller screen did not suffice. I ended up transitioning back into using a larger display. The difference this time was that I would keep my MacBook Air lid closed whilst using the larger display. This is still how I work today.
The downside of using a larger display is the fact that your work becomes less focused. You can fit more windows into a single space, and therefore you’ll have more distractions.
So why would anyone use a larger display? Ben Brooks is spot on:
This all comes down to aesthetics. Simply put my MacBook Air looked down right silly sitting on my office desk all alone and that, in turn, led me to feel silly using the setup.
It made my workspace feel awkward at best, and down right annoying most of the time. I hated the way I felt exposed to the rest of the office and how dwarfed everything felt with just that screen sitting atop my
6' x 3'desk.
Exactly why I continue to use a larger screen to this day. When I’m out of the office, I’m all for going smaller.
Real Life Elements in Design
I’ve noticed that an increasing number of apps — especially in Mac OS X Lion — seem to be replicating their real-life counterparts. I think this is an interesting choice made by the designers in an attempt to make their software feel more ‘real’ and easier to use. Logically, why would any desktop or mobile app be any different in design than their real-life counterparts? It makes sense. A user should be able to transfer from using a paper calendar to iCal without any learning curve, if the software is designed correctly. Another great example is the Kindle app for iPad. Instead of scrolling through the pages of the book, a user actually turns the pages of the book — just like they would in real life. Design can be more effective if users can understand it without much thought.
Who We Are
The comments are the best part about this post. Being a designer, you aren’t ever told what to do or given any guidance from outside sources. It is up to us as designers to figure out what looks best and is most functional, and how we can please people.
Many unfortunately dismiss the career of design as something that anyone can do. They think, “How hard is it to throw a few pictures and text on a webpage and make it look decent?”. Little do these ignorant people know how deep design is and how much thought goes into every detail.
Jon Tan’s closing point sums it all up:
I started to ask what exactly it means to be a web designer. I started to realise how extraordinary our community is. How extraordinary this profession is that we’ve created. How good the work is that we do. How delightful it is when it does work; for audiences, clients, and us.
Subway Typography Posters
Subway stations fasciante me. Who knew there could be so much culture in an underground series of tunnels. And I’m not talking about just people. The signs in the stations have culture, some of which are affiliated with memories of the people that pass by them. Not to mention the signs also are informative, yet simple and well-designed. Why not bring some of that same culture and design into your own house? ‘Going Underground’ is a design and print studio I’ve recently come across and they do exactly that. They have pre-printed subway posters (from all over the world), and you can also customize your own. These posters are on sale in Going Underground’s Etsy store. However, for the next two days, their posters are featured on Fab.com and by buying there, you can receive a decent discount.
Desktop Minimalism
Interesting post over at The 99 Percent about desktop minimalism and how it can affect your productivity. You’ve heard the saying that a clean desk is synonymous with having a clear mind. And in my experiences that has definitely, time and time again, proved to be true. I’ve grown to love fullscreen mode in OS X Lion because of the little to no distractions there are. I find I am not constantly being bombarded with different updates and notifications from every app on my computer. I feel it’s the same case with desks. Keeping your desk de-cluttered and free of distractions, you’ll find that more work will be done. You’ll be able to focus more on your work then worrying about other distractions on your desk, and in your life in general. Remove everything that is not absolutely necessary off of your desk. You can thank me later.
Mental Tagging
I often struggle to remember ideas and tasks that I don’t write down. My mind becomes deranged, especially when I know what I forgot was important. Devir Kahan has devised a system that, more times than not, solves this problem. I’ve been using this system during the past week and it has worked wonders.
Throw this article in your Instapaper queue if you don’t have the time now. Take some time to read through it — in its entirety — and start putting this system to work.
Field Notes
Field Notes (and notepads in general), in recent months, are being seen in more places every day. They serve as a testament to the fact that even though our smartphones and computers are easily accessible, convenient, and quick, we still sometimes prefer to actually write things down and go ‘analog’.
I don’t think that desire to go paper-and-pencil every once and a while will ever go away either, even as technology continues to advance. Sometimes it’s just easier to see or comprehend things when they’re in physical form, instead of being seen on a screen.
Many tangible things like these that have been used for ages will continue to stay relevant, which is why print design will remain forever relevant as well.
Instapaper's Masked Social Network
I never thought of it this way. If all social networks were like Instapaper, they’d actually be about the content posted, and not about who you can beat to [insert number here] followers. The whole point of social networks is to share what you’re doing and what you’re interested in. Not to brag about how many more followers or friends you have than your neighbor or classmate. Unfortunately, I don’t think something like this will happen in the near future. The best option in the interim would be to offer a ‘switch’ to users where they could choose whether or not to show their friend and/or follower count. Then maybe it’d catch on, then maybe social networks would be awesome again.
