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Can We Please Move Past Apple’s Silly, Faux-Real UIs? | Co.Design: business + innovation + design
To do this, we need to design UIs that are stripped down as much as they can be. This means avoiding superfluous and gratuitous ornamentation, both visually and through how they move. But this doesn’t just mean focusing on “raw” elements that just support function. It is not simply a case of stripping everything back to the point of a handful of elements for the sake of being minimal; that would be simplistic. As with film, there’s an opportunity to delight by incorporating elements that are there purely to serve emotive purposes. This is why the philosophy “just enough is more” is rather more important than just simply “less is more.” It is about scrutinizing everything, so there is a clear, purposeful rationale for every element. This means that all the elements and their layout support the primary objectives of the device and/or application. To do this effectively, it is not possible to achieve success without thoughtfully considering the ways we interact and use products in the physical, analog world. Otherwise designs are just far too cognitively taxing. However, this doesn’t mean just digitally re-creating or simulating analog models for the sake of familiarity–we all need to be constantly checking our metaphors to make sure they’re making sense. We need to be cognizant of how much of the pre-internet world is now completely obsolete and unrecognizable to any one under 20. (Ever watch a perplexed three-year-old try to identity the icon of a rotary phone ?)
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Paint Your UI with Attention Everything from Facebook’s poke to the iPhone’s stroke, knowing how emotions map to different actions designers can paint a UI with attention and color it with any emotion they choose. Best selling brands such as the iPhone coordinate every gesture people make to create the emotions that enhance the iPhone’s brand. And to boot, based on our research petting the iPhone makes people happy. In fact what we mean by brand are the emotions created by the product before, during, and after the sale.
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The collected game design rants of Marc LeBlanc
Because you asked, here is a brief list of the “Eight Kinds of Fun.” Sensation Game as sense-pleasure Fantasy Game as make-believe Narrative Game as unfolding story Challenge Game as obstacle course Fellowship Game as social framework Discovery Game as uncharted territory Expression Game as soap box Submission Game as mindless pastime
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Somewhere in UK, a dialog box pops up on the screen of a Mac computer. The user contacts me asking for an explanation I can’t quite provide. The same file (a downloadable version of Phone Story) works perfectly on my machine, also a Mac. It turns out the “file damaged” message is produced by Gatekeeper, an anti-malware feature of the new OSX Mountain Lion, which I haven’t bothered to install yet. Gatekeeper, by default, blocks every application that is not coming from the official Mac App store or from certified Apple developers.
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Why kids need to fail to succeed in school – The Globe and Mail
How much influence do parents really have on their children’s success in life? My own view has always been: far less than they think, and far less than the experts tell them. I’ve always thought that how your kids turn out depends a lot more on their genes and their IQ than whether you played them Baby Beethoven or sent them to all-day kindergarten.
Where I’ve Been Online (to Sept. 15)
Approximate Reading Time: 3 minutes
