cliffkuang

Personally, the iPad book reading experience drives me crazy. The frills are utterly maddening, and the pointless detailing seems amateur-hour. Reminds me of the old Microsoft, where they used to tell designers that every portion of a screen had to have "information"--so they dinged a project made for their retail stores by a buddy of mine who created an animation of a shark coming through pitch-black water. So they made it blue and ripply instead.

A smart take on alternative consumer research. As the author points out, researching with normals almost killed the Walkman. I wonder: Does anyone know other companies that do this?

Funny to think that Wave actually did have smart things about it. Way too complicated though. This is better.

I'm actually pretty impressed by the clarity and design--and I say that as someone who thinks Facebook's design has always been shit. I think Felton really is making his presence felt over there.

For another good example of a kinectic logo that works, check out this:

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662367/wolf-olins-creates-a-mov...

and this: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662139/pentagrams-luke-hayman-o...

One response on Twitter: Too bad there isn't room for a ping pong table.

Funny how the internet is slowly transforming to just pointing and saying "Wow!"

Funny how so much history could be decided by chance: If the economy bounces back by August 2011, Obama probably wins another term. If by October, he goes down as a one-term flame out -- another Jimmy Carter.

I'll bet people would pay $250+ for that.

One of the best charts we've ever posted---says alot about how network organization contributes to the spread terror. All kids of connections there.

A hell of a lot of interviews in there---Some smart people weighing in. Though maybe Dadich, father of the Wired iPad app, is the OPPOSITE of design that gets out of the way of the reading experience? Check out these posts for more:

http://www.informationarchitects.jp/en/wired-on-ipad-just-li...

http://www.subtraction.com/2010/10/27/my-ipad-magazine-stand

Interesting POV. I wonder though if Groupon has quite the same reach -- or branding influence -- as a logo everyone can picture in their head? One gets at how the brand actually lives in people's minds; the other maybe affects whether they think there's cheap deals to be had...

Hm. That's an interesting question. No sure, but I do think that web app design can almost tell a story--for example, there's the super elegant TeuxDeux (http://teuxdeux.com/) It doesn't tell a story per se, but the choices of typeface and color and layout definitely speak to a very specific audience in a fairly unique way.

Yeah, I hear you---They're muddy sounding in general. But the tech is pretty awesome--imagine flat panels with real surround sound. OTOH, the LCD? Who knows. And the case design is awful, considering the price point.

Great point---Though there's also a way in which education gets tougher as your economy evolves. Educating kids to love computer science and engineering is obvs a lot harder than getting kids in school to learn basic literacy.

The productivity jumps that result from the latter are huge--but wondering if it's larger than the former? Might be there there's no increasing returns to scale as costs rise--even if the end benefits are vast.

Don't miss the video of the printed fabrics---Pretty awesome stuff. Apparently, one designer is creating a bikini made out of it

That was a premise of the article, that the Instant experience was a failure. Obvs, you can disagree, but that's a starting point, for an article that's mostly concerned with answering "Why"

Hi there---Thanks for reading. Actually wasn't begging the question at all, or even contesting the results of the testing. Obviously UI is about more than looking pretty, but I was arguing the the Google Instant experience is a good example of testing producing a result that's far from optimal (and which could be a lot better).

As for iTunes, obviously, if you read the piece, I wasn't comparing it to Google. I was comparing the process that produced it -- and how Apple has always gotten better in UI, with each generation, while adding complexity. I don't think Google can really say that for themselves, as the profusion of Google products shows.

Hey all---I'm the original author of the post, and I wanted to thank you for starting a feisty debate. Really thrilled to see both supporters and critics of my view. One thing I do want to point out tho: The post was really meant to show one, alternative way of thinking. I actually believe that the best results come from some kind of blend of the two approaches. That is what I think Apple is really good at -- and not just making pretty boxes for circuit boards.

Also, in the comments I made about a second mattering, it was exactly my point that while seconds are important to engineers, they may or may not be to users. And a focus on actual user stresses is the essence of design.

Anyway, thanks for reading and commenting!

Right on

Hey there--I'm the editor of the site and I've put the real, original version online. Thanks for reading!