Nowadays, everyone in product marketing wants an “intuitive” interface. The problem is, the word “intuitive” is fuzzy. If we’re not careful, “intuitive” is just jargon for “good.” How can designers create and measure “intuitive-ness”? One piece of the puzzle is response compatibility, the degree to which a control communicates its function. In this article, I’ll …
A quick look at 10/GUI
10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo. this video is pretty awesome. the beginning recaps the limitations of single-point interactions, hints at why 3D interactions and tiling effects (like Apple Exposé) are not deep solutions to modern desktop management, and reminds us that the mouse has run out of steam. the video then moves into a …
Things is more efficient than OmniFocus
i happily ponied up $100 for OmniFocus for Mac and iPhone. i felt little need to comparison shop since, based on my experiences with OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner, i was confident that OminFocus would be the best-of-breed task manager. it’s true that OmniFocus trounces Palm Desktop, which I had been using, but i just watched the …
Flash Catalyst looks promising
so the beta is available. already i’m prepared to leave Fireworks for good. Catalyst is a solid answer to Microsoft’s Blend and fills a hole in Adobe’s toolchain: simple, rapid, high-production-value prototyping. here are some links to get you rolling with flash catalyst: product page beta download tutorials manual here’s my feature wish-list: better access …
visual thinking for design, by colin ware
richly informative. and concise to boot. interaction designers, visual designers, researchers, people working in visualization, and the curious will find value in this book. careful readers will gain a deep understanding of how, why, and what we see. this understanding will inform the use of color, edges, contours, textures, layout, text, images, order and motion. …
sketching user experiences, by bill buxton
this is a wonderful book on getting the right design (divergent ideation) and the design right (convergent iteration). on the surface, buxton focuses on what it takes for interaction designers to create breakthrough products, but the ideas are equally applicable to research in hci and visualization. if students developed the habit of inexpensively “sketching” their …
emotional design is, eh, ok
i’m a fan of don norman’s design of everyday things, so i picked up emotional design with great expectations. i was disappointed. i expected a richer, tighter explanation of the interplay between emotion and design, a book full of models, insights, and design directives. norman doesn’t completely fail in these regards, but neither does emotional …
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