On UX

With the release of Apple’s latest iPhone 5 and iOS 6 and the soon to be released Windows 8 these articles are spot on!

Apple is always viewed as cutting edge and visually on the frontier, but over the last few years, very little has changed to their UI of OSX and iOS.
Some new unneeded transitions and animations, but that’s all. Their usability is still quite good, their products are great looking, but are they running behind on the general look?

In comparison look to the Microsoft’s new Metro layout, it looks very minimalistic, no unneeded visual clutter. You can argue about the coloring and contrast between items, but overall a total fresh overhaul.

One of the other points made, is our concept of icons and more specifically icons representing physical items outdated?
We still represent an online shopping basket by a physical shopping cart, a folder by an actual document folder, “My Computer” by the physical equivalent. Those are known by most, but think about a Rolodex(card) for contacts or a 3.5″ disc to save in a age where saving is done on flash drives or in the cloud.

Maybe it really is time to review how we access programs on our devices and redesign our UIs!

Further reading:
Will Apple’s Tacky Software-Design Philosophy Cause A Revolt?
Windows 8: The Boldest, Biggest Redesign In Microsoft’s History
Can We Please Move Past Apple’s Silly, Faux-Real UIs?
The Real Problem With Apple: Skeuomorphism In iOS

When I see programs like Scaleform, I regret not being able to design great layout or program games.

Have a look at the demo videos. It comes very close to the Sci-Fi UIs I love!

Apple has unquestionably got something right when we’re talking about mobile experience.
Here are their iOS Human Interface Guidelines. Read and learn.

If this graph is correct, the amount of smartphones will surpass regular phones in Q3 of 2011.

On Sitepoint, they draw the conclusion that this means the future of mobile internet, but I think the cost of mobile datatransfer needs to go down first.

Nice example of good usability. It uses a Microsoft Surface to display a social media stream.

Below some nice videos of how Microsoft sees the future. Even though the devices aren’t available yet, we can already learn some lessons about the usability of the interfaces.

Office

Read the rest of this entry »

An interesting read about the death of tag clouds.
These clouds are a typical example of Web 2.0 user interface items. However they are frequently just used because of this and not to aid in the finding/browsing of information.
I don’t think they will die out completely, because they do serve a purpose, but I think we’ll see less and less of them.

One of the best concepts for an e-magazine reader I’ve seen so far.

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

As more and more touch-enabled devices enter our daily lives, some attention should be given to the usability aspect of the interface as well.
Guifx has a nice 4-rule article on how to label touchscreen interfaces.