Chris Bank does a great job of tackling UX and UI in this post.
When designing a website, you want your UX to be as positive as possible — you want your users to enjoy being on your website, that’s kind of the whole point. But you can’t just say “let’s improve our site’s UX” any more than a business can say “let’s make more money.” It’s the strategies you use to create your UX, namely the UI, that can enhance (or weaken) it.
I love listening to these isolated tracks. There’s some great information about the session here as well.
Anthony Colangelo:
The difference between knowledge and intelligence is key here. Knowledge is the collection of skills and information a person has acquired through experience. Intelligence is the ability to apply knowledge. Just because someone lacks knowledge of a particular subject doesn’t mean they can’t apply their intelligence to help solve problems.
I love that.
Google has quietly revealed it plans to retire the Google Wallet API for digital goods on March 2, 2015. The company plans to continue supporting the sale of apps on Google Play as well as in-app payments, but users will not be able to purchase any virtual items offered on the Web through Google Wallet.
You have to love Heineken.
[Via psfk]
Vox:
This chart, from David McCandless’ fascinating new book Knowledge is Beautiful, ranks 87 dog breeds and compares those rankings to the actual popularity of those breeds in the US.The ranking is based on a number of factors: trainability, life expectancy, lifetime cost (including the price of food and grooming), and suitability for children, among others.
The result: Border Collies, according to McCandless, are the finest dog breed in existence. Labs, Beagles, and Golden Retrievers, while not at the very top, are other popular dogs (at the top right of the chart) that he rates highly.
Where does your dog fit into this chart? If I had a dog, it would likely be a Labrador. Happily, they score highly on this chart.
This sketch from Late Night with Seth Meyers struck me as a pitch perfect parody, with a perfectly appropriate cameo at the end.
It’s clear that 4K video is coming. The question is, will the tipping point be a business as usual delivery mechanism as it makes its way through the usual suspects, first DirecTV, then the cable providers?
Or will Netflix tip the industry in their direction, making 4K video more of an online experience?
Another piece of this equation to consider is Apple’s approach. The new 5K iMac is a perfect vehicle for experiencing the successor to HD, this highest of definitions, and it is not lined up with DirecTV/cable in the same way that a large screen TV is. Seems to me the Apple TV is perfectly placed to straddle both sides of this divide.
UPDATE: Check the comments for an expanded take on these thoughts.
Sir Jony Ive gave a talk at London’s Design Museum, focusing on what he considers a tragic direction taken by UK design schools.
Speaking at London’s Design Museum last night, Ive attacked design schools for failing to teach students how to make physical products and relying too heavily on “cheap” computers.
“So many of the designers that we interview don’t know how to make stuff, because workshops in design schools are expensive and computers are cheaper,” said Ive.
“That’s just tragic, that you can spend four years of your life studying the design of three dimensional objects and not make one.”
Ive, who is Apple’s senior vice president of design, said that students were being taught to use computer programs to make renderings that could “make a dreadful design look really palatable”.
Sir Jony also spoke about Apple’s design approach:
Picking up on statements he originally made in 2012, Ive said that Apple – named the world’s most valuable brand by Forbes in 2013 – had become one of the world’s biggest companies by not chasing profit and instead focusing on “integrity”.
“We’ve tried very hard to be very clear, and this is absolutely sincere, that our goal at Apple isn’t to make money,” he said.
“We’re not naive. We trust that if we’re successful and we make good products, that people will like them. And we trust that if people like them, they’ll buy them. Operationally we are effective and we know what we’re doing and so we will make money. It’s a consequence.”
“You can look at something we’ve done and it costs a lot more to make it the way that we want to make it. I can’t justify that extraordinary additional amount of money to make it other than it’s the right thing to do. It’s made it better. There’s integrity there. You hope that people can tell the difference.”
There’s a lot more. A terrific read, all the way through.
PatentlyApple:
At a BlackBerry event held earlier today in San Francisco they announced a new management-services partnership with rival Samsung Electronics. This is the very first time that the two companies have teamed up for a major product. The new partnership is designed to compete head-on with the new Apple-IBM alliance.
Fantastic idea. It further legitimizes the concept of an enterprise/consumer product partnership and gives enterprise managers a valid alternative to IBM and Apple. And by valid, I mean, who in their right mind would choose Samsung/BlackBerry over Apple/IBM? Where’s the beef in the Samsung/BlackBerry alliance? Certainly not with the malware riddled Android.
Samsung’s Knox system, which offers a suite of secure work applications, will run on BlackBerry’s new server, known as BES12, the companies said in a statement today.
Last year it was noted by InfoWorld that Samsung’s “Knox is their way to get past IT’s legitimate concerns over Android’s generally weak security and join Apple’s iOS and BlackBerry in the golden circle of trustworthy mobile devices.” This new alliance will now open more doors for Samsung and BlackBerry.
Ah, Knox. Anyone considering a Knox solution might want to read this first: After gaining U.S. government approval, Samsung Knox security for Android found to be “completely compromised”.
Dan Frommer, writing for Quartz:
Why plant lettuce in a clean room? The obvious answer: Because it’s clean. Everything is tightly controlled, including air pressure, temperature, lighting, bacteria, and dust. The result is a crop that doesn’t need pesticides, doesn’t have bugs, and doesn’t need washing.
According to reports from The Hydroponics Planet, this form of hydroponics is drawing some major investment interest world-wide. The clean room aspect allows the grower to maintain a higher level of crop quality. The indoor nature allows food to be grown in any environment, and ship locally, which reduces transportation costs and ecological impact. Interesting to see tech firms like Toshiba, Fujitsu, and Sharp transitioning semiconductor manufacturing facilities to agriculture.
I have to say, I am a bit jealous that Dan got to go to Japan for this story. The only places Jim sends me seem to be local and must serve Heineken.
I totally agree with Gruber here. Flooding the App Store with one-star reviews because a company needs to make money is wrong.
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk shook up the automotive and aerospace industries with electric cars and cheap rockets. Now, he is focused on satellites, looking at ways to make smaller, less-expensive models that can deliver Internet access across the globe, according to people familiar with the matter.
Elon is definitely a visionary and the man gets shit done.
It was one of the most hilarious (and important!) moments of the year: Zach Galifianakis interviewing President Obama about…the Affordable Care Act. And it vaulted Funny or Die—the world s greatest comedy site, brought to you by Will Ferrell and friends—to such stratospheric heights of viral-video dominance that the site has now hired some Wall Street guys to evaluate potential buyers. Amy Wallace embeds in the company’s Hollywood HQ and learns why FOD may soon be laughing all the way to the, well, you know
Joe Wilcox:
Clickbait and linkbait also corrupt longstanding, and sensible practices regarding headline writing that negatively affect audience attitudes about what is valuable content. Good headlines should be aggressive or provocative, such that they pull people to read the story. Emphasis: Read. Deliver value. Clickbait and linkbait headlines and stories aren’t written for people but for Google—to capture search ranking and pageviews.
This is worth a read.
3,000,000,000 can now access the Internet.
BlackBerry’s new devices suck so bad, they are releasing the “BlackBerry Classic.”
The two people, both familiar with the FTC’s thinking, said Apple representatives have met on multiple occasions with agency officials in recent months, to stress that it will not sell its users’ health data to third-party entities such as marketers or allow third-party developers to do so.
Someone at the FTC confused Apple with Google.
Jason knows all too well that I don’t get the Kindle—never have, and probably never will. Still, I enjoyed Jason’s review. I should note that this is Jason’s new site since he left Macworld—congrats, it looks great.
PetaPixel:
If you’ve never thought to find out why aperture works the way it does, you should definitely check out this simple explanation of optics, aperture and pinholes by MinutePhysics.
As a photographer, I knew this information but this video explanation is the best, clearest I’ve seen.
Samsung this week announced its answer to Apple’s Continuity: a new cross-device sharing feature called “Flow,” intended to allow users to move activities and content between Samsung smartphones, tablets, wearable devices, PCs, and more.
I’m shocked that Samsung would so blatantly copy Apple. SHOCKED!
This is an interesting concept. You can read what Khoi Vinh says about Wildcard on his Web site.
The new album is available today—great to see Dave Grohl making some new music.
I love to build stuff, especially if it involves circuit boards and solder. I’ve made my share of guitar interfaces (some of which actually do what they are supposed to!) and gadgets of all stripes.
In the video below, Ben Heck from Element 14 talks you through the first part of the process of building a working Apple I computer, complete with peekable, pokable ROM. Part 2 is scheduled to be released Friday night, November 14th.
Even if you’re a watcher and not a doer, the video is entertaining and gives you a peek into a very interesting world. Ben Heck is one smart guy.
If you’ve ever considered making a living via the App Store, this is worth a read.
9to5mac:
Staples shared in an announcement today that it is now accepting Apple Pay transactions at its “over 1,200 stores” in the United States for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users. Apple Pay, of course, will also be available for iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, and iPhone 5s users starting next year when paired with the upcoming Apple Watch. Apple included Staples in its list of retail partners when announcing its secure mobile payment service, although Apple noted that support would be “coming later this year” from the retailer as it was [not] available in time for last month’s launch.
Having Apple Pay in Staples brick and mortar stores is a big step for the Apple Pay brand.
Though this ad is old, the feel is more in line with some of the more modern spots, using fewer words and more auditory cues.
Reminds me of another spot from that era, where they count the number of steps it takes to connect an iMac. There’s no third step. Plug it in, plug in the modem cable, that’s it. [via Stories of Apple]
Molly Wood, writing for the New York Times, digs into the good and bad of Apple and Google maps.
Google has long dominated the smartphone map race. But Apple Maps, its primary competitor, at least in the United States, has made great strides in the last couple of years, recovering nicely from the disastrous introduction of Maps in 2012. Both now give accurate directions, for the most part, and keep adding features to beat the other.
Even in recent months, both Google Maps and Apple Maps have undergone significant changes. Apple’s service, for example, now comes with some new useful information about businesses, like operating hours and contact information.
Apple Maps is clearly gaining accuracy. It’s been a while since I’ve encountered flat out wrong information, like a one way street going the wrong way, a closed road, or a freeway entrance in the wrong place (all things I’ve encountered in the past). More and more, I’m finding what I’m looking for. The database is becoming much more complete.
That said, there are still holes in the database and holes in the interface. If I zoom all the way in on the map, I see every single structure in my neighborhood. The buildings are all the right shape and in the correct location. But, some of the businesses do not show up. And some businesses show up occasionally, depending where that location is on the screen. Some business names flash into view momentarily as I drag, but nothing I do seems to make those names stay on the screen.
Traffic reporting is another area that has improved tremendously, though it still has a ways to go. Traffic lane alignment seems much more precise (making it much easier to tell, at a glance, in which lane/direction the traffic lies). But Apple Maps has a single degree of reporting. Traffic is either red or nonexistent. The problem with this approach is that you have no way of knowing if there is no traffic on a particular road, or if the traffic data has not yet populated the map. If your cell reception is spotty, this is definitely an issue. Google Maps reports traffic as green, yellow, or red. This gives you a feeling of certainty when your cell service is spotty, and gives you a bit more granularity (yellow for congestion, red for bumper-to-bumper traffic).
UPDATE: As several readers pointed out, traffic is also marked as yellow. Mea culpa. That said, the issue of no UI difference between “no traffic” and “traffic data has not yet arrived” remains.
Overall, I use Apple Maps almost exclusively. It works, gets me where I need to go. And my favorite feature of all: I can press and hold the home button and tell Siri, “Take me home”. And she does.
Samsung is now reviewing its own products. I guess paying off bloggers and forum posters wasn’t direct enough for them.
Inc:
Imagine going to work for Steve Jobs as a recent college graduate. That’s what happened to Mark Tacchi, who dropped out of graduate school in 1993 to take a job at NeXT, the computer company Jobs founded after being forced out of Apple.In time, Apple acquired NeXT in a deal that put Jobs back at Apple’s helm. Tacchi spent a total of four years at NeXT and Apple, and he learned a lot about how to run a business, and how not to.
Jobs had a (deserved) reputation as a tyrant but he also taught many in Silicon Valley how to serve the customer.