January 18, 2006
Human head knife block
In a tour de force mash-up of high design, functionality, and possibly therapy, Irene van Gestel gives the world a knife block shapped like a human head.
via boingboing
Posted by zach at 10:17 AM | Comments (0)
November 30, 2005
Graffiti Analysis
This is really cool, if not really recent: Graffiti Analysis captures the movement of NYC graffiti artists in 3D space and projects them onto buildings. It was created by Parsons School of Design MFA student "fi5e." Pretty arty name, eh?
Maybe Apple is ripping off fi5e's technology: They've patented a digital camera technology that includes a "method for rotating the display orientation of a captured image."
Posted by colsen at 03:34 PM | Comments (0)
August 31, 2005
Fun With Calculators
Standby is a beautifully-designed energy calculator that compares energy use of home appliances when in use, to consumption of energy when they're on standby (powered on). In addition to the "gosh, I didn't know that" factor it provides, this tool displays the information simply and beautifully, and even has a sense of humor. Try typing in an obscenely large number in any of the fields for some great feedback (hint: I guess my kids watch too many videos a week). Link courtesy of Infosthetics
Posted by Andy at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)
May 10, 2005
Improving the Design of Websites & Powerpoints
A couple of recommendations:
Reinventing the Wheel, Jennifer Helfand
"As inventive as instructive, information wheels-or volvelles-have been used since the fourteenth century to measure, record, predict, and calculate everything form time and space to military history and recipes. In this fascinating book, designer and critic Jessica Helfand offers an in-depth look at these unique artifacts, which are not only clever and amusing-where else could you dial-in ingredients to concoct "Creamed Oysters and Celery"?-but, Helfand argues, relevant as a model for modern interactive design." Winterhouse
and a piece that passed briefly through my hands this week (a recommendation and generous loan from a fellow evangelist):
The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint, Edward Tufte
"In corporate and government bureaucracies, the standard method for making a presentation is to talk about a list of points organized onto slides projected up on the wall. For many years, overhead projectors lit up transparencies, and slide projectors showed high-resolution 35mm slides. Now "slideware" computer programs for presentations are nearly everywhere. Early in the 21st century, several hundred million copies of Microsoft PowerPoint were turning out trillions of slides each year.
Alas, slideware often reduces the analytical quality of presentations. In particular, the popular PowerPoint templates (ready-made designs) usually weaken verbal and spatial reasoning, and almost always corrupt statistical analysis. What is the problem with PowerPoint? And how can we improve our presentations?" Edward Tufte
Posted by opperman at 02:55 PM | Comments (0)
February 11, 2005
Brawny Love
Just in time for Valentine's Day, check out these e-cards sponsored by Brawny (the paper towel, that's right.)
Video vignettes feature a hunky—yet sensitive—Brawnyman who addresses the user directly while making sappy toasts, opening pickle jars and offering foot massages. Users can string the short clips together to send the recipient a customized "Innocent Escape."
(link courtesy Amy)
Posted by Andy at 01:02 PM | Comments (2)
Make It Simple, Stupid
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"
-Leonardo DiVinci
In the book "The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm", the authors discuss one of the greatest industrial design feats in history, the scissors. The purpose of the instrument is evident at first glance, two holes suited perfectly to the human hand which are attached to a pivoted leverage device with razor sharp edges. This is a great example of intuitive design. Upon looking at a pair of scissors for the first time it is evident that fingers go here, squeeze them together and the two sharp blades slide together with a crisp slicing action. Scissor design has evolved. Angles have been adjusted, finger holes have been wrapped in form fitted plastic, the tips have been rounded to prevent accidental loss of eyeballs, etc. But the general design has remained the same forever. Any radical redesigns have failed because, well, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".
User Interface Design
Tapping into human intuition is the foundation of user interface (UI) design. UI design differs from most print design in that the user interface is built to provide a means of performing a task. On the web we search, shop, bank, play games, participate in discussion boards, post ads, enter auctions, etc. etc. There could be numerous interactions between the human and the computer to perform any one of these tasks. The primary goal of the UI designer is to provide the human with the most intuitive, simple, efficient means to performing the desired action. The secondary goal is to provide a pleasing visual experience for the viewer. Somewhere mixed in would be the potential to promote a product or enforce a brand.
It Isn't Print
Generally, print design is a means to convey a message. The designer's challenges are to gain the attention of the target audience, and then to clearly present the information meant to be communicated. Gaining the viewers attention is the creative part. The print designer has the luxury of a blank canvas and few conformities. Unlike UI design, simplicity is not necessarily implicit in print.
Early in evolution of the web, it was print designers who were first to take a crack at designing websites. Print design principles were the root of these early interface designs. Visual innovation was key while standards were meant to be avoided or broken*. Designers would dream up countless ways to label a site map anything but "site map". Shopping carts were "buckets". Navigation systems were designed to intrigue the viewer rather than provide a simple means to navigate (remember pages full of clickable mystery icons?). Soon standards emerged. Consistency and simplicity became an important factor in univeral UI design. Now, the design challenge occurs in how to be innovative while conforming to basic levels of human intuition.
Simplicity Is Key
Here are a few good usability info sites:
Jacob Nielsen is one of the most well known usability experts today. I think he is kind of a kook (and his highly accessible website is horribly ugly).
http://www.adaptivepath.com/
Chock full of good essays and links.
Jeffrey Zeldman
Author of "The Daily Report", founder of A List Apart, and all around smart, funny guy.
* Remember "Raygun" Magazine in the mid nineties? Raygun was a gen-x culture magazine. Designer David Carson made quite a splash with his brazen attempt at setting stardard magazine layout and design on its ear. The entire magazine, from cover to cover, was visually stunning. It was a nice peice of art, but its disjointed content, crazy leading, whacked out typefaces and general organization of disorganization made it nearly impossible to read. Other designers loved it. The public cancelled their subscriptions after the first year and it has ceased publication.
Posted by Chuck at 12:08 AM | Comments (3)
February 09, 2005
What A User
Usability is often a point of contention between agency and client and between interactive and account teams or developers and designers. I think people often assume that the user's goals, the agency's goals, and the client's goals may be at odds, when the truth is that when the user is happy, the client should be happy as well. And a happy client makes for a happy agency. When all is said and done websites, CD-ROMs, and applications are useless if nobody can use them - regardless of how pretty they may be.
With that in mind, I'd like to point out an example of really great user-centered design: Zappos.com (site will open in a new window, so that you can follow along with my commentary).
Zappos is targeted to serious shoe-shoppers. The design of the site itself is no great shakes - it could certainly stand to be prettier, yes? But, from a user perspective, it's excellent.
Here's why:
From the homepage, there are multiple ways to get into the shoe shopping experience. You can scan the page and quickly figure out what you want - by brand, by gender, by lifestyle - and it's easy to skim for what you need and click right in.
Once you get into the shopping experience, it only gets better. Click on "Women's" and you'll get a clear listing of everything that's in the Women's Department with subcategories.
Click on "Dress Shoes" and get a list of every shoe that fits that category and all its subcategories.
Here's where it gets really good from the shoe-shopper's perspective. First, you can decide whether you want to see 12 shoes per page or 99 shoes per page. (I know the non-shoe obsessed out there are mystified by this, but trust me - when you're looking for shoes it's GREAT to see 99 of them at a time). You can filter this list by heel height, color, price, size, or width and sort by popularity, price, and name.
When I was looking for wedding shoes in a size 11, I can't tell you how helpful all of this filtering and sorting was. Not all shoes go up to Goliath Size 11, and some other sites forced me to go into each and every shoe to see what sizes they're available in. What a pain in the ass. Zappos allowed me to say, "Show me white shoes in a size 11 with a heel height of 2 inches and sort the list by price." Within seconds, I had a selection of shoes far greater (and with less hassle) than at the Nordstrom shoe department.
But wait, there's MORE! Once you find a particular shoe, you can see it from multiple views; it's almost like being able to pick up the shoe in the store and turn it over. You can also read reviews that other owners of this shoe have posted to see how true to size and width the shoe is, how high the overall rating is, and any comments they may have about the shoe.
Even if you don't "get" shoe shopping, you have to admit that this site figured out who their users are and how to please them. And by pleasing their users they have become one of the top shoe-shopping destinations online. Everybody wins!
Like I said, the look of the site could be elevated - it's certainly not going to win any awards as it stands. But - by being first concerned with the user - they're off on the right foot.
Compare this experience to Fluevog - possibly a "prettier" site, but harder to use from a shoe-shopper's perspective.
Take a look at the two sites and let me know what you think! Also, if you have other good examples of great site usability, please share them.
Posted by Meghan at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)
January 31, 2005
The Impact of Change
(This is something I wrote awhile ago and is nothing new, really. It may be a topic at some brown bag chat in the future. The real issue is: how do we create an environment where change isn't neceessary because of good design but is still possible when things get missed, which they always do? --MK)
The Impact of Change
Myth: A general statement of objectives is sufficient to begin writing programs – we can fill in the details later.
Reality: Poor up-front definition is the major cause of failed software efforts. A formal and detailed description of information domain, function, performance, interfaces, design constraints, and validation criteria is essential. These characteristics can be determined only after thorough communication between customer and developer.
Myth: Project requirements continually change, but change can be easily accommodated because software is flexible.
Reality: It is true that software requirements do change, but the impact of change varies with the time at which it is introduced. The figure below illustrates the impact of change. If serious attention is given to up-front definition, early requests for change can be accommodated easily. The customer can review requirements and recommend modifications with relatively little impact on cost. When changes are requested during software design, cost impact grows rapidly. Resources have been committed and a design framework has been established. Change can cause upheaval that requires additional resources and major design modifications, i.e., additional cost. Changes in function, performance, interfaces or other characteristics during implementation (code and test) have a severe impact on cost. Change, when requested after software is in production use, can be two orders of magnitude more expensive than the same change requested earlier.
(Excerpt from Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach by Roger S. Pressman. © 1997, 1992, 1987, 1982 by The McGraw-Hill Companies.)
Posted by Michael at 03:17 PM | Comments (0)
January 27, 2005
T-Shirt Design
I have been dabbling in T-shirt designs the last few years, which I find very challenging, but rewarding.
The ability to wear your design - or see your designs being worn by someone else - is second to none in my opinion. The "non-tangible" nature of web design has always left a void in my design career.
Take a look at my design for this year's softball team:
Posted by Eric at 04:54 PM | Comments (0)