In a single Noisy Decent Graphics post, Ben Terrett effortlessly segues between my two preoccupations of the moment - agonised middle-class parenting, and the superiority of mobile web over fixed. How could I resist? "City kids are not like country kids", he notes, "... the space available to play is smaller... so they learn to play smaller." … Continue reading Play Small: why mobile challenges designers to make a better web
Category: design
Brushed chrome – the story of Google’s browser in comic book form
What a stroke of genius to commission Scott McCloud to tell the story of Google's new web browser, Chrome, in comic form. McCloud's own books have communicated his enthusiasm for the past, present and future of comics themselves. Now his fluid, conversational style perfectly captures the diverse passions of project team members - passions that … Continue reading Brushed chrome – the story of Google’s browser in comic book form
The unexpected moment of truth: Disney’s $100,000 Salt + Pepper Shaker
In the 21st century, few consumer services follow a neat linear model of awareness, consideration, purchase and use. Instead we see a web of customer expectations and perceptions where little things can make a big difference. It's the job of service designers to cut through the mass of insight to find the decisive moments where … Continue reading The unexpected moment of truth: Disney’s $100,000 Salt + Pepper Shaker
All this rubbish Powerpoint must be telling us something
Chris Heathcote's abstract pointillist Powerpoint toolkit once again reinforces the received wisdom that Microsoft's near-ubiquitous presentation software presages the end of civilisation. Unlike the army of total Powerpoint rejecters, Chris' solution is to fight pixel with pixel, subject to three strictures: POINT ONE: Presentations are about IDEAS, not TEXT. POINT TWO: READING from SLIDES is … Continue reading All this rubbish Powerpoint must be telling us something
ШITH TШЗИTУ-FIVЗ SФLDIЗЯS ФF LЗДD HЗ HДS CФИQЦЗЯЗD THЗ ШФЯLD
Thus somebody - and nobody quite seems to know whom - said of Johannes Gutenberg. But even with the belated arrival of the "w" to make up the Latin alphabet to 26, this once mighty army now seems barely enough to log into Bebo. There are forces at work. Web-based services demand that users have … Continue reading ШITH TШЗИTУ-FIVЗ SФLDIЗЯS ФF LЗДD HЗ HДS CФИQЦЗЯЗD THЗ ШФЯLD
Relax, your photos are in the sky (but I’ve burned a CD just in case)
The conversation in our household goes like this: Me: I'm clearing the digital camera. Its memory's nearly full. My spouse: I don't like the idea that all our photos are just on the computer. Me: Well they're safer there than in tatty envelopes under the bed... Spouse: Yes, but why can't we print them all … Continue reading Relax, your photos are in the sky (but I’ve burned a CD just in case)
Paper – Scissors – Phone
Maybe it's just me, but as we enter the latest phase of convergence with more and more big web properties moving onto mobile, I've noticed a trend for work in progress to be developed and presented mainly on PC screens. In my (possibly mythical) golden age, presentations and design reviews were stacked full of phones … Continue reading Paper – Scissors – Phone
Caveat emptor
A football agent being interviewed about the negative impact of his profession on the game was asked, shouldn't negotiating be left to the players' union, the PFA? Well, he replied, the PFA are nice people, but they're mostly former players, not businesspeople. If I was buying a house, I wouldn't trust a bricklayer to do … Continue reading Caveat emptor
Remember, I’m just a bit of software
Unlike some people, I'm partial to a spot of anthropomorphism, which is why I was delighted to receive this email after ordering some cards from Moo... Hello Matt I'm Little MOO - the bit of software that will be managing your order with us. It will shortly be sent to Big MOO, our print machine … Continue reading Remember, I’m just a bit of software
On User-Centred Design and the Wrong Kind of Penguin
A delightful letter to today's Guardian contradicts the fashionable received wisdom of modernist architects as purists riding roughshod over the interests of users. Defending Berthold Lubetkin's 1934 Penguin Pool at London Zoo, his daughter Sacha writes: I was astonished to read that "nobody thought to ask the penguins" about the design. My father steeped himself … Continue reading On User-Centred Design and the Wrong Kind of Penguin
RIP my Tablet PC
It's been a while since my trusty work-issue Compaq Tablet PC gave up the ghost, and I'm finally getting around to writing about it. We'd been together more than three years, the TC1000 and I, and the day the man from IT pronounced it dead (a motherboard issue, apparently) it felt like a bereavement. A … Continue reading RIP my Tablet PC
Help me, Usability Man!
Is this door with the sign that says other door the other door or is the other door that doesn't say other door the other door? Originally uploaded by mattedgar.
Pattern: Bundle of identity
The Enlightenment philosopher David Hume proposed that identity is nothing but the bundle of our past experiences. Don't test me on this, because I just read it on Wikipedia, but it seems like a good place to start this piece of introspection on the need for a unified identity. It goes like this. Context: I … Continue reading Pattern: Bundle of identity
Payment friction: why is there a queue at the checkout, but not at the shelves?
discuss.
The first Great Western
From Simon Thurley's fascinating Buildings That Shaped Britain we learn that Isambard Kingdom Brunel had only once travelled on a train when he designed the gloriously non-standard Great Western Railway from London Paddington to Bristol. Now that, for good or ill, is the difference between innovation and design.
Matt Edgar writes here 