Tog Speaks on The iPhone

2007-01-18Like with many other things Apple has presented through the years, the iPhone does not contain any remarkably new technology. What makes it special though is the way the technology is used: To elevate the user experience. Bruce Tognazzini, usability expert since the dawn of digital graphical user interfaces, has much to say about the new phone. The iPhone User Experience: A First Look →

Donald Norman On Complexity And Simplicity

2006-12-10Donald Norman speaks out on why most consumers want simplicity yet end up buying the complex item anyway. Haven’t you ever compared two products side by side, comparing the features of each, preferring the one that did more? I really recommend that you read his column named Simplicity Is Highly Overrated →

The Konica Minolta Biz Hub...

2006-11-10In the category What Were They Really Thinking About, Konica Minolta just scored very high. You know that bulky copy machine that always jams and nobody ever really understands? Yes, the Konica Minolta team "improved it" by adding trendy pastel colors, LCD screen, stereo speakers, a lamp, three analog clocks, a waste basket AND an expresso machine. Read about the BizHub →

Productivity And Screen Size

2006-11-09Well-known usability expert Jakob Nielsen has a few things to say about the claims in a study by Pfeiffer Consulting that bigger screen size equals better usability. The study, ordered by Apple concludes that bigger screens will boost productivity. Nielsen claims (rightfully so) that the method of the investigation was faulty. Read Nielsen's article here →

When John Doe Became an Expert

2006-11-08Good friend of mine Jakob Persson writes about the phenomenon of user-submitted content in the "Web 2.0" world. The problem is that anyones voice will be equally worth no matter what experience lies behind it. There is no way for the reader/user to filter away the uninformed to get to the better content without first having to vade through lots of unnecessary content first. Read his article here →

Web Design is 95% Typography

2006-10-29Information Architects has an interesting article on web design in particular and information usability design in general. At first the notion that the craft of working with typefaces will have anything to do with usability. But this is a good thing in a world obsessed only with design as an aesthetic trait. Read it →

Legacy Kills

2006-10-15David K. Every of iGeek has an excellent article on the problems facing companies with a solid infrastructure policy. It is short but very comprehensive, read it here →

Interchangeability And DRM

2006-10-13An excellent production by designer R. Clayton where the the pitfalls of DRM (Digital Rights Management) are on display. The 60 second advertising video is a short trip through music history where the viewer learns that he no longer can use his own music the same way he has for more than a century. Watch it here →

Nike Logotypes

2006-09-20Swedish sporting goods reseller Stadium has a list of some of Nike's logotypes that they have used through the last few decades. Very interesting to compare to the company's modern profile which has become a very simplified and easily recognized brand and their products which are quite edgy. Enough with the small-talk, here are the logotypes →

Semantic Tag Clouds

2006-08-31The German site Incom has presented Tag Clouds 5.0. An application which searches the Del.icio.us keywords set by its users when they tag their bookmarks. The size of the word and the color density of the background behind the keyword increases when the number of keywords increases. The closeness of the words indicate how often they are tagged together. The German version is here, but a Google translation is available →

"The Way of the Warrior"

2006-08-20Yesterday the Local Budo (Budo: martial arts) club held a show at a square down in Linköping. I was there with my camera to catch a few moments. Look at them here →

Famous logos in web 2.0 format

2006-07-26A collaborative effort by the Yay Hooray members to come up with how famous logotypes should look like if they were modernised into the hyped "Web 2.0" format. Look at them here →

New CSS book

2006-07-24 Just bought the book CSS Mastery by Andy Budd, Simon Collison and Cameron Moll. It looks really promising from what I learned, hopeful that it also turns out that way.

The "Benevolent Designer"

2006-05-11 Oh, I really love that title. According to the PersonalDNA test I am considered to be a "Benevolent Designer" and says this (among many other things) about my personality:

As a DESIGNER, you are receptive to ideas and experiences, and enjoy the beautiful things in life, yet you are also grounded and realistic about yourself and the world.

That is what I want to be, and it kept on giving me stuff to brag about:

You are a great person to interact with—understanding, giving, and trusting—in a word, BENEVOLENT

Too kind. It's also good that it suggests areas where I can improve my life, this one is especially striking since I tend to be too nurturing of those I love and forget to take care of myself:

Be as open to your own wishes as you are to those of others.

If not for the first personality test that has actually been pretty on target, this test is also quite thorough and has some great interface widgets that should be experienced. This is who I am (hover mouse over the different fields to display their meaning):

The FedEx arrow

2006-04-07An interesting interview with designer Lindon Leader about the emergence of the subtle arrow in the FedEx logotype. Read the interview here →

What Microsoft Branding Needs

2006-03-26Microsoft has some problems regarding branding. It can be summed up with:

1. Uniformity / consistency
2. Simplicity / clarity
3. Easily pronounced
4. Short namne
5. Easily remembered domain name

Microsoft lacks most of these. Even Robert Scoble, at Microsoft, agrees. Read the short but interesting summary by Dare Obasanjo →

How do we remember logotypes?

2006-03-13Examples on how australians relate to logotypes from twelve well-recognized brands. This is highly interesting from a Semiotic point of view since logotypes according to modern thought should have a visual flow to the top right. However, many of the participants have drawn the logotypes facing the opposite direction. Read more at Brandmaker →

Apple/Intel - Postal Service Similarities (redux)

2006-03-12This is a re-post of something by internet standards fairly old news. It's a comparison between the Apple PowerMac G5 intro video and the criticized plagiarism by the same director who composed the Postal Service's video. The point is, if you have two videos from a clean micro-chip factory with the video made by the same director you are bound to find similarities. Watch the screen captures here →

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