UI
Google+ : 2 different designs, 2 different error messages. Well done!
Oh, yes, super helpful! Thanks for the info, Microsoft!
Still think #Apple messed up by removing all color from their icons in Lion. Elegant maybe but less usable.
Been using Lion for a couple weeks now and still can’t get used to this. It always takes the eye/brain longer to find the thing you’re looking for.
Also the choice of gray is bad — it feels like they’re all disabled or something…
Finder:
iTunes:
Color is hugely important. This should be common sense. Imagine if all of the icons in your Dock…
…were black and white. How much harder would it be to identify them quickly?
Design decisions at Apple vs Google – The Auteur vs. the Committee
One person is the Decider for final design choices. Not focus groups. Not data crunchers. Not committee consensus-builders. The decisions reflect the sensibility of just one person: Steven P. Jobs, the C.E.O.
By contrast, Google has followed the conventional approach, with lots of people playing a role. That group prefers to rely on experimental data, not designers, to guide its decisions.
The contest is not even close. The company that has a single arbiter of taste has been producing superior products, showing that you don’t need multiple teams and dozens or hundreds or thousands of voices.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/technology/what-apple-has-that-google-doesnt-an-auteur.html
Now Gmail is trying to tell me who I should “consider including” in an email? WTF?
The only way this could be more annoying: if there was a little animated paper clip icon saying it…
“It looks like you’re emailing your wife. Would you also like to include your brother and sister? I think you should. They’re probably interested in what you have to say, also. Consider including your mother as well. You never write her. Would you like me to do a little dance while you write your email? Just let me know. I’m here to help. I won’t bug you anymore — I’ll just be over here. You just pretend like I’m not here. Go ahead, I’ll shut up now. Just gonna let you write your email. Don’t mind me. *whistles* *hums* *taps foot* You done with your email yet? Can I help you write it? There are some spelling and grammar errors — I will just fix those for you automatically. I am here to make your life easier! I am Clippy! I can read your mind! I watch what you do and make suggestions based on your past behavior! … Hey, where are you going? … Ok, bye. I’ll just finish your email for you. I’ll just go ahead and send it to whoever I think it would be best for you to send it to. ‘m-K? ‘M-k.”
Even a broken weather icon is right at least… once in a while. 73 degrees & sunny.
This was actually really weird because I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve launched the weather app.
