Ideas and Discoveries
touch
New Rule: Every Desktop Design Has To Go Finger-Friendly
New hybrid keyboard-touch laptops and tablets have changed the game. When any desktop machine could have a touch interface, we have to proceed as if they all do.
touch
Touch Means a New Chance for Radial Menus
Radial menus are suddenly in vogue, but it’s not just passing fashion. For touch, this is good interaction design.
buttons
With iOS Buttons, Know Your Right from Your Left
Back! Done! Cancel! Save! Mobile apps sport a bevy of buttons to dismiss a view, but their proper placement isn’t always obvious. Here are the general rules to follow.
history
Grids, Design Guidelines, Broken Rules, and the Streets of New York City
The history of New York City’s aggressive grid of city streets offers plenty of lessons for digital designers.
content strategy
Mobile Isn't the Lite Version
Jakob Nielsen’s dubious mobile website guidelines make the mistake of assuming that there’s such a thing as “this is mobile content, and this is not.”
mobile
Designing for “Context” Is Tricky Business
Designers often conflate device context with user context—or worse, with user intent. “This is mobile, so they’ll never want to do that.” ”This is mobile, so it’s aimed only at users on the go.” Friends, this is hooey.
gestures
“Buttons Were an Inspired UI Hack, but Now We’ve Got Better Options”
The good folks at O’Reilly interviewed me this week about how new technologies change how we should think about interface design as both consumers and designers.
apple
3.1 Million Pixels Are Heavy
If you want to take advantage of the new iPad’s gorgeous screen (and of course you do), every image you push down the wire is about to put on a ton of weight. That has implications in lots of places and for lots of people.
ffly
A Day Made of Glass
The folks at Corning put together a heckuva concept video that peeks into the near future of touchscreen interfaces.
advertising
QR Codes Are Footnotes, Not Ads
Go figure, but pulling someone through a QR code means we have to give people information they actually want or need.
gestures
Gestures in #NewNewTwitter
Big changes are afoot in the new Twitter app for iPhone, with both good and bad things happening with the app’s gesture interactions. Here’s a hard look.
history
Eve's Wireless
A 1922 silent movie shows off perhaps the first mobile phone, “Eve’s Wireless,” a contraption that required a fire hydrant and an umbrella to work.
apple
Making Stuff
The iPad is a device suited for sitting or reclining, which certainly makes it a device of contemplation, and yep, that’s the perfect state of mind for reading or watching a movie. But it’s a mistake to think of it as “only” a new-fangled book or tv screen. Contemplation is not the same as passivity.
books
Tapworthy in China (and Japan! and Spain!)
“Touch People’s Hearts” is the translated title of the Chinese edition of my book Tapworthy (触动人心), and I couldn’t be more tickled.
augmented reality
Augmented Unreality
Games are the best (and perhaps most commercially viable) flavor of augmented reality, painting an imaginative layer on everyday surroundings.
ios5
Newsstand Revisited
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s post about Newsstand, I had exchanges with a few folks whose work touches the publishing industry. A few themes kept coming back…
apple
Newsstand Is Promising, Yay! But Enough with Issue-Based Publishing
Newsstand is a read-all-about-it moment for publishers, as readers seem to love it so far. But we can’t let this recent success distract us from real problems with the issue-based publishing model Newsstand supports.