The older Brushed Metal gets, the weirder it seems.
via Brent Simmons
Category: Design
Greg Christie out at Apple ⇢
Juli Clover:
Apple’s Vice President of Human Interface Greg Christie is set to depart from the company after clashing with Jony Ive, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design who oversees and guides the Human Interface teams, reports 9to5Mac. Ive first took on a role “providing leadership” for the Human Interface teams in late 2012, following Scott Forstall’s departure from the company.
Christie has led much of Apple’s software design and reports to Craig Federighi, who oversees development of iOS and OS X, but Christie interacts with Ive during design meetings. Christie’s team was responsible for redesigning iOS 7, which reportedly led to disagreements with Ive.
The Woman Behind Apple’s First Icons ⇢
Priceonomics has a great article on Susan Kare, the designer of some of the most iconic pieces of computer UI ever done and one of my tattoos.
Opinionated ⇢
Dr. Drang:
There’s been a tendency in recent years for reviewers of Mac and iOS software to heap praise on “opinionated design.” This phrase can usually be translated as “software that doesn’t allow much user customization.” For software that isn’t used often or isn’t used for long stretches at a time, a lack of customization options is no problem—it’s not worth spending a lot of time tweaking a program you spend little time with. But for bread-and-butter applications, like text editors, mail clients, calendars, and web browsers, tweaking the settings is as important as adjusting the driver’s seat in your car. You want to be comfortable with things you spend a lot of time with.
The Golf turns 40 ⇢
There are few cars that I love every generation of, but the Golf is definitely one of them.
How to tell if your UX guy blew it ⇢
Rene Ritchie at iMore:
One of the more subtle yet potentially frustrating changes in iOS 7.1 is how the state of the shift key is displayed. Not only isn’t it intuitively obvious which state the shift key is in — lowercase, Upper Case, or CAPS LOCK — but it can be downright counter-intuitive to the point that you find yourself uncertain and guessing wrong more often than not.
The history of the space suit ⇢
We live in a world where science fiction is hardly fiction at all.
On an OS X redesign ⇢
John Gruber, linking to this article on Macworld:
What this piece made clear for me is that (a) something similar is going to happen to Mac OS X, almost certainly this year; but (b) there’s no way to look at iOS 7 and predict what a corresponding refresh for Mac OS X will look like. Maybe the only things I’ll predict are lots of white backgrounds, and Helvetica Neue as the system font.
15 years of Apple.com ⇢
It’s changed less than you’d think.
Speaking of VAIOs ⇢
The Verge walks through the strange history of Sony’s PC line.
Jared Sinclair, on Unread ⇢
Jared talks through some of the design decisions he made when designing his new app.
30 years and one day in the making ⇢
Apple:
On January 24, 1984, Apple introduced the Macintosh. And with it a promise that the power of technology, put in the hands of everyone, could change the world. On January 24, 2014, we sent 15 camera crews all over the world to show how that promise has become a reality.
From sunrise in Melbourne to nightfall in Los Angeles, they documented people doing amazing things with Apple products. They shot over 70 hours of footage — all with the iPhone 5s. Then it was edited and scored with an original soundtrack. Thanks to the power of the Mac and the innovations it has inspired, an effort that normally takes months was accomplished in a matter of days.