Category: Design

On QuarkXPress

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A couple of weeks ago, Dave Girard wrote up a piece over on Ars Technica about QuarkXPress, the page layout software. He opens the article with this:

As the big dog of desktop publishing in the ’80s and ’90s, QuarkXPress was synonymous with professional publishing. In fact, it was publishing. But its hurried and steady decline is one of the greatest business failures in modern tech.

Quark’s demise is truly the stuff of legend. In fact, the story reads like the fall of any empire: failed battles, growing discontent among the overtaxed masses, hungry and energized foes, hubris, greed, and… uh, CMYK PDFs. What did QuarkXPress do—or fail to do—that saw its complete dominance of desktop publishing wither in less than a decade? In short, it didn’t listen.

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6 Grams ⇢

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Many people know that I am a big pen and paper nerd, but my nerdiness for such things extends way beyond normal realms, when it comes to Field Notes.

I love these 3-1/2” wide, by 5-1/2” tall notebooks with a passion. I am a colours subscriber (recently-renewed) and a hunter of rare editions.

I keep a Field Notes Notebook on my person every day and would be lost without them.

But it’s about so much more than the book itself. There is a level of care and thought put in to each design, that is perfectly encapsulated in this video by Jim Coudal. This is why I love Field Notes.

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Essence ⇢

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My friend and podcast co-host Federico Viticci’s very special lady friend has launched a new project:

Essence is exactly what you need to save time and get your app design ready for iOS 7. With a total of 300 unique designs, Essence offers high-quality, detailed, attribution-free icons that cover a wide range of categories from productivity and lifestyle to weather and food. Each of the 300 icons includes a filled “selected” version — so you can choose which icon is best for your app.

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The Colors of Apple ⇢

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Linus Edwards, writing about the rumored iPhone 5C, in context of the design of past Apple products:

I wonder if these new colorful iPhones, along with the more colorful iOS 7, is a signal that Apple is transitioning into another colorful phase, similar to that of the late 90s. I always found it strange how Steve Jobs pushed the colorful iMac and iBooks, yet completely turned away from those colors after only a few years. Maybe he saw that fashion and tastes change rather quickly and wanted to pivot and stay ahead of the game. The bright colors would soon become garish if Apple kept them too long, so Jobs took Macs in a completely different direction with neutral colors that would be more timeless and less at the whim of current fashion.

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On iOS 7 App Design and Uniformity

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iOS 7, of course, is bringing sweeping UI changes like the operating system has never seen before. Many developers are currently hard at work, building iOS 7 versions of their apps.

From what I’ve seen, it’s paying off. I’m currently running several betas of iOS 7-only apps, 1 and many of the apps in my SECRETS! folder feel right at home on my sacrificed-to-the-beta-gods iPhone.

But they all feel awfully similar.

I can take a look at screenshots of them and tell them apart, mind you. Developers are using color in some very exciting, unique ways on iOS 7, but white frosted glass is everywhere, as are the standard UI controls found in Apple’s first-party apps.

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Delight is in the Details ⇢

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My friend Shawn is launching a new project:

It takes a significant amount of time and talent to bridge the gap between good design and great design. Many designers find themselves working with clients or bosses who would prefer to squeeze additional features into a product rather than taking the time to polish and refine what has already been done. Moreover, what can a designer do when they have the desire and willpower to make a great product but they lack the talent?

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