Interface Design Blog: the good, the bad, and the utterly unusable...
Oldie but oh-so-goodie – Lavender Concept Phone Design
Posted on | June 9, 2010 | No Comments
I had been spoiled designing for iPhone and some of the nicer Android mobile phones, but recently I had to do a few projects on simpler, smaller, much less elegant devices running J2ME. It got me thinkig of that thin line that separates the beautiful, slick devices from the ones that lack the ‘wow’ factor completely and would be only bought based on their discounted pricing.
Being a designer myself, I would definitely pay the premium (within reason) for a mobile phone, just to have that feeling every time I pull it out of my bag or pocket that I am holding a highly functional and usable yet beautiful product, a culmination of hard work and talent on behalf of both engineers and designers.
I looked again at the concept Lavender phone from a young designer named Andrew Kim that made a splash some time ago:
Lavender Concept Phone - Andrew Kim
Clearly, the perfume functionality is very questionable, and functionality is not worked out in detail, but I just love the overall feeling of completeness of this phone. Unlike many phones on the market, it boasts a beautiful cohesive design, where everything is just where it should be. Though, of course, it is much easier to achieve the cohesiveness in concept products than in production models.
Enter iPhone 4
Posted on | June 7, 2010 | No Comments
In the WWDC keynote, Steve Jobs started with the iPad, but the new iPhone 4 stole the show: http://live.gdgt.com/2010/06/07/live-wwdc-2010-keynote-coverage/#11-45-55-am
from the trenches: http://liv…
Posted on | June 7, 2010 | No Comments
from the trenches: http://live.gdgt.com/2010/06/07/live-wwdc-2010-keynote-coverage/
Gmail keeps getting smarter
Posted on | May 6, 2010 | 1 Comment
I love Gmail. I love that it keeps all my emails INDEFINITELY. I love that I can find any email from 5 years ago just by typing in a keyword. I especially love that all these features allow me, a dumb forgetful attention-challenged user, to not bother with folders.
My love suffered a minor blow a few months ago with Gmail introduced Buzz. Much is said about Buzz, most people I polled don’t use it and generally find it annoying, even if mildly so. So that was a bit cooling. For a moment there I wondered where Gmail was headed.
But today my love has been re-ignited in a major way: Gmail is even smarter that I suspected! I wrote in my email that I am attaching a file, then wrote a few more paragraphs, forgot all about the file, and clicked “Send”. And this is what I saw:
Gmail detects the words 'attachment', 'attaching' in your emails and warns you if you forgot to add the attachment
I am truly impressed by this. It’s a great example of a system helping the user where it matters – safeguarding us where our fickle human memory fails.