Edward Tufte on Windows Phone 7:

The WP7S interface has an extra sequence/layer added by big-button opening screens for the new ways of organizing stuff. Compared to the IPhone, most of the WP7S organizing screens have lower content resolution, which violates flatness and leads to hierarchical stacking and temporal sequencing of screens. In day-to-day use, maybe the panorama screens will solve the stacking/sequencing problem, or maybe they will just clutter up the flow of information. Of course Microsoft’s customers are already familiar with deep layerings and complex hierarchies.

I thought similar things when I watched a handful of demos of the new Windows mobile OS. It’s definitely different, un-iPhone, for lack of a better term, but not different in a good way.
It looks like a shell for an eventual mobile operating system, a working wireframe if you will.
On this note, Tufte nails it on the flatness and confusing ‘openness’:

The WP7S screens look as if they were designed for a slide presentation or for a video demo (to be read from a distance) and not for a handheld interface (read from 20 inches). For example, the headline type is too big, too spacious. One design lesson here is that most interface design work should be done at actual final scale and all internal demos should be on actual hardware rather than on pitch slides or big monitor screens. After all, users see the interface only at actual size, and so should interface designers, their managers, and so on up the management chain.

the photography of Alexey Titarenko (via)

via TechCrunch:

On its first day of availability on the App Store since it was – surprisingly, to many – approved by Apple, Opera Mini for iPhone (iTunes link) was downloaded one million times.

I have a question – Who gives a shit how many times it was downloaded?
I’m one of those million downloads, and I have to say, Opera Mini for iPhone sucks (less on this can be found in my economical tweet review).
Opera Mini for iPhone was a free download, so we’re not tracking sales. We’re tracking curious geeks like me who want to see if there could be viable alternatives to SafariMobile. So it’s like tracking hits to a website and hits are pointless too, in and of themselves.
Tracking hits and downloads means nothing without sales conversion stats.

from DesignAday:

Unless I’m way off my rocker, one of the benefits of purchasing the Adobe Creative Suite is that all of the applications work together. Can somebody then please explain why something as simple as color swatches can’t be shared between applications?

That only scratches the surface of what the Adobe Creative Suite doesn’t do across applications.

Most of the time I forget that I’m 32 years old and not a kid anymore when I’m living my life spending time with my wife, working and going out with friends. If feels like it I was just learning HTML at Webmonkey.com with Dreamweaver 3 and reading the thick manual for Flash 4 (back when they made print manuals for software).
When I’m teaching my web design course at FIT on Thursdays, that feeling goes right away. I’m the old dude, they’re the kids and it doesn’t bother me in the least.
I’m actually fascinated by their opinions and view of the world. We adults all tend to make assumptions and generalizations about kids – what they care and don’t care about. What they know and what they’re ignorant about. Nothing clarifies those assumptions like firsthand discussions in class with them.
Sometimes I’m surprised by the answers I get.
For instance, their thoughts on the future of (print) media and the iPad. I heard a few students talking about it so I jumped in and asked them what they thought about it. I instigate these discussions because their concentration is on traditional print design and advertising and if you haven’t noticed, there’s some serious shit happening in these industries.
I don’t feel it’s enough to merely teach the curriculum I’ve been given. These students need to be prepared for what lies ahead.
I found out some of them were scared about the future of print media, magazines and books. I expected them to be excited about this new device and the potential it has to redefine how we create and consume media. Some (not all) of their opinions were surprisingly old school and traditional. Some were afraid print was going to die, that there wouldn’t be any more magazines. Things were ending and they didn’t know what to expect.
I told them fear should be the last feeling in their heads. It’s an exciting time to be a designer and they’re going to be defining (if they rise to the challenge) how we experience media in this new format. I also explained that print wasn’t going to die, but we are going think much harder on what we want to have printed.
I’ve referenced it numerous times before and will continue to. The key to success in designing and creating media is being agile:

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change

—Charles Darwin
My students are not obligated to design content for the iPad, but if I can teach them to be agile in their careers, then they’ll be great.

NYT: Photoshop and Photography: When Is It Real?
David Pogue asks an important (but not new) question:

I have to admit that when I saw the winners revealed in a previous issue, I was a bit taken aback, too. I mean, composition and timing are two key elements of a photographer’s skill, right? If you don’t have to worry about composition and timing, because you can always combine several photos or move things around later in Photoshop, then, well — what is a photograph?

If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse

—Henry Ford
Seems Nokia is asking it’s customers to help it build a faster horse. They’ve set up a Design By Community website that is, “… is capturing the collective thoughts of Conversations readers to define the ultimate concept mobile device.”
On the site you use sliders to customize the attributes of the phone. There’s going to be several rounds that focus on different parts of a mobile device like: Display and UI, Size and Shape, Materials, Operating System, Connectivity, Camera and Enhancements. The scale for the sliders ranges from ‘Not Ambitious Enough” to ‘Way to Out There’. If your customization is ‘Way to Out There’ it won’t let you submit it for consideration.
?
Talk about a recipe for mediocrity.
I’m not sure what amazing insights Nokia expects to glean from this experiment, but whatever it’s going to be, it’s not going to be innovative. The only output I see coming from this is some sort of mutant mobile device who’s DNA resides in the iPhone and the competitors it inspired like all the Android Devices, the Palm Pre and the Blackberry Storm.

I love it (via MacNN):

The GSM Association today unveiled an alliance for a common app store platform meant to challenge Apple. Known as the Wholesale Applications Community, the service will create an open, standard way of developing and selling apps across multiple phone operating systems and networks. The partnership will include phone builders LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, as well as 24 major carriers that include all four major US networks and major internationals like China Mobile, Orange and Telefonica.

First off, understand that this isn’t about making an amazing mobile application experience. This is what companies do when they face competition and don’t want to invest the time and energy to create something innovative.
Sure, on the surface is sounds great, but don’t be fooled.
Also:

GSMA explains the move as a bid to avoid “fragmentation” in the mobile app industry, where different operating systems have led to many apps only being available on some platforms and in some cases only for certain carriers.

What I see happening in the mobile phone industry reminds me very much of the events in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. Specifically the “Anti-dog-eat-dog” rule that the railroad companies make for the common good of the public.
It’s bullshit.

Costa Rica.
I’m a fan.
Gina and I spent 6 days walking, sunning, swimming, eating, drinking, sunning, eating and drinking.
Oh, we also did some zip-lining through the jungles in Guanacaste province.

Rockstar Games just released Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the iPhone and I started playing it last night. It’s fun, but I don’t see myself becoming addicted to it the way I did with GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas.
A big issue I have is with the driving controls. To steer you have a left and a right button:

Why not have one continuous button with gradation from left to right?
I’ve comped up a revised version I think would work better: