Critical Sharks Part I: "You Can't Say That!"

March 4, 2015 Eli Schiff

Julie Zhuo's critique of design criticism.

The release of iOS 7 was the tipping point in bringing about the dominance of flat modern minimalism. In the wake of iOS 7’s radical redesign, without stopping to consider whether there may have been any genuine grievances being aired, many major industry figures decried the uproar of users who were uninterested in flat design.

Frank Chimero, the author of The Shape of Design asked both users and designers to “give it a second” in his iOS 7 reaction piece called “Generosity of Perspective.” The Design Director of Facebook, Julie Zhuo, warned us of the dangerous “Shark-Infested Waters of Design"...

The Mental Model

February 25, 2015 Eli Schiff

The primary aim in creating software is to enable users to create, consume and manipulate available information. Treating users well by creating comprehensible visual designs (system images) is just as important when they are untrained and first encountering the software, as it is when they are familiar but discovering new functionality...

The Entrenchment of Modern Minimalism

February 18, 2015 Eli Schiff

Picasso's Two Characters (1934) is referenced in Apple's OS X Finder icon.

The movement of modern minimalism, while stronger than ever in the design of digital interfaces, is not remotely a new phenomenon. It has endured in earnest for over a century. Though a somewhat diverse movement as a whole, its practitioners maintain the common goal of reducing everything to the abstract and conceptual world of words. As with any movement, many, if not most of its adherents simply go with the tide and follow aesthetic trends without any more than the most surface-level knowledge of their complicity.

On Colors, Gradients and Chat Bubbles

February 12, 2015 Eli Schiff

On the left is what shows up when iPhone users text Android users. On the right is how iMessages are displayed.

In his latest exposé, writer and programmer Paul Ford describes a grave injustice going on today: Apple is promoting a new form of bigotry against Android users. On Apple's iOS 7 and 8 operating systems as well as OS X, text messages from Android users (and other non-iPhone users) display in a hideous neon-green gradient, unlike the obviously inoffensive blue gradient that iPhone and iMessage are displayed in.

This Week in Pixels

February 12, 2015 Eli Schiff

Rules are for Losers

Reuters wins in "Best New Apps" category while breaking iOS HIG rule prohibiting the use of iOS UI elements in icons.

Criticism and the Armchair Fallacy

February 9, 2015 Eli Schiff

Apple's deprecated armchair icon for the Front Row app.

One often hears the claim that criticism is easy and cheap. Steve Jobs once attacked a critical blogger saying "By the way, what have you done that’s so great? Do you create anything, or just criticize others work and belittle their motivations?"

Humanist Interface: Introduction

February 2, 2015 Eli Schiff

Which of these two elements looks like a button to you? This distinction lies at the heart of the debate between expressive designers and the modern minimalists who dominate interface design today.

The design community has converged on a principle of austerity in the visual design of graphical user interfaces (GUI). Leaving behind the textured, dimensional aesthetic that was previously the norm, the digital design of today is superficially minimal, with flat planes of color. It has been heralded as a simpler and more honest approach to designing interfaces...

OS X Secret: Autocomplete

April 16, 2014 Eli Schiff

Have you ever wanted iOS-like autocomplete suggestions in OS X? All it takes is entering "cmd" + "." when writing an incomplete word. Use arrow keys and hit enter/return to select the word you’d like. This shortcut is particularly useful when you’re not sure how to spell a long word and don’t want to open up Dictionary.app.

Unsolicited, (Un)informed Redesigns

January 30, 2014 Eli Schiff

In a recent article, designer Cap Watkins recounts an anecdote in which he was interviewing with Amazon. His interviewer asked him a very tough question: ’Would he change anything about the Amazon homepage?’ Watkins responded by deferring to the judgement of the internal design team, pointing out that they likely had very talented designers testing and exploring the possible design avenues for an optimal solution. Still, Watkins had some reservations:

Purposeful Writing

December 30, 2013 Eli Schiff

Writing is simultaneously the most revealing and mystifying method of communication. The bigger one’s vocabulary, the more they can expose, yet the more they are able to hide their intentions with pretense. Writing about serious matters requires confidence, because you’re not only putting out an expression, but what ultimately becomes a gestalt platform and position that you must answer for.