Posts tagged Design
Cameron Daigle’s “Is the iPad Just a Big iPhone?” UI Presentation from PodCamp Nashville
Mar 8th
Cameron Daigle’s “is the iPad just a big iPhone” user interface presentation from PodCamp Nashville. Note, the second slide is a gigantic “NO.”
[via Daring Fireball]
Cameron Daigle’s “Is the iPad Just a Big iPhone?” UI Presentation from PodCamp Nashville is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Rumored 4th Gen Apple iPhone Parts Show Little Design Change
Feb 8th

Above is a image that is claimed to belong to the upcoming 4th generation iPhone, courtesy of iPhone repair Web site iResQ. As iResQ points out, there are a few interesting things that stand out in the photo.
- “The LCD appears to be factory glued to the digitizer which is more similar to the first generation iPhones than the iPhone 3G and 3GS. The digitizer can be separated from the LCD on the 3G and 3GS models, which should be interesting to all, but for the repair folks like us–this means that the 4G screen repair price will be higher since both parts will have to be replaced at once.”
- “The iPhone 4G front panel seems to be about 1/4″ longer than its predecessors.”
- “There is an interesting reflective, mirror-like surface directly above the speaker. This is likely a spot for the proximity sensor. If that’s what is is, it’s in a different location than previous models.”
Here at TiPb we are hoping for something more drastic in terms of design changes but based on these latest images it’s hard to tell if the “A+” upgrade Steve Jobs promised will hold true. These images may turn out to be bogus or simply be scrapped before the final product is put together. We’ve seen it happen before with the matte backing.
We are willing to give Jobs the benefit of the doubt on his A+ upgrade for the time being, how about you?
One more image after the break!
[Via Apple Insider]

Rumored 4th Gen Apple iPhone Parts Show Little Design Change is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
iTablet to Look like Bigger, Slimmer Original iPhone 2G, Use MacBook Battery?
Jan 21st
AppleInsider is claiming “people familiar with the device” as saying Apple’s upcoming iTablet/iSlate/iPad will have a physical design reminiscent of the original iPhone 2G launched in 2007:
Nestled in an aluminum shell that leverages the Apple’s expertise in unibody construction but thinner proportionality than the original iPhone, the tablet reportedly sports all of the same buttons found on the handset, right down to its iconic home button — which, like the volume toggle, is missing from the rendering.
Similarly, the tablet is said to sport all the same in/out connectivity as the current iPhone 3GS, including a 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack, built-in speaker grills, a microphone, GPS, 3G connectivity and a 30-pin dock connector. Like the rendering, its 10-inch display is framed by a black border that bleeds into its wrap-around aluminum enclosure.
The above conceptual rendering from Fotoboer.nl is said to be close, though lacking the home button and other details. Apple being Apple, they’ll likely want to maintain visual ties between their iPhone, MacBook Pro, and iMac lines, and that means blacks, aluminums, and glass, so this doesn’t sound at all far fetched.
AppleInsider is also hearing there may be a CDMA-compatible (read: Verizon-friendly) chipset version, but don’t know if it’ll make it into the final product.
Meanwhile, 9to5mac picked up a DigiTimes story that hints Apple’s new smart, long-lasting MacBook battery technology will be found in the iTablet as well:
Taiwan-based [MacBook battery suppliers] Simplo Technology and Dynapack International Technology are expected to share orders from Apple for its tablet PC, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report.
Again, not far fetched at all. Apple leverages their technologies across their product lines, and that’s one of the keys to both their hardware and platform models.
This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
iTablet to Look like Bigger, Slimmer Original iPhone 2G, Use MacBook Battery?
Mashable’s New Design: What Do You Think? [POLL]
Jan 5th
New Year, New Mashable! We rolled out a new look this morning, reorganizing our content into sections, removing clutter and putting more focus on the stories.
If you’re particularly interested in a certain area of our coverage, you’ll appreciate our new sections: Social Media, Mobile, Web Video, Entertainment, Business and Tech. Each of these channels has a separate RSS feed.
Our channels are composed of subchannels, too, allowing you to drill down to your areas of interest. For example, our entertainment section contains subsections where you can get the latest on music, film, online games, sports, celebrities, food and media; our business section offers business news, advertising and marketing articles, small business advice, pieces on career development and more.
We’re not done yet, of course. If you spot any bugs or issues, let us know. In the meantime, we’d like to ask: What do you think?
Special thanks to our partners at nclud for their work on this design!

Lite as a Feather: Why Simplicity Is Hot
Dec 4th
Today YouTube became the latest in a spate of social networks to offer an alternative design to users. It follows on the heels of Digg Lite and Facebook Lite, both attempts to strip down to the bare essentials and reduce the clutter and cruft of all the widgets, related content, menus and other bits of (usually) relevant information that have crept into most social sharing sites.
Digg’s initiative is far more developer-focused; it’s really intended as a showcase for its new API. Still, the point is equally taken: Sometimes it’s refreshing to get the Other Stuff out of the way and get back to basics. Facebook Lite is more about the user experience; since its latest big redesign earlier this year many users have complained about feeling overwhelmed. The Lite version is a way to once again focus on core features and tune out some of the more extraneous variables that tend to encrust the typical Facebook profile.
Simple Is Good
YouTube and Facebook’s Lite versions are both in direct response to user feedback. They clearly fill a need on the part of the audience to occasionally reduce the noise and boost the signal. But it’s also important to note that neither of these options have replaced the “full” default versions of the sites — they’re alternative views, not primary views. There’s still value in all the extra “related” information that accompanies the content we’re sharing, but Lite versions acknowledge the fact that there are different modes of viewing content on the Web.
The Lite trend also acknowledges the inherent value of simplicity in reducing friction, both in terms of cognitive processing and in literal page load times. It’s a busy world, and sometimes saving those few seconds can make a big difference in our perception of productivity and faster workflow. Twitter is another great example of how simplicity can reduce friction and increase user participation thanks to sheer ease of use. There’s something extremely pleasurable about using a simple interface, in that the service itself is designed to get out of your way and get you to your goal — whether it be writing a 140 character update, watching a video clip or sharing a link with friends.
Toggling Between Modes
From a user experience perspective, it’s a great thing that product managers and designers are catering to this idea of being able to toggle your browsing mode between “simple and focused” and back out again to “search and discovery” mode, where the “distractions” can often lead to serendipitous discovery and unexpectedly interesting new experiences. The Lite trend also reflects that there are different types of Internet users — some who are intimately familiar with complex interfaces and relish diving in to an information-rich environment, and others who simply don’t spend the same ungodly amounts of time on the Internet as many of us social media-fluent users do.
Take World of Warcraft players, for example, who can customize their own user interfaces to a degree whose complexity level borders on that of a jet plane instrument panel. Even so, some still choose a far more minimalist approach to managing the influx of real-time data. There’s value in both options, and either can be preferable to an individual user at different times. Building in tools to make that switch possible is a great move on the part of these networks.
Is Customization the Future?
What if you could actually customize your user interface experience on every site you visited? A number of sites already take this highly customizable approach, from Netvibes and iGoogle to the MOG music social network, who recently-launched a subscription-based music service to accompany its music news and social features. MySpace took the same approach, allowing users to customize their own profiles in an almost too open playground that admittedly allowed a number of crimes against HTML to be perpetuated.
But what about going beyond simply customizing how your own profile looks, and on into a more remixable interface for social sites in general? It’s easy to see how much value there could be in giving Facebook or YouTube users the ability to go nuts with UI customizations to a degree similar to that of World of Warcraft, where a smorgasboard of user-created add-ons makes very specific information management tasks possible.
Ultimately, users will make their own way as technology progresses: Some will stick with “as simple as possible,” some will adopt interfaces resembling complicated spreadsheets and others will jump at the ability to toggle between the two… or several. And in an Internet era already embracing the ethos of openness and third-party access to APIs, it doesn’t seem that far-fetched to imagine something like that could be possible.
Would you like the ability to customize your user experience on social networks?
Reviews: Digg, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube
Tags: design, facebook, Facebook Lite, LITE, simplicity, UI, user interface, youtube, youtube lite
The Nissan Cube Exhibition
Nov 26th
Last night, Ben, Resh and I went to the launch party for The Cube Store, Nissan’s multimedia design exhibition celebrating their new model, The Cube.
The event was held at Boiler House in Brick Lane and featured live street-art battles, beat boxing and some very funky cube-inspired designs. We may have also had a glass of champagne or two…!



The design of the space itself is cube-tastic. Inside a dome is a wall-to-wall multimedia video experience that features fast-paced city and product shots. Very cool. The street art took place on either side of giant stacks of red cubes, which comprises the central design. Despite being a launch for a car, the Cube was presented as design, alongside design. This sets it apart from most other automobile launches, where the car is the star and everything revolves around it.

Cubelist club cards were distributed to attendees, each with their own individual shapes and colours, driving to cubelist.com. There you’re asked to match the colours to your card to unlock your membership – a creative way to encourage sign ups. The members section includes a design-inspired webzine, discounts at The Cube Store and access to exclusive Cube events.

My favourite section on the page, surprisingly, is the Build Your Cube section, which is an interactive experience that has you customize your Cube in separate sections, which you “drive” around the environment.

Once you’re happy with your design (complete with funky dashboard mats), you can “take your Cube for a spin,” where your car follows your mouse through a series of paint splotches in an interactive visualisation.

When you navigate to the Cube section on the Nissan page you’re presented with the tagline, “It’s an unusual club that isn’t for everyone, but if you’re not everyone…” Clearly Nissan is targeting people who like to be different and try to build a community around the car’s unusual design, much like VW’s famous Lemon angle, or Mini’s cult following.
If you don’t have a Cubelist card, you’ve got to apply for one by completing a 24-question profile test. This illustrates the mystery and intrigue they’re trying to build around the car. Only once Nissan “gets to know you better” and you pass the test will you be invited to join this community… And not everybody will be.
The Cube Store opens to the public today, November 26th and will run until January 3rd. The pop-up shop was created in collaboration with Parisian design emporium, Colette, and will feature a range of Japanese inspired lifestyle products from renowned international designers. The Nissan Cube will be displayed alongside a series of music, fashion and creative experiences throughout the seven week stint.
Check it out if you’re in the area!



