Edward Tufte, undisputed master of information visualisation (described by The New York Times as “the Leonardo da Vinci of Data”) and PowerPoint hater extraordinaire, has posted a very interesting article and video about the interface design of the iPhone [via]:
“The iPhone platform elegantly solves the design problem of small screens by greatly intensifying the information resolution of each displayed page. Small screens, as on traditional cell phones, show very little information per screen, which in turn leads to deep hierarchies of stacked-up thin information–too often leaving users with “Where am I?” puzzles. Better to have users looking over material adjacent in space rather than stacked in time.”
He makes some interesting observations about the user interface and offers some advice for areas which could possibly be improved. The main point which resonates for me is that Apple have, arguably for the first time, solved the problem of displaying information on a small screen in a way which is intuitively useful to the user. By removing “computer administrative debris” (e.g. scroll bars) and introducing interaction by touch, pixel-wastage is reduce - “content is the user interface; the information is the interface”.
The fact that mobile internet has been a failure up till now can be directly attributed to poor interface design (and to a lesser extent bandwidth). It looks like that’s all about to change.
Key takeaway: “To clarify add detail; clutter and overload are not an attribute of information, they are failures of design“.
Enjoyed this post? Please subscribe to my RSS feed to stay up to date.
Last week was pretty busy with work and it looks set to be fairly hectic till the end of the year, which for me ends December 14th due to all the vacation days I have left! In the week directly before Christmas I’ve planned a short trip to Amsterdam for a couple of days - I last went their when I was 14 (9 years ago) so it will be nice to see it again and hopefully take the camera through its paces.
Recently I was helping giving my uncle some advice about buying a new computer - he showed one particular model he was looking at and I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw the operating system options:
Yep, that’s right you can “upgrade” to Windows XP from Vista for £50! I think that says it all with regards to how well received Vista has been. I have Vista on my work laptop but have just about had enough of its sluggishness and unnecessary eye-candy - I’ll be downgrading to XP or upgrading to Ubuntu as soon as I have time.
On an unrelated note, an interesting article in the NY Times:
“South Korea boasts of being the most wired nation on earth. In fact, perhaps no other country has so fully embraced the Internet. Ninety percent of homes connect to cheap, high-speed broadband, online gaming is a professional sport, and social life for the young revolves around the “PC bangâ€, dim Internet parlors that sit on practically every street corner…”
Unsurprisingly many young people in South Korea have developed an acute problem with Internet addiction, with people literally dropping dead from exhaustion, which has led the government to set up an “Internet Rescue Camp” as well as 100’s of counsellors and treatment programs. It’s an interesting reflection on the impact that the technological revolution has had on those on the cutting edge and you can be sure it’ll be the same in the west in less than a decade. Maybe there is something in being an analogue person…
Enjoyed this post? Please subscribe to my RSS feed to stay up to date.
Somehow today’s Dilbert seems worryingly close to the truth… how did anyone survive before the Internet? Are we all becoming information addicts? Lets look at the positive and negative effects of this:
- Pros - Know lots about stuff, approximately 20% of it is useful, 80% completely inane. 24/7 instant access to more information than is comfortably conceivable.
- Cons - Every free waking moment is taken up cramming more of it leading to a restless hunger and thirst for more. Slow death of the physical library and the dewey index.
Q) Is there such a thing as being too well read? Discuss.
If you like the work of Scott Adams you might want to check out his blog - it’s a good read.
Enjoyed this post? Please subscribe to my RSS feed to stay up to date.
Recent Comments