Ideal OS: An Epic Tale of Irrationality
Note: Parts II and III are up now.
Note: Parts II and III are up now.
So I been thinking. Design comes in waves. First it was page curls and drop shadows. Then came glossy buttons and wet floors, followed by shiny badges and rough textures. Today 'flat' is the leading trend in UI design. It certainly defines the look of Web ’13. Even Apple has jumped on the bandwagon. But what comes next? Where do we go from here? Whither 2014?
I hate smartphone lock screens. Not the concept itself, but the many implementations. Everything I’ve seen is too minimal or too complex. This is prime real estate we are talking about. Surely we can do better. Since it’s been on my mind a lot lately I thought it would be fun to redesign the lock screen starting with first principles. Note: I’m a researcher at Nokia by day. This blog and the opinions on it have nothing to do with my work at Nokia. All ideas are my own and do not reflect anything Nokia is working on. This post also does not reflect a desire on my part to actually build a new lock screen for any OS. This is purely a design exercise to explore the space and see if we can do better.
I stumbled across an older online magazine recently. A List Apart has a wide variety of topics, ranging from CSS and typography to what a designer truly does for their client. While the discussions range from the technical to the philosophical they always target their stories at designers. They've built a truly useful site and I look forward to their return (it's on hiatus now but should be back soon with new content).
Last week I spent a much needed vacation in The Outer Banks. If you ever see a sticker with OBX in a circle on it, that's the Outer Banks. Beautiful and isolated barrier islands off of the coast of North Carolina, they provide great rest and relaxation. And also the opportunity to think about how technology fits in our lives. I've got lots of new ideas to discuss in my coming entries, but one in particular struck me: Passive technology.