Rethinking The Boarding Pass
Beautiful boarding pass redesigns. Be sure to view the comments as well.
Here are a few teasers from the article…
Archived entries for design
Subtraction (Again)
Wow. The new Magic Mouse is beautiful.
When you look deeper, it’s another example of extreme subtraction…
No cords. No buttons.
By loosing the excess, the mouse gains functionality and capability. All of the sudden, lots of new worlds and possibilities open up. We have the capability for multi-touch and a (mostly) unrestricted canvas for rich interaction because of the items that have been removed from the mouse.
Sound familiar?
This is the same design that opened up a new world of phones by removing the physical keyboard.
Thank you Apple 
Modeling vs. The Model
It’s interesting to me how much people rely on formal tools for modeling. I frequently talk to individuals that tend to assert that just because a model is made in some modeling tool (like Visio) that it is *right* or at least superior to whiteboard sketches.
The Visio fan-boys and fan-girls seem to snicker and generally doubt the effectiveness of a sketch done at a whiteboard. Why is this?
Is it because of the appearance? Is it the lack of gradients? Is it the lack of the drop shadows? Is it the lack of the standard company logo in the upper right-hand corner? Is it because of how straight the lines are?
My view is exactly the opposite. If I had to summarize my stance, I’d say that the straightness of the lines has an inverse effect on the understanding of the problem.
In my experience, most of the models created with modeling-tools are done by one individual. If others collaborate on the model, it’s usually in a serialized fashion. It’s “tossed over the wall” to someone else who follows a similar process. It’s also my experience that many people spend more time worrying about the polish of how the output looks than spending time thinking about what is being modeled.
Contrast this to a whiteboard-session:
When a model is explored on a whiteboard it’s usually done with more than one person. It’s usually done collaboratively with at least two participants, a variety of view-points, and it’s iterated on quickly. Because it’s being done collaboratively, it also frequently results in break-through ideas or understanding.
Unfortunately, the modeling tools also tend to focus our attention on the output, not the creation of the model (where the real learning occurs).
It’s important to remember that the modeling, learning, and understanding is what provides the real value, not the model.
Photo courtesy of Doc Searls.
Your Users Don’t Know Best
You don’t build great software by putting your users in the driver’s seat. Techniques that focus on asking users what they want in your product or asking users to “vote” on the functionality that they would like to see in your product are recipes for mediocrity.
Don’t ask your users what to build. Instead, focus on understanding what your users “do.” Know the goals of your users, understand what they think, how they interact, what they do in their time-off, and understand what their life is like on a day-to-day basis. You can’t get this information by disconnected feedback, you have to get it face-to-face, side-by-side, through direct and unbiased observation.
Everyone who designs, develops, tests, and manages software products should be spending time with their users. Be an apprentice, observe your software in use in a natural environment, pay attention to the psychology and interactions – then you will understand what needs to be built.
Every interaction with a user in their natural environment will leave a lasting impact in how you understand your users and guide your product.
Wally Wood’s 22 Panels
If you are having a hard time putting together compelling presentations then a great source of inspiration is to look to Wall Wood’s 22 Panels.
The 22 panels are great inspirations for help in designing your slides to tell the visual story of your content or ideas.
Tivoli Model Three
Is there another alarm clock radio that’s more beautiful than this?
I stayed at a hotel recently that had one of these at the bedside. In a world full of horrible hotel alarm clocks, it was a welcome change.
Usability++
Picturing Excess
If you haven’t seen the work of Chris Jordan, I highly recommend taking a little while to explore his work. Lightly put, it’s amazing.
Chris combines statistics and visualizations to produce a variety of thought-provoking, insightful, and beautiful visuals.
His most recent work can be seen in Running the Numbers – An American Self-Portrait.
I’d also recommend taking a few minutes to watch his talk from TED.
Inspiration: Q-Drum
Sometimes, it’s good to unlearn.
Think backwards, throw out your preconceived notions, forget about dependencies, and ignore your constraints.
If you search long enough, you just might find the right problem to fix. When you focus on the right problem, you might actually surprise yourself with what you can come up with.
Q-Drum solved the right problem.
The real problem…
A novel solution…
Data Visualizations
The quality of data visualizations (and their availability) have gone way up lately. Here are a few of my faves…
Newsmap (Google News)
Bigspy (Digg)
Arc (Digg)
Stack (Digg)
