1. ⁘  ⁘  ⁘
  2. ⁘  ⁘  ⁘
  3. Abo, Akinori 9
  4. aesthetics 19
  5. agile 30
  6. Albers, Josef 17
  7. Alexander, Christopher 135
  8. Alexander, Scott 5
  9. Allsopp, John 4
  10. Ammer, Ralph 6
  11. Anderson, Gretchen 7
  12. anxiety 9
  13. Appleton, Maggie 5
  14. Aptekar-Cassels, Wesley 5
  15. Arango, Jorge 4
  16. architecture 110
  17. art 86
  18. Asimov, Isaac 5
  19. attention 17
  20. Auping, Michael 6
  21. Aurelius, Marcus 14
  22. Bachelard, Gaston 12
  23. Baker, Nicholson 10
  24. beauty 58
  25. Behrensmeyer, Anna K. 7
  26. Bell, Larry 3
  27. Bjarnason, Baldur 5
  28. Blake, William 5
  29. blogging 21
  30. body 11
  31. Boeing, Geoff 7
  32. boredom 9
  33. Botton, Alain de 38
  34. Brand, Stewart 4
  35. Bringhurst, Robert 16
  36. Brooks, Frederick P. 22
  37. Broskoski, Charles 6
  38. brutalism 7
  39. building 16
  40. bureaucracy 12
  41. Burnham, Bo 9
  42. business 15
  43. Byron, Lord 14
  44. Cagan, Marty 6
  45. Calvino, Italo 21
  46. Camus, Albert 13
  47. care 6
  48. Carruth, Shane 15
  49. Cegłowski, Maciej 6
  50. Cervantes, Miguel de 7
  51. chance 11
  52. change 16
  53. Chiang, Ted 4
  54. Chimero, Frank 17
  55. choice 8
  56. cities 51
  57. Clark, Robin 3
  58. Cleary, Thomas 8
  59. Cleary, J.C. 8
  60. code 20
  61. collaboration 16
  62. collections 31
  63. Collison, Simon 3
  64. color 23
  65. commonplace 10
  66. communication 31
  67. community 7
  68. complexity 11
  69. connection 24
  70. constraints 25
  71. construction 9
  72. content 9
  73. Corbusier, Le 13
  74. Coyier, Chris 4
  75. craft 65
  76. creativity 58
  77. crime 9
  78. Critchlow, Tom 5
  79. critique 10
  80. Cross, Nigel 12
  81. Cross, Anita Clayburn 10
  82. css 11
  83. culture 13
  84. curiosity 11
  85. cycles 7
  86. Danielewski, Mark Z. 4
  87. darkness 28
  88. Darwin, Will 10
  89. data 8
  90. death 38
  91. Debord, Guy 6
  92. decisions 9
  93. design 131
  94. details 30
  95. Dickinson, Emily 9
  96. Dieste, Eladio 4
  97. discovery 9
  98. doors 7
  99. Dorn, Brandon 11
  100. drawing 23
  101. Drucker, Peter F. 15
  102. Duany, Andres 18
  103. Eatock, Daniel 4
  104. economics 13
  105. efficiency 7
  106. Eisenman, Peter 8
  107. Eliot, T.S. 14
  108. emotion 8
  109. ending 14
  110. engineering 11
  111. Eno, Brian 4
  112. ethics 14
  113. euphony 38
  114. Evans, Benedict 4
  115. evolution 9
  116. experience 14
  117. farming 8
  118. fashion 11
  119. features 25
  120. feedback 6
  121. flaws 10
  122. Flexner, Abraham 8
  123. food 16
  124. form 18
  125. Fowler, Martin 4
  126. Franklin, Ursula M. 30
  127. friendship 6
  128. fun 7
  129. function 31
  130. games 13
  131. gardens 26
  132. Garfield, Emily 4
  133. Garfunkel, Art 6
  134. geography 8
  135. geometry 18
  136. goals 9
  137. Gombrich, E. H. 4
  138. goodness 12
  139. Graham, Paul 37
  140. graphics 13
  141. Greene, Erick 6
  142. Hamming, Richard 45
  143. happiness 17
  144. Harford, Tim 4
  145. Harper, Thomas J. 15
  146. Hayes, Brian 28
  147. heat 7
  148. Heinrich, Bernd 7
  149. Herbert, Frank 4
  150. Heschong, Lisa 27
  151. Hesse, Herman 6
  152. history 13
  153. Hoffman, Yoel 10
  154. Hofstadter, Douglas 6
  155. home 15
  156. Hoy, Amy 4
  157. Hoyt, Ben 5
  158. html 11
  159. Hudlow, Gandalf 4
  160. humanity 16
  161. humor 6
  162. Huxley, Aldous 7
  163. hypermedia 22
  164. i 18
  165. ideas 19
  166. identity 33
  167. images 10
  168. industry 9
  169. information 42
  170. infrastructure 17
  171. innovation 14
  172. interaction 10
  173. interest 10
  174. interfaces 36
  175. intuition 8
  176. invention 10
  177. Irwin, Robert 65
  178. Isaacson, Walter 28
  179. Ishikawa, Sara 33
  180. iteration 13
  181. Ive, Jonathan 6
  182. Jackson, Steven J. 14
  183. Jacobs, Jane 54
  184. Jacobs, Alan 5
  185. Jobs, Steve 20
  186. Jones, Nick 5
  187. Kahn, Louis 4
  188. Kakuzō, Okakura 23
  189. Kaufman, Kenn 4
  190. Keith, Jeremy 6
  191. Keller, Jenny 10
  192. Kelly, Kevin 3
  193. Keqin, Yuanwu 8
  194. Ketheswaran, Pirijan 6
  195. Kingdon, Jonathan 5
  196. Kitching, Roger 7
  197. Klein, Laura 4
  198. Kleon, Austin 13
  199. Klinkenborg, Verlyn 24
  200. Klyn, Dan 20
  201. knowledge 28
  202. Kohlstedt, Kurt 11
  203. Kramer, Karen L. 10
  204. Krishna, Golden 10
  205. Kuma, Kengo 18
  206. language 20
  207. learning 29
  208. life 59
  209. light 31
  210. loneliness 12
  211. love 25
  212. Lovell, Sophie 16
  213. Lupton, Ellen 11
  214. Luu, Dan 8
  215. Lynch, Kevin 12
  216. MacIver, David R. 8
  217. MacWright, Tom 5
  218. Magnus, Margaret 12
  219. making 77
  220. management 14
  221. Manaugh, Geoff 27
  222. Markson, David 16
  223. Mars, Roman 13
  224. material 39
  225. math 16
  226. McCarter, Robert 21
  227. meaning 33
  228. media 16
  229. melancholy 51
  230. memory 28
  231. metaphor 10
  232. metrics 19
  233. microsites 49
  234. Miller, J. Abbott 10
  235. Mills, C. Wright 9
  236. minimalism 10
  237. Miyazaki, Hayao 30
  238. Mod, Craig 15
  239. modularity 6
  240. Mollison, Bill 31
  241. morality 8
  242. Murakami, Haruki 21
  243. music 16
  244. Müller, Boris 7
  245. Naka, Toshiharu 8
  246. names 11
  247. Naskrecki, Piotr 5
  248. nature 51
  249. networks 15
  250. Noessel, Christopher 7
  251. notetaking 34
  252. novelty 10
  253. objects 15
  254. order 10
  255. ornament 9
  256. Orwell, George 7
  257. Ott, Matthias 4
  258. ownership 6
  259. Pallasmaa, Juhani 41
  260. Palmer, John 8
  261. patterns 11
  262. Patton, James L. 9
  263. Pawson, John 21
  264. perception 22
  265. perfection 7
  266. performance 17
  267. Perrine, John D. 9
  268. Petroski, Henry 24
  269. philosophy 6
  270. photography 20
  271. physics 6
  272. Pinker, Steven 8
  273. place 14
  274. planning 15
  275. Plater-Zyberk, Elizabeth 18
  276. poetry 13
  277. politics 9
  278. Pollan, Michael 6
  279. practice 10
  280. problems 31
  281. process 22
  282. production 7
  283. productivity 12
  284. products 20
  285. programming 9
  286. progress 16
  287. Pye, David 42
  288. quality 25
  289. questions 8
  290. Radić, Smiljan 20
  291. Rams, Dieter 16
  292. Rao, Venkatesh 14
  293. reading 16
  294. reality 13
  295. Reichenstein, Oliver 5
  296. religion 11
  297. Rendle, Robin 12
  298. repair 28
  299. research 17
  300. Reveal, James L. 4
  301. Richards, Melanie 3
  302. Richie, Donald 10
  303. Rougeux, Nicholas 4
  304. Rowe, Peter G. 10
  305. Rupert, Dave 4
  306. Ruskin, John 5
  307. Satyal, Parimal 9
  308. Saval, Nikil 13
  309. Sayers, Dorothy 32
  310. Schaller, George B. 7
  311. Schwulst, Laurel 5
  312. science 17
  313. seeing 36
  314. Sennett, Richard 45
  315. senses 11
  316. Seuss, Dr. 14
  317. Shakespeare, William 4
  318. Shorin, Toby 8
  319. silence 9
  320. Silverstein, Murray 33
  321. Simms, Matthew 19
  322. Simon, Paul 6
  323. simplicity 14
  324. Singer, Ryan 12
  325. skill 17
  326. Sloan, Robin 5
  327. Smith, Cyril Stanley 29
  328. Smith, Justin E. H. 6
  329. Smith, Rach 4
  330. socializing 7
  331. society 23
  332. software 66
  333. solitude 12
  334. Somers, James 8
  335. Sorkin, Michael 56
  336. sound 14
  337. space 20
  338. Speck, Jeff 18
  339. speech 6
  340. spirit 10
  341. streets 10
  342. structure 13
  343. Strunk, William 15
  344. Ström, Matthew 13
  345. style 30
  346. Sun, Chuánqí 15
  347. symbols 12
  348. systems 18
  349. Sōetsu, Yanagi 34
  350. Sōseki, Natsume 8
  351. Tanaka, Tomoyuki 9
  352. Tanizaki, Jun'ichirō 15
  353. taste 10
  354. Taylor, Dorian 16
  355. teaching 21
  356. teamwork 16
  357. technology 41
  358. texture 7
  359. thinking 30
  360. Thoreau, Henry David 8
  361. time 54
  362. Tolkien, J.R.R. 6
  363. tools 32
  364. touch 8
  365. transportation 16
  366. Trombley, Nick 44
  367. truth 15
  368. Tufte, Edward 31
  369. Turrell, James 6
  370. typography 25
  371. understanding 32
  372. urbanism 68
  373. ux 100
  374. Victor, Bret 9
  375. Viollet-le-Duc, Eugène 4
  376. vision 7
  377. visualization 34
  378. Voltaire 4
  379. wabi-sabi 8
  380. walking 23
  381. Wallace, David Foster 33
  382. Wang, Shawn 6
  383. war 7
  384. waste 12
  385. Watterson, Bill 4
  386. Webb, Matt 14
  387. Wechler, Lawrence 37
  388. whimsy 11
  389. White, E.B. 15
  390. Wirth, Niklaus 6
  391. wisdom 20
  392. Wittgenstein, Ludwig 7
  393. Woolf, Virginia 11
  394. words 35
  395. work 80
  396. writing 55
  397. Wurman, Richard Saul 18
  398. www 88
  399. Yamada, Kōun 5
  400. Yamashita, Yuhki 4
  401. Yudkowsky, Eliezer 17
  402. zen 38
  403. ⁘  ⁘  ⁘
  404. About
  405. RSS Feed
  406. Source

interfaces

Close
  • Essential vs. nice to have

    Customers have trouble distinguishing between essential features and those that are just "nice to have." Examples of the latter class: those arbitrarily overlapping windows suggested by the uncritically but widely adopted desktop metaphor; and fancy icons decorating the screen display, such as antique mailboxes and garbage cans that are further enhanced by the visible movement of selected items toward their ultimate destination. These details are cute but not essential, and they have a hidden cost.

    /

    Increased complexity results in large part from our recent penchant for friendly user interaction. I've already mentioned windows and icons; color, gray-scales, shadows, pop-ups, pictures, and all kinds of gadgets can easily be added.

    Niklaus Wirth, A Plea for Lean Software
    1. ​​Menus, Metaphors and Materials: Milestones of User Interface Design​​
    2. ​​littlebigdetails​​
    • interfaces
    • ux
  • An open platform is essential

    Second, an open platform is essential. Communication is just one part of what humans do on the job. The modern knowledge worker relies on dozens of different products for their daily work, and that number is constantly expanding. These critical business processes and workflows demand the best tools, regardless of vendor.

    Dear Microsoft
    • interfaces
  • Web trails

    breadcrumbs-a72f3abea1438d53861570d32cd85265.png

    There's more room for spatial concepts to become part of our web browsing experience.

    One example is an idea I call "trails." It's based on the story of Hansel and Gretel walking through the forest and leaving a trail of breadcrumbs behind them, so that they could find their way back later. What if you could do this on the web?

    A breadcrumb in this case is a single pixel that you can place in a precise location on a webpage. Placing a breadcrumb could be as simple as Option + click. While navigating the web, you could leave breadcrumbs on different pages you find interesting over the course of a browsing session. When you're done, that sequential "trail of breadcrumbs" would be saved. You could then jump back into the trail and navigate "forward" and "backward" through the things you found interesting in that browsing session. Or share the trail with a friend, and they could step through your spatial path of navigating the web.

    John Palmer, Spatial Interfaces
    • interfaces
    • www
  • gridless.design

    A Website by Donnie D'Amato
    gridless.design

    get rid of the grid

    Blasphemy, I need structure and order!"

    The web is good at these things, just not in the ways that designers have been accustomed to working. We'll take a look at how we got here and how we might change our perspective. Let's think outside of the grid and allow other guidelines to provide a comprehensive layout.

    1. ​​We are the ones who paved the path​​
    2. ​​Sentences and words do not exist by themselves​​
    3. ​​Changing Our Development Mindset​​
    • www
    • interfaces
  • Web Design is 95% Typography

    An Article by Oliver Reichenstein
    ia.net

    95% of the information on the web is written language. It is only logical to say that a web designer should get good training in the main discipline of shaping written information, in other words: Typography.

    • typography
    • interfaces
    • www

    Almost 15 years later, still as relevant as ever.

  • Why Do All Websites Look the Same?

    An Article by Boris Müller
    modus.medium.com

    On the visual weariness of the web.

    1. ​​The Great Blight of Dullness​​
    2. ​​What On Earth is a Brutalist Website?​​
    3. ​​All Social Networks Look The Same Now​​
    4. ​​All websites are just digital movie theaters now​​
    • www
    • boredom
    • interfaces
  • Always Already Programming

    An Article by Melanie Hoff
    gist.github.com

    Everyone who interacts with computers has in important ways always already been programming them.

    Every time you make a folder or rename a file on your computer, the actions you take through moving your mouse and clicking on buttons, translate into text-based commands or scripts which eventually translate into binary.

    Why are the common conceptions of what a programmer and user is so divorced from each other? The distinction between programmer and user is reinforced and maintained by a tech industry that benefits from a population rendered computationally passive. If we accept and adopt the role of less agency, we then make it harder for ourselves to come into more agency.

    • programming
    • interfaces
    • technology
  • The Finish Fetish Artists

    An Essay
    www.getty.edu

    For others, perhaps especially those artists who worked with light and transparency and were involved in the birth of the Light and Space Movement, an immaculate surface is a prerequisite. Helen Pashgian explained this very clearly:

    “On any of these works, if there is a scratch... that’s all you see. The point of it is not the finish at all – the point is being able to interact with the piece, whether it is inside or outside, to see into it, to see through it, to relate to it in those ways. But that’s why we need to deal with the finish, so we can deal with the piece on a much deeper level”.

    The importance of a pristine surface calls for a very low tolerance to damage by the artists. The feeling is shared by Larry Bell:

    “I don’t want you to see stains on the glass. I don’t want you to see fingerprints on the glass... I don’t want you to see anything except the light that’s reflected, absorbed, or transmitted”

    1. ​​Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees​​
    2. ​​The light that hits the glass​​
    3. ​​Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface​​
    • light
    • art
    • interfaces
    • material
  • Spatial Software

    An Article by John Palmer
    darkblueheaven.com
    1. ​​A world within its interface​​
    2. ​​Social apps and COVID-19​​
    3. ​​Spatial software references​​
    1. ​​Spatial Interfaces​​
    2. ​​Spatial Web Browsing​​
    • software
    • interfaces
    • dimension

    A follow-up essay to Spatial Interfaces, 7 months later.

  • Spatial Interfaces

    An Essay by John Palmer
    darkblueheaven.com

    Software applications can utilize spatial interfaces to afford users powerful ways of thinking and interacting. Though often associated with gaming, spatial interfaces can be useful in any kind of software, even in less obvious domains like productivity tools or work applications. We will see spatial interfaces move into all verticals, starting with game-like interfaces for all kinds of social use-cases.

    1. ​​There is no app that replicates a deck of cards​​
    2. ​​Humans are spatial creatures​​
    3. ​​Web trails​​
    1. ​​Makespace.fun​​
    2. ​​Nototo​​
    3. ​​Spatial Software​​
    4. ​​Spatial Web Browsing​​
    • interfaces
    • dimension
    • ux
  • Spatial Web Browsing

    An Article by Maggie Appleton
    maggieappleton.com
    Screenshot of maggieappleton.com on 2022-01-20 at 8.54.10 AM.png

    There are some new apps appearing that offer alternative ways of browsing the web...This canvas-based approach adds spatial dimension to the web browsing experience; they allow us to arrange browser windows above, below, to the left, and right of other browser windows.

    The same way we're able to put an open book next to a piece of paper and below a row of sticky notes in meatspace. Arranging objects in space to create groupings, indicate relationships, and build hierarchies is one of those classical human skills that never goes out of style.

    1. ​​Spatial Interfaces​​
    2. ​​Spatial Software​​
    • space
    • www
    • interfaces
  • How I Build

    An Article by Pirijan Ketheswaran
    pketh.org

    In 2014, I wrote about my belief that design and engineering are best when tightly woven together. That’s truer now than ever.

    If I’m feeling confident, I’ll jump right into my text editor…From here, more functionality is added and the code is tweaked until the feature looks and feels right to me. Whether it’s something simple like this, or prototyping a new interaction like multi-connect, there’s no substitute for designing with real code.

    In rare cases when I have ideas or plans that I’m less confident about, it’s time to break out the paper, pens, and markers,

    Because the Kinopio interface elements and aesthetic are full-grown, I almost never use traditional design software anymore.

    • making
    • interaction
    • interfaces
  • In search of visual texture

    An Article by Rachel Prudden
    obliqueville.substack.com
    3C7AC130-F9E3-4569-BF32-E977C3DDD6B8.png

    I’m now more inclined to attribute Looseleaf’s power to its visual texture than to some cognitive media-style abstraction. And the visual texture owes more to the beauty (yes, beauty!) of the original pdfs from the Vasulka Archive. Perhaps the demo is best understood not as a prototype generic tool, but as a specific curated experience in its own right, with form and content claiming equal importance in its overall success.

    Even so, I think there are some general lessons that can be drawn from this demo:

    • Content is not inert
    • Visual texture lets content breathe
    • Visual texture lets the eye wander without losing itself
    1. ​​Looseleaf​​
    • texture
    • typography
    • beauty
    • interfaces
    • visualization
  • Menus, Metaphors and Materials: Milestones of User Interface Design

    An Article by Boris Müller
    medium.com

    Students traditionally learn art and design by studying the masters, analyzing, sketching and interpreting the grand visions of the past. In doing this, they get to understand the ideas, concepts and motivations behind the visual form.

    In user interface design, this practice is curiously absent.

    1. ​​Interface design is ephemeral​​
    2. ​​Xerox Star​​
    3. ​​Magic Cap​​
    4. ​​Information Landscapes​​
    5. ​​BeOS Icons​​
    1. ​​The Mother of All Demos​​
    2. ​​Essential vs. nice to have​​
    3. ​​Metaphors We Web By​​
    • interfaces
    • www
    • history
    • learning
  • press.stripe.com

    A Website
    press.stripe.com
    Screenshot of press.stripe.com on 2021-10-16 at 3.46.59 PM.png

    Stripe partners with millions of the world’s most innovative businesses. These businesses are the result of many different inputs. Perhaps the most important ingredient is “ideas.”

    Stripe Press highlights ideas that we think can be broadly useful. Some books contain entirely new material, some are collections of existing work reimagined, and others are republications of previous works that have remained relevant over time or have renewed relevance today.

    • books
    • microsites
    • interfaces
    • visualization
  • Embracing Asymmetrical Design

    An Article by Ben Nadel
    www.bennadel.com

    Humans love symmetry. We find symmetry to be very attractive. Our brains may even be hard-wired through evolution to process symmetrical data more efficiently. So, it's no surprise that, as designers, we try to build symmetry into our product interfaces and layouts. It makes them feel very pleasant to look at.

    Unfortunately, data is not symmetrical…Once you release a product into "the real world", and users start to enter "real world data" into it, you immediately see that asymmetrical data, shoe-horned into a symmetrical design, can start to look terrible.

    To fix this, we need to lean into an asymmetric reality. We need to embrace the fact that data is asymmetric and we need to design user interfaces that can expand and contract to work with the asymmetry, not against it. To borrow from Bruce Lee, we need to build user interfaces that act more like water:

    “You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.” — Bruce Lee

    1. ​​The pernicious issue with pangrams​​
    2. ​​Changing Our Development Mindset​​
    • data
    • interfaces
  • Changing Our Development Mindset

    A Fragment by Michelle Barker
    www.smashingmagazine.com

    We simply can no longer design and develop only for “optimal” content or browsing conditions. Instead, we must embrace the inherent flexibility and unpredictability of the web, and build resilient components. Static mockups cannot cater to every scenario, so many design decisions fall to developers at build time. Like it or not, if you’re a UI developer, you are a designer — even if you don’t consider yourself one!

    ...Sometimes interpreting a design means asking the designer to further elaborate on their ideas (or even re-evaluate them). Other times, it means making design decisions on the fly or making recommendations based on our knowledge and experience.

    1. ​​gridless.design​​
    2. ​​We are the ones who paved the path​​
    3. ​​Embracing Asymmetrical Design​​
    • interfaces
    • css
    • design

    For a designer, it's great to know there are developers out there who embrace the fact that designs can never fully capture built reality.

  • AJDVIV

    A Website
    architectenjdviv.com
    Screenshot of architectenjdviv.com on 2021-10-09 at 8.55.44 AM.png
    • microsites
    • interfaces

    An experimental, spreadsheet-style interface for a German architectural practice. Kids, don't try this at home.

  • The Fidelity Curve

    An Article by Ryan Singer
    m.signalvnoise.com

    How do we choose which level of fidelity is appropriate for a project?

    I think about it like this: The purpose of making sketches and mockups before coding is to gain confidence in what we plan to do. I’m trying to remove risk from the decision to build something by somehow “previewing” it in a cheaper form. There’s a trade-off here. The higher the fidelity of the mockup, the more confidence it gives me. But the longer it takes to create that mockup, the more time I’ve wasted on an intermediate step before building the real thing.

    I like to look at that trade-off economically. Each method reduces risk by letting me preview the outcome at lower fidelity, at the cost of time spent on it. The cost/benefit of each type of mockup is going to vary depending on the fidelity of the simulation and the work involved in building the real thing.

    1. ​​Four levels of fidelity​​
    2. ​​Time to build versus confidence gained​​
    • prototypes
    • interfaces
  • What UI really is (and how UX confuses matters)

    An Article by Ryan Singer
    rjs.medium.com

    People mix the terms UI and UX together. UX is tricky because it doesn’t refer to any one thing. Interface design, visual styling, code performance, uptime, and feature set all contribute to the user’s “experience.” Books on UX further complicate matters by including research methods and development methodologies. All of this makes the field confusing for people who want to understand the fundamentals.

    That’s why I avoid teaching the term ’UX.’ It means too many things to too many different people. Instead I focus on individual skills. Once you understand the individual skills, you can assemble them into a composite system without blurring them together. For software design, the core skill among all user-facing concerns is user interface design.

    • ux
    • interfaces
  • User Inyerface

    A Website
    userinyerface.com
    Screenshot of userinyerface.com on 2021-08-24 at 7.32.15 PM.png

    A worst-practice UI experiment.

    1. ​​How I experience the web today​​
    • interfaces
    • ux
    • microsites
  • Beyond Artboards

    An Essay by Chuánqí Sun
    medium.com

    The Pursuit of Lossless Design-Development Handoffs.

    1. ​​Can't developers just see?​​
    2. ​​We are the ones who paved the path​​
    3. ​​Until we get there​​
    • process
    • interfaces
    • design
  • Intelligent arrows

    A Fragment by Chris Coyier
    css-tricks.com

    Reminds me of a little feature I like in Notion where if you type dash-arrow (like ->) it turns into → — but intelligently — like it doesn’t do that with inline code or a code block.

    1. ​​Unicode Arrows​​
    • interfaces
    • interaction
    • details

    Referring to Rachel Binx's site Unicode Arrows.

  • Safari 15 isn't bad, just misunderstood

    An Article by Jeff Kirvin
    www.craft.do

    What I see in Safari 15 is the first steps into a new design language for iOS, one prioritizing adaptive, contextual interfaces. Ever since the move to the new “all screen” iPhone X design, content has been king on iOS, and Apple has been removing more and more user chrome. This is the next step on that journey.

    • content
    • interfaces
  • The Nine States of Design

    An Article by Vince Speelman
    medium.com
    1. Nothing
    2. Loading
    3. None
    4. One
    5. Some
    6. Too Many
    7. Incorrect
    8. Correct
    9. Done
    • ux
    • interfaces
  • State of the Windows

    An Article
    ntdotdev.wordpress.com

    How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 10?

    We’ve all heard this riddle: if you dig down deep enough in Windows 10, you’ll find elements that date from Windows 3.x days. But is it actually true? In this article we’ll discover just how many UI layers are in Windows and when they were first introduced.

    1. ​​How Buildings Learn​​
    • interfaces
  • narrowdesign.com

    A Website by Nick Jones
    www.narrowdesign.com
    Screenshot of www.narrowdesign.com on 2021-07-01 at 10.26.48 AM.png

    Design
    Prototype
    Code

    • graphics
    • geometry
    • experiments
    • interfaces
  • Guidebook: Graphical User Interface Gallery

    A Website
    guidebookgallery.org

    Guidebook is a website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces, as well as various materials related to them.

    • ux
    • software
    • interfaces

    Sadly, guidebook has not been updated since 2006, but the site is still alive as of 2020!

  • It's all just geek talk

    A Fragment by Riccardo Mori
    morrick.me

    I’m finding that many people not only have lowered their standards with regard to the user interface, but more and more often when I bring up the subject, they seem to consider it a somewhat secondary aspect, something that’s only good for ‘geek talk’. The same kind of amused reaction laymen have to wine or coffee connoisseurs when they describe flavours and characteristics using specific lingo. Something that makes sense only to wine or coffee geeks but has little to no meaning or impact for the regular person.

    The problem is that if an increasing number of people start viewing user interface design as an afterthought, or something that isn’t fundamental to the design of a product or experience — it’s all just ‘geek talk’ — then there is a reduced incentive to care about it on the part of the maker of the product.

    • interfaces
    • ux
    • taste
  • Pictures of Websites

    An Article by Matthew Ström
    matthewstrom.com
    Image from matthewstrom.com on 2021-03-15 at 10.45.36 AM.jpeg

    When I was a product designer, people would ask what I did for a living, and sometimes I’d answer “I draw pictures of websites.”

    Sure, I could just say “I design websites.” That’s true. The end result of my work is (hopefully) that a website looks better, works better, or results in better outcomes.

    But most of my day isn’t spent looking at the website, or working on the code of the website, or manipulating the website directly in some way. It’s spent in Figma or Sketch, drawing pictures of how I think the website should look and work.

    Through some kind of alchemy, the pictures I draw have an impact on the finished website. But they’re not all the same.

    • design
    • drawing
    • interfaces
  • The User Interface of URLs

    A Research Paper
    web.archive.org

    URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) have rapidly become the standard method for specifying how to access information on the Internet. Although mostly used on the World Wide Web, URLs are also becoming more common for specifying locations for other distributed Internet services such as Gopher and anonymous FTP. Internet users see URLs both online and in print, and therefore URLs have visual interfaces. This paper gives an overview of many of the issues that concern the visual and user interfaces of URLs.

    1. ​​Cool URIs don't change​​
    • hypermedia
    • www
    • interfaces
  • Web History Chapter 6: Web Design

    A Chapter by Jay Hoffmann
    css-tricks.com

    After the first websites demonstrate the commercial and aesthetic potential of the web, the media industry floods the web with a surge of new content. Amateur webzines — which define and voice and tone unique to the web — are soon joined by traditional publishers. By the mid to late 90’s, most major companies will have a website, and the popularity of the web will begin to explore. Search engines emerge as one solution to cataloging the expanding universe of websites, but even they struggle to keep up. Brands soon begin to look for a way to stand out.

    1. ​​A Dao of Web Design​​
    • www
    • ux
    • interfaces
    • design
  • Unobtrusive feedback

    An Article by Jeremy Keith
    adactio.com
    Screenshot of adactio.com on 2020-09-29 at 9.45.54 AM.png

    The text 'added' and 'removed' drifts upwards from the toggle button and fades away.

    So we all know Super Mario, right? And if you think about when you’re collecting coins in Super Mario, it doesn’t stop the game and pop up an alert dialogue and say, “You have just collected ten points, OK, Cancel”, right? It just does it. It does it in the background, but it does provide you with a feedback mechanism.

    The feedback you get in Super Mario is about the number of points you’ve just gained. When you collect an item that gives you more points, the number of points you’ve gained appears where the item was …and then drifts upwards as it disappears. It’s unobtrusive enough that it won’t distract you from the gameplay you’re concentrating on but it gives you the reassurance that, yes, you have just gained points.

    • ux
    • interfaces
  • The Mother of All Demos

    A Lecture by Douglas Engelbart
    en.wikipedia.org

    A name retroactively applied to a landmark computer demonstration, presented by Douglas Engelbart on December 9, 1968. The 90-minute presentation essentially demonstrated almost all the fundamental elements of modern personal computing:

    • windows,
    • hypertext,
    • graphics,
    • efficient navigation and command input,
    • video conferencing,
    • the computer mouse,
    • word processing,
    • dynamic file linking,
    • revision control,
    • and a collaborative real-time editor
    1. ​​Menus, Metaphors and Materials: Milestones of User Interface Design​​
    • interfaces
    • technology
  • The UX of Lego Interface Panels

    An Article by George Cave
    www.designedbycave.co.uk
    Image from www.designedbycave.co.uk on 2020-08-16 at 1.56.16 PM.jpeg
    Image from www.designedbycave.co.uk on 2020-08-16 at 1.56.22 PM.jpeg
    Image from www.designedbycave.co.uk on 2020-08-16 at 1.56.16 PM.jpeg

    Two studs wide and angled at 45°, the ubiquitous “2x2 decorated slope” is a LEGO minifigure’s interface to the world. These iconic, low-resolution designs are the perfect tool to learn the basics of physical interface design.

    • ux
    • interfaces
    • play
    • toys
  • Like, just a post complaining that screens should be better

    An Article by Matt Webb
    interconnected.org

    It’s been 19 years since Pixar released Monsters, Inc. with all that CGI hair. Where are my hairy icons? Ones that get all long and knotted as the notifications number goes up.

    Why can’t I feel my phone? I found that paper from 2010 (when I was complaining about keyboards) about using precision electrostatics to make artificial textures on touchscreens.

    I should be able to run my thumb over my phone while it’s in my pocket and feel bumps for apps that want my attention. Touching an active element should feel rough. A scrollbar should *slip. Imagine the accessibility gains. But honestly I don’t even care if it’s useful: 1.5 billion smartphone screens are manufactured every year. For that number, I expect bells. I expect whistles.

    1. ​​A Brief Rant​​
    • interaction
    • software
    • interfaces
    • devices

See also:
  1. ux
  2. www
  3. design
  4. interaction
  5. software
  6. microsites
  7. technology
  8. dimension
  9. typography
  10. visualization
  11. devices
  12. play
  13. toys
  14. boredom
  15. history
  16. learning
  17. taste
  18. hypermedia
  19. drawing
  20. graphics
  21. geometry
  22. experiments
  23. content
  24. details
  25. process
  26. prototypes
  27. data
  28. css
  29. books
  30. light
  31. art
  32. material
  33. texture
  34. beauty
  35. making
  36. space
  37. programming
  1. John Palmer
  2. Boris Müller
  3. Ryan Singer
  4. Matt Webb
  5. George Cave
  6. Douglas Engelbart
  7. Jeremy Keith
  8. Jay Hoffmann
  9. Riccardo Mori
  10. Niklaus Wirth
  11. Matthew Ström
  12. Nick Jones
  13. Vince Speelman
  14. Jeff Kirvin
  15. Chris Coyier
  16. Chuánqí Sun
  17. Donnie D'Amato
  18. Oliver Reichenstein
  19. Ben Nadel
  20. Michelle Barker
  21. Rachel Prudden
  22. Pirijan Ketheswaran
  23. Maggie Appleton
  24. Melanie Hoff