

Edward Tufte on iPhone Visual Design - grinich
http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00036T

======
com
"To clarify, add detail".

If only more app designers used the style of analysis that Tufte demonstrates
in the article to critique their own "chartoon" interfaces.

His key insight is that apps can really benefit by removing user interface
clutter (appearance/disappearance through user context, low contrast colours
or "intuitive" gestural controls), maximising usable information density
(color, texture, images, text, zebra-striping all targeted at conveying
information, not simply design) either in breadth of scope or detail for a
smaller number of items.

I've been a bit disappointed in the current crop of iPhone designs since I saw
this presentation last year. They don't need the Tufte aesthetic or
sparklines, all they should be is not cartoony, information-lite, or _ugly_
apps.

I'm interested in recommendations for tight, good design in recent iPhone
apps. Are there any good candidates?

~~~
bouncingsoul
Ego: <http://ego-app.com/>

~~~
com
I took a look, but ... um all I see from the brochureware site is a cartoony
interface with low information density, no history or trending (surely that's
interesting for your egotistical users?).

Without installing it, it looks like all the other poorly-designed apps out
there.

------
Luc
The thing with sparklines is that, while curves seem to hold a certain
fascination with a lot of people, I just don't see all that much utility in
them, certainly not in my iPhone usage. For stock prices I consider curves
less than useful, since it's natural but generally foolish to want to
extrapolate from them. For temperature, I may want the highs and lows and
perhaps a general trend (derivative), but a sparkline offers only a very low-
fidelity version of that information.

------
mcslee
Tufte makes many good insights, but I always struggle to get over the
incredible ego in his presentations. He has a tendency to make sweeping
aesthetic judgments based upon what, in my opinion, are simply his personal
tastes, which he then passes off as arguments about "information density."

Many of the interfaces he criticizes for being "cartoony" are quite reasonably
designed for the typical end-user, and probably more effective at
communicating the basic information. People typically use the Weather app to
find out what the temperature is outside right now. Adding "detail to clarify"
is not helpful when no clarification is needed. It's 62 degrees out. Got it.
We're done.

Similarly, I highly doubt many people are using the Stocks app on an iPhone to
attempt to analyze thousands of points worth of historical data.

It also bears considering that many of the freebie apps bundled with the
iPhone have a design goal of _helping to sell iPhones._

