

The Future of Design Is More Than Making iOS Flat - mef
http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/06/the-future-of-design-is-more-than-making-apple-ios-flat/

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nfg
Anyone interested in the point about Mondrian would enjoy (the sadly recently
deceased) Robert Hughes' documentary series “The Shock of the New” — it's
available on YT starting here:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_8y0sQ0HME](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_8y0sQ0HME)

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programminggeek
I think that design is as much about a feel as it is about a style and getting
that feel into users lives is the experience in user experience.

Making something outstanding is about making something that people love, like
really, really love.

Creating an experience with a "hook" is as important as style ever is.

The iPhone experience has a hook, Xbox Live has a hook, Facebook has a hook,
twitter has a hook, HN has a hook and that experience hook has nothing to do
with what the UI looks like right now or in the future.

People loved/hated seukomorphic design, but that misses the point. If it
enables a particular experience that hooks/delights users, then it's a good
thing. If not, it's a bad thing, but the merits of the style itself sort of
lives outside of the actual product design discussion IMO.

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pedalpete
I really like your comment, however, we can't ignore the visual appeal as
well, and that visual appeal can be the hook.

If AngryBirds wasn't cartoonish, and had a cold interface with only dots and
blocks, it would cease to be as entertaining, and therefore the design is key
to the user experience.

This isn't only true in games. The hooks of Facebook were similar to the hooks
of myspace, but myspace became difficult to interpret, where Facebook remained
easy to read while being less about the perceived style of your friends.

Your comment makes me think you're saying, make sure you don't have a pig
before you put lipstick on it.

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programminggeek
I am not saying you can't ignore visual appeal at all. I'm just saying that
visual appeal should serve to enhance the hook, and when well done it really
makes a great total package, but the design itself is not the hook.

For example, modern PC laptops basically are ripping off the design of the
Macbook Air, with varying results. Yet, one thing Apple does consistently well
is the trackpad and somehow in almost every review I read, the trackpad of
every PC laptop doesn't match well with the MBA. They never feel right, even
if they look very, very similar. It might feel like a very small thing, but
that little bit of hardware design and software drivers changes how the user
feels about what might otherwise look like comparable hardware.

At the same time, I don't mean to discount the design or graphics when done
well. A game like Borderlands takes a great gameplay experience with a
fantastic hook (random loot drops/rpg elements), and the graphics helps add a
vibe all its own. A different graphical style and it would look like a
different take on Gears of War, Fallout 3, or Call of Duty...

Anyway, I think we are on the same page.

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joe_the_user
Clearly the future of design is Metro. Metro is the cleanest and most design-
driven GUI ever. And, well, users hate it so much it really has made a ding in
Microsoft's earnings. But full steam ahead!

Static graphic beauty and usability aren't the same either on the desktop or
with phones and tablets. But given sufficient monopoly power, no one has to
care. The tragedy is the GUIs got to "functional enough" sometime in the early
2000's and so they are fated simply get worse since more functional isn't a
selling point.

And on the "it's phones, not laptops" point - people do fewer tasks with
phones than laptops. They'll never do more tasks with phones than laptops and
so

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Zigurd
Metro is just a theme. Placing too much emphasis on Metro is going to lead to
disappointment. Themes, like lapel widths, go out of style.

The success of transitioning Windows to touch devices rests on other factors
than the Metro look: Are the APIs for touch apps too limited? What is the
evolutionary path for desktop apps?

So far, it remains an open question. "Modern" touch apps on Windows are
limited compared to desktop apps, and are not taking off. Migrating desktop
apps, or adapting them to touch is no more satisfactory than it was on
previous attempts at putting Windows on tablets.

I doubt Microsoft can force a win without fixing these problems. Google has
given them plenty of time by not seizing the tablet opportunity as vigorously
as they conquered handsets. But, by next year, you will see tablets displace
laptops and desktops, rather than augment them. Sales of replacement PCs has
already taken a hit. Now they will start to age-out.

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joe_the_user
You are simply wrong.

Microsoft has been rather cagey about what exactly falls under the Metro
and/or Modern Interface rubric. But whatever-you-call the Windows 8 interface,
it is surely _more than a theme_ in the sense that it is quite difficult to
remove for the average user and also in the sense that it is a GUI concept and
guideline-set rather a modular set of bit-maps and such that thing-actually-
called-"themes" involve (on Wordpress or Windows 95 or whatever). I'm also not
disappointed 'cause I had no hope for this interface.

The idea that Windows _needs_ to "transition" to the tablet or whatever is
something I and apparently most users would take issue with. But even the pure
windows absent absent the mud of all the "transition" efforts has been a
failure so the question isn't that relevant.

