

Dropbox Hires Rasmus Andersson, Facebook’s Mobile Design Guru - aashaykumar92
http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/22/dropbox-rasmus-andersson-designer/

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joeblau
It seems like they are scoring a lot of really big power players from other
great companies. Does it seem like everyone is going there until it goes
public for the payout?

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aashaykumar92
Yeah I think that's pretty inferable. Regardless, Drew and company are doing
an amazing job getting all this talent--coming IPO or not, these are a lot of
power people coming in and they can't have been easy to attain.

It'll be quite the solid team to showcase to investors come IPO time.

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samstave
But how will the product evolve with that talent?

The sync/sharing/storage aspect of the product is mature given the relative
one-dimensionality of file storage.

Storage, Syncing and sharing should be ___transparent_ __to the users - so
clearly, they need to ensure a continued robust, secure service - but one that
never gets between a user and their data.

The acquisition of Mailbox is a great move assuming they bolt Mailbox on-top
of Dropbox.

What I would like to see is API integrations across services such that I can
eventually store all ___MY_ __data in __ _MY_ __account and allow other
services access to it.

This could cause an issue for some services - but the fact is that I don't
want to host all my mail with gmail, all my pics in FB, etc...

I want a storage glob and a set structure for "pics go here" "docs go here"
"mail goes here" and a range of apps that access the data in an authorized,
yet ad-hoc manner - but at the end of the day, the data is ___MINE_ __.

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amirmc
I'd like this too and might start work on something over the summer. When you
say 'my' data I'm assuming you mean 'remains under my control'.

Some of the ideas have been research topics and may ripe for demos later in
the year. If you've got s moment, you can check out perscon.net for an
overview.

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samstave
This is exactly what I was talking about. There are a ton of challenges - and
obviously this is against what the market/industry is looking to provide (they
want to control the service, and see your data as a part of their service)

But we need to move in this direction and have some balance between the user
owning their online experience, especially when that experience is an actual
extension of who they are - and services that are able to provide portions of
that experience in a way where they can be profitable and viable businesses.

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triplesec
Facebook has mobile design? Maybe he did the decent bits, and feel free to
correct me, but by the evidence of my Android facebook app I'd be glad to be
shot of anyone in that department.

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charleslmunger
The design of the app isn't bad, but the implementation is worthless. I don't
know if he's responsible, but the slide away panel has inspired a lot of
imitation as a design pattern.

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triplesec
Ah, yes now that slide away panel is neat! That's decent and better
implemented than the Android browser I first saw it on (racking my brains to
remember which) but still it's just one innovation. Like putting the coolest
new cupholding system in the execrable Dodge Neon. Call me curmudgeonly (I've
just had a tooth implant so I have an excuse) but if you're actually in charge
of interface and still you can't get overall UX even to be adequate in a major
product, then you're not managing and communicating upwards well enough. Yes,
I don't know the ins and outs of who owned the whole experience, but
understanding the shoddiness of the roll out of their Android product in the
past three years is very important!

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danjessen
So a great programmer, a great designer and all round nice kinda guy. I
already hate him :/

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TorbjornLunde
Rasmus is also behind the original design of Spotify interaction design,
branding and more. He is one of the most talented designers I know about, this
is really good news for Dropbox!

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seivan
He's a developer as well.

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workbench
He was wasted at Facebook. Loved his work till he went there and was
disappointed someone with so much potential ended up in that talent black hole
of a company

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ameen
As a designer, he should've been able to sell his designs more effectively to
the management. While I loved his work at Spotify, I wonder if I did anything
significant at Facebook.

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colmvp
Or maybe they should've trusted him more given he has a good track record.
Quite frankly, I don't think it's an isolated incident given what I've heard
from other stellar designers who have left Facebook.

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triplesec
Can you tell us more? The interaction product between great designers and an
org that can provide the environment which affords their talent to thrive is
something which would benefit from some decent narratives.

