Apple recently announced the next major version of their operation system, called “Snow Leopard”. The interesting thing about it is, that it doesn’t introduce new features, but only changes the technology behind. And it looks like Apple expects people to pay for this. I hope this sets a precedent, like many other innovations from Apple before: Give the developers the time (a whole year!) to improve the technology. And then start to add new things again.
Why are good user interfaces so hard? I guess it has something to do with putting yourself in somebody elses shoes. Something that engineers by nature are known not to be very good at – so we should not expect it from them. That’s why we have two dedicated interation designers here at conject.
One of my favorite anti-pattern is to put explanations into user interfaces instead of creating an interface that guides the user to the desired action. Witness for example this panel in the elevator at Munich airport. Clearly it feels natural for a lot of people to point to the destination they want to go to, rather then pointing to the floor number next to it. >> more…