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Interface yawn…
Frankly I’m tired of the current state of interface design and Well Placed Pixels is like a check list for everything that I have grown to find cliché in GUI design.
Since the release of OSX (and it’s got even worse since the release of the iPhone) if you want your apps to considered to have a “beautiful interface” they’ve got to look like they’ve been shitted out by Cupertino.
You know the score: Slightly lickable buttons, blatant over-use of Helvetica, slight edged out gradients, grey background with 1 pixel key line white text shadows. To me these have all become signatures of the same tired ideas continually re-surfacing in apps all the time.
However, I am a hypocrite. I have used some of these techniques in more than one interface that I have worked on.
Some of the best interfaces I’ve seen over the past year have not been Apple-esque. For example: DestroyTwitter and Seesmic Look are great examples of apps that trying something different.
Surely I can’t just be the only one who has noticed this?
VLC transcoding documentation
I’m having a bit of mission trying to transcode three video streams into one and I have to say I am continually impressed with VLC and it’s documentation. Documentation FTW!
Three reasons why the very “in your face” design of the new Be Broadband site will increase subscribers:
1. BIGGER more prominent reasons to sign-up
2. Simplified messaging around pricing
3. Better positioning of “can I get Be Broadband”?
… also there’s a photo of me on their blog.
Not such a great idea to have the “change background” bit. Very web 1.5 RC1
Tech blogs…
Are you a “journalist” for one of the popular web blogs out there? Here’s my patented 5 step process to writing great blog posts:
1. Think of stupid premise for a blog post (tip: new Google Reader feature causes cancer)
2. Trawl twitter for a couple of updates from random users that support stupid premise
3. Take screenshots of said twitter updates
4. Write a flimsy article around original stupid premise with screenshots attached
5. Publish
Gigulate hits the Guardian Guide. Nice.
