Three Months, Three Icons ☞
∞ Four By Four ☞
Aen Tan invites Apple and iOS designers to reconsider the 44-pixel block in favor of a pixel grid that will preserve vertical rhythm without radically affecting native UI elements. I am sold already.
∞ Joshua Johnson on Mac Design Patterns ☞
A slightly-inaccurate-yet-interesting read on MacAppstorm about the evolution of interface design paradigms in OSX. I wouldn’t argue that Apple has historically set the standard of interface design on its platforms, and that its influence is waning in favor of new trends hailing from third party developers and Apple’s own mobile operating system.
However, while Tweetie for Mac can be indeed credited for introducing the icon-based side-navigation pattern to OSX, no amount of third party customization can downplay the influence of iOS on its desktop sibling.
Porting interface paradigms from one platform to another (split-view in the case of Reeder) can hardly be considered genuine innovation if you ask me.
∞ Aaron Weyenberg on UX Design ☞
Aaron Weyenberg eloquently explains:
I don’t call myself a UX Designer for one simple reason: I don’t believe experiences can be designed. At least not outside the realm of science fiction or without knowledge about ourselves that we have yet to discover. I view User Experience as a field of study with a range of disciplines within it, not something we author (particularly not by a single designer). Products are designed. Experiences are their resultants.
I wholeheartedly agree. User experience is affected by the product, the user and the context in which the interaction occurs; of the three, only products can be designed, while users and contexts can be predicted at best.
