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Google's new "batshit crazy" UX

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:09:00 -0500

Google recently redesigned their sites so that users can no longer click on the top-left logo to take them “home.” First of all, this is not one of those “OMG I hate the new Facebook/Twitter redesign” overreactions — this is a legit UX gripe, and I am clearly not the only one.

Dustin Curtis recently linked to a post by former Google designer Kevin Fox on why this change is ridiculous:

The new Gmail and Google+ ‘clicking on the logo does nothing’ behavior seems just absurd. […] As long as there is a property logo on your page, clicking on that logo should take you to the top level of that property, and if you’re already on the top level and it’s a dynamic site, clicking on it again should perform the same action as clicking a refresh button on the same page.

This isn’t a Google convention that will be acclimated to if changed. It’s an Internet convention that predates Google’s existence by a good many years. It’s like if Audi started shipping all 2012 vehicles with gearshifts on the driver’s left, no matter which side of the road folks drive on in your country, because it creates a more consistant experience across Audi cars or supports a future Audi strategy.

I’m an amateur web designer at best (and nowhere near as smart as most of the people who work at Google) but even I’m familiar with the clickable logo convention. Even crazier is the fact that in Google Reader and Gmail — the two Google products I use most — the orange text underneath the Google logo doen’t take you “home” either:

While you actually can use the orange text to go “home” in Gmail (it takes two clicks instead of one, though), in Reader the text isn’t even clickable. Seriously? What a waste.

As someone who often clicks on a site’s logo to go “home,” this really grinds my gears. [dcurtis via Techmeme]

Please steal these WebOS features

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:57:00 -0500

Please steal these WebOS features:

So why was it so easy for me to use the TouchPad for work, but not the iPad? I think it’s because there are a number of things the TouchPad does that make it more suitable for work.

Now that it is becoming increasingly obvious that HP won’t do anything useful with webOS, it’s time to start stealing the things it does well. Here are some of these things.

Lukas Mathis points out all the great things that WebOS does (and there are many) and then openly hopes that other mobile OS’s will steal those features. I really hope Apple is paying attention. That said, I’m still pretty doubtful that (m)any of these will actually be incorporated into iOS 6. [ignore the code via Techmeme]

Kevin and Phebe - "Buzzer"

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:45:00 -0500

Kevin and Phebe - "Buzzer":

Kevin and Phebe is a series of web shorts that are quick and to the point. I particularly liked this episode. Extra bonus points because a friend of mine is friends with “Kevin” from the series. You can see all the episodes on their site, The Wildness. [Vimeo via The Wildness]

Bokeh and art

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:21:00 -0500

Bokeh and art:

Samsung made this cute little video using custom bokeh shapes. They also published this handy little tutorial in case you wanted to mimic their results. [YouTube via PetaPixel]

On Google, Apple, and "privacy"

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:58:00 -0500

On Google, Apple, and "privacy":

I’m not really too interested in last night’s WSJ “scoop” on Google and its mobile Safari practices, but if you want to read up on it, this piece by John Battell is probably the most balanced I’ve read so far:

In short, Apple’s mobile version of Safari broke with common web practice, and as a result, it broke Google’s normal approach to engaging with consumers. Was Google’s “normal approach” wrong? Well, I suppose that’s a debate worth having – it’s currently standard practice and the backbone of the entire web advertising ecosystem – but the Journal doesn’t bother to go into those details. One can debate whether setting cookies should happen by default – but the fact is, that’s how it’s done on the open web.

This is still a pretty young story, so I’m sure more details will surface in time. [John Battelle via Techmeme

About Gatekeeper

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:33:00 -0500

About Gatekeeper:

The folks at Panic — developers of popular apps Transmit and Coda — wrote up a pretty good article explaining the pros and cons of Gatekeeper, a security feature offered in the newly announced OS X Mountain Lion.

Today’s Mountain Lion announcement introduces an important new security feature, called Gatekeeper, in addition to the “sandboxing” feature that premiered in Lion. I’d like to talk a little bit about it, and why it’s important to all Mac users.

[Panic via Shawn Blanc]

How to erase people from your photos like a boss

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:06:00 -0500

Thanks to modern day technology, there are a lot of post-processing ~~tricks~~ illusions (a trick is something a whore does for money) that photographers can use to enhance their images. Scalado just announced a new tool called Remove that can literally remove anyone from the background of your pictures — absolutely perfect for preventing ~~ex-girlfriends~~ strangers from ruining your shots. It’s pretty amazing, if it actually works.

Another alternative would be to wait until Photoshop CS6 is released because this sneak preview of the newly improved content-aware fill tool looks pretty damn sweet. [Gizmodo and PetaPixel]

How Samsung plans to win over Apple fans

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:54:00 -0500

How Samsung plans to win over Apple fans:

I’m sure you’ve seen those commercials where Samsung takes a dig at Apple fans waiting in line for the next iProduct. At first I thought they were kind of silly, but it turns out there’s a method to their madness:

For starters: The washed-out look of the commercials was purposefully unsaturated and a bit milky, because the tone visually embodies the boredom of waiting in line. Apple fans depicted as hipsters are another subtle trick to suggest that trendy folks are always on the lookout for “the next big thing.”

It’s always interesting to hear the thought process behind ad campaigns. [9to5Mac]

BoxHead portrait tutorial

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:14:00 -0500

BoxHead portrait tutorial:

I really like this portrait tutorial by my friends at BoxHead Studios. Great stuff. [BoxHead Studios]

Giants fan

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:44:00 -0500

I really like this shot that I took at the NY Giants Super Bowl parade yesterday. This girl caught my eye, but everyone was packed in like sardines, so I didn’t have enough room to look through my viewfinder as I normally would. Instead, I extended my arms in the air and blindly fired off a couple of shots. Luckily, this one came out pretty well.

Chinese Oreos also come in wafers!

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:15:54 -0500

Jason Kottke recently posted that Oreos in China are actually tube-shaped. Essentially, Kraft had to rethink the entire cookie :

It turns out that if you didn’t grow up with Oreos and develop an emotional attachment to the cookie, it can be a weird-tasting little thing. And this started a whole process in the Chinese division of Kraft of rethinking what the essence of an Oreo really is.

…

Why does an Oreo have to be black and white? Davis sent us an Oreo with green tea filling. Another had a bright orange center divided between mango and orange flavor.

And why should an Oreo be round? They developed Oreos shaped like straws. In China, you can buy a long rectangular Oreo wafer, the length of your index finger.

Here’s a picture of those wafer-shaped Oreos that a friend recently brought back from China for me:

The problem with the iOS Home Screen

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:58:00 -0500

The problem with the iOS Home Screen:

The iOS Home screen is conceptually broken. Not “broken” as in unusable, unstable or technically flawed. From an engineering standpoint, the iOS Home screen works. The concept of the Home screen we interact with today is broken because the Home screen wants to be a real, physical, tangible surface while providing access to the gates of the intangible: apps. Apps are data, information, connectivity, presentation, media. Digital content isn’t tangible in the sense that it exists in a physical space, unless you count the atoms and the electrons and the bits that make using an app possible. But that’s a long stretch. The iOS Home screen is based on the concept that app icons are objects on top of it; this has created a series of issues over the years.

I completely agree that the iOS Home Screen is “broken.” It’s less of a problem on the iPhone with its 3.5” display, but the issue is pretty clear on the iPad’s 9.7” display. I’m sorry, but it’s 2012, and I refuse to believe that 20 static icons is the optimal way to present a home screen.

I’m not quite sure what the solution is — I’m personally a fan of widgets despite their tendency to drain battery — but there has to be a better way. I’m secretly hoping that Apple will address this in iOS 6 with a revamped UI of some sort, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. [Macstories via Shawn Blanc]

I got mail!

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:49:38 -0500

The other day was my birthday, and I received a single birthday card in the mail. It was awesome. Thanks, Ang!

My kind of dress pants

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:21:00 -0500

Forget jeggings (they’re not nearly as comfortable as they sound, trust me) — dress pant sweatpants are the future. I would probably “dress up” way more often if I actually owned a pair of these. Just think about it for a second. Sweatpants… that look like dress pants. How have these not been invented before? Next up: sweatpant suit. [Betabrand via PetaPixel]

The Dangers of Fracking

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:13:00 -0500

The Dangers of Fracking:

A beautiful fracking website by Linda Dong. Informative, too! [Dangers of Fracking via Daring Fireball]

Bark Hot Dogs = I wants it

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:06:00 -0500

Ever since watching this, I really want to try Bark Hot Dogs in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The only problem is, well, it’s in Park Slope, Brooklyn (sorry, Bear).

I’m actually not a huge hot dog fan, but just like this news anchor, I can always appreciate a great sausage. So who knows, maybe one day I’ll make the trip to Brooklyn to see what this Bark Butter is all about. In the meantime, though, here are my top three favorite dogs (sadly Crif Dogs — the only one that’s actually in New York — does not make the cut):

[Vimeo via Doobybrain]

Clear for iPhone

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:57:42 -0500

Clear for iPhone:

Clear looks to be a pretty slick app for managing your various lists. I’ll definitely be trying this out once it’s released. [Vimeo]

Will the real Google please stand up?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:01:00 -0500

Sarah Lacy of PandyDaily writes that Google should do itself a favor and just come clean already about its Search Plus Your World results:

This isn’t an issue of whether Google—as a for profit company—should have the right to push its own services over others. This isn’t an issue over what Twitter or Facebook would do in Google’s shoes. To me, the interesting issue isn’t even anti-trust. This is an issue of what Google promised users back when it went public, without a gun to its head, without any pressure from any competitors to do the right thing.

This is a Google v. Google issue.

We don’t expect for-profit companies to be martyrs. But Google chose this path. And cynics always said it would be tested once Google was under fire. There is a short window here for Google to either walk its own talk or redefine what the rules are.

I know I often link to (mostly) negative stories about Google/Android and (mostly) positive stories about Apple, but make no mistake about it: I love Google. All this Search Plus Your World stuff doesn’t actually bother me at all — at least not yet. And let’s face it, at the end of the day, I’m still going to be using Google (sorry, Bing!), Gmail, and all the other Google products that I’ve come to know and love.

This isn’t about criticizing Google at all, but the company does seem to be at a very tricky crossroads of sorts, and I’m actually really interested to see which path it takes. If Sarah Lacy’s latest article is any indication, Larry Page may have already given everyone a hint. [PandoDaily]

Don't forget to "take your medicine"

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:55:28 -0500

Don't forget to "take your medicine":

Adrien Chen of Gawker conducted a fascinating interview with an IT guy who services a different kind of clientele: high net-worth individuals and criminals. One of his unique services is to provide members of drug rings with prepaid cell phones and a supply of SIM cards that are cleverly rotated using a pill box:

With Martin’s system, each crewmember gets a cell phone that operates using a prepaid SIM card; they also get a two-week plastic pill organizer filled with 14 SIM cards where the pills should be. Each SIM card, loaded with $50 worth of airtime, is attached to a different phone number and stores all contacts, text messages and call histories associated with that number, like a removable hard drive. This makes a new SIM card effectively a new phone. Every morning, each crewmember swaps out his phone’s card for the card in next day’s compartment in the pill organizers. After all 14 cards are used, they start over at the first one.

Of course, it would be hugely annoying for a crewmember to have to remember the others’ constantly changing numbers. But he doesn’t have to, thanks to the pill organizers. Martin preprograms each day’s SIM card with the phone numbers the other members have that day. As long they all swap out their cards every day, the contacts in the phones stay in sync. (They never call anyone but each other on the phones.) Crewmembers will remind each other to “take their medicine,” Martin said.

Like I said, pretty fascinating stuff. [Gawker via kottke.org and Daring Fireball]

Tree in a puddle

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:46:43 -0500

Speaking of my last post, I really like this shot that I recently took in Washington Square Park of a tree’s reflection on a drizzly afternoon.