Flat design and improperly rescaled design: main threats to tablet usability
1–10 of 24 posts
Re: Flat design and improperly rescaled design: main threats to tablet usability
#2"Dumb" scaling and lack of flow have been painful for a while and it certainly can't hurt to hear some arguments against them. However, the skeuo-flat wars' inclusion is oversimplified and seems like it stems from a marketing decision rather than actual data points. Attack poor hierarchy, obliviousness to information architecture, lack of designers' restraint, or the absence of focus and rigor. With specific examples and counter-examples, attached to the data found in their research, these topics all seem like valuable information. Maybe this is all hidden behind the buy link. Using contrarianism in conjunction with buzzwords won't motivate me to find out.
Re: Flat design and improperly rescaled design: main threats to tablet usability
#3"Dumb" scaling and lack of flow have been painful for a while and it certainly can't hurt to hear some arguments against them. However, the skeuo-flat wars' inclusion is oversimplified and seems like it stems from a marketing decision rather than actual data points. Attack poor hierarchy, obliviousness to information architecture, lack of designers' restraint, or the absence of focus and rigor. With specific examples…
Doesn't really surprise me seeing that in there. Nielsen is from way back in the usability community. You have to remember that it was considered revolutionary then to make buttons look 3D, like they stick out, and should be touched. Like they are real buttons. Gloss, shadows, etc.. User affordances. It's been backed up by heavy studies as well.
The modern flat movement, on the other hand, is more just graphics designers making something that looks good and doesn't work well. I've put users through user studies on converted Android apps and they have a hell of a lot harder time figuring out they are supposed to tap an understated flat icon with no label in the top corner, the new action bar pattern, instead of a big glossy shadowed button at the bottom like earlier designs.
I've brought these numbers to Googlers before at conferences, but they just shrug and say users will get used to it. So even Google admits the current flat designs are testing poorly and that they just hope numbers will improve as users learn to look for the flat hidden icons.
Re: Flat design and improperly rescaled design: main threats to tablet usability
#4I'm in the wrong section of the industry apparently. I have been focusing my efforts on building technology when what I should have been doing is writing blog articles about user interface design. I suspect many more people will buy the $198 paper being sold here than have ever purchased software written by me. That is not to indulge in self pity but I can't help wondering if changing my name to Nielsen and sharing my observations about skeuomorphism and rescaled design would be a better investment of my time than writing code.
Re: Flat design and improperly rescaled design: main threats to tablet usability
#5I don't care whether it's "flat" or not. I'm fucking sick of "mystery meat" UI. Undistinguished words and graphics that have associated actions -- or don't. Varied by individual designer/developer tastes -- or some committee, I suppose.
I can stumble my way through. Worse is having to support "ordinary" people, e.g. family members. (I'm increasingly done "supporting" people to whom I don't have strong ties. Time for them to instead complain to / boycott the people creating and perpetuating this mess.)
Form follows function, damnit.
Re: Flat design and improperly rescaled design: main threats to tablet usability
#6I'm in the wrong section of the industry apparently. I have been focusing my efforts on building technology when what I should have been doing is writing blog articles about user interface design. I suspect many more people will buy the $198 paper being sold here than have ever purchased software written by me. That is not to indulge in self pity but I can't help wondering if changing my name to Nielsen and sharing m…
I don't really understand what your actually criticizing here. Are you upset that you aren't making enough at your current position? Are you upset that a group that specifically focuses on conducting user experience research is selling their results for a price that you don't want to pay for it? Do you not feel as though their work is valid enough to justify charging for it, even though they've been an established group within the field of user experience for years?
Re: Flat design and improperly rescaled design: main threats to tablet usability
#7I'm in the wrong section of the industry apparently. I have been focusing my efforts on building technology when what I should have been doing is writing blog articles about user interface design. I suspect many more people will buy the $198 paper being sold here than have ever purchased software written by me. That is not to indulge in self pity but I can't help wondering if changing my name to Nielsen and sharing m…
Then you should be creating $198 papers and hoping someone buys them.
EDIT: It's easy to be dismissive of a company, occupation or field of business. Nielsen just happened to at the right place when the web became big as a commercial medium (mid-1990s) and if they get to sell expensive papers, it's because their expertise is seen by user experience designers and marketing professionals as useful.
Perhaps you would sell more software with better marketing, which, in a way, is what the people buying those papers hope to achieve.
Re: Flat design and improperly rescaled design: main threats to tablet usability
#8"Dumb" scaling and lack of flow have been painful for a while and it certainly can't hurt to hear some arguments against them. However, the skeuo-flat wars' inclusion is oversimplified and seems like it stems from a marketing decision rather than actual data points. Attack poor hierarchy, obliviousness to information architecture, lack of designers' restraint, or the absence of focus and rigor. With specific examples…
Doesn't really surprise me seeing that in there. Nielsen is from way back in the usability community. You have to remember that it was considered revolutionary then to make buttons look 3D, like they stick out, and should be touched. Like they are real buttons. Gloss, shadows, etc.. User affordances. It's been backed up by heavy studies as well. The modern flat movement, on the other hand, is more just graphics desig…
I don't see how it follows that they are admitting something by shrugging their shoulders. But what this is missing is that there are technical reasons for flat design, namely performance and power usage, that are critical on mobile devices.
Re: Flat design and improperly rescaled design: main threats to tablet usability
#9FRAMES are BACK!!!
Re: Flat design and improperly rescaled design: main threats to tablet usability
#10FRAMES are BACK!!!
Just like tables for layout (CSS grids) came back a few years ago.