Been a little too quiet lately I realize ;-) Drafting some posts based upon the following topics and perspectives for next few weeks…Stay tuned!
* Stylistic trends: An observational piece noting some of the most popular visual UI trends over the past decade, going back to Apple’s Aqua, up to MSFT’s Metro. Not about personal preference, likes/dislikes, but more about the key qualities, taking a bigger macroscopic view…and suggestions for what might be coming next.
* UI “chrome”: Recent interface models & visual styles (esp MSFT Metro) are veering towards “chrome-less” designs, ostensibly supporting a “content-first” attitude. Some thoughts and reactions. Can we defend the value of UI “chrome” against the wave of flatness?
* Design’s supremacy: Many recent articles tweeted around in the design-o-sphere have been celebrating the role of design as founding part of a start-up team, necessary for any software dev success, etc. But haven’t designers been articulating this for, oh I don’t know, decades?? What’s the crucial turning point? Has there been a gradual ramp-up in recognizing design’s positive value to business and technology, beyond “making it pretty”?
* UI standards, patterns, and genres: Some initial thoughts looking beyond the typical set of UI standard guidelines and patterns towards product genres, a typology to inform better applicability of patterns, and grappling with the common, yet complex situation of supporting lots, lots, lots of products (esp for large enterprise software firms ;-) How do “persistence, inheritance, and emergence” factor into designing for UI genres? Hmm.
* Designing: Finally, my book! Or what I hope will emerge as my book ;-) Â Assembling various key posts from this blog, along with thoughts on “designing” as a professional, offering a lively, anecdotal POV on the story of designing as a practice, a passion, a pursuit.
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