By Scott Jenson - September 24, 2011
I've written previously that the history of mobile has been a long, painful process of copying desktop computers and then sheepishly realizing that it just doesn't quite work right. This is actually the way of all progress, not just in technology. Art and music follow a similar pattern of copy, extend, and finally, discovery of a new form. It takes a while to shed old paradigms.
Mobile apps are clearly successful and in some cases, very profitable. For me to say they MUST die appears to fly in the face of overwhelming evidence. But all things come and go, especially so in fast paced world of technology. When a paradigm shift occurs it's rarely because the old model is hated or even useless, it just can't take advantage of new opportunities. The old guard clings to their ways, angrily shouting that everything is perfectly fine, you're exaggerating!
By Scott Jenson - June 20, 2011
Some innovations transcend short term competitive advantage
Since capitalism and design are, for the most part, governed by market forces, there's symmetry between them. Capitalism tends to be most effective at its lowest levels, meeting demand through efficient supply. Companies that do that well succeed and those that don’t fail. The same is true for design: At its "lowest levels," a clean look, a simple flow, and an elegant layout are fairly well understood and valued. Products that reflect these low levels succeed and those that don’t fail.
By Scott Jenson - May 19, 2011
Moving beyond the desktop towards just-in-time interaction
So often what passes for vision is usually nothing more than tiny extensions of what is already known and safe. Of course, it’s only natural as people tend to think within what is most comfortable. I call this "Default Thinking" and have already discussed this in my first post, (it was initially discussed as far back as 1962 by Thomas Kuhn).
By Scott Jenson - May 9, 2011
In my previous article, The Coming Zombie Apocalypse, I discussed how small, cheap, web-connected devices are overturning our old-school assumptions about devices and applications. It was a general introduction to the trend, and I'd like to drill deeper in this article by focusing on a core building block of this new order: the ability to store user data in "the cloud."
I assume most readers are familiar with the concept of cloud computing, but it's a very broad concept encompassing a wide range of technologies. This article will focus on a core aspect, the storage of a user's data outside of their personal devices. This is a very disruptive shift that enables user experiences that would be impossible with only local storage, and creates a new facet of design: the UX of data.
By Scott Jenson - April 18, 2011
Small, cheap devices will disrupt our old-school UX assumptions.
Editor's note: Scott Jenson was the first member of the User Interface group at Apple in the late 80s, working on System 7, the Apple Human Interface guidelines and the Newton. After that, he was a freelance design consultant for many years, then director of product design for Symbian, and finally managed the mobile UX group at Google. Now a creative director at frog design, Scott will be exploring the future of mobile on his blog.
