Same information, better design
Compare the two interfaces below. They should both convey the same type of information, although one of them does it a lot better. Which one do you think does a better job?
vs
One interface is from the recently-redesigned Environment Canada Weather page and another is from the Icelandic Met Office. One forces you to click around aimlessly across multiple pages until you find the information you need (or give up and just go straight to Google). Another one lets you access all of the information at a glance via a simple drag action.
Only one of these examples successfully marries form with function and keeps the user in mind.
A trip to the Downsview flea market
Today I had a chance to visit the Downsview Park Merchant’s Market located in an old airplane assembly hangar. It features just about anything you might need from fresh groceries to antiques, yummy food and ridiculous swords.
Lucy, a ridiculously photogenic cat
Lucy is one of our three cats. We got her at a shelter as a kitten three years ago and she’s remained as small as the day we got her since. Unlike the other two cats she loves the camera and regularly poses for it.
What do old submarines and bad UX have in common?
Whenever user experience and interface design take secondary priority after rich functionality and content, the end product will almost always turn out like this control room of a German submarine from 1918. Bulky, difficult to navigate and prone to sinking. You will always see a busy interface when someone put a lot of effort into creating a content wrapper, but didn’t think enough about how it will be used.
How to avoid this? Approach information from the perspective of user’s needs and abilities. Don’t fill your interface with useless information or features.
Photos via Tyne & Wear Archives
European Union meets Nobel
After winning the Nobel Prize for Peace, European Union revealed a new visual identity in attempts to boost it’s faltering image. The new coat of arms and flag prominently feature the Nobel medallion to recognize this achievement. “We do not rule out adding other awards to highlight our credentials”, a spokesperson for the European Union Press Room noted.*
* – May or may not be true.
Sounds of thrift
One of the thrift stores I frequently visit had a functioning electronic organ and I was lucky enough to record this man playing it. It’s a little surreal and beautiful at the same time. Unfortunately I didn’t get around to finding out who he is – he was so absorbed that I didn’t want to disturb him.
Anyone know the name of the melody?
Mimico waterfront disaster
Mimico waterfront: Another “wall of condos” disaster in the making?
In 1997 Doug Holyday, then mayor of Etobicoke, announced plans for a new neighbourhood: Humber Bay Shores. The former “motel strip” — a seedy area south of Lake Shore Blvd. W. and east of Park Lawn Rd. — saw its first new condo a year later.
Since then, highrises have sprouted like toadstools.
“There’s very large numbers of people in buildings that are just higgledy-piggledy scattered across that area. There’s no coherent pattern of public spaces, there’s no shopping or retail,” says Ken Greenberg, an architect and urban designer who has consulted for Waterfront Toronto.
“It’s one of the most egregious, terrible examples of lack of any kind of decent planning one can think of.”
Some may disagree. But many in Mimico — the next community over, where a massive revitalization plan known as “Mimico 20/20” is underway — look east to Humber Bay Shores as a warning.
“The multi-multi-multi-storey buildings? It scares me,” says Bob Poldon, president of the Mimico Residents Association.
…
Via The Star
Having lived in the area for several years, I truly believe that the high-rise condos on the water are the last thing Mimico needs.
Why can’t our city learn to capitalize on one of our greatest assets (the lake) and instead allows unimaginative, greedy developers permanently change the face of the city? Why are we building a shoebox of a city instead of a tourist destination?
Do you think ten years from now Toronto will take the top spot in National Geographic’s Top Trolley Rides? With a view of hideous concrete and glass – I doubt it.
Toronto doesn’t lack imagination – it lacks leadership to translate it to sound development policy.
On collaboration
The Swan, the Pike, and the Crab
by Ivan Krylov (1768-1844)
Whene’er companions don’t agree,
They work without accord;
And naught but trouble doth result,
Although they all work hard.
One day a swan, a pike, a crab,
Resolved a load to haul;
All three were harnessed to the cart,
And pulled together all.
But though they pulled with all their might,
The cart-load on the bank stuck tight.
The swan pulled upward to the skies;
The crab did backward crawl;
The pike made for the water straight —
It proved no use at all!
Now, which of them was most to blame
’Tis not for me to say;
But this I know: the load is there
Unto this very day.
The World’s Wit and Humor, Vol. XIV, Russian, Scandinavian, and Miscellaneous Wit and Humor; The Review of Reviews Company; New York; 1906; pp. 19-21.