Many are critiquing the aesthetic choices and departure too from their famously skeuomorphic designs. Others are upset by the color choices look saying they look too much like a children’s candyland. And many agree it looks like a pages from Windows, Android and Myspace playbooks. Personally, I’d just like to see some consistency. In these screens alone I can count 5 different styles of icons. I like many others, agree we’ll have to see it in action to have any kind of definitive opinions.
Historically Apple ran like a creative dictatorship. Decisions were made top down and usually were quite good decisions. Many designers looked to Apple and Steve Jobs for a flashlight pointing us towards the future of design innovation. That’s what designers used to do.
But, Apple designers no longer have a direct line to god. Perhaps their new process is similar to what the rest of us have been doing all along. Prototyping. It looks something like this: 1. Design something that might work 2. put it out in the world 3. listen to what people say 4. iterate like crazy 5. ship as soon as humanly possible.
Perhaps the iOS designs look unfinished and unsure because they are. Call me crazy but is Apple user testing?
Lot’s of friends asking how the new job is going. It’s going great. I dig my team and the work is challenging and interesting. I’m on kind of a weird project right now, but haven’t found the happy hour way to explain it. Here’s what I’m up to:
This weekend marks my fourth time visiting Detroit.
Each year has gotten colder, pricier, glitzier and more crowded. Each year I ask myself, “should I bother going next year?” “am I too old for this?” “should I really have waited in line for those parties?” But, I love going to Detroit, and I’ll tell you why.
I spent seven years in Southern Indiana listening to dance music alone. I had handful of friends nearby who “got it” and lived five hours from a club that could pull in a good DJ. I was hungry for more. So hungry. I wanted to hear these tracks on a big systems; I wanted to dance to deep house; I wanted a community of people who would love dance music with me.
So five years ago, Ross, Bobby, Ryan and I hopped in my Jetta, packed some PBJs and drove to Detroit for just that. We found hundreds of other Midwesterners from Ohio, Iowa, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois looking for the very same thing. It also was the first introductions to the music family I now have in San Francisco.
Everyone at this festival is choosing to be there. The kids, the grandmas, the DJs. Unlike the European and coastal festivals, Detroit has a high barrier to entry. It’s seen as unsafe and grungy. That filters out casual listeners who go to WMC, Sonar and BPM. The vibe has changed through the years and nothing ever is what it was. But it’s magical there and reminds me that I now live in a musical candy-land.
There is so much love in Detroit. I love being able turn to the person next to me strike up a conversation or share a friendly nod during a great track. It’s just not like that in San Francisco. I don’t know if people during this festival are so nice because it’s the midwest or because they too have finally found people to dance with. I guess it doesn’t really matter. But it’s beautiful.
I’ll probably go back next year, skip the festival, get to venues earlier and focus on the smaller parties. And if I never go back, that’s ok, it was fun while it lasted. But I’ll say this for sure, I’ve loved going to Detroit because everyone there is hungry for more.
During my week working in the Pivotal Labs office in LA, I spent all–yes–all of the time doing pair design. Here’s a recap on what that was like, what’s awesome, what’s hard and what’s next.
A short bit from the Extreme Roundtable at the Pivotal Labs office in LA. Surprisingly, ‘Should developers design’ got the most votes as a conversation topic!
Last week I joined Pivotal Labs, a full service development consulting company. I wrote my first post on their blog about my transition from working in-house to consulting. Read it here:
Yesterday marked the end of many things, including my employment at Twilio. Great company, smart people, wonderful friends. The day brought many cupcakes, a Swanky tea time and one alphabet-singing toddler.
Some say we’re in an age of ignorance. And why? We have more information than ever before. It’s just too much.
I’d like to revisit some thought’s I’ve explored about reinventing the news. Let’s discuss how I expect to see news storytelling taken out of the traditional vacuum of websites or apps and integrated into our lives when its most useful.
Though my days as a traditional journalist are over, I still frequently think about this problem. Well, that and how my reporter friends can get paid to report.
Why don’t people read? Why don’t I read? Why don’t people care? Why is it so hard to know what’s happening in the world? Why isn’t there more time? In fact I spent a year of graduate school working on this problem.
Context in storytelling
I made Newskite which collected audio snippets from people around the world. Each caller answered a question what they were hearing about a certain global event like the Earthquake in Japan or the protests in Egypt. What this did was give a global and real context to a geographically centralized problem–truly showing the human impact on world events.
Personalized News
What I’d like to see is something similar to News.me, a personalized news concept I made that predated Newsite. It leveraged the power of social feeds and individual data to write news stories for you. It did not recommend news your friends liked–that does not work in an age if ignorance. It figured out how you, the reader, are linked to some news story that any one of us might otherwise ignore.
Steve Crisp/Reuters
Today on the New York Times Front page I see Kenyan Part Says Vote Count Should Stop. An article that seems unrelated to my daily going-ons. But if smart machines could scrape my data and see I once participated in earth hour, am potentially concerned about energy conservation, the elections in 2007 led to power outages and it’s a risk again, what impact that could have on other energy resources and how that influences what happens in my backyard. There are infinite ways to draw links between what’s happening somewhere far away in the world to what happens in my daily life. I then wanted to use natural language processing to rewrite stories, using the inverted pyramid, actually personalized for each reader. And beyond that, have editors, actual people, prioritizing news topics and stories about what to display on the ‘front page’.
But now is not a good time for that. For people uninterested in news, they just will not visit your app or website. No matter how incredible your site. If people don’t care, they don’t care. In this case, we’re not in the business of changing behavior. However, integrating news into people’s lives where it’s useful and welcome is a smart thought.
Let’s look at the travel industry
It’s still quite difficult to get around the world. Flight costs, hotel prices, cost of food, etc. It’s getting easier, and in a few years transportation technology will change how we geographically move around the world. We’ve already seen this happen in lodging and flight bookings. Services like Airbnb, Tripit, Hipmunk all have a vested interest in making
Planning a trip easier
Going to a place easier
Having a wonderful time while you’re there
Because of this, I see an opportunity for travel services to have a vested interest in integrating global news stories with truly personalized smart content into their products.
Perhaps my upcoming trip to Costa Rica has potential to be seriously influenced by the recent news about Hugo Chavez. Or if I’m choosing which dates to go to Buenos Aires, it’s great if they can tell me the wine season has been wonderful. There are so many tasks that come with planning a trip, reading the news rarely is a priority and it’s nearly impossible to even know about what to start reading. Knowing what’s happening in the world can help me decide where, when and how to go there.
A service to do this doesn’t exist yet and I’m not interested in becoming a founder right now, so please by all means, take this idea and run with it. And as always, if this idea is hogwash, I want to hear your thoughts.
Let’s get out of the business of shaming people for not being informed, but of making relevant information available when they need to know it.
December is a special month. Here’s a roundup of my favourite December mixes that look back at 2012 and take us into the new year. They’ll get you through the bitter cold, long car rides, sleepy airplanes and hopefully while wrapped up under warm blankies with warm people in a warm place.
Karmon – Diynamic Radio Show (Diynamic, DIY) Midsland; House
This mix has barely been out for a day and I’m loving it. He starts off with the beautiful and sexy Frank Wiedemann & Ry Cuming track Howling. It’s completely acoustic and has me melting every time. It then takes you through a smooth and straight dance mix. It’s housey, rich and stays warm and dabbles. This one, your family might like.
Atish – Dark & White (Listed, House Heads) San Francisco, Melodic Deep House
I think Atish is in a good mood this month. This mix like many of his will get you wiggling, smiling and in a grooving. But he brings something new to the table. This mix is in true form a melodic deep house mix, but is made for the wintertime. It’s steady and is obviously off the heels of his last and more technical sounding mix, Orbit. This mix makes me want to hold people I love.
Vinayak^a – Lonesome Train Album Mix (Wind Horse) Bangalore, Progressive This is a progressive mix, especially the first half. Like many of Vinayak^a’s mixes, it’s eclectic in range and will absolutely remind you there is great dance music being produced outside Europe and North America. For all the house heads in the room, there’s something in here for you too. You’ll love this mix when you hit the treadmill or track for the first time on January 1st after two months of eating pies.
Berlin, Minimal
Here’s a minimal mix with some heart. It’s stretchy, floating and still, somehow has all the the blips and beeps you love. Spending some of your vacation working on a project you’ve been putting off? Writing thank you cards for gifts? Jam to this one on headphones when you can hide away for some ‘you time’, It’ll make you feel good. Be not afraid of playing this minimal mix with family either, they might like it!
San Francisco; Techno
With the re-launch of Less is More, SF pal Alex Blackstock, brings a new mix series ABX with serious techno, it does nothing more than drive straight forward like a bullet. It’s technical, hard and steel. You’ll want this one while you’re waiting on the El train Platform with your toes frozen and soaked from walking in slush or shoveling the driveway for mom or dad. But fear not of this brushed metal, the ABX series isn’t made for grinches. Make it to the end and your heart will also grow triple in size.
Mark Slee – DST Nightfall (Listed, House Heads) San Francisco; Tech House
Here’s the first mix from Slee after his sensual and emotional Slinky series. Taking us down a different path, he plays out darker sounds, new textures but still the keeps the long tones and bells floating in the background that he loves so much. While this DJ is a family man, enjoy this mix with your favourite friends and one too many hot toddies.
Dip into the the YBCA for an immersive and sensual experience. The installation space, curtained off for one person, made with wood, electric fans, lights, speakers and custom technology takes you through a 3-minute intense 360 light and sound experience. I attended the live performance of the scape but actually much prefer the solitary experience off the YBCA lobby and have been three times with many more to come. The installation will be on display until 13 January 2013, so it’s not to be missed. Read more about artists Surabhi Saraf & Sebastian Alvarez’s but wait to watch the video until you’ve felt the warm heat on your face and cool fans on your arms, yourself. You have one more month to enjoy this city’s gem.
2. Audium – Sound theater 1616 Bush Street San Francisco, CA 94109, Fri, Sa at 8:30, 1 hour, $20
Enter this sound-sculpture space created in 1975 and seems to have barely changed since for a truly unique experience. Artist Stan Shaff hosts an hour-long expression of live and recorded audio pieces for those seeking something truly experimental to hear ranging from obtusely abstract to comfortably familiar sounds. It’s rumored that the 40-year old theater will be shutting down and the shows change from month-to-month, so there’s no better time than now.
Lay your mind and body down in a shallow pool of water and 1,000 pounds of salt. With earplugs in, the lights off and the scentless water the temperature of your body, this is as close to feeling nothing as you’ll ever get. Your mind, relieved of all the sensory input processing takes many into deep relaxation or significantly emotional and creative places. I’ve experienced all three and have been twice. The owner has changed into good hands since I’ve last attended but this has been one of the best and most rewarding San Francisco experiences I’ve had. I cannot recommend this enough. In simpler terms, it’s the best tool for meditation, focus on the present and self-awareness.
Last week I joined Pivotal Labs, a full service development consulting company. I wrote my first post on their blog about my transition from working in-house to consulting. Read it here:
Vinayak^a – Lonesome Train Album Mix (Wind Horse)
&ME – Data Transmission – Podcast 278 (Keinemusik)
Mark Slee – DST Nightfall (Listed, House Heads)
