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Context: Context is information that surrounds text. Context defines text. Moving from text to context and back clarifies the meaning of a text. Even though they are two distinct words, the exact Threshold between text and context is not always clear. The way you move between text and context defines a core element of an information system’s Information Architecture and thus the Interface. Certain interfaces improve access to context, like Wikipedia. Others, like X, prefer tight framing which is an ideal architecture for ideologues and Trolls.
Emoji spread from text messages into everything we write. Headlines, list items, email subject lines... Your text is boring? Add an emoji! Trying to increase the response to your newsletter? Add an emoji! Making a list? Add an emoji! Adding emoji always works. Right?
To get a good perspective, we start our projects with research. We go mobile first for prioritization, and we want all the content first so we can design in the browser… Unfortunately, the reality of web design follows a different stereotype.
Learning to design is learning to see, an adventure that gets more and more captivating the further you go. A love letter to my profession.
With websites turning more and more into web applications, functionally as well as aesthetically, it'd be interesting to look at what makes a Web app work in terms of skinning. We start off by comparing two different approaches: HTML-skin vs. desktop-application-skin. In other words, Google versus Apple.
匿名読者の皆さま。私たちに対してご批判があるのでしたら、どうぞおっしゃってください。ゲストとして、きちんとお迎えいたします。でも、ゲストなら、ゲストらしい振る舞いをお願いいたします。
Dear anonymous reader, if you intend to be critical: Be our guest. But if you're our guest, act like a guest.
We have hated this thing for over 12 years now—the button that launches a pull-up menu. Only the twisted minds over at Redmond could come up with this. Yeah, I know it's not a real "Start" button anymore, with Vista it's become more of a clickable logo like the Macintosh one. But, after all this time, it is still a push-up menu. And that is another major branding crime. Why?
A wonderful example of what not to do if you believe that Brand = Interface. Copying interfaces defines you as a second choice company.
The Interface is the brand—but few interfaces qualify to leave out the main orientational element—the logo.
A company may choose to rebrand itself because of a merger, a bankrupting scandal, or because they simply have outgrown their name. These are solid reasons; however, on the web, rebranding should be considered with the caution of a face transplant.
Good books are good people: Books are people speaking with signs. Meeting cool people several times is nice.