Steve Jobs at home in 1982


STEVE JOBS AT HOME IN 1982 — “This was a very typical time. I was single. All you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo, you know, and that’s what I had.”
via digitaljournalist.org

From his living room to the iPad in yours, Steve’s aesthetic, his quality, carried all the way through.  The following words are from Steve Jobs’ Stanford commencement speech in June 2005: 

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

“Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”


Usability week ending July 31st

Friday, 29th July, 6:53 PM
House committee approves bill requiring ISPs to spy on their users: http://j.mp/nafBhD #eff #privacy #internet #legal

Thursday, 28th July, 3:09 PM
With an LP, I possessed something tangible. When I download from iTunes, I can listen, but I possess nothing I can touch: http://j.mp/pLrhZf

Thursday, 28th July, 12:31 PM
Rethinking ad supported vs. web subscription differentiation as the difference between Coach and Business Class: http://j.mp/oNZng6 #ux

Tuesday, 26th July, 3:31 PM
How Apple Computer became Apple Inc., illustrated in 3 graphs: http://j.mp/p8Cmzo #apple

Tuesday, 26th July, 3:14 PM
New data indicates that #HTML5 is not just going to be big, it’s going to be huge: http://j.mp/ppGc6K

Monday, 25th July, 7:04 PM
There's a good chance that with enough data analyzed smartly enough, many events are predictable with useful accuracy: http://j.mp/pa1yNX

Monday, 25th July, 5:54 PM
Five popular web strategies to get you noticed that don't work, and one that does – be remarkable: http://j.mp/puPv13 #strategy #business

via twitter.com/terretta

Usability week ending July 3rd

Friday, 1st July, 4:36 PM
#Android "freeloaders" don't believe in paying for content; #Apple customers an "ideal paying demographic": http://j.mp/jrZvWs

Thursday, 30th June, 11:41 AM
Demystifying #Android screen densities, learning fundamentals of Android #design patterns, taking #screenshots: http://j.mp/kHMjcl

Wednesday, 29th June, 1:05 PM
How sausage is made -- a detailed IA, UX, and UI design case study, on designing GitHub for Mac: http://j.mp/iT6key

Tuesday, 28th June, 6:32 PM
The new #Google experience is founded on 3 key #design principles: focus, elasticity and effortlessness: http://j.mp/mE7PYk #ux

Tuesday, 28th June, 6:02 PM
Why we share what interests us -- rethinking real-life sharing for the web at http://plus.google.com -- video: http://j.mp/m7toYf #ux

Tuesday, 28th June, 3:15 PM
#Google Swiffy converts #Flash #SWF files to #HTML5. Repurpose Flash content for devices like iPhone w/o Flash player: http://j.mp/m11zgs

Monday, 27th June, 10:23 PM
Invent your *own* category… "consumers are not interested in form factors that deviate from the benchmark set by Apple": http://j.mp/kbZNjZ

via twitter.com/terretta

Usability week ending June 12th

Saturday, 11th June, 10:56 AM
How to find iPad or iPhone device ID (UDID) when stuck on iOS 5 beta update: http://j.mp/lOAF21 #ipad #iphone #guid #udid #beta #ios #tip

Friday, 10th June, 11:17 PM
Why the new task UI in Taskrabbit has great behavioral design: http://j.mp/kH8LO7 #ux #ui #ia

Thursday, 9th June, 6:46 PM
Try "persuasive design" to change attitudes or behaviors of users through #persuasion and social influence: http://j.mp/kV1641 #design #ux

Thursday, 9th June, 5:58 PM
Google adds indexing support for rel="author" HTML tag property, to track and rank content creators: http://j.mp/kMHpuF #google #seo #ia

Wednesday, 8th June, 8:17 PM
You can’t convince a smoker to quit smoking. They need to just decide they’ll do it. It's the same for UX: http://j.mp/lmKhbU #ux

Wednesday, 8th June, 6:55 AM
UI testing suggests ways for #iPad app-makers to make their #apps more intuitive and ergonomic for users: http://j.mp/jPZVoX #ui #ux

Tuesday, 7th June, 5:59 PM
Forget #social... Build a tool which people find useful immediately: http://j.mp/lgZDIc #ux #startup #mvp

Tuesday, 7th June, 8:37 AM
On 1 Aug 2011, #Google will discontinue support for Firefox 3.5, Internet Explorer 7, and Safari 3: http://j.mp/l5cY8D #ux #browser

Tuesday, 7th June, 12:05 AM
#Apple has taken a better approach to #cloud #sync by focusing on its fundamental benefit to users--simplicity: http://j.mp/mfeRcW #ux

via twitter.com/terretta

Usability week ending February 6th

Friday, 4th February, 9:40 AM
Force yourself outside your zone for unbiased external perspectives to explain their world, hold a mirror to yours: http://j.mp/hjIQaG

Thursday, 3rd February, 11:07 PM
Reviewing #wireframe mockup applications Balsamiq, Mockingbird, and MockFlow: http://j.mp/gntyv2 #ia

Thursday, 3rd February, 11:01 PM
You don't need to build features requested by your customers to make them happy: http://j.mp/gjV2gI

Wednesday, 2nd February, 5:08 PM
TUAW's first impressions of iPad newspaper "The Daily" UI and navigation: http://j.mp/g7oQ74 #ux #ui #ipad #tuaw

Wednesday, 2nd February, 5:05 PM
"Today marks the day that a content company made a significant change to embrace truly new ways to deliver the news": http://j.mp/gt3y9t

Monday, 31st January, 12:05 PM
How Steve Jobs and #Apple managed to beat the tech titans of Japan by playing their game, only better: http://j.mp/h30Jro #simplicity #zen

via twitter.com/terretta

Macs with HD video envy?

Microsoft released a "Made on PC" stop motion animation, showing two personal computers (PCs) on a flight. One's running Windows 7, and the other Mac OS. The Windows computer fires up Avatar on Blu-ray, and the Mac is portrayed as envious: "So cool ... It's like we're really in it!"

I watched the ad on a Mac. In 1080p. Maybe someone didn't think this entirely through.

When Microsoft Office 2011 came out on DVD, I tried to install it on this Mac, but the disk just ejected. When the disk worked in another computer, I realized that it was the first disc I'd tried to use since buying this Mac. Apple's Genius Bar swapped the drive in under an hour and I was able to install, but I realized our distribution methods have definitely changed.

So that's cool, PC. You play discs. You probably have a serial port too.

The disappearing PC

The article below is a couple months old but interesting to look back on now the iPad has sold close to 4 million units, supporting Job's point of view.

Ballmer commented yesterday that Apple's sold more iPads than he would like. He was surprised by the iPhone, and is surprised by the iPad. After all, Microsoft was already selling phones, and tablets, and if so many people wanted them, they'd have bought them ... right?

You see the problem in Ballmer's iPad interview below. He thinks everything is a PC, just evolving form factors. The hardware shape changes like a fashion fad, but it's still a PC, and people are going to do the same things on it.

On the contrary, it's not the hardware form factor people are excited about. Joe Wilcox didn't repurchase an iPad because it was fashionable. It's the shape of the software — the usability. The iOS multi-touch platform pushes the OS into the background, putting goal-oriented apps front and center.

Everyday people (tech geeks call these people "normals") can poke a button for the thing they want to do, and the device becomes a tool to accomplish that thing. Your goal, in a sleek metal frame.

It's not a personal computer riddled with OS anxiety between you and your goal. Turn it on and it's a personal radio, Facebook, magazine, navigator, or photo album. It's whatever you need it to be at the time, and nothing else.

Steve Jobs' and Steve Ballmer's starkly different visions of the future

"PCs are like trucks," Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs told Walt Mossberg Tuesday night at the Wall Street Journal's D8 conference. When America stopped being an agrarian society, people started buying cars. Devices like the iPhone and the iPad, in Jobs' analogy, are the cars of computing as society transitions into what he calls the "post PC world."

"And this transformation is going to make some people uneasy," he predicted. "People from the PC world."

Enter Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft (MSFT), who was, in his D8 turn two days later, the embodiment of the uneasy PC guy, whether attacking Google's (GOOG) "incoherent" operating system strategy, damning Research in Motion (RIMM) with faint praise, or dissing Apple as living in "the bubble of Terranea" -- a reference to the swanky resort where the conference was held and whose participants could afford to own "five devices per person."

All Things D has posted excerpts of Ballmer's interview (along with Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect) on its D8 site. We've pasted several below the fold, along with the Steve Jobs video that includes his vision of the post-PC world. It begins at the 3:30 mark in the first clip. Ballmer's response is in the video about the iPad.

 

Steve Jobs on the iPad and the post-PC world:

Steve Ballmer on the iPad:

Ballmer and Ozzie on cloud computing:

Ballmer on the battle for control of the mobile phone business:

Usability week ending May 30th

Saturday, 29th May, 8:02 AM
New technologies require new methods, but refusal to follow tested established principles is #usability disaster: http://j.mp/aJFu82 #ui

Friday, 28th May, 10:16 AM
Key to #Apple success is taking the time to explain things to the consumer that no other vendor bothers to: http://j.mp/bV6PR9

Friday, 28th May, 10:15 AM
What strikes me most about Wired's iPad app is how similar it is to a 1990s multimedia CD-ROM. This is not a compliment: http://j.mp/aJfdOj

Thursday, 27th May, 3:06 PM
#Usability isn't everything--more playful interactions will keep me engaged and might even lift my mood: http://j.mp/9RDNnd #ux

Thursday, 27th May, 9:05 AM
Preferences avoid tough decisions. Instead of using your expertise to choose best, you're leaving it to customers: http://j.mp/cjdVF1 #ia

Wednesday, 26th May, 1:11 PM
Haven’t we reached a point in history where pencil and paper is outdated? Well, no. Not for web design anyway: http://j.mp/aY6ZU1

Tuesday, 25th May, 10:20 PM
RT @8x3h: Use your grandma -- the over-the-phone explanation test: http://bit.ly/auaMeB #ux /via @azaaza

Tuesday, 25th May, 2:48 PM
“Responsive architecture” makes physical spaces respond to the presence of people passing through them: http://j.mp/bPqo3o #ux #design

Tuesday, 25th May, 8:51 AM
Take research and knowledge about the brain, visual system, memory, motivation--extrapolate #psychology of #UX #design: http://j.mp/c8Rx4w

Monday, 24th May, 2:40 PM
Effective #design isn't about Photoshop, software, email, project management, or even computers. It's about service: http://j.mp/d6slG6

via twitter.com/terretta

Usability week ending April 25th

Friday, 23rd April, 6:22 PM
Rethinking the #usability of "utopian" open platforms versus "proprietary" walled gardens: http://j.mp/9UTbb7 #ux #apple #iphone #ipad

Friday, 23rd April, 6:18 PM
LATCH -- Location, Alphabet, Time, Category, and Hierarchy -- the five ways of organizing information: http://j.mp/cTfBjL #ia

Wednesday, 21st April, 10:54 AM
The most effective #wireframes are made by people who can see how a site is a series of connected interactions: http://j.mp/92QNv1 #ia

Tuesday, 20th April, 9:43 AM
For a good user experience on a touch input tablet, all the apps, and the whole OS, need to be designed for touch: http://j.mp/aIPNWV #ipad

Tuesday, 20th April, 9:09 AM
"Push me! Wait, you can't..." -- perceived affordances and designing for task flow: http://j.mp/aZLT6m #ux #ui

via twitter.com/terretta

iPad as the beginning of the end of the "desktop" PC

If you know how to use an iPhone then you know how to use an iPad. I would not agree with some who say the iPad is *just* a "big iPhone".  In fact I see the iPad as the beginning of the end of a lot of things as we know them today. It will not immediately replace laptops, netbooks, magazines, Kindles, and televisions -- not immediately. Over time, however, it is easy to see how the world will change. When we introduced the ThinkPad in 1992 it seemed like a huge deal just to get everyone at IBM to agree with the name. No one, certainly not me as VP of marketing at the time, had any idea that more than 30 million ThinkPads would be sold. The iPad will surely sell multiple times that number but more important the iPad will change the model of personal computing -- not immediately and not for everyone, but for many millions of people the PC will begin to look like a dinosaur.
read the rest at patrickweb.com

John Patrick was VP of Internet Technology at IBM before retiring and was VP of marketing for the introduction of the ThinkPad in 1992. He sees the iPad as becoming “so pervasive in our lives that even though it is a very powerful computer, it will not be thought of as a computer."

Patrick suggests the iPad “is at the crossroads between technology and the arts.”

I've used a friends' iPad for a few hours. Even formerly staunch naysayers who browsed with it came to the same conclusion I did—this experience is the way to read a newspaper or magazine “online”. At the same time, it's sufficiently typable to make the netbook form factor obsolete.

My own reaction to handling the iPad startled me. While I'd speculated about it before, I didn't expect the experience to be so pointed. I'll explain later this week after interacting with it more, if I feel the same after the newness wears off.