12 ms·

It seems like a lot of people skimmed without reading the top or bottom of this site: It's not a company. It's not a product. You're not being asked to buy it

It seems like a lot of people skimmed without reading the top or bottom of this site: It's not a company. It's not a product. You're not being asked to buy it or buy into it, just to discuss the concept if you'd like. This website is a portfolio piece for a 21-year-old university student hoping to find an internship. In my opinion, it's an impressive demonstration of his design and technical skills. It certainly says a lot more than the average 21-year-old's resume listing what courses they've taken so far.

atm0sphere 11y ago
I agree with everything you said. This is a brilliant resume and he ought to be looking for gainful employment, rather than just an internship.
- jchendy 11y ago
  > he should be looking for gainful employment, rather than just an internship. Presumably he wants to finish college, in which case an internship totally makes sense.
  - ethanbond 11y ago
    Besides, tech internships are very gainful.
- mhsenkow 11y ago
  Agreed, he's much more skilled than many designers I know.
- Themistocles 11y ago
  me too
falcolas 11y ago
To be fair, it's also a good, cohesive amalgamation of UI interaction concepts as well. If someone did realize this design, I'd be on-board for trying it out.
- wang_li 11y ago
  I wouldn't. It seems like a very Apple style of interaction, which emphasizes that you are interacting with an Apple UI. By which I mean to say, using a Mac or an iPhone is at least 50% about using a Mac or an iPhone, and maybe 50% about doing whatever it is you are trying to do. In an ideal world, you shouldn't be thinking about the tool.
  - RussianCow 11y ago
    > By which I mean to say, using a Mac or an iPhone is at least 50% about using a Mac or an iPhone, and maybe 50% about doing whatever it is you are trying to do. Could you elaborate on this? I don't feel that way at all when using any modern OS/device, but maybe I just haven't thought about it in the same way.
    - jdietrich 11y ago
      Apple's focus on minimalist aesthetics have come at the cost of discoverability. Interactions are concealed by gestural input and incomprehensible icons without text labels. This issue is getting worse rather than better, e.g. force touch on the new Macbooks. Using Apple devices requires a great deal of memorisation. For power users this is a relatively minor burden, but it is a serious issue for inexperienced users, or those with problems in cognition or memory. http://www.fastcodesign.com/3053406/how-apple-is-giving-design-a-bad-name http://www.fastcodesign.com/3053406/how-apple-is-giving-desi...
      - Retric 11y ago
        Apple is just using another approach to having power users and novices using the same UI. How many people started by using a mouse for Edit (copy) before using, [Alt] [E]dit (copy), then Ctrl-C all in one step. Yes, you need to memorize Ctrl-C, but that's not a long term issue. The same is true of touch interfaces, you can use them knowing few shortcuts and slowly add more over time. People spend hours a day interacting with a computer in one form or another, they will memorize things. PS: Remember getting annoyed when Microsoft when gaga over the 'ribbon' concept? I bet you don't think about that one much anymore.
orky56 11y ago
This guy has the chops to come up with a well designed concept and should have the opportunity to defend & iterate on it based on constructive feedback. Some of these comments provide that feedback while others flatly have an issue with the idea of a concept altogether. It's unfortunate that desktop UI has remained stuck for quite awhile and only MS & Apple can really provide a new paradigm for people to adopt. Both companies are basically thinking mobile-first which makes the compromises for productive desktop UIs inevitable. By forcing ourselves to think of productivity as a priority, it brings about concepts like this which give us a glimmer of hope on how technology is more than just giving us innovation in consumption only.
- dangrossman 11y ago
  He's interested in the feedback and is here participating in the discussion (@ziburski). I just felt compelled to write something after reading a couple silly "you lost me as a customer" and "what's the point" comments.
  - orky56 11y ago
    I actually wanted to thank you for your parent comment. It needed to be said and gave me a chance to say what was on my mind. Hope you didn't take my comment negatively.
- drzaiusapelord 11y ago
  >t's unfortunate that desktop UI has remained stuck for quite awhile A lot of things get "stuck" and for good reason. Steering wheel, gas, and brake. Sight, trigger, stock. Underwear, pants, socks, etc. Personally, I think the NT team really nailed the concept of the desktop back in 1993 with 3.1. The start button which hid programs and allowed access to other functions was incredibly handy, a bit like how a desk has a desk drawer within reach at all times. The desktop as a dumping ground for whatever you choose and system tray for misc stuff really, really works well and with mimimal cruft. Windows applications worked unlike MacOS applications by integrating the menu bar directly into the application itself instead of making it a detached accessory of the OS. Right-click support also allowed a lot of dynamic functionality. I understand that almost none of these specific were their innovations, but they took a lot of half-cooked ideas and made something very, very usable. Its a shame the NT team is never brought up like the Amiga or MacOS teams. I don't think they've gotten their proper due. Its also interesting that MS ran back to the start button/menu only three years after letting it go. Its incredible how powerful the NT way of doing things still is.
Semiapies 11y ago
I'm reminded of that run of "brilliant new design for <physical machine>" linkbait posts on tech sites a few years back, touting the incomparable benefits of some colorful, curvy piece of hardware over anything out there. The original source was always some design student's portfolio, and the "brilliant" design was never more than a colorful, curvy housing that didn't exist outside a rendering.
- ethanbond 11y ago
  Yes, and? Is your criticism that we shouldn't discuss things which aren't in the physical world yet, or that we can't discuss unimplemented ideas?
  - Semiapies 11y ago
    No, my observation was that those stories (and discussions) were similar. And they are, down to the spectrum of reactions in people talking about this design piece as if it were a real product. If you feel some need to be defensive about that, I'm sure that has a parallel in those discussions, too.
GuiA 11y ago
I work at a company where we hire people for exactly that kind of gig, with a heavy focus on building prototypes of your designs that are actually usable because that's the only viable way to design interfaces. Here's feedback as to why I'm not sending this website to my studio lead to schedule a phone screen with the designer: 1) reused assets from other companies (big no no, even for just a mockup) that are inconsistent with the overall visual style of the project 2) very implausible interactions that were clearly not prototyped (eg the 6 finger pinch... what?!) 3) work heavily inspired from other research projects and designs (10 GUI, various tiling window managers, etc) without showing a clear unifying interaction model. This is more of a patchwork of loosely related ideas, and to me doesn't show clear, deep understanding of prior work (both academic and commercial) in the covered areas. 4) awkward copy that jumps from marketing-style speak to explaining interactions from an analytical point of view. This is the most minor of all points but just hurts the polish of the piece. So this tells me that the candidate is not a strong graphic designer, not a strong prototyper, nor a strong researcher. He's looking for an internship so only one of the three with promises in the other two would be sufficient, but that's not apparent enough to me here. Hope that's constructive - I see a fair number of such portfolios/resumes every month. EDIT: lots of hate on my comment below. The main point seems to be "well you're not totally wrong, but he's a 21 year old intern". Sure, although that doesn't change any of my feedback. I am assessing the work as it stands on its own merits, independently of the designer's age. There is certain work on which 21 year old interns don't have a lot to contribute on, such as redesigning entire OS user interfaces. When it comes to assessing a designer's skills, I prefer to see a series of small, focused pieces rather than one large, sprawling one (the latter is much harder to pull of well unless you have tons of experience). I'm looking forward to looking at how his work has evolved a few years from now.
- thecosas 11y ago
  +1 for #2. 6 fingers for what will likely be a fairly regular action is clunky at best. The way it's illustrated makes me think it was more along the lines of a board you stand at and not a desktop.
- doyoulikeworms 11y ago
  I have no experience in your field, but I'm very surprised to hear that this isn't worth a phone screen for a 21 year old. Tough industry!
aikah 11y ago
The problem is style of substance. The presentation,the design of the website is great, but the content feels like a bunch of random incoherent stuff put together with a catchy name. Yes the webpage is beautiful, there are nice animations, but that's it, there is nothing else. It's an nice portfolio though, but there is nothing to discuss when it comes to UX/UI itself.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
  - zeta0134 11y ago
    Because that's been done before; go lookup 10 GUI, and it will look remarkably similar. It's different from the accepted standard, but not actually a new concept.
- lifeformed 11y ago
  How is it random incoherent stuff? Did you even watch the video? It seems pretty straightforward and refreshing.
  - tripzilch 11y ago
    There's nothing about UX design in the video either. If he wants a job building marketing pages and videos for software, sure. But if he wants a job as a UX designer, and I would go by the info on his sites, his design process consists of mockups and talking about it with his professors. Seriously, if these are his skills, how the hell would he do UX design for an assignment when the target audience does not include himself?
nailer 11y ago
> It seems like a lot of people skimmed without reading the top or bottom of this site: This is the nature of Hacker News recently: people post as soon as possible to demonstrate their knowledge on a related subject. I've twice recently had articles posted on HN where a commenter loudly ranted about the article missing something that's covered explicitly in the first 3 paragraphs. dang how about adding 'RTFA' to https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ?
- eclipxe 11y ago
  >recently Ha.
ByronicHero 11y ago
He also knocked marketing out of the park.
aagha 11y ago
Microsoft should hire him yesterday.
tripzilch 11y ago
> This website is a portfolio piece for a 21-year-old university student hoping to find an internship. In my opinion, it's an impressive demonstration of his design and technical skills. It certainly says a lot more than the average 21-year-old's resume listing what courses they've taken so far. I'm actually a bit baffled. He's not just a student, he actually studies "interface design"! "I am 21 years old and study interface design at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam." Of course just a list of what courses you've taken so far isn't very sexy or interesting. You don't need to list them explicitly. But if you do claim to study a particular field or industry, you should at least demonstrate that you have taken some courses (in particular on the topics you're passionate about), did interesting projects to complete them (there must be, even tiny ones), what/that you learned from them, why they matter. Doesn't need to be very explicit, but there's literally nothing on this page, nor on his personal website indicating what he learned studying interface design. Drop some names, terminology, textbooks, works, important research. Show us how "I study interface design" means more than "I'm working to obtain a piece of paper that lets me claim I studied interface design".

atm0sphere 11y ago

I agree with everything you said. This is a brilliant resume and he ought to be looking for gainful employment, rather than just an internship.

jchendy 11y ago
> he should be looking for gainful employment, rather than just an internship. Presumably he wants to finish college, in which case an internship totally makes sense.
- ethanbond 11y ago
  Besides, tech internships are very gainful.
mhsenkow 11y ago
Agreed, he's much more skilled than many designers I know.
Themistocles 11y ago
me too

falcolas 11y ago

To be fair, it's also a good, cohesive amalgamation of UI interaction concepts as well. If someone did realize this design, I'd be on-board for trying it out.

wang_li 11y ago
I wouldn't. It seems like a very Apple style of interaction, which emphasizes that you are interacting with an Apple UI. By which I mean to say, using a Mac or an iPhone is at least 50% about using a Mac or an iPhone, and maybe 50% about doing whatever it is you are trying to do. In an ideal world, you shouldn't be thinking about the tool.
- RussianCow 11y ago
  > By which I mean to say, using a Mac or an iPhone is at least 50% about using a Mac or an iPhone, and maybe 50% about doing whatever it is you are trying to do. Could you elaborate on this? I don't feel that way at all when using any modern OS/device, but maybe I just haven't thought about it in the same way.
  - jdietrich 11y ago
    Apple's focus on minimalist aesthetics have come at the cost of discoverability. Interactions are concealed by gestural input and incomprehensible icons without text labels. This issue is getting worse rather than better, e.g. force touch on the new Macbooks. Using Apple devices requires a great deal of memorisation. For power users this is a relatively minor burden, but it is a serious issue for inexperienced users, or those with problems in cognition or memory. http://www.fastcodesign.com/3053406/how-apple-is-giving-design-a-bad-name http://www.fastcodesign.com/3053406/how-apple-is-giving-desi...
    - Retric 11y ago
      Apple is just using another approach to having power users and novices using the same UI. How many people started by using a mouse for Edit (copy) before using, [Alt] [E]dit (copy), then Ctrl-C all in one step. Yes, you need to memorize Ctrl-C, but that's not a long term issue. The same is true of touch interfaces, you can use them knowing few shortcuts and slowly add more over time. People spend hours a day interacting with a computer in one form or another, they will memorize things. PS: Remember getting annoyed when Microsoft when gaga over the 'ribbon' concept? I bet you don't think about that one much anymore.

orky56 11y ago

This guy has the chops to come up with a well designed concept and should have the opportunity to defend & iterate on it based on constructive feedback. Some of these comments provide that feedback while others flatly have an issue with the idea of a concept altogether. It's unfortunate that desktop UI has remained stuck for quite awhile and only MS & Apple can really provide a new paradigm for people to adopt. Both companies are basically thinking mobile-first which makes the compromises for productive desktop UIs inevitable. By forcing ourselves to think of productivity as a priority, it brings about concepts like this which give us a glimmer of hope on how technology is more than just giving us innovation in consumption only.

dangrossman 11y ago
He's interested in the feedback and is here participating in the discussion (@ziburski). I just felt compelled to write something after reading a couple silly "you lost me as a customer" and "what's the point" comments.
- orky56 11y ago
  I actually wanted to thank you for your parent comment. It needed to be said and gave me a chance to say what was on my mind. Hope you didn't take my comment negatively.
drzaiusapelord 11y ago
>t's unfortunate that desktop UI has remained stuck for quite awhile A lot of things get "stuck" and for good reason. Steering wheel, gas, and brake. Sight, trigger, stock. Underwear, pants, socks, etc. Personally, I think the NT team really nailed the concept of the desktop back in 1993 with 3.1. The start button which hid programs and allowed access to other functions was incredibly handy, a bit like how a desk has a desk drawer within reach at all times. The desktop as a dumping ground for whatever you choose and system tray for misc stuff really, really works well and with mimimal cruft. Windows applications worked unlike MacOS applications by integrating the menu bar directly into the application itself instead of making it a detached accessory of the OS. Right-click support also allowed a lot of dynamic functionality. I understand that almost none of these specific were their innovations, but they took a lot of half-cooked ideas and made something very, very usable. Its a shame the NT team is never brought up like the Amiga or MacOS teams. I don't think they've gotten their proper due. Its also interesting that MS ran back to the start button/menu only three years after letting it go. Its incredible how powerful the NT way of doing things still is.

Semiapies 11y ago

I'm reminded of that run of "brilliant new design for <physical machine>" linkbait posts on tech sites a few years back, touting the incomparable benefits of some colorful, curvy piece of hardware over anything out there. The original source was always some design student's portfolio, and the "brilliant" design was never more than a colorful, curvy housing that didn't exist outside a rendering.

ethanbond 11y ago
Yes, and? Is your criticism that we shouldn't discuss things which aren't in the physical world yet, or that we can't discuss unimplemented ideas?
- Semiapies 11y ago
  No, my observation was that those stories (and discussions) were similar. And they are, down to the spectrum of reactions in people talking about this design piece as if it were a real product. If you feel some need to be defensive about that, I'm sure that has a parallel in those discussions, too.

GuiA 11y ago

I work at a company where we hire people for exactly that kind of gig, with a heavy focus on building prototypes of your designs that are actually usable because that's the only viable way to design interfaces. Here's feedback as to why I'm not sending this website to my studio lead to schedule a phone screen with the designer: 1) reused assets from other companies (big no no, even for just a mockup) that are inconsistent with the overall visual style of the project 2) very implausible interactions that were clearly not prototyped (eg the 6 finger pinch... what?!) 3) work heavily inspired from other research projects and designs (10 GUI, various tiling window managers, etc) without showing a clear unifying interaction model. This is more of a patchwork of loosely related ideas, and to me doesn't show clear, deep understanding of prior work (both academic and commercial) in the covered areas. 4) awkward copy that jumps from marketing-style speak to explaining interactions from an analytical point of view. This is the most minor of all points but just hurts the polish of the piece. So this tells me that the candidate is not a strong graphic designer, not a strong prototyper, nor a strong researcher. He's looking for an internship so only one of the three with promises in the other two would be sufficient, but that's not apparent enough to me here. Hope that's constructive - I see a fair number of such portfolios/resumes every month. EDIT: lots of hate on my comment below. The main point seems to be "well you're not totally wrong, but he's a 21 year old intern". Sure, although that doesn't change any of my feedback. I am assessing the work as it stands on its own merits, independently of the designer's age. There is certain work on which 21 year old interns don't have a lot to contribute on, such as redesigning entire OS user interfaces. When it comes to assessing a designer's skills, I prefer to see a series of small, focused pieces rather than one large, sprawling one (the latter is much harder to pull of well unless you have tons of experience). I'm looking forward to looking at how his work has evolved a few years from now.

thecosas 11y ago
+1 for #2. 6 fingers for what will likely be a fairly regular action is clunky at best. The way it's illustrated makes me think it was more along the lines of a board you stand at and not a desktop.
doyoulikeworms 11y ago
I have no experience in your field, but I'm very surprised to hear that this isn't worth a phone screen for a 21 year old. Tough industry!

aikah 11y ago

The problem is style of substance. The presentation,the design of the website is great, but the content feels like a bunch of random incoherent stuff put together with a catchy name. Yes the webpage is beautiful, there are nice animations, but that's it, there is nothing else. It's an nice portfolio though, but there is nothing to discuss when it comes to UX/UI itself.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
- zeta0134 11y ago
  Because that's been done before; go lookup 10 GUI, and it will look remarkably similar. It's different from the accepted standard, but not actually a new concept.
lifeformed 11y ago
How is it random incoherent stuff? Did you even watch the video? It seems pretty straightforward and refreshing.
- tripzilch 11y ago
  There's nothing about UX design in the video either. If he wants a job building marketing pages and videos for software, sure. But if he wants a job as a UX designer, and I would go by the info on his sites, his design process consists of mockups and talking about it with his professors. Seriously, if these are his skills, how the hell would he do UX design for an assignment when the target audience does not include himself?

nailer 11y ago

> It seems like a lot of people skimmed without reading the top or bottom of this site: This is the nature of Hacker News recently: people post as soon as possible to demonstrate their knowledge on a related subject. I've twice recently had articles posted on HN where a commenter loudly ranted about the article missing something that's covered explicitly in the first 3 paragraphs. dang how about adding 'RTFA' to https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ?

eclipxe 11y ago
>recently Ha.

ByronicHero 11y ago

He also knocked marketing out of the park.

aagha 11y ago

Microsoft should hire him yesterday.

tripzilch 11y ago

> This website is a portfolio piece for a 21-year-old university student hoping to find an internship. In my opinion, it's an impressive demonstration of his design and technical skills. It certainly says a lot more than the average 21-year-old's resume listing what courses they've taken so far. I'm actually a bit baffled. He's not just a student, he actually studies "interface design"! "I am 21 years old and study interface design at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam." Of course just a list of what courses you've taken so far isn't very sexy or interesting. You don't need to list them explicitly. But if you do claim to study a particular field or industry, you should at least demonstrate that you have taken some courses (in particular on the topics you're passionate about), did interesting projects to complete them (there must be, even tiny ones), what/that you learned from them, why they matter. Doesn't need to be very explicit, but there's literally nothing on this page, nor on his personal website indicating what he learned studying interface design. Drop some names, terminology, textbooks, works, important research. Show us how "I study interface design" means more than "I'm working to obtain a piece of paper that lets me claim I studied interface design".