4 ms·

This was really interesting, because lately I've been asking myself how to improve my design ability by starting with the technology or starting with the custom

This was really interesting, because lately I've been asking myself how to improve my design ability by starting with the technology or starting with the customer. I will read through the App Engine docs every day or so to figure out what cool thing I can make out of the APIs provided. Maybe I should forget that and just think to myself 'what would I want to use?'.

maurycy 15y ago
I recommend reading: http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/human-centered_design_considered_harmful.html http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/human-centered_design_considered_h... http://pragprog.com/book/lmuse/designed-for-use http://pragprog.com/book/lmuse/designed-for-use
nirvana 15y ago
IF you have access to Apple's WWDC videos there's a great session about designing iPhone apps in the 2008 videos. (They have the same session every year, but as WWDC has grown it has shifted a bit to be more... useful for the masses.) It will be called "Designing iPhone Apps" or maybe "building great user interfaces" or something like that. They go thru Apple's process for product development in some very useful detail. I won't try to relate it because I'll get it wrong, or get phases out of order, but the short answer to your question is they design the product, then work on the technology to bring it to life. I think this session is probably the most revealing Apple has ever been about their "secret sauce". It isn't really proprietary, but they apply it all the time, and to every single product. I think much of the Steve Jobs mystique comes from Apple simply embedding this practice into their methodology... and they reveal it plainly in at least the 2008 WWDC video (though I think it gets more obscure in later years.) The 2008 one to watch is Session 351: iPhone Application User Interface Design. That one session was worth the entire amount of money I paid to go to the conference.

maurycy 15y ago

I recommend reading: http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/human-centered_design_considered_harmful.html http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/human-centered_design_considered_h... http://pragprog.com/book/lmuse/designed-for-use http://pragprog.com/book/lmuse/designed-for-use

nirvana 15y ago

IF you have access to Apple's WWDC videos there's a great session about designing iPhone apps in the 2008 videos. (They have the same session every year, but as WWDC has grown it has shifted a bit to be more... useful for the masses.) It will be called "Designing iPhone Apps" or maybe "building great user interfaces" or something like that. They go thru Apple's process for product development in some very useful detail. I won't try to relate it because I'll get it wrong, or get phases out of order, but the short answer to your question is they design the product, then work on the technology to bring it to life. I think this session is probably the most revealing Apple has ever been about their "secret sauce". It isn't really proprietary, but they apply it all the time, and to every single product. I think much of the Steve Jobs mystique comes from Apple simply embedding this practice into their methodology... and they reveal it plainly in at least the 2008 WWDC video (though I think it gets more obscure in later years.) The 2008 one to watch is Session 351: iPhone Application User Interface Design. That one session was worth the entire amount of money I paid to go to the conference.