7 ms·

IBM Design Language

115 points by paulojreis 12y ago

nateabele 12y ago
Am I missing something here? Why (and how) does IBM have anything to say about design?
- justincormack 12y ago
  You mean the company that hired Paul Rand decades before Apple did? [1] [1] http://www.paul-rand.com/foundation/ibm/ http://www.paul-rand.com/foundation/ibm/
couchwire 12y ago
As a design language/guide/framework etc, I've spent 5 minutes on that link clicking around and I still don't really know what I'm looking at.
- blaze33 12y ago
  I'd say it's IBM's response to Google material design. IBM blog announcement: http://www.ibm.com/design/blog-page.shtml?ibm-design-language http://www.ibm.com/design/blog-page.shtml?ibm-design-languag...
  - agumonkey 12y ago
    That's the only thing their webpage said to me 'we too!'. I used to enjoy improving the visual qualities of data (Brett Victor and previous inspirations as extrapolation) but nowadays it's more of a fad of form over content.
  - skazka16 12y ago
    This is exactly what I thought.
- gima 12y ago
  It's responsive, has animations when scrolling, pretty color scheme and only small amount of text. Oh, and let's not forget the social buttons. What else can a consumer hope for. sǝuᴉlǝpᴉnƃ uƃᴉsǝp uɹǝpoɯ >;)
davidw 12y ago
There are actually some interesting bits about why things are the way they are, which is useful for someone like me who is not a designer: http://www.ibm.com/design/language/framework/visual/layout.shtml http://www.ibm.com/design/language/framework/visual/layout.s...
tempodox 12y ago
At the very least, a beautiful presentation. And it collects some interesting hints for anyone remotely interested in graphical design. But then it reminds me how this is a field in and of itself, that deserves more professional attention than my own amateurish efforts. When I play around with design, I will do so in my spare time :)
paulftw 12y ago
looks pretty good for a summer internship project, but nothing more. Why are all these guides uglier than bootstrap?
- humpt 12y ago
  uglier? to me bootstrap's visual patterns are overused and frankly unoriginal.
  - wwosik 12y ago
    Well, the unoriginality is an advantage to me. Trying to discover yet which of the things is an active button gets tedious.
flixic 12y ago
From the folder icons in resource zips you can see that they are using Google Drive. Interesting, considering the size of the corporation.
- humpt 12y ago
  I couldn't find the folder icons. Could you post the link to it please?
- AnonJ 12y ago
  What's the issue with Google Drive? Do you suggest they should come up with their own whole backup solution? Why reinvent the wheel anyways. Not to mention it's possible that only certain teams use it, not all the teams, nor the teams who have truly sensitive information in the spirit they don't want Google to see.
  - flixic 12y ago
    No issue, just interesting. I would assume that such a big corporation would have very strict data sharing policies. Apparently, that's not the case. Interesting!
cschmidt 12y ago
Leading with the Paul Rand "Eye Bee M" rebus is always cool: http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/gooddesign/ http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/gooddes...
abrowne 12y ago
Sometimes I wonder how much of Apple and IBM starting to work together was due to the shared love of Helvetica Neue.
justincormack 12y ago
There was a good talk from IBM's head of design about what they are doing earlier this year [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvsnezSMdYk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvsnezSMdYk
khoury 12y ago
This is like the complete opposite of creativity. I actually feel a bit sick..
- normloman 12y ago
  Why? This is pretty standard design guidelines. Create a typography hierarchy, design mobile interfaces with enough space for fingers... etc. If anything, I'd say these guidelines are too generic. Not specific.
runewell 12y ago
Instead of leaving a simple comment I would like to share my authentic and thoughtful comment brand which communicates my living perspective and collection of crafted experiences working together as a cohesive language of positive reflection in the inverse context.
- bresc 12y ago
  Exactly!
- sp332 12y ago
  Positive reflection in the inverse... Hey!
- runewell 12y ago
  IBM has great products and the design of this website is nice but the content does the design a disservice. The design expresses "clarity and simplicity" while the text expresses "vagueness and complexity".
- throwawayaway 12y ago
  personally i feel that your mission statement could benefit from some bespoke, artisanal, hand crafted attention to locally sourced details, which would enhance the user experience. for over five years.
- jackmaney 12y ago
  Net-net, we need to boldly strategize a new mission statement, bringing to the table our best and brightest outside-the-box thinkers. Let's set up a series of weekly meetings to best discuss how to monetize the paradigm.
- cpeterso 12y ago
  The only limit is yourself.
bresc 12y ago
Dear IBM... you suck at communication! Take a look at their Watson LP (http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/ibmwatson/ http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/ibmwatson/) If you don't continue reading blog articles comments and do some tryouts you actually have no idea what they want to sell you and EVEN LESS how exactly you can use it.
- Shivetya 12y ago
  Sadly even when they customer research, we have been on a few of these with regards to improving their support sites, they seem to take all the suggestions and go the opposite direction. At least the linked sites look good, try navigating their support sites, it gets worse when they cross license products and some support is here, some there, and all bound up behind horrid search engines.
tiler 12y ago
Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur?
yummyfajitas 12y ago
I like their replacement for Lorem Ipsum: Be authentically thoughtful Authenticity is based on real, shared experiences and is sensed rather than rationalized. Thoughtfulness is a quality that comes from the heart with the best of intentions in mind. It is the deliberate consideration for the needs of others and an empathic understanding of what is most important. Unity, not uniformity By giving people a common starting place—and the freedom to innovate and experiment—we allow them to recombine ideas and build specifically relevant solutions, while staying connected to that common center point.
- andy_ppp 12y ago
  IBsuM...
publicfig 12y ago
I find it interesting that even going to the main homepage at http://ibm.com http://ibm.com shows that these guidelines haven't made it very far internally. I'd have thought they would have established their own brand at home before releasing guidelines.
- maxmcd 12y ago
  You could have said roughly the same about most of Google's products when they released Material Design.
  - AnonJ 12y ago
    That's probably not comparable at all.
skazka16 12y ago
Why the hell the height of navbar is so huge? It just has 6 words in it, but the level of distraction is like from a modal.
programminggeek 12y ago
This doesn't feel at all like IBM. It feels like a modern design team trying to fit in, not realizing they work at IBM.
ghostington 12y ago
Inner City Hope USA - Educational & Patriotic Movement #TheBookerProject https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/inner-city-hope-usa/x/8161550 https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/inner-city-hope-usa/x/816...
jackmaney 12y ago
Serious question: does anyone have anything resembling an idea as to what the hell the linked page is talking about?
bokchoi 12y ago
I actually quite like mockups on their inspiration pages: http://www.ibm.com/design/language/inspiration.shtml http://www.ibm.com/design/language/inspiration.shtml
_tkmj 12y ago
Now they just need to hire a celebrity to back up all this bullshit. Who's next at coming up with a 'design language'? Blackberry?
- woah 12y ago
  Clearly, you know nothing about design. This design language looks pretty solid to me, and is much nicer (IMO) than Google's gee-whiz Material language.
  - baskind 12y ago
    Not saying it's doesn't look nice, but certainly waaay behind Google's Material Design in terms of solidness and clarity IMHO. IBM is just trying to stay 'trendy' IMHO.

IBM Design Language

115 points by paulojreis 12y ago

nateabele 12y ago

Am I missing something here? Why (and how) does IBM have anything to say about design?

justincormack 12y ago
You mean the company that hired Paul Rand decades before Apple did? [1] [1] http://www.paul-rand.com/foundation/ibm/ http://www.paul-rand.com/foundation/ibm/

couchwire 12y ago

As a design language/guide/framework etc, I've spent 5 minutes on that link clicking around and I still don't really know what I'm looking at.

blaze33 12y ago
I'd say it's IBM's response to Google material design. IBM blog announcement: http://www.ibm.com/design/blog-page.shtml?ibm-design-language http://www.ibm.com/design/blog-page.shtml?ibm-design-languag...
- agumonkey 12y ago
  That's the only thing their webpage said to me 'we too!'. I used to enjoy improving the visual qualities of data (Brett Victor and previous inspirations as extrapolation) but nowadays it's more of a fad of form over content.
- skazka16 12y ago
  This is exactly what I thought.
gima 12y ago
It's responsive, has animations when scrolling, pretty color scheme and only small amount of text. Oh, and let's not forget the social buttons. What else can a consumer hope for. sǝuᴉlǝpᴉnƃ uƃᴉsǝp uɹǝpoɯ >;)

davidw 12y ago

There are actually some interesting bits about why things are the way they are, which is useful for someone like me who is not a designer: http://www.ibm.com/design/language/framework/visual/layout.shtml http://www.ibm.com/design/language/framework/visual/layout.s...

tempodox 12y ago

At the very least, a beautiful presentation. And it collects some interesting hints for anyone remotely interested in graphical design. But then it reminds me how this is a field in and of itself, that deserves more professional attention than my own amateurish efforts. When I play around with design, I will do so in my spare time :)

paulftw 12y ago

looks pretty good for a summer internship project, but nothing more. Why are all these guides uglier than bootstrap?

humpt 12y ago
uglier? to me bootstrap's visual patterns are overused and frankly unoriginal.
- wwosik 12y ago
  Well, the unoriginality is an advantage to me. Trying to discover yet which of the things is an active button gets tedious.

flixic 12y ago

From the folder icons in resource zips you can see that they are using Google Drive. Interesting, considering the size of the corporation.

humpt 12y ago
I couldn't find the folder icons. Could you post the link to it please?
AnonJ 12y ago
What's the issue with Google Drive? Do you suggest they should come up with their own whole backup solution? Why reinvent the wheel anyways. Not to mention it's possible that only certain teams use it, not all the teams, nor the teams who have truly sensitive information in the spirit they don't want Google to see.
- flixic 12y ago
  No issue, just interesting. I would assume that such a big corporation would have very strict data sharing policies. Apparently, that's not the case. Interesting!

cschmidt 12y ago

Leading with the Paul Rand "Eye Bee M" rebus is always cool: http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/gooddesign/ http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/gooddes...

abrowne 12y ago

Sometimes I wonder how much of Apple and IBM starting to work together was due to the shared love of Helvetica Neue.

justincormack 12y ago

There was a good talk from IBM's head of design about what they are doing earlier this year [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvsnezSMdYk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvsnezSMdYk

khoury 12y ago

This is like the complete opposite of creativity. I actually feel a bit sick..

normloman 12y ago
Why? This is pretty standard design guidelines. Create a typography hierarchy, design mobile interfaces with enough space for fingers... etc. If anything, I'd say these guidelines are too generic. Not specific.

runewell 12y ago

Instead of leaving a simple comment I would like to share my authentic and thoughtful comment brand which communicates my living perspective and collection of crafted experiences working together as a cohesive language of positive reflection in the inverse context.

bresc 12y ago
Exactly!
sp332 12y ago
Positive reflection in the inverse... Hey!
runewell 12y ago
IBM has great products and the design of this website is nice but the content does the design a disservice. The design expresses "clarity and simplicity" while the text expresses "vagueness and complexity".
throwawayaway 12y ago
personally i feel that your mission statement could benefit from some bespoke, artisanal, hand crafted attention to locally sourced details, which would enhance the user experience. for over five years.
jackmaney 12y ago
Net-net, we need to boldly strategize a new mission statement, bringing to the table our best and brightest outside-the-box thinkers. Let's set up a series of weekly meetings to best discuss how to monetize the paradigm.
cpeterso 12y ago
The only limit is yourself.

bresc 12y ago

Dear IBM... you suck at communication! Take a look at their Watson LP (http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/ibmwatson/ http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/ibmwatson/) If you don't continue reading blog articles comments and do some tryouts you actually have no idea what they want to sell you and EVEN LESS how exactly you can use it.

Shivetya 12y ago
Sadly even when they customer research, we have been on a few of these with regards to improving their support sites, they seem to take all the suggestions and go the opposite direction. At least the linked sites look good, try navigating their support sites, it gets worse when they cross license products and some support is here, some there, and all bound up behind horrid search engines.

tiler 12y ago

Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur?

yummyfajitas 12y ago

I like their replacement for Lorem Ipsum: Be authentically thoughtful Authenticity is based on real, shared experiences and is sensed rather than rationalized. Thoughtfulness is a quality that comes from the heart with the best of intentions in mind. It is the deliberate consideration for the needs of others and an empathic understanding of what is most important. Unity, not uniformity By giving people a common starting place—and the freedom to innovate and experiment—we allow them to recombine ideas and build specifically relevant solutions, while staying connected to that common center point.

andy_ppp 12y ago
IBsuM...

publicfig 12y ago

I find it interesting that even going to the main homepage at http://ibm.com http://ibm.com shows that these guidelines haven't made it very far internally. I'd have thought they would have established their own brand at home before releasing guidelines.

maxmcd 12y ago
You could have said roughly the same about most of Google's products when they released Material Design.
- AnonJ 12y ago
  That's probably not comparable at all.

skazka16 12y ago

Why the hell the height of navbar is so huge? It just has 6 words in it, but the level of distraction is like from a modal.

programminggeek 12y ago

This doesn't feel at all like IBM. It feels like a modern design team trying to fit in, not realizing they work at IBM.

ghostington 12y ago

Inner City Hope USA - Educational & Patriotic Movement #TheBookerProject https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/inner-city-hope-usa/x/8161550 https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/inner-city-hope-usa/x/816...

jackmaney 12y ago

Serious question: does anyone have anything resembling an idea as to what the hell the linked page is talking about?

bokchoi 12y ago

I actually quite like mockups on their inspiration pages: http://www.ibm.com/design/language/inspiration.shtml http://www.ibm.com/design/language/inspiration.shtml

_tkmj 12y ago

Now they just need to hire a celebrity to back up all this bullshit. Who's next at coming up with a 'design language'? Blackberry?

woah 12y ago
Clearly, you know nothing about design. This design language looks pretty solid to me, and is much nicer (IMO) than Google's gee-whiz Material language.
- baskind 12y ago
  Not saying it's doesn't look nice, but certainly waaay behind Google's Material Design in terms of solidness and clarity IMHO. IBM is just trying to stay 'trendy' IMHO.