The replacement for the Finder should be a modern virtual desktop. And I bet it looks more like iPad than Finder. But a lot more task-centric and less app and file centric.

That’s what makes us so special and fun to be around.

I wrote a blog post about the importance of learning from your current design and current users and would love to share it here http://www.dtelepathy.com/blog/telepathy/5-ux-tips-for-usability-look-before-you-leap/

The thing that amazes me most is how unique every project truly is once you launch it.

Thanks for the great post,

B

You forgot to include the rounded rectangle enigma thingy :-))

I’m not entirely sold on #4. As you seem to say, though, we need both brain hemispheres to “pong” ideas. We need design and technology to collaborate, not complete or compromise. That said, an architect who doesn’t understand material properties, and can’t factor in feasibility, including schedule and budget, will tend to fail. A designer without some grounding in the technologies that make the UI occur for people on the far end of the exchange will sell both themselves and the technology short. But, of course; technology is for making the design and interaction happen as designed, not the inverse.

#8 is a great example of confusing, or not knowing the distinction between, the human performance side of usability and the desire for success. In an of itself, it’s a bad metric. Four clicks to a satisfying interaction is many times better than two clicks to a ambiguous or incomplete one. Two fully successful clicks works too, but when it comes to comprehensive success, clicks don’t count. This myth is from the flat www days. And, too, seems to be from a sort of industrial age residue. Frederick W. Taylor just won’t die!

Here’s another: “Software = technology.” I came across this just the other night, at a gala dinner. Person next to me: “What do you do.” Me: “I design software.” Person next to me: “Oh, you’re a programmer?” Me: “No…”. My thought bubble; “Eeesh.” The difference is like that of a house as concrete, wood, plaster, tar and tile, vs. a home. A house is a certain configuration of materials. A HOME is its design.