Start making something useful

The design community in general seems to be very inwardly focused. Many of the problems we try to “solve” are those we ourselves create and like talking about. For example, the world really doesn’t need a new photo sharing app. I think we can move on to something else.

We should all start trying to make things better for the normal people. Not designers or those that love advertising. With sites like Facebook having such a huge captive community of the world, it seems like a great opportunity to make their lives better while they are there. 

On the subject of Kickstarter

It goes to show that some of the best and most successful projects on Kickstarter make a great video case for themselves.

Galileo, Twine, Cosmonaut, Elevation Dock, to name a few.

I definitely wouldn’t try and ask for thousands of dollars from the community without having a great and succinct pitch video. 

Galileo

From the creators of the Joby and Gorillapod tripod accessories come Galileo, a 360° degree panning and tilting mechanism for iOS devices.

Looks great and my brain is already coming up with possible project ideas around the SDK they mention.

I also wonder how monstrous an iPad version would look. Hmm…

View more info and help make this happen at its kickstarter page. As of right now it’s at $52,000 of $100,000 goal. I definitely see this making goal by the end of the week.

Making QR codes better.

QR codes, the latest and greatest thing to be tacked onto advertisements near and far. But are they effective? The idea of a quick scannable code is great, but how can we make them work better. 

The biggest problem with QR codes is that they’re extra work for little payoff. Most of the time you’re looking at a complex code that simply drives to the website of the ad you’re looking at. Reward people for taking the extra time to further engage with your ad, not make them think they should have just entered in the website and saved 30 seconds. Maybe the code goes to a mobile specific experience only accessible from the code? Maybe it is access to some downloads or games specific to the user’s phone?

Two things need to happen for QR codes to really be of value to people. One, the code reader functionality needs to be built into the base camera application. Meaning, if you were to be taking a picture and a QR code was in your composition, perhaps a box, similar to the new iOS facial recognition implementation pops up prompting the user to click on it and see where it goes.

It would be great if Apple/Google/Microsoft added system API for code scanning in general. Making the process faster as fast as possible is key.

The second problem that needs to be fixed with QR codes is internet access. I see countless codes on subway advertisements or other dead cell zones and it’s infuriating. Don’t they know any better? You again piss off someone who was actually interested in your product.

The best way I can think of to fix this again relies on the software of the phones themselves. In an ideal world, codes being scanned by your camera application are saved and if you’re in a dead spot, an alert box pops up letting you know. You could then be prompted to be reminded later about it. It would be great if the functionality was similar to unsent text messages.

It will be some time before NFC is really mainstream and augmented reality type functionality can only go so far. QR codes are here to stay, but that doesn’t mean they have to suck as much as they do now. 

George Carlin Had a Point

There are few great artists whose careers consisted of the same work or technique. It was always evolving,changing, getting better, getting worse. You have to be willing to make mistakes and put yourself out there in new ways if you hope to evolve yourself.

In this video from Louis CK he describes asking George Carlin how he continued to come up with new material? His response:

Well I just decided every year I’d be working on that years special and I’d do the special and I just chuck out the material and start again with nothing.

There is something really great about that. Forcing yourself to do something different for different sake pushes you in new directions. It pushes you out of your comfort zone. You may crash and burn but you at least will know new ways to crash and burn. 

It’s not often that your first idea is the best one. If you throw all of your energy into one concept, you start getting narrow sighted and emotionally attached to it. Young designers do this often. They pour themselves into an idea and when someone criticizes it, they get bent out of shape.

We tend to forget the years of art school having to produce 50 or 100 ideas for the same problem. Even if they were shit ideas, it was about laterally thinking. It was about exploring every possible way and a few impossible ways. I still remember those nights having to come up with just 20 more thumbnails when I had exhausted all of my logical options. That’s when the creativity shows.

My suggestion to anyone working on anything right now is to save whatever you’re working on, create a new file, find a blank sheet of paper and intentionally do something different. 

Less Fart Apps Please

Make Tools, Not Toys. Despite it being attached to Blackberry, It truly is a great idea. Designers are always trying to bring new products into the world but few are actually interested in making the world better.  

I’m not implying we try to fix world hunger or poverty, but instead try and make people’s lives easier. Too many new apps introduce a new set of rules and routines into people’s lives. It doesn’t matter how great your new product is. You need to either justify the time it takes someone to use it or make in a way that speeds up their current flow.

We are living in a fantastic era of technology. Let’s make it work for us, not the other way around.

Skeuomorphism and You.

I think 9/10 designers can agree that Apple’s recent surge of skeuomorphic design in iOS is kind of an eyesore. Most of the decisions that have been made such as iPhoto’s new tool brush selector makes my eye twitch. It’s strange because Apple’s hardware design lacks any sort of ornamentation and its software is becoming more and more kitschy.

If there is anything Realmac Software’s Clear has shown us is that a great app doesn’t need to look like something else. It can be accessible and have its own distinct style. Everything doesn’t need it’s own bevel/drop shadow/etc. Sure they have their place but it shouldn’t be a prerequisite for a great app.

Imagination and ease of use should drive our user experience, not clinging to old familiarities.