tbolt
Helvetica Neue in OS X
When Apple unveiled OS X Yosemite at this years WWDC, I was pleasantly surprised with the design changes. They were practical yet refreshing and more inline with iOS 7.
However, after spending some time with Yosemite there is one item that I have yet to warm up to: Helvetica Neue. Changing the system font is a tall order, especially from one that has proven itself over its long span.
Well known typeface designer Tobias Frere-Jones claims:
Despite its grand reputation, Helvetica can’t do everything. It works well in big sizes, but it can be really weak in small sizes. Shapes like ‘C’ and ‘S’ curl back into themselves, leaving tight “apertures”–the channels of white between a letter’s interior and exterior. So each shape halts the eye again and again, rather than ushering it along the line. The lowercase ‘e,’ the most common letter in English and many other languages, takes an especially unobliging form. These and other letters can be a pixel away from being some other letter, and we’re left to deal with flickers of doubt as we read.
Lucida Grande presents open apertures, inviting the eye to move along sideways through the text. It has worked really well–for years, and for good reason. For any text, but particularly in interfaces, our eyes need typefaces that cooperate rather than resist. A super-sharp Retina Display might help, but the real issue is the human eye, and I haven’t heard of any upgrades on the way.
Even if Retina Displays help, they are really not common yet for Macs. Let’s take a look at Apple’s current (July 2014) Mac lineup:
Only one of the above five has an Apple Retina Display. Granted the Macbook Pro w/Retina Display is probably the best selling in the lineup. Still, Retina Macs are simply not pervasive. I suppose we could see new Retina Macbook Airs and iMacs, along with a new Retina Thunderbolt display this year and that would cover the whole line up, but that’s hoping for a lot.
It will take time for Helvetica in OS X to sink in and prove itself.
Nord Keyboards Interface Design
From the Nord Electro 3 product page:
One of our main focuses is to have dedicated knobs and buttons for all vital functions, and keep the interface simple and easy to use during a performance. We don’t believe in submenus, and the only functions in the Electro 3 that only are available through menus are printed on the panel so you don’t need to read the manual.
“Don’t need to read the manual.”
On Using Tools
As builders, we like tools and tech because they’re interesting and new, and we enjoy mastering them. But when you think about the people we’re building for, the reality is usually the opposite. They need simple designs, clear writing, less tech, and fewer abstractions.
There are good reasons to use tools when building stuff, they can speed up the process, reduce barriers, and increase enjoyment. I would be the first to admit I enjoy using the latest frameworks and tools for web development, but it’s not always the right thing to do.
Product Bloat
It’s an immovable law of design physics — adding functionality adds complexity. You can’t get around it. All you can do is try to add functionality that people really want, and do it carefully enough that the increased complexity is worth it. There are no shortcuts or magic bullets.
Nintendo’s Focus
From The Rise of Nintendo: A Story in 8 Bits:
As Nintendo exploded, there were plenty of opportunities to make a quick buck (hardware upgrades, unnecessary peripherals), exploit the company’s beloved characters (movies, theme parks), or dilute the brand by trying to attract an audience older than Nintendo’s six-to-fourteen-year-olds. But these kinds of things didn’t interest Arakawa. What propelled him was a desire to continually provide Nintendo’s customers with a unique user experience. He set up a toll-free telephone line where Nintendo “Game Counselors” were available all day to help players get through difficult levels, and he initiated the Nintendo Fun Club, which sent a free newsletter to any customer who had sent in a warranty card. Both programs were very costly and could have been offset by charging small fees or obtaining sponsorship, but Arakawa believed that doing so would compromise Nintendo’s mission.
Intense focus like this is always applaudable.
Great Advice from Jakob Nielsen
From a Dorm Room Tycoon Podcast:
The less intrusive the design is the better the user can focus on the task. A lot of designers want to wave their flag and say, “Hey, look at my design.” But the truth is the user does not want that. They don’t use your app to admire, they use your app to get things done.
Information Architecture Analogy
I often equate my job to that of a building architect — just like they need to make sure that the floors are sound and people can walk across without hitting beams, get to an elevator and push a button and when they get off they see what they expected to see, I have to make sure that if a patron is on our website, they can understand our navigational elements and when they get to a page all of the information they need is front and center.
Great way to put it.