Here’s something you don’t see every day; a film about a font. Helvetica is a feature-length documentary by Gary Hustwit about typography, graphic design and more specifically, the font of the same name.
As odd as it might sound, the film is extremely interesting and designers of all mediums will enjoy it. It charts the history of the font, asking why it’s become so popular. There are arguments for and against its use as the ‘default’ font of choice, from both young and old typographers.
I always knew that it was a popular font, but I never really notice quite how much Helvetica is used. Now I’m going to look for it everywhere I go! What was particularly interesting was that how people are taking the font and using it in new ways. It might be a default, but it’s also incredible flexible and certainly timeless.
So go and take a look; this is one film about design worth watching.
Published in Design, tagged Helvetica, typography on 6th March 2008. No comments.
Today the BBC formally launched their new homepage, which had been in beta testing for a few weeks before. The site now has a customisable layout, similar to iGoogle.
Generally, I like the redesign, but I can’t help but think that a few of the fonts are a little too large. There’s also a lot of unnecessary space at the top of the page. I guess it makes sense because it has to cater for users of all abilities, but it would be nice to see an option to slim down the interface and shrink some of the larger buttons. The iPlayer widget is also currently just a logo, which isn’t very useful. I imagine that it’ll become a preview of the site’s content at some point, but for now its static nature sticks out like a sore thumb amongst all of the other dynamic boxes.
Published in Design, Websites, tagged BBC on 27th February 2008. 2 comments.
In a world with countless choices, presenting people with relevant information should be one of the most important aspirations for any designer. This can be achieved on the web and in software in a number of ways, but let’s begin with a more mundane example. Many shoe shops organise their displays by type - hiking shoes here, trainers there, heels that way - but this is a fundamental mistake.
When I walk into a shoe shop, I may or may not know what type of footwear that I’m after, but one thing I know for sure is my size. Organising shoes by type might be more aesthetically pleasing, but in practice all people need to be presented with are shoes that actually fit them. Grouping shoes by design is natural because our minds like to associate things that look the same, but in fact the most logical way is to organise shoes based on the single criteria that the customer will almost definitely know.
This idea translates directly on to the web. T-shirt site Threadless has a stock chart page whose title is “Tell us your size, we’ll tell you what’s in stock! Fo REAL!” Once you know your size, you can quickly view a selection of shirts which are only relevant to you. Rival site Busted Tees doesn’t have this option and suffers for it, only alerting you to a lack of stock once you get to a product page.
Another good example of using the correct criteria to organise products is IKEA. They first present you items for each room, then later give you the option of seeing similar products. When you walk into a store, you go through model bedrooms, kitchens and so on, then only later are shown all of the beds, lights and tables together. The idea behind this is that the one thing that the customer knows is what rooms they have. They may arrive looking for a table, but you can be certain that they know where they’re going to put it.
So the next time you visit somewhere that presents you with choices or design something that does the same, think for a second what your most basic criteria is. The best methods of organisation are not necessarily the most obvious ones.
Published in Design, Usability, tagged IKEA, organisation, relevance, Threadless on 21st February 2008. No comments.
I’m quite a fan of minimalist design in print and on the web. A lot can be achieved with clean lines and simple colours, and ManyBooks is a perfect example of this. The site offers nearly 20,000 free eBooks, which are available to download in countless different forms.
Like the books that you can download, the site itself is as legible as they come. Aside from the mysteriously small text in the navigation menu, ManyBooks is extremely easy to find your way around and is consistent throughout. Many websites opt for designs that confound the user with brash colours, but ManyBooks shows that more usable and elegant results can be achieved with very little.
Published in Design, Websites, tagged minimalism on 21st February 2008. No comments.
As you may know, I’m quite an Apple fan and my interest in the Californian company began a few years ago when I got a second generation 10GB iPod. I then replaced this with a 60GB iPod Photo and added a MacBook Pro to my collection 18 months ago to complete ‘the switch’. When the iPod Touch originally came out, it was a tempting proposition, but it was lacking in a couple of departments; capacity and features. With the January upgrade and 32GB of memory, the new version was enough to get me to open my wallet and order one. So one week later, how does it live up to expectations?
Even though I got to play with the iPhone just after it came out in the US, I was again surprised by the iPod Touch’s size and weight. Simply put, it’s an engineering marvel. It’s thinner and slightly lighter than my relatively new Nokia phone, and much slimmer than my last iPod. The form factor is ideal and it fits in your pocket like a hand in a glove.
The first negative thing to note is the device’s startup time, which comes in at about 15 seconds. Once it’s up and running, it’s extremely quick because of the flash memory, but you can’t expect to switch it on and off at will. Aside from that, I have few other complaints. Each application works as expected, with Safari and Maps particularly worthy of note.
The built in browser is well tailored for use with a touchscreen, allowing you to surf the Web effortlessly. It doesn’t support Flash yet, but otherwise it’s exactly like using another computer. Maps is extremely cool and will no doubt prove extremely useful when I travel next. Having the ability to search locally in a strange city is priceless.
As a music player, the Touch excels. I’ve always been a huge fan of the click wheel interface and was slightly saddened to see it go, but its replacement is more than worthy. Finding artists in long lists is now a lot easier and although Coverflow can’t be used on a per-artist or per-playlist basis, it’s a useful novelty.
A couple things take some getting used to; multi-touch and the text input screen. Typing on a screen with no physical feedback is odd at first, but as the week’s gone on, I’ve found that I’ve quickly adapted to a new way of typing. It’ll never be as fast as using a proper keyboard, but it’s a well designed alternative.
Covering the entire device would take forever, so I’ll wrap up the review here. Even though I’m an Apple fan and am bound to be biased having paid so much money for it, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the iPod Touch. Its design is superb, both physically and in terms of the software on it. If you weren’t impressed by the Touch’s capacity and features when it first came out, but were somewhat curious, then this is well worth a look.
Published in Design, Tech, tagged iPod Touch on 20th February 2008. One comment.
The BBC’s fantastic iPlayer website has seen a slight redesign today, adding ‘most recent’, ‘last chance’ and ‘most popular’ sections. Each video also has a ‘more like this’ column down the side of the page. While it detracts slightly from the site’s minimalistic style, it makes finding content a little easier. iPod users might note similarities between it and the iTunes Store, which also has very similar features.
Upon closer inspection, there are a few other new tweaks. The buttons on the left now expand when clicked to reveal options, rather than producing a large menu as before. A couple of new buttons also make browsing channels and finding shows by name easier.
It’s nice to see the iPlayer’s first tune up since launch. I use it almost every day, so it’s a welcome redesign.
Published in Design, Websites, tagged BBC, iPlayer, iTunes on 20th February 2008. No comments.
As before, click on the images for larger versions.
Contents
Editorial
News
Sport
Features
Grapevine
Travel
Nice
Famous Last Words
Published in Design, tagged Impact, magazines on 18th February 2008. No comments.
After so many redesigned sections in the previous issue, Impact issue 186 featured a few tweaks, especially the Travel section, which was totally reworked. Click on any images for larger versions.
Contents and Editorial
News and Sport
Features
Grapevine (events)
Travel
Spare Parts
Nice
Gratis (competitions, credits, etc.)
Published in Design, tagged Impact, magazines on 18th February 2008. No comments.
To continue from my previous post, here are some page designs from issue 185 of Impact Magazine. This was the first issue of the new academic year and one that the design editor and I had a chance to really influence in terms of layout. Click on the thumbnails for larger versions.
News
Features
(not my illustration)
Travel
Style
Nice (Arts, Films, Music, Science, Nights)
Published in Design, tagged Impact, magazines on 18th February 2008. No comments.
