… is one thing I remember from watching a short analysis by Edward Tufte. Although his tone was very dry and boring, the information he presented was very interesting. He spoke on the interface design of the iPhone which I believe is one of the most revolutionary products on today’s market. All though not owning an iPhone (but really wanting one) I happen to own an iPod touch which has a very similar interface. As mentioned by Tufte, the iPhone (and iPod Touch) solved the interface problem of small screens very elegantly. The iPhone changed the game of the design of phones because it uses high resolution to provide high quality images on a very small screen. The interface is not challenge with what he calls “administrative debris.”
One of the ideas I took from this video is the interface and information is the interface, not computer administrative debris. For example, Tufte shows how the web interface on the iPhone eliminates the aspects of features of the phone itself, and only shows the information presented on the web page itself. This way, the user sees more content which is important on a small screen. However, Tufte did add that the button bar present at the bottom of the iPhone when viewing web pages is too broad, and instead should be invisible. This would provide even more space for the user to view content. I agree with this point. Maybe Apple could add one small button in the bottom left or right hand corner which could be pressed when the user wants to access the button bar.
Another point Tufte mentioned was “clutter and overload are not an attribute of information, they are failures of design.” This was an interesting point which states that when something looks too cluttered, that doesn’t meat there is too much information, but rather poor design. This made me think of projects I’ve done in class in which I deleted and information because it looked too cluttered. I should have focused on how to include the information in a better design. In my last project, the design of an iPhone app, I had some problems including all the information I wanted to on one of my screens. I spent hours of trying to design it better, but eventually just decided to make is shorter and more streamlined. However, after watching this video, I know there could have been a better way to design the information and keep it only on the screen. Tufte said “If the information is in chaos, don’t start throwing out information instead fix the design,” and this is definitely a significant point I will remember when designed in the future.