Although this video was clearly outdated I thought the overall concepts were still relevant five years after it was originally produced.
Edward Tufte said, “clutter and overload are failures of design”…I think this was my most significant take away from the short film. He nailed it on the head. Apple’s design philosophy is to provide simple, unobtrusive, sleek designs for its products and for the most part it does so successfully.
I also appreciated Tufte’s reference to the “strong colors” the iphone interface design utilizes. I never thought strong could be used as an adjective to describe colors but after Tufte used it I thought the statement was really impactful.
Edward Tufte reviews the iPhone interface from 2008 and half a decade later most of the same design concepts are still true…“quick access on the same surface to a hundred different options.” But there is no denying that almost all of the iPhone features Tufte examines (stocks, weather and photos) have all changed drastically with the iPhone 5 and the new operating system update. Some features from the original iPhone no longer exist like the bookshelf but all of these interface concepts were calculated as illustrated in this article about Apple’s skeuomorphic designs–http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670796/a-former-iphone-ui-designer-defends-apples-fake-leather-design-philosophy.
All in all Apple’s interface designs are the leader in the industry and I cannot wait to see how the iPhone evolves in the next 5 years.
Finally it is imperative to note that The Big Duck made an appearance in this lovely short video. This is one of the weirdest landmarks ever and it was especially weird seeing it in this context…
To learn more visit http://www.bigduck.org/index.html
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