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darushimo

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I just hung out with an old friend last week and while he's into his tech, he doesn't work in the industry. he expressed the same sentiment in the last line of your comment.

UI versioning sounds like a ridiculously difficult challenge, so difficult that it's worth thinking about more, because most people won't (because it's so hard). I'm gonna take that idea and run with it a bit...

A few things come to mind:

- Added complexity - apps would have two unique versions at the same time "Oh i'm running gmail 15.2 with UI v 12.0"

- I wonder if another ways of achieving something similar is keeping legacy UI by calling it a "theme." While, politically, it might be difficult to get funding for a "theme" over a "redesign," with such an important and widely used application like GMail, it makes total sense to me that there are 2-4 interaction schemas that people could use if they'd like. Maybe "theme" is too weak of a name,--maybe "Schema"? Something else?

- What sort of protocol would a "theme" use to improve? Let's say that "we want to keep the important parts of this theme as much as possible, not mess with them, just add this new feature." How universally possible is that, or do a majority of big new features inherently complicate a UI and the mental models of its users?

- Getting into the nitty gritty details, though, there would almost inherently be splintering--different themes would have microinteractions and microfeatures that others would not. While that's probably good for the end user wanting to differentiate between them, it would make the "Do we add big feature X?" conversation across all "Theme Teams" AND development even more difficult.

- Would the themes themselves have versions?

- In a way, themes are already available as versions. Ex: I am running an older version ("theme") of twitter on my ipad because i just haven't gotten around to updating it. but It still works. What would be great is if twitter could allow me to switch between this version and the newest one so I could see if the newest version worked better for me. I could switch back if it didn't. Right now, I can upgrade, but I can't switch back, so upgrading is "switching permanently and hoping for the best."

- what are your thoughts?

Microsoft Xim 12 years ago

I agree with the use case, but most of the time I show someone a photo, it a fairly quick process. Comparing (1) how you share photos now to (2) how you share photos w/ Xim: (1) "wanting to share photo-> pull out phone-> unlock phone-> open photos app-> select photo-> show people your phone" is a lot faster and easier than (2) "wanting to share photo-> pull out phone-> unlock phone-> open Xim-> select images-> add or select contacts* -> send message -> wait for others to receive message-> they pull out phone (if not already)-> they unlock phone-> they open the message-> they are redirected (to app or website)-> they can see the photo"

I don't think this use case is definitive, i just meant it as an illustration of "it will take longer to share photos with Xim."

I think this MIGHT be ok if you only had to go through a laborious process the first time you used the app or viewed a Xim, but I think you have to go through that whole process (minus the adding the contact) every time you share. This app is trying to work at that intersection of cyber- and meat-space, and I think the handoffs will just take too long.

The ironic use case--this could be a great tool for remotely sharing photos. But if you're doing that, wouldn't you be using your phone to talk with the other viewers about the photos? ;-(

* Seems more likely you're trying to show more than 1 photo, as it's fairly easy to show a single photo to many people. Similar to above, and like you were saying, it's fairly easy to show 1 or 2 people a series of photos on your phone.

I'm a little confused--is the first video in the 3rd section ("intro to the design of everyday things") really an entire course? If so, i think the time-to-complete estimate (1 hr) should be changed...If it's not, it'd be great if the particular videos to be watched were noted.

Experience Design: A Framework for Integrating Brand, Experience, and Value by the founders of Method, an Experience Design firm in NYC, SF...

pretty great so far

I agree that it'd be great if they released the application for free, but I don't see a problem with charging for the app.

This company is arguably improving the experience of viewing that content, and, as a consumer, as long as they're upfront about the ads/cost when I purchase the app (I haven't checked if they are yet), then the ball's in my court to decide whether it's worth the ads and/or the $3/$5 price tag. I can always use a free app or just go to my browser if I don't want to pay.

Or are you finding the fact that they're charging for a product that's built on top of a free service inherently questionable? I definitely vibe with that sentiment at times, but in this case, I can't see a problem with it, especially if it meets Wikipedia's restrictions/standards.

Or is there something else that you find questionable?

Location: Portland OR - willing to relocate to NYC, SF, ??, - Full Time

Tools: Omnigraffle, Bootstrap, Photoshop, Balsamiq, Silverback, POP, etc

Stack: HTML, CSS & JS for prototyping, some experience with Python, SQLite, Processing

Portfolio: http://drewshimomura.com (please inquire for more work examples, including case studies)

Resume: http://bit.ly/1jMJqtY

Contact: ashimomura@gmail.com

Looking for: A company that expects great work and offers the opportunity of mentorship in both UX/IxD design and UX/business strategy.

UX/Interaction Designer with 5 yrs exp, seeking a full-time job in a new place. Previously worked for a startup for 4 years as the first hire. I've since worked at agencies & as a freelance consultant for companies including Intel, VMware, Aon, Genentech. Experience w/ desktop, mobile, responsive, Windows 8, iOS & Android apps, consumer internet, large multi-touch screens. I also have experience in information architecture, user research/testing, and user analytics as well. Personally interested in 'future interfaces' (i.e. Oculus, Leap, MYO, etc). FWIW, I was accepted into SVA's IxD MFA program recently, although I wont be attending.

I'd actually say this is a usability problem. If i just tap my touchpad (on MBP), there's a click event registered, but it's very, very short. the response from the button depends on the duration of the click event. If I click and hold down the touchpad, i see the whole animation, but if i don't and just tap, i see either a quick flash or no animation at all. This could be really confusing, especially with the skeumorphic buttons that look like they would react in they were clicked ("I clicked it, but did the click register?")

This could be fixed by adding a minimum click length for the current animation to occur. If the click length is lower, the full (or a partial) animation could just automatically occur at a fixed (fast) rate.

Reminds me of the lyrics of LCD Soundsystem's great song "On Repeat":

"Don't tell nobody what you really want because they could / tell everybody else what you really want then you're f####d / so act like it's for yourself or it's all yours and they go and / tell everybody else that you're really great. we are just people"

Sorry if this is a little off-topic, but it's a great song and i think the lyric's focus on the social results expands upon the article's thesis a bit.

song link: http://youtu.be/Lh3Kqh_EW2A?t=3m18s

SEEKING WORK - Portland, OR / Remote

UX Designer, 4+ yrs experience working on web, tablet/mobile, and other interfaces.

I'm looking for p/t or short projects, ideally for product-focused or SaaS startups.

I work on the whole UX journey, from user interviews, requirements building, and personas to user and site mappings, wireframes, interaction prototypes and user testing. My coding skills can take me to prototyping, not production.

Have done work for Intel, VMware, Columbia Sportswear...and worked at a startup in NYC for 3+ years.

Holler if you want to know more or see work examples. Thanks!

ashimomura@gmail.com

I worked at a consumer finance startup for over 3 years with the hope that I could help direct people to bank accounts with lower fees.

Read an article like this http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/magazine/09nix-t.html?page... and you could see how this service from T-Mobile could be hugely helpful for millions of people who pay tremendous percentages of their paychecks to have the money available to them immediately. This is, potentially, very exciting. And the fact that T-Mobile is using this service as a lock-in measure rather than an additional revenue stream is big--sounds like they're in it for the long haul rather than the quick payoff.

We'll see--T-Mobile could mess this up in a million ways, but for the first time in awhile, I'm excited about the banking services for the "unbanked." If the only 'catch' is that people would have to go back to the check cashing companies, ah, this could (COULD) be huge.

hm, I just checked, and I was surprised to not see any either. Someone from Kongregate mentioned that they're hiring, but otherwise, seems like no one's posted a job listing with the characters "Portland" or "PDX" this month.

I think you're right here, but the qualifier "all things being equal" can't be taken lightly. Rarely if never are "all things equal." I also don't think a shift in the market context is necessary. We already have a market place where people who feel tricked or duped will have a lower opinion of the company doing the duping. dark patterns have a bad edge to them too--very few of them, when noticed by the user, leave the user actually feeling good about how they were duped.

This kinda reminds me of the talk PG gave at 2008 start up school titled "Be Good." (http://www.paulgraham.com/good.html or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7K0vRUKXKc) He outlines many ways why it's not merely ethically appropriate to be good, but also a strategically superior approach to running a startup. Ease of use, simplicity, trustworthiness--these are important qualities of a biz's reputation, both internally and in public perception. And Dark patterns tend to harm that reputation.

Edit: Addendum--obviously there are monopolies or monopoly-like situations where reputation isn't important.

My guess is that the discrepancy between the general $10/yr from godaddy and the current $1500 is what's getting to you... My advice would be to try to disregard the "standard" price for a domain and just ask if it's worth it on its own.

One way to look at it: you could say that the "standard" price for a domain name is no longer standard at all--that most (not all, but most) good domain names are already taken, and that "$10/yr" was a historical moment that already passed. However you create the story, it should lead you to ignoring what you think "should" be the case, and help you take full consideration what IS the case.

Seems like there's a difference here, though?

You made your choice from a set of predetermined options. Handwriting (and not handwriting-like fonts) communicates more than just words, but attitude, character, and mood as well. That level of personalization might just translate through this digital -> analog experience.

Ugh...episteme's a word that dates back to Plato, although the author seems to use it like Foucault does in 'The Order of Things.'

That is--it's exceptionally NOT "coming up" with the word, assuming you mean to imply he's inventing the word for this article.

I like your first sentence though ;)

it's frustrating that there are a number of inconsistencies with his description of his early year on the Product People podcast last week. It makes me feel like in both he's selling himself 'at' me rather than givin me real info. Oh well

I want to suggest that it moves a little bit faster too. Either that or have both fields change at the same time. I get that you're trying to say "you can sell anything on any platform" by having the item persist while showing a different platform, but I think the fast that they're different fields is enough of a hint that you can sell "anything on anything."

I'm not surprised that tech crunch would post a polemic article with an assumed left-leaning consequence.

I'm not surprised a HNer with the user name John Galt (hero of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged) would call the article "agenda pushing."

But I would be bummed if this above stayed the top comment, as it seems to be agenda pushing in its own right.

Maybe these sorts of articles bring out the worst of HN.

just want to mention that flavors.me, stared by a former Vimeo employee, does the same thing as about.me, has been around longer, and has a better UX. I'm not getting paid, I just like the service and get annoyed when it's not acknowledged as an obvious competitior to about.me

It's difficult to believe that the language of the ToS communicates things they 'don't intend', Especially following this potential Twitter-acquisition / possible perjury situation.

Also, lets not forget that this is not a startup talking to us anymore--this is a Facebook-owned company. I would expect Facebook to take full advantage of their intentionally vague legal wording.

Although with that said, they don't need to stop the bleeding as much as shut up the major negative press about it, and this statement will probably do that.