Comments on: Design is about taking a stand – CS icons, MTV.com and more http://kuwamoto.org/2007/04/28/design-is-about-taking-a-stand-cs-icons-mtvcom-and-more/ music, technology, interfaces Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:22:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: CataSpirtierear http://kuwamoto.org/2007/04/28/design-is-about-taking-a-stand-cs-icons-mtvcom-and-more/comment-page-1/#comment-239105 CataSpirtierear Sun, 28 Dec 2008 00:41:27 +0000 http://kuwamoto.org/2007/04/28/design-is-about-taking-a-stand-cs-icons-mtvcom-and-more/#comment-239105 hello it is test. WinRAR provides the full RAR and ZIP file support, can decompress CAB, GZIP, ACE and other archive formats. oythhyqoorgjrkkkgwexdujxwuhdbdsakpthello hello it is test. WinRAR provides the full RAR and ZIP file support, can decompress CAB, GZIP, ACE and other archive formats.
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]]> By: sho http://kuwamoto.org/2007/04/28/design-is-about-taking-a-stand-cs-icons-mtvcom-and-more/comment-page-1/#comment-22220 sho Mon, 30 Apr 2007 16:19:18 +0000 http://kuwamoto.org/2007/04/28/design-is-about-taking-a-stand-cs-icons-mtvcom-and-more/#comment-22220 German - I can understand how Macromedia (and now Adobe) comes across as wanting UIs to be "glossy", but if you talk to our internal teams (the Flex team, the XD team, etc), I think you would be pleasantly surprised at how much we agree with your point here. Personally, I have been trying to get us to move away from using the word "rich" because it puts the emphasis on visual flair. Really great designs solve user problems in deep ways. IMHO, the purpose of an advanced UI framework like Flex is to give designers and developers the flexibility to solve UI problems in a deeper way than traditional UI toolkits can. Doug - Totally agree with performance being the #1 issue that the old MTV.com site had. However, I liked a lot of the innovative UI that they experimented with (contextual navigation bar at the top of the app, live filtering of searches, etc.) My only point here is that I wish that MTV had continued to iterate on the design to address the issues while still keeping true to the design spirit that they were going for. As far as "completely unusable", I think it's in the eye of the beholder. There are plenty of people who are now saying that the HTML site is hard to use compared with the Flash site, etc! German – I can understand how Macromedia (and now Adobe) comes across as wanting UIs to be “glossy”, but if you talk to our internal teams (the Flex team, the XD team, etc), I think you would be pleasantly surprised at how much we agree with your point here. Personally, I have been trying to get us to move away from using the word “rich” because it puts the emphasis on visual flair.

Really great designs solve user problems in deep ways. IMHO, the purpose of an advanced UI framework like Flex is to give designers and developers the flexibility to solve UI problems in a deeper way than traditional UI toolkits can.

Doug – Totally agree with performance being the #1 issue that the old MTV.com site had. However, I liked a lot of the innovative UI that they experimented with (contextual navigation bar at the top of the app, live filtering of searches, etc.) My only point here is that I wish that MTV had continued to iterate on the design to address the issues while still keeping true to the design spirit that they were going for.

As far as “completely unusable”, I think it’s in the eye of the beholder. There are plenty of people who are now saying that the HTML site is hard to use compared with the Flash site, etc!

]]> By: Doug http://kuwamoto.org/2007/04/28/design-is-about-taking-a-stand-cs-icons-mtvcom-and-more/comment-page-1/#comment-22158 Doug Mon, 30 Apr 2007 13:31:42 +0000 http://kuwamoto.org/2007/04/28/design-is-about-taking-a-stand-cs-icons-mtvcom-and-more/#comment-22158 The MTV.com site wasn't just slow to load - it pegged my CPU usage at 100% with the auto-playing video (which was mostly ads for their own programming) by opening one window. I didn't like the flash site in general, but they made some really poor decisions that made it completely unusable and a no-brainer to go back to something more simple, which happened to be HTML. (and I love the HTML site for its functionality over design). The MTV.com site wasn’t just slow to load – it pegged my CPU usage at 100% with the auto-playing video (which was mostly ads for their own programming) by opening one window. I didn’t like the flash site in general, but they made some really poor decisions that made it completely unusable and a no-brainer to go back to something more simple, which happened to be HTML. (and I love the HTML site for its functionality over design).

]]> By: German Bauer http://kuwamoto.org/2007/04/28/design-is-about-taking-a-stand-cs-icons-mtvcom-and-more/comment-page-1/#comment-22103 German Bauer Mon, 30 Apr 2007 04:13:56 +0000 http://kuwamoto.org/2007/04/28/design-is-about-taking-a-stand-cs-icons-mtvcom-and-more/#comment-22103 It seems to me, in the drive to "take a stand" and make designs as glossy and desirable as possible, Macromedia has often favored desirability over usability. The part where it says that design in every industry progresses from useful > usable > desirable does not mean that leave behind usability while racing towards desirability. That, to me, is why design is not art. In today's AAD driven world, desirability has the shelf life of a digg post if not thoroughly coupled with problem solving and usability. It seems to me, in the drive to “take a stand” and make designs as glossy and desirable as possible, Macromedia has often favored desirability over usability. The part where it says that design in every industry progresses from useful > usable > desirable does not mean that leave behind usability while racing towards desirability. That, to me, is why design is not art.

In today’s AAD driven world, desirability has the shelf life of a digg post if not thoroughly coupled with problem solving and usability.

]]> By: Brent Bonet http://kuwamoto.org/2007/04/28/design-is-about-taking-a-stand-cs-icons-mtvcom-and-more/comment-page-1/#comment-21910 Brent Bonet Sun, 29 Apr 2007 02:53:13 +0000 http://kuwamoto.org/2007/04/28/design-is-about-taking-a-stand-cs-icons-mtvcom-and-more/#comment-21910 Well it seems to me that what MTV had a problem with was the usability of its Flash site. If they just want to blame Flash, to me, if you have usability problems with Flash, you'll have it with HTML. Well it seems to me that what MTV had a problem with was the usability of its Flash site. If they just want to blame Flash, to me, if you have usability problems with Flash, you’ll have it with HTML.

]]> By: Michael http://kuwamoto.org/2007/04/28/design-is-about-taking-a-stand-cs-icons-mtvcom-and-more/comment-page-1/#comment-21899 Michael Sun, 29 Apr 2007 01:51:43 +0000 http://kuwamoto.org/2007/04/28/design-is-about-taking-a-stand-cs-icons-mtvcom-and-more/#comment-21899 Thanks - really interesting read! I often struggle between innovation and usability... and find that I can only ever be truly adventurous when designing/developing for myself (not that any of that is public, yet). Generally, innovation seems to exist in small iterations of previous methodologies - which is a little depressing until you realise that it's necessary by definition; if everything was new, then nothing would be. Thanks – really interesting read!

I often struggle between innovation and usability… and find that I can only ever be truly adventurous when designing/developing for myself (not that any of that is public, yet).

Generally, innovation seems to exist in small iterations of previous methodologies – which is a little depressing until you realise that it’s necessary by definition; if everything was new, then nothing would be.

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