"People know more about their iPhone than they do their own health," points out Travis Bogard, Jawbone's VP of product development. "So how do we make them consumers of their own wellness?" Today Jawbone is finally unwrapping their ...READ»
Surveillance equipment is supposed to cut costs, but if it stalls in rough terrain or breaks, it can actually add to them. That’s a design problem.
In Sweden, a mobile surveillance robot originally designed to explore other ...READ»
"Weather is very visual," says Scott Jensen, VP of digital and mobile apps at the Weather Channel. It's why we look out the window to decide whether to wear a T-shirt or bring an umbrella. Blue skies or gray clouds are likely are the ...READ»
In the century and a half since it was invented, has the basic user experience of consumer photography changed all that much? Cameras have gotten smaller, more rugged, more sensitive, sharper and smarter. But you still basically hold ...READ»
The surprise star at Facebook's f8 conference was Nicholas Felton, whom Facebook's head product developer credited with inspiring the layout of the revamped Facebook. How'd that happen?!READ»
In all the coverage of Facebook and its dominance, one group is seldom talked about: The 64-member design staff, which is busy honing interactions that affect hundreds of millions of people.READ»
You're on iTunes downloading something. For the purposes of this article, let's just say it's the new Fast Company United States of Design iPad app (It's free!). You navigate the simple interface, click the well-designed icons, and ...READ»
Pop Chart Lab, one of our favorite creators of infographics, has done it again: a poster which every gamer should get RIGHT THIS SECOND. Having already tracked everything from wrestler names to beer, they've created what is surely the ...READ»
It sounds like a character in a Ridley Scott film: A robot that's so smart, so efficient, it only works when people are there to monitor its performance. A robot that's so creative, so conniving, it actually preys upon human attention ...READ»
When you're a company with an encyclopedic list of achievements that includes everything from the transistor radio to the telephone, your employees can't possibly be asked to remember every single innovation detail from your storied ...READ»
The Google-powered precision of the Maps app for iPhone and iPad is so ubiquitous that it's hard to think of digital maps looking any other way. But Apple, preternatural innovator (and now-enemy of Google) that it is, may change that ...READ»
The long-fought battle for the remote control hasn’t gone away; it’s just gotten more complicated. With most TV hookups requiring a receiver or DVD player, the power-grabbing command “Just hand me the remote” can now be ...READ»
We hear a lot of design manifestos around here. But Bret Victor's stuck out: He wants to kill math. He's no Luddite, though -- he thinks mathematics is one of the most powerful, transcendent ways humans have for understanding and ...READ»
Over the July 4th holiday weekend, with patriotism and fireworks in the air, some colleagues and I began discussing the concept of American Design -- that is, the design characteristics and elements that are distinctly and ...READ»
Over the past week, both Microsoft and Apple previewed their new desktop operating systems. Both explicitly pull their interactions from their respective smartphone user interfaces. Here’s Microsoft’s Windows 8:
[youtube ...READ»
Great user-interface design doesn't kill complexity, it clarifies it. But even so, there's a fine line between empowering users and infantilizing them. Last week, Bloom's president railed against "the urge to make everything into one ...READ»
Henri Cartier-Bresson, god of street photography, would have loved the iPhone camera. But he might have been frustrated with its ergonomics -- how are you supposed to capture "the decisive moment" quickly, spontaneously, and artfully ...READ»
Let’s call 2011 the year of the tablet. In the last several months, virtually every major electronics manufacturer has introduced a hopeful competitor to Apple’s iPad, and the aisles at January’s International Consumer ...READ»
Design literacy: it's not just for designers. In fact, us "normals" are sometimes more design-literate than the pros, because we can instantly tell when something is annoying as hell to use. David Cole inspired me to try an occasional ...READ»