Comments on: Messin’ with the iPhone http://www.spiritedthought.com/2008/02/10/messin%e2%80%99-with-the-iphone/ Getting my head around my mind Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:21:53 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Brian Goodman http://www.spiritedthought.com/2008/02/10/messin%e2%80%99-with-the-iphone/#comment-3254 Brian Goodman Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:19:13 +0000 http://www.spiritedthought.com/2008/02/10/messin%e2%80%99-with-the-iphone/#comment-3254 High data density does not necessarily translate to esthetically pleasing. It is an art all of its own. When I hear Tufte say, “don’t throw out the data, fix the design” my focus is on the second part – fixing design. The reduction of information lives on the other side of the data density coin and all too often people live comfortably in a terse landscape. Revolutionary is the web browsing experience on the iPhone. The interaction of naturally viewing the expected page, while affording zooming for more detail brings real web browsing to the modern device. Other mobile browsing experiences have not accomplished this challenge. The focus for the longest time was creating mobile device views of traditional data and in so doing, mobile experiences have offered a primitive view of web, making SMS more usable. Apple solved a considerable amount of the design problem. I give Tufte the benefit of the doubt, that he used poor prototypes to make his points. No one needs high precision stock figures, if you do, you have to why are you relying on the iPhone to provide them. I would argue Tufte did not show us how he would implement his thoughts and the methods by which he demonstrated were challenged, hence my post. Tufte didn’t design anything, he offered his usual rules. As with anything, they are made to be broken, but thoughtfully considered. All this to say that I agree with you, the iPhone aught not become a Tufte landscape, but application developers, user experience professionals and information architects need to push harder to not simply fix design, but evolve the current state of the art, considering a variety of thinkers, Tufte but one. High data density does not necessarily translate to esthetically pleasing. It is an art all of its own. When I hear Tufte say, “don’t throw out the data, fix the design” my focus is on the second part – fixing design. The reduction of information lives on the other side of the data density coin and all too often people live comfortably in a terse landscape. Revolutionary is the web browsing experience on the iPhone. The interaction of naturally viewing the expected page, while affording zooming for more detail brings real web browsing to the modern device. Other mobile browsing experiences have not accomplished this challenge. The focus for the longest time was creating mobile device views of traditional data and in so doing, mobile experiences have offered a primitive view of web, making SMS more usable. Apple solved a considerable amount of the design problem.

I give Tufte the benefit of the doubt, that he used poor prototypes to make his points. No one needs high precision stock figures, if you do, you have to why are you relying on the iPhone to provide them. I would argue Tufte did not show us how he would implement his thoughts and the methods by which he demonstrated were challenged, hence my post.

Tufte didn’t design anything, he offered his usual rules. As with anything, they are made to be broken, but thoughtfully considered. All this to say that I agree with you, the iPhone aught not become a Tufte landscape, but application developers, user experience professionals and information architects need to push harder to not simply fix design, but evolve the current state of the art, considering a variety of thinkers, Tufte but one.

]]> By: Christopher Fahey http://www.spiritedthought.com/2008/02/10/messin%e2%80%99-with-the-iphone/#comment-3230 Christopher Fahey Mon, 11 Feb 2008 01:57:01 +0000 http://www.spiritedthought.com/2008/02/10/messin%e2%80%99-with-the-iphone/#comment-3230 I disagree with Tufte's last premise, "If the information is in chaos don’t start throwing out information, instead fix the design." He doesn't seem to be able to consider the possibility that there are situation in which more information is a bad idea. He has long been fighting a war to prevent the unintended loss or obfuscation of critical information in graphic design, a war for which I and thousands of other have long admired him. But there are many contexts in which the appropriate and necessary quantity of information is, in fact, quite small. Most iPhone usage contexts are of this sort. The debate has nothing whatsoever to do with the jelly bean/cartoonish appearance of the design and everything to do with ease of use. Tufte's solution is, in fact, not as easy to use as the iPhone's design for those users who only need to know the most essential information about their stocks and the weather. For those extremely few users who need to know those things in great detail, Tufte's apps may be useful. I suspect, however, that he has reached a point of fetishizing the elegant display of large amounts of information at the expense of considering the context of usage of said information. I also suspect his critique is inspired by his particular design tastes. I disagree with Tufte’s last premise, “If the information is in chaos don’t start throwing out information, instead fix the design.” He doesn’t seem to be able to consider the possibility that there are situation in which more information is a bad idea. He has long been fighting a war to prevent the unintended loss or obfuscation of critical information in graphic design, a war for which I and thousands of other have long admired him. But there are many contexts in which the appropriate and necessary quantity of information is, in fact, quite small. Most iPhone usage contexts are of this sort.

The debate has nothing whatsoever to do with the jelly bean/cartoonish appearance of the design and everything to do with ease of use. Tufte’s solution is, in fact, not as easy to use as the iPhone’s design for those users who only need to know the most essential information about their stocks and the weather. For those extremely few users who need to know those things in great detail, Tufte’s apps may be useful. I suspect, however, that he has reached a point of fetishizing the elegant display of large amounts of information at the expense of considering the context of usage of said information. I also suspect his critique is inspired by his particular design tastes.

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