Comments on: On the design of Skimmer & what agency clients are clamoring for http://blog.nerdery.com/2009/04/on-the-design-of-skimmer-what-agency-clients-are-clamoring-for/ Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:40:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: JimAkin http://blog.nerdery.com/2009/04/on-the-design-of-skimmer-what-agency-clients-are-clamoring-for/comment-page-1/#comment-1301 JimAkin Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:52:30 +0000 http://blog.nerdery.com/?p=1157#comment-1301 Congratulations on the accolades, and kudos for willingness to take a personal, even idiosyncratic approach to app/UI design. Doing so sometimes results in confusion (the wacky controls in Kai Krause's 1990s-era Photoshop plug-ins/add-ons come to mind). But no one does more usability testing than Microsoft, and many features of Office apps (for instance) remain unwieldy and impenetrable. I think the rise of AIR, the App Store, and other platforms allow quick development of programs with overlapping features and functionality will encourage designers and developers to seek first to "please themselves," as all successful artists must do, rather than trying to be all things to all users -- and that the quality stuff will prevail, and interface standards will evolve accordingly. Congratulations on the accolades, and kudos for willingness to take a personal, even idiosyncratic approach to app/UI design. Doing so sometimes results in confusion (the wacky controls in Kai Krause’s 1990s-era Photoshop plug-ins/add-ons come to mind). But no one does more usability testing than Microsoft, and many features of Office apps (for instance) remain unwieldy and impenetrable.

I think the rise of AIR, the App Store, and other platforms allow quick development of programs with overlapping features and functionality will encourage designers and developers to seek first to “please themselves,” as all successful artists must do, rather than trying to be all things to all users — and that the quality stuff will prevail, and interface standards will evolve accordingly.

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