Tag: design

How the Millennium Falcon decided the height of every Star Wars figure

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Ewan Spence

The Logbook looks at the design issues Kenner faced with the first Star Wars toys: Kenner’s designers had to come up with the Falcon first for a very simple reason: the scale of the vehicle would determine the scale of the figures. Prior to Star Wars, it was generally accepted that action character toys aimed for boys were along the lines of the foot-tall G.I. Joe toys. Obviously, a Millennium Falcon scaled for that kind of figure would have been less an action vehicle and more of a piece of furniture. With a certain price point in mind for the

Ubuntu Mobile is fracturing design to create a sense of community inclusion

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Ewan Spence

I’m not sure how much I agree with Ubuntu’s idea to outsource the wireframes of the core Ubuntu Mobile apps to the community, and then have the selected designs used to guide the actual applications. Those that are falling under this remit are YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, RSS Reader, File Manager, Calendar, Clock/Alarm, Weather, Calculator, E-Mail Client, Document Viewer, and the Terminal app. (Seriously you need to design terminal? It’s a black screen, a blinking line, and its meant to be scary!) Mu issue is this. Any operating system that works has a consistency of vision over all the applications. Not just the first party apps, but the third-party apps as well. The

The language of powerpoint design for non-designers

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Ewan Spence

How to design powerpoints, linked here partly because it’s cool, but also so I can find the link again in a few years time! Key points? I’m certainly not a designer, but it’s really remarkable how little design you need to put yourself far ahead of most talks. Huge text. Consistent colors. Less words. Worry about those, and it will already put you far ahead of the pack.

Tim Cook is the unique part of Apple, not Steve Jobs

Posted on September 10, 2011 by Ewan Spence

It’s the Jobs side of the equation that Apple’s rivals — phone, tablet, laptop, whatever — are able to copy. Thus the patents and the lawsuits. Design is copyable. But the Cook side of things — Apple’s economy of scale advantage — cannot be copied by any company with a complex product lineup. How could Dell, for example, possibly copy Apple’s operations when they currently classify “Design & Performance” and “Thin & Powerful” as separate laptop categories John Gruber nails it.

Rafe looks at Symbian Belle and Nokia’s newest UI

Posted on July 12, 2011July 11, 2011 by Ewan Spence

…or at least the design specifications. Can’t help thinking that if this had arrived with the 5800, or at the very least on the N8, the reception from the geekerati might have been a little different.

Tom Hume on building apps or using HTML5 for mobile

Posted on July 7, 2011July 7, 2011 by Ewan Spence

If you try to build a native app with HTML5 and friends, you’re using a stack of web technologies (OS, browser, JavaScript library, your app) to emulate the thing at the bottom of that stack. Performance will suffer; you’re at the mercy of this intermediate layer. It won’t feel "right". You’ll likely end up fixing or working around platform-specific oddities anyway. Lots of practical experience here, this is one article that is well worth reading and remembering.