At the moment, the big news is how the Hurricane Sandy has brought a record-breaking storm surge to New York City with numerous streets and tunnels flooded in Lower Manhattan till the Stock Exchange was forced to stop trading on Monday. Besides this news, Apple has just fired the long time veteran of iOS- Scott Forstall. He was responsible for overseeing the development of iOS, the software created to power the original iPhone. The success of iOS has catapulted Apple to the top of the mobile world.
Following is the summary from NYT:
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The biggest of the changes involved the departure of Scott Forstall, an Apple veteran who for several years ran software development for Apple’s iPad and iPhone products. Mr. Forstall was an important executive at the company and the one who, in many respects, seemed to most closely embody the technology vision of Steven P. Jobs, the former chief executive of Apple who died a year ago.
But Mr. Forstall was also known as ambitious and divisive, qualities that generated more friction within Apple after the death of Mr. Jobs, who had kept the dueling egos of his senior executives largely in check. Mr. Forstall’s responsibilities will be divided among a few other Apple executives.
While tensions between Mr. Forstall and other executives had been mounting for some time, a recent incident appeared to play a major role in his dismissal. After an outcry among iPhone customers about bugs in the company’s new mobile maps service, Mr. Forstall refused to sign a public apology over the matter, dismissing the problems as exaggerated, according to people with knowledge of the situation who declined to be named discussing confidential matters.
Instead, Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, in September signed the apology letter to Apple customers over maps.
Apple said in a news release on Monday that the management changes would “encourage even more collaboration” at the company. But people briefed on Apple’s moves, who declined to be identified talking about confidential decisions at the company, said Mr. Forstall and John Browett were fired...........................
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blah...blah....blah : see the complete report link: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/apples-mobile-software-and-retail-chiefs-to-depart/
What interests me from the news report is:
Mr. Forstall was a staunch believer in a type of user interface, skeuomorphic design, which tries to imitate artifacts and textures in real life. Most of Apple’s built-in applications for iOS use skeuomorphic design, including imitating thread of a leather binder in the Game Center application and a wooden bookshelf feel in the newsstand application.
What the hell is this skeuomorphic design? I was wondering and thus googled more on this term and this article from the Forbes gave me a fairly good insight into the real problem with iOS (according to this author):
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No, I’d never heard of it before either but it means something like archaisms in designs. And when it’s explained one can see what they mean with reference to that upcoming Windows 8 and iOS.
There is, at times of transition, a rather large value to such archaisms. Take the motor car for example: we still measure engine power in horsepower. Less so outside the US but it’s still common enough. When engine powered vehicles first started out it made some sort of sense to compare their output to something that people generally knew: the output of a horse. “8 hp” had a real connection for a farmer considering a tractor, or truck: he knew how much a horse could pull or plough and so the comparison made near instinctive sense to him.
Nowadays the closest most of us get to a horse is the Budweiser ads during the SuperBowl. Our being told that we’ve got 250 hp or 400 under the hood doesn’t really connect with anything therefore. It’s an archaism that made sense at one time but increasingly less as time goes on.
This is what designers are complaining/commenting about in iOS and comparing unfavourably with Windows 8. This skeuomorphism, this continued survival of what might have been useful archaisms but which, possibly, are becoming actually harmful rather than just charming reminders of the past.
One that’s mentioned is the idea that contact databases are based on the Rolodex idea or design. That may well have made sense twenty years ago, when most in the world of work were familiar with the physical world example. It’s quite possibly less so now when a goodly chunk of the labour force have never even seen one. And the perpetuation of this organisational form might be limiting innovation in more modern ones.
Others are more trivial, iCal’s faux-leather stitching (or is that faux-stitched leather?) just consumes graphics power rather than limits anything more important being done.
When one of the iconic designers of our time is complaining about such archaisms in design it might be a good time to sit up and take notice.
At heart the debate is about transition. One of the great phrases about design is that “form follows function”. And in the early years of a new method of doing something it can be helpful to mimic the forms of the previous ways of performing that function. But at some point perhaps the transition should occur and we should base the current form on the current, rather than archaic, methods of performing that function. This is what the designers are saying about Windows 8, that it’s making this transition in a manner that iOS isn’t.
Which I find a fascinating point for someone to make: that one of the great and famous designs of our times is in fact out of date.
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wow, the last statement is really eye-opening to me as Apple always boasts that iOS is the most advanced OS used in mobile smartphones!!
This also justified my reason of still hesitating to use iphone till now, not because of the hardware deisgn but simply the iOS. I find that email feature itself not user friendly and the other inflexibilities, compared to Android.
So understand what skeuomorphic design is? Here are the few of them which def familiar to the iOS users..
Which one you like more?
Following is the summary from NYT:
*******************************************************************************************
In Shake-Up, Apple’s Mobile Software and Retail Chiefs to Depart
Apple fired the executives in charge of the company’s mobile software efforts and retail stores, in a management shake-up aimed at making the company’s divisions work more harmoniously together.
The biggest of the changes involved the departure of Scott Forstall, an Apple veteran who for several years ran software development for Apple’s iPad and iPhone products. Mr. Forstall was an important executive at the company and the one who, in many respects, seemed to most closely embody the technology vision of Steven P. Jobs, the former chief executive of Apple who died a year ago.
But Mr. Forstall was also known as ambitious and divisive, qualities that generated more friction within Apple after the death of Mr. Jobs, who had kept the dueling egos of his senior executives largely in check. Mr. Forstall’s responsibilities will be divided among a few other Apple executives.
While tensions between Mr. Forstall and other executives had been mounting for some time, a recent incident appeared to play a major role in his dismissal. After an outcry among iPhone customers about bugs in the company’s new mobile maps service, Mr. Forstall refused to sign a public apology over the matter, dismissing the problems as exaggerated, according to people with knowledge of the situation who declined to be named discussing confidential matters.
Instead, Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, in September signed the apology letter to Apple customers over maps.
Apple said in a news release on Monday that the management changes would “encourage even more collaboration” at the company. But people briefed on Apple’s moves, who declined to be identified talking about confidential decisions at the company, said Mr. Forstall and John Browett were fired...........................
*******************************************************************************************
blah...blah....blah : see the complete report link: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/apples-mobile-software-and-retail-chiefs-to-depart/
What interests me from the news report is:
Mr. Forstall was a staunch believer in a type of user interface, skeuomorphic design, which tries to imitate artifacts and textures in real life. Most of Apple’s built-in applications for iOS use skeuomorphic design, including imitating thread of a leather binder in the Game Center application and a wooden bookshelf feel in the newsstand application.
What the hell is this skeuomorphic design? I was wondering and thus googled more on this term and this article from the Forbes gave me a fairly good insight into the real problem with iOS (according to this author):
*******************************************************************************************
The Real Problem With Apple: Skeuomorphism In iOS
Of course the big story today is going to be whatever it is that Apple announces we will all shortly be able to buy. But there’s also time to have a think about deeper structural issues rather than just concentrating on the latest generation of products. And there’s a number of designers who feel that Microsoft has got some important things right in Windows 8 in a manner that Apple has not in iOS. That little problem being skeuomorphism.No, I’d never heard of it before either but it means something like archaisms in designs. And when it’s explained one can see what they mean with reference to that upcoming Windows 8 and iOS.
There is, at times of transition, a rather large value to such archaisms. Take the motor car for example: we still measure engine power in horsepower. Less so outside the US but it’s still common enough. When engine powered vehicles first started out it made some sort of sense to compare their output to something that people generally knew: the output of a horse. “8 hp” had a real connection for a farmer considering a tractor, or truck: he knew how much a horse could pull or plough and so the comparison made near instinctive sense to him.
Nowadays the closest most of us get to a horse is the Budweiser ads during the SuperBowl. Our being told that we’ve got 250 hp or 400 under the hood doesn’t really connect with anything therefore. It’s an archaism that made sense at one time but increasingly less as time goes on.
This is what designers are complaining/commenting about in iOS and comparing unfavourably with Windows 8. This skeuomorphism, this continued survival of what might have been useful archaisms but which, possibly, are becoming actually harmful rather than just charming reminders of the past.
One that’s mentioned is the idea that contact databases are based on the Rolodex idea or design. That may well have made sense twenty years ago, when most in the world of work were familiar with the physical world example. It’s quite possibly less so now when a goodly chunk of the labour force have never even seen one. And the perpetuation of this organisational form might be limiting innovation in more modern ones.
Others are more trivial, iCal’s faux-leather stitching (or is that faux-stitched leather?) just consumes graphics power rather than limits anything more important being done.
When one of the iconic designers of our time is complaining about such archaisms in design it might be a good time to sit up and take notice.
At heart the debate is about transition. One of the great phrases about design is that “form follows function”. And in the early years of a new method of doing something it can be helpful to mimic the forms of the previous ways of performing that function. But at some point perhaps the transition should occur and we should base the current form on the current, rather than archaic, methods of performing that function. This is what the designers are saying about Windows 8, that it’s making this transition in a manner that iOS isn’t.
Which I find a fascinating point for someone to make: that one of the great and famous designs of our times is in fact out of date.
*******************************************************************************************
wow, the last statement is really eye-opening to me as Apple always boasts that iOS is the most advanced OS used in mobile smartphones!!
This also justified my reason of still hesitating to use iphone till now, not because of the hardware deisgn but simply the iOS. I find that email feature itself not user friendly and the other inflexibilities, compared to Android.
So understand what skeuomorphic design is? Here are the few of them which def familiar to the iOS users..
Compared to Win8 design:
Which one you like more?
LohZhong finds skeuomorphic design is actually ok,just that despise the inflexibilities in many functions of iOS especially the inflexible attachment functionality in email, for example.
