Lisa Frank. Dayglo Barbie. Rainbow unicorn. Fisher Price. A mess, trouble, confusing. Marketing department. What are, “words used to describe the iOS 7 redesign,” Alex? Now that the Apple keynote beer goggles have worn off, the polarizing makeover of Apple’s iOS 7 operating system is starting to sink in. Surely, this is not it? This is not done, right? → Read More
Among his last advice he had for me, and for all of you, was to never ask what he would do. “Just do what’s right.”
That’s what Tim Cook told the audience of Apple employees at the memorial for Steve Jobs, following his passing in 2011. Now, nearly two years later, we’re starting to see that plan being executed. → Read More
As we noted a few weeks ago, Twitter introduced charts for its #Music product. The company’s intentions for the service aren’t known, and it seems like they’re taking somewhat of a public beta approach with it. Having said that, before the service launched, I noted that it could be the next “Top 40″ phenomenon. → Read More
Apple’s dedicated app for its Worldwide Developers Conference arrived today, and it offers a look at some of the sessions happening during the event next week, but it also shows off a dramatically different UI compared to past iterations of the app. The changes sound a lot like what’s said to be on tap for a visual refresh in iOS 7. It also might be a good early indication of what Apple will be… → Read More
Blekko, the alternative search engine that launched back in 2010, unveiled a major redesign today that uses some of its “slashtag” technology to help users go beyond the usual ten blue links on its competitors search results pages. Blekko now automatically breaks its results down into different categories of curated content. Say you are searching for “wine,” the search… → Read More
So iOS 7, it seems, is going to do away with much of the skeuomorphic design that has crept into the operating system and its utilities. Jony Ive, rumor has it, has done away with all the textures and real-world analogs in iOS 7 and has switched to a flat design instead. Good for him, but if that’s all that is new in iOS 7, Apple has a real problem. It’s not the design of iOS, but rather the fact… → Read More
While Pinterest is still rolling out its brand new look to users, it decided to listen to some feedback along the way and make some tweaks. Since the site relies heavily, or completely, on its users pinning things to boards like crazy, some features that were dropped from the new design were re-added due to popular demand. One of the features that caused the community to clammer the most was… → Read More
Editor’s Note: David Lieb is co-founder and CEO of Bump, creators of the popular app that lets people share contact information, photos, and other content by bumping their phones together. Bump has been downloaded more than 130 million times.
It’s been hard to ignore the massive shift in the last decade toward simple products. The minimalist design aesthetic… → Read More
For a service that provides file hosting, there are only so many ways to make it appealing to as many users as possible. There are integrations with other apps, seamless desktop and mobile experiences and, well, design. Dropbox has been the leader in that arena, providing an extremely clean and simple interface for its users. Its light blue and white design is a signature of the company, and… → Read More
The Jambox (or its many equivalents) is fine, but I much prefer the experience of visiting second-hand shops around the city in hopes of finding a tower speaker relic that smells musty but still has a richness of sound and vintage appeal. Now a new Kickstarter project wants to help make sure proper speakers (the kind with removable cloth covers built strictly for sound first and style second) can… → Read More
Apple’s hardware design chief is now collaborating more closely with software and interface design staff, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal. Apple’s mobile software team now gets peeks at hardware prototypes sooner than before, the report claims, and Ive is pushing for a “flat design” in future versions of iOS. → Read More
Canva, a stealthy Sydney-based startup building an online design platform, is today announcing having raised $3 million in seed funding from Matrix Partners, InterWest Partners, 500 Startups, and angels including Google Maps founder Lars Rassmusen, Bill Tai (Charles River Ventures), and Ken Goldman (CFO of Yahoo). According to Canva CEO Melanie Perkins, the startup is approaching collaborative… → Read More
Do you enjoy checking email? Probably not, since the word “checking” is something that sounds like work. Whenever you have to continually go back to a place to see if anything new is there, it starts taking a toll on you. Checking things is boring. I spent some time at Facebook last week to learn more about the changes that the company is rolling out for News Feed across all platforms. → Read More
Google just announced that it is rolling out a new design for its Gmail mobile web app for Android, iOS, Blackberry and Kindle Fire. The new design looks very similar to Gmail’s recently relaunched iOS apps, with a generous amount of whitespace and larger fonts and icons. The web app now also features Gmail for iOS’s improved search tool and calendar integration. This means the mobile… → Read More
Today, Facebook vice president of product Chris Cox discussed Facebook’s newfound focus on design consistency, something the company calls “mobile-inspired.” Today, with its news feed and Photos redesign, you’ll notice consistency no matter what device you’re on. This hasn’t always been the case for Facebook. The idea of “desktop only” design seems… → Read More
Pearltrees, the Paris-based curation and discovery service, just launched a new version of its web and mobile apps. The update introduces a visual refresh with full-screen images that now automatically appear as backgrounds for all of your pearltrees – the mind map-like tree structures that you use for organizing your collections on the site. While the service previously featured a very… → Read More
Although there are a ton of DIY app builders out there, the majority of them are either designed for those with a little bit of coding know-how, or involve drag-and-drop components which are used to create a basic app or mobile website. A new startup called AppGyver (rhymes with MacGyver!) is different. It’s a mobile app prototyper, not an app builder, and it’s aimed at those who need to rapidly… → Read More
Framebench is a newly launched platform for creative collaboration, specifically aimed at those working in digital agencies and other creative design firms. There are a number of tools already available serving this industry (here’s a big list, for example), but Framebench’s focus on real-time communication, collaboration and sync gives it an edge. → Read More
A new report from German researchers reveals the five main ways people are organizing the applications on their smartphones. Despite the somewhat esoteric focus of a study like this, the resulting analysis has a broader impact on our digital lives. The content found in mobile app stores is growing at an exponential rate. There are over 800,000 iOS applications, just under that on Android, and app… → Read More
As your Internet use has evolved, Google has evolved with you. And for you. Its ability to make the right decisions about what to work on and at what time is a testament to the leadership at the company. The latest wave in its evolution comes from Sergey Brin and its new CEO Larry Page, the people who started Google back in 1998. If you’ve thought that all of Google’s products looked… → Read More
Most developers are famously not great designers, but some of the best products come from teams where developers know a bit about design and the designers know a bit about what the developers do. Hack Design wants to get developers up to speed with the basics of design by sending to developers a fresh and easy-to-follow lesson about design. There is clearly a need for this kind of project and… → Read More
Biegert & Funk has made a name for itself thanks to its iconic clock design that tells time the way we tend to convey it to one another in conversation – with written words in five-minute increments, spelling out “half past twelve” or “a quarter to five.” After creating a number of wall and desk clocks with this design, the firm made a lot of people’s wishes… → Read More
FontBook, the somewhat epic reference source for typography fans everywhere, today announced a new version of its iOS app that brings the guide to the iPhone for the first time ever. Previously, FontBook was iPad-only, after its release in 2011. FontBook 3.0 also introduces list views, user-changeable font sample text and search filters, among other new features. → Read More
Houzz is one of those quiet success stories that have the potential to completely change their niches. At its core, the service lets you browse beautiful pictures of home remodeling projects that are organized by metro area and style. If you ever needed some inspiration for your own remodeling project or if you felt like you are due for of a bout of house envy, look no further than the almost 1… → Read More
Bing‘s social sidebar, which displays relevant results from friends and experts on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare, is one of the defining features of Microsoft’s search engine. Today, Microsoft is giving the social sidebar a bit of a facelift by removing the dark gray background and making the overall design more streamlined and less cluttered. → Read More
![Gmail finally beats Hotmail, according to third-party data [chart] — Tech News and Analysis-1](http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/gmail-finally-beats-hotmail-according-to-third-party-data-chart-e28094-tech-news-and-analysis-1.jpg?w=250)
Oh, Yahoo! Mail. It’s one of those products that many of us used at one point, and it either stuck or didn’t. For a lot of users it did stick, as it is currently the No. 3 mail product on the web, behind Microsoft and Google’s products, of course.
Today, the company announced a redesign across all platforms: iOS, Android, Windows Phone and web. Internally, the company called it the “Cuatro”… → Read More
I’m a big fan of conceptual designs. Basically, designers who love to look at things and want to make them prettier will mock up what they think a product should be. One of the hottest properties in the world is Instagram, and it’s a very visually appealing app. One designer decided that he’d like to see it take a giant leap forward, so he put together a concept treatment. → Read More
Things change everywhere, especially at startups. Sometimes, the people who start something aren’t the ones who end up “finishing” it, and that’s the case today with one very important person at Twitter. In a tweet, Twitter’s first designer, Vítor Lourenço, announced that he’s leaving the company after five years. → Read More
You might be familiar with “sweding,” the concept spawned by 2008 Michel Gondry film Be Kind Rewind that involves making low-budget remakes of your favorite movies with friends. That’s a little like what Honest&Smile are doing with the creation of so-called “analog apps.” The group’s latest project is a partnership with Moleskine for a hardware photo filter and effects iPhone add-on. → Read More
It costs $1,200 to clear a single landmine. But Afghan designer Massoud Hassani has created a device that costs just $50 and can clear two or three mines in a single trip. In the video above, you can see how his elegant design was inspired by a childhood spent navigating minefields in Afghanistan, and how a simple child’s toy acted as the catalyst for an invention that could change the world. → Read More
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