as a designer, i’ve always valued symmetry and balance. however, i came across the tesla model x site on my ipad and it made me rethink some tablet best practices.

when i first got to the page i immediately noticed the ugly gutter on the right hand side of the page. i assumed it was a development oversight and the site hadn’t been optimized for a tablet device. but as i scrolled down the page, i realized this gutter had a purpose. a few of the modules on the page were interactive, and as i interacted with the modules, my touch inputs affected the interaction of the module, not the scrolling of the page.

tesla had designed a scroll gutter!

in hindsight, it seems like a no-brainer. but, this is one of the first sites that i’ve come across that has some really smooth touch interactions, coupled with a scrolling solution.

as i design for more interactive sites, i’m definitely going to start using this obvious solution as a ux best practice for tablet devices.

videos are not photos.

i’m beginning to think that i’m in the minority of people who understand this concept. 

photos are easily consumed. they don’t require attention. they can be enjoyed anywhere, at anytime, without being disruptive. they can convey everything that they need to communicate within a single glance.

videos are not photos.

more and more i’m coming across video apps and video sites, video sharing and video streaming, video with filters, video, video, video. yes, videos are the natural evolution from photos, the imminent successor, but they serve two completely different purposes. everyone is having trouble understanding why instagram got 100 million users in 2 years, yet similar services for video are relatively unknown. no one likes airtime, viddy never went anywhere, facetime and google hangouts require too much attention to be used regularly, and videos are usually passed over when coupled with a stream of photos.

videos are not photos.

photos provide an insight. a different perspective on the day, a captured moment, a quick snapshot of another part of the world.

videos are a storytelling device. they demand engagement. they require a specific environment. they allow you to transport yourself somewhere else and immerse yourself in that place for a short period of time.

stop treating videos like photos. stop trying to give these two very different mediums comparable functions. try to understand the beautiful purpose that videos serve, and cater to that purpose.

what i’m currently listening to:

1. the lumineers - slow it down
2. daughter - the woods
3. james vincent mcmorrow - we don’t eat
4. kiersten holine - nomad
5. john mayer - something like olivia
6. charlene soraia - rowing
7. agnes obel - riverside
8. of monsters and men - dirty paws
9. the xx - angels

for the past few months, i’ve been complaining about email a lot.  

people don’t respect email.

it’s used for communication, tasks and assignments, updates, news, sharing, etc.

it’s been around for 20+ years and hasn’t changed. every inbox looks the same and there’s nothing that categorizes email based on their different use cases.

i’ve been throwing around ideas of tagging systems that would allow a user to assign a task to someone that’s cc’d on an email. it would include the ability to highlight text and give it a specific attribute. then, once those things were categorized, those snippets would be organized into different action areas. once the email was sent, it would remain in the recipient’s archive, but the action items that were intended for the recipient would be placed placed in their correlating sections of a mail app.

things tagged “task” and “parker” would then show up in my “tasks” area. things tagged “update” would then show up in an “updates” area and be threaded. things tagged “sharing” would then show up in a “shared” area and could be used as “read later”.

then, no need to respond to every email, just mark it completed, and just as it is no longer an action item for the recipient, the sender would be notified of the status. 

as i’ve been throwing these ideas around, i’ve come across a few people who have recognized the same problems, and i couldn’t be happier that there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

why am i writing this?

there are some huge issues with email, and it needs to change. there are people working hard to fix these issues. if we’re all aware of the problem, it will be easier to adopt a solution.

dotmailapp

mailboxapp

fluent

UPDATE: looks like AOL is getting in on the action, as well…

alto