I find it absolutely amazing that even after Apple has proven itself over and over and OVER again at being fantastic at what they do, there is doubt about this company being the ideal catalyst for “people being in love with their content.” I just don’t get it.
“Apple would prefer not to do this,” McQuivey continued. “But it just doesn’t have the leverage it once did. Apple can’t dictate terms or position itself as a digital savior.”
If you manage to make it to the bottom of the article, you’ll be rewarded with this gem: “By pioneering (the apps), Apple is stuck doing what’s right for consumers.”
“Old-school Usability espouses the idea that user activities are onerous tasks that they want to get out of the way as soon as possible. While this is true in some cases, usability is now widely understood to be more of a hygiene factor – something that can cause dissatisfaction if missing, but its presence cannot take you beyond lack of dissatisfaction.” - 90percentofeverything.com
The story about how Betty Crocker made their product more complicated in order to make it more interactive, and emotional. Really great stuff.
“Thankfully, you’re still small, and this leaves you with a huge advantage when it comes down to getting personal. Plus, in recent years, the tools have changed drastically. As a result, your size becomes a little like a superpower you didn’t even know you had. “ Eric Karjaluoto -From the ever growing ebook Speak Human.
I’ll probably never get to eat at El Bulli, the restaurant many times over recognized as best in the world. For one it’s in Spain, for the other it’s closing soon; maybe to open again unrecognizably different. But it’s an amazing story I want to keep following.
“If you were trying to optimize the economic model, you’d change tons of things about it. But the brand is all of those things. These things that seem wasteful are, in fact, the things that are creating the experience. When you make it efficient, you make it like every other restaurant.” -Harvard Magazine
I can’t love this story enough. Determination, coincidence, joy, and application. But best of all, -a willingness to chase personal perfection fearlessly off of any cliff that gets in the way.
“Many people do not believe that it takes a person 10 seconds to switch contexts; the time is measured between the final command executed in the previous context and the first command issued in the new context. The hiatus is not noticed because the minds of the users are occupied; they are not aware of the passage of time. However, this phenomenon should be used carefully when designing an interface. If the work flow is such that a user makes a particular context switch repeatedly, so that it becomes habitual, the user makes the switch in far less time. – Jef Raskin, The Humane Interface
We’re constantly listening to what people are saying about our apps. Whether it’s on Twitter or someone’s personal blog we listen and, when we feel we can help, we try to respond. Besides being a great way to gauge public opinion, these conversations have given us quite a few good ideas for new features and blog topics and, for our users, its a great way to let them know that someone on the other end is listening.
Since releasing Staction in January we’ve been seeing more and more mentions of it on Twitter and, like the proud parents we are, we’d like to share a few with you. It makes us especially happy that a few of the tweets from users sound like they’re having great success at simplifying their workflow with Staction.
