GET OFF THE DRAWING BOARD

Is Skeumorphism dead?

by sravan ankaraju on December 2, 2012

What is Skeumorphism? Derived from the Greek words Skeuos, meaning vessel or tool, and morph, meaning shape, a skeuomorph is, according to the Oxford Dictionary, a “derivative object that retains ornamental design cues to a structure that was necessary in the original.” The term can apply to either a physical or digital creation.

Nicholas Gessler writes in “Skeuomorphs and Cultural Algorithms”, that it means to replicate the form and material qualities of something that are no longer inherently necessary, all with the objective of making new designs “look comfortably old and familiar”

When applied to User Interface (UI), the logic here is that it will make the interface more intuitive and usable, as the user will understand how it functions based on their knowledge of the analog object it is replicating. In cloud-centric connected future, we not only care about the “human interface” and the “industrial design” but that all of those pieces have to work seamlessly with the guts and nerves of digital devices — chips and the networking technologies. Looking ahead, as interactions move beyond the screen into thin air, and both input and output will increasingly use voice, there is an opportunity to design interactions for what comes next in computing. Mashed Services and Business Models enabled by Next Generation Operating Systems and Software (NGOSS) will mean new “control point” services like search or commerce. Wearables category will need great design to go mainstream.

The question is – Do we really need to drop Skeumorphism to get breakthroughs? Or will skeumorphism morph into something else?

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Black Swan & Anti-Fragile

by sravan ankaraju on December 2, 2012

in Execution

I read the first positive review by Aaron C. Brown that came up on Amazon for Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s new book Anti-fragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, and captured few points not just about the new book but how this book builds on Taleb’s popular book The Black Swan. Just as others probably do when browsing on the net, you go from one review to other or one blog post to another, until you believe you have quality and quantity of information that is consumable now, or bookmark them for possible use for tomorrow. My son shared this with me earlier today that he likes to connect his life events to something happening in the world – connect the dots and make it more story like – his blog posts are here. And I like to connect too to stitch a good story – but it is little more effort than it for him I think. But the outcome is the same – connect the dots to weave a story – that helps us move along the journey to future – everybody’s appetite to consume & relate stories is different.

Most people don’t really think much about how they learn. Generally you assume learning comes naturally. You listen to someone speak either in conversation or in a lecture and you simply absorb what they are saying, right? Not really. In fact, I find as I get older that real learning takes more work. It takes time for me to stitch because I belabor the implications of putting my thoughts in public forum. The more I fill my brain with facts, figures, and experience, the less room I have for new ideas and new thoughts. Plus, now I have all sorts of opinions that may refute the ideas being pushed at me. Like many people I consider myself a lifelong learner, but more and more I have to work hard to stay open minded. Black swan, Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, Anti-fragile are the kind of books I have to read to get new ideas, test my assumptions in the changing world where new ideas pop up every day; and incorporating them into life & business keeps me engaged and relevant.

Reading to Learn is the method I use to stay open and impressionable. Now coming back to Black Swan & Anti-Fragile.. As I started reviewing the blogs & review of Black Swan & Anti-Fragile – I noted the following -

“Black swan advice is about avoiding predictable disaster caused by unpredictable events, and keeping yourself open to positive outcomes from improbable events.

Anti-fragile complements The Black Swan by celebrating systems that gain from disorder, trading away short-term predictability and micro-rationality for long-term success exploiting macro-unpredictability. It’s a bold attitude, amply supported by argument and example from many fields. ….. On one level, the universe (at least as perceived by humans) is ruled by disorder, but on another level, the crucial elements are those that gain from disorder as eventually these are fitter for survival than any element, however strong, that requires order.”

David Aldous review of The Black Swan is here. Taleb’s summary (also captured in David’s review) of themes related to Black Swans:

We focus on preselected segments of the seen and generalize from it to the unseen: the error of confirmation.
We fool ourselves with stories that cater to our Platonic thirst for distinct patterns: the narrative fallacy.
We behave as if the Black Swan does not exist; human nature is not programmed for Black Swans.
What we see is not necessarily all that is there. History hides Black Swans from us [if they didn't happen] and gives a mistaken idea about the odds of these events: this is the distortion of silent evidence.
We "tunnel": that is, we focus on a few well-defined sources of uncertainty, on too specific a list of Black Swans (at the expense of others that do not come so readily to mind).

How do you learn to stay open, engaged & relevant? Do you get drawn to the error of confirmation, and the narrative fallacy? How do you mine and use the silent evidence?

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Less is not necessarily More

by sravan ankaraju on November 3, 2012

in Execution

I found interesting list of ten things on Milton Glaser’s web site. I got there accidentally as I was reading about Simplicity of Innovations, Skeumorphism, and Modern Design. Less is not more is one of the ten things that Milton has learnt over his life time. You can read the rest here.

“Being a child of modernism i have heard this mantra all my life. Less is more. One morning upon awakening i realized that it was total nonsense, it is an absurd proposition and also fairly meaningless. But it sounds great because it contains within it a paradox that is resistant to understanding. But it simply does not obtain when you think about the visual of the history of the world. if you look at a Persian rug, you cannot say that less is more because you realize that every part of that rug, every change of color, every shift in form is absolutely essential for its aesthetic success. You cannot prove to me that a solid blue rug is in any way superior. That also goes for the work of Gaudi, Persian miniatures, art nouveau and everything else. however, I have an alternative to the proposition that I believe is more appropriate. ‘Just enough is more.’ “

Depending on the context, I agree that there is a paradox, and whether it is usability design, process design, or software architecture – ‘Just enough is more’ is more appropriate proposition. I shared this in the past that doing less gives an impression that we are simplifying. In fact, making something “simpler” or “just enough” is often a case of relocating complexity, rather than eliminating it.

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