Eli Schiff

Oklahoma rebrands as a gas station that's going to the Olympics. If you haven't read Eli Schiff's great post on logo design, "You Could Almost Do Anything", you should: http://www.elischiff.com/blog/2016/4/12/do-almost-anything

By blue, you mean black people? It turns out blue may not be the best neutral solution, as blue stood for black characters like Skeeter in the TV show Doug. - http://www.elischiff.com/blog/2016/5/10/racemoji

See Eli Schiff's excellent blog-post "Fear of Apple" (http://www.elischiff.com/blog/2015/3/24/fear-of-apple)

> the modern 'hamburger' menu, absence of menu bar, unnecessarily dynamic UI elements, hidden swipeable menus, etc all serve their role as annoyances These issues you pointed out are fads, trends, and attempts to appeal to the modern design hive mind. They are not "design". They too will die and new fads will emerge. What stays constant throughout is quality aesthetics, a devotion to user centric study, homage to form, and an unrelenting passion for standing out. > I think many designers are in their own world, and more often than not design interfaces that harm usability when they go about "disrupting" things... This is a very strange statement. Are you insinuating that most designers harm usability with their attempt to make it better? So basically all designers are failing? I would be inclined to disagree, although the current state of design is in great peril [1](I will give you that). > It seems like they're trying to merge aesthetic with functional Aesthetics are vitally important to the functionality of a product. I've voiced my opinions on functionality vs. aesthetics many times and it's often the case that people view them as two entirely separate entities to focus on and study. They are not. A poorly designed product is a poorly designed product is a poorly designed product. 1. http://www.elischiff.com/blog/2015/4/7/fall-of-the-designer-part-i-fas…

The guidelines have since been updated. https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/has-apple-been-plain-creepy-by-warning-app-d… http://www.elischiff.com/blog/2015/3/24/fear-of-apple

Links to part 1 and 2: http://www.elischiff.com/blog/2016/4/12/do-almost-anything http://www.elischiff.com/blog/2016/4/20/do-almost-anything-ii

This series should be a good primer: http://www.elischiff.com/blog/2015/4/7/fall-of-the-designer-part-i-fas…

For reference, Eli's 4-part series of blog posts (where those images are from) starts here: http://www.elischiff.com/blog/2015/4/7/fall-of-the-designer-part-i-fas… Each part links to the next at the bottom.

Haha reminds me of the article from the other week: http://www.elischiff.com/blog/2015/3/24/fear-of-apple

Some [1] report that Apple pressures app developers into doing iOS-first releases. [1] http://www.elischiff.com/blog/2015/3/24/fear-of-apple (search for "Pocket Casts" in the article to find the relevant paragraph.)

Eli Schiff wrote a good review of TLJ a while back that similarly describes the dead emptiness/meaninglessness of Star Wars nowadays: >The sequels, and in particular, Rian Johnson's latest episode, have now fully deconstructed the Star Wars universe, and shown the characters and their motivations to be vacuous. The only character remaining who really grasped the depravity of the situation is Kylo Ren. Now that there is no hope for heroes (even the Resistance doesn't believe in those anymore—after all, heroism reinforces a hierarchy that must die), we await the climactic explosion of an end to this universe that it deserves. >More likely though, given that we're dealing with Disney, we probably won't get anything of the sort. And for that reason I now realize why fans of all stripes didn't like The Last Jedi. What they saw in the mirror was so horrifically disfigured and alienating that it couldn't be confronted. For though history is far from over, with everyone either too smart to continue living, or too stupid to die, it may be there's no one left with the will to make history anew. http://www.elischiff.com/blog/2017/12/27/star-wars-death-drive

My headphones are out of juice so you have settle for this summary: > Coincidentally, Russell Ivanovic is a case in point for what could happen if you defy Apple and launch on Android first. Ivanovic had initially been very lucky to have been assigned an Apple Developer Relations representative who gave him exclusive promotional opportunities. Few developers get assigned these representatives. Among the benefits Ivanovic received was the privilege to have Shifty Jelly's apps preloaded on iPads in Apple stores in Australia, a major marketing boost. > Things went south In 2012, when Ivanovic launched a new version of the Pocket Casts app on the Android Play Store first, rather than Apple's App Store. The launch was a real success, and he publicly shared the good news. Before he knew it, his Apple Developer Relations representative stopped all contact. The representative would not even answer his emails. Ivanovic had been completely shut out. Source: http://www.elischiff.com/blog/2015/3/24/fear-of-apple

You only say that because Apple didn’t update the look of its skeumorphic icons. And because you are so used to the white backgrounds that shine in your face: Go here and tell me which screenshot looks better: http://static1.squarespace.com/static/54bb4cfce4b045585ada36f7/t/55237… The answer is obvious. Now go here and tell me which row looks better: http://www.elischiff.com/blog/2015/4/7/fall-of-the-designer-part-i-fas… Many would say the first row, with the darker stitched background. It doesn’t shine in your face. The icons are all beautiful and not clown-like, plus the background is darker and easier to look at, just like on Android. But the worst part is the usability nightmare slowing down users and weighing them down with cognitive baggage in every app because of the removal of essential affordances. And I’m saying this according to Apple’s own guidelines for 30+ years based on actual human usability guidelines: http://cheerfulsw.com/2015/destroying-apples-legacy/