More design Stories

The one thing many people did not expect with a new version of iTunes was that Apple would use the opportunity to cause dissent among its fanbase by introducing another new user interface. Some classify the new styling as “needed” and “elegant and refined” while others […] Read more »

Now that many of us have upgraded to Snow Leopard, I would like to start a forum where you can share your favorite UI changes. Use Command + Shift + 3, Command + Shift + 4, a third party screenshot capture tool, or links to your […] Read more »

Going behind-the-scenes of a real iPhone app’s development, in this installment I investigate several methods for cutting development costs and adding value to the game. I have to admit that I’m still working on the Game Design Document. Something which I thought would take only a […] Read more »

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The infamous color picker is present among many of the built-in OS X applications and is quite a powerful tool once you dig into it. With the ability to store your favorite colors in “wells” and use them between applications, the color picker can quickly become […] Read more »

Jonathan Ive wasn’t always the Grand Overlord designer and demi-God at Apple. Before Ive re-imagined the Macintosh, other talented souls attempted to shape the next generation of Apple products with the clean industrial design for which the company is famous. In the 1980s, Frog Design was […] Read more »

As a follow up to my article on the hidden gems of Apple’s design and inspired by the comments that you, the readers, left, I wanted to take a closer look at some of the icons of OS X. The second part of this article is where I’m going to go in depth into some of the hidden messages and “easter eggs” that Apple has hidden in their icons, but first, I felt it was important to revisit the history of some of these icons that we see on a daily basis. As you will be able to see, there’s a lot of thought that goes into Apple’s thought process when it comes to icon design. Read more »

If you ask any of the Apple “fanboys” in the world why they are so devoted to Apple, at least one of the reasons you will hear is that Apple “sweats the small stuff” that really proves their dedication to user experience and attention to detail. Here’s a few of my favorites, covering Apple’s attention not just to their hardware and software, but even the product packaging. See how many you may have noticed before, and feel free to add your own that I might have missed in the comments below. Read more »

This is the first installment of one journalist’s diary designing a game. It is a genuine, behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to develop an app, from conception to release, for Apple’s iPhone. This isn’t your regular developer diary. There’ll be no talk of code and […] Read more »

Your head might be spinning from the torrent of Apple happenings at WWDC this week, but fear not, I’ve got the cure: fresh picks from the App Store. It’s been an exciting week for TheAppleBlog, with our correspondents posting live from WWDC in San Jose; we’ve […] Read more »

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Graphic designers are a passionate lot. The few interviewed for this article all had one thing in common: They’ve been interested in graphic design for as long as they can remember. Is graphic design the web working career for you? Graphic Design Career It’s important to […] Read more »

Distributed creative teams face the unique challenge of having to collaborate on a product without being able to quickly and easily access files and works in progress via an on-site file server or intranet system. Emailing files to one another can get messy very quickly, and […] Read more »

You wouldn’t be reading this post if it weren’t for web designers. It’s web designers who help make it possible for us to have the best and easiest web experience possible. Web design is a large and growing field; despite the downturn, Dice.com currently lists nearly […] Read more »

While they may not reveal revolutionary changes, some graphic elements found deep in the iPhone SDK beta 5 do add to the mounting pile of evidence indicating Apple is indeed planning an iPhone hardware update in the near future. The images in question are icons associated […] Read more »

It’s been a while since I’ve actively participated in the design game, but recently, when I was doing some work for a friend, I took a look around to see if there were any new tools that would work better and more efficiently than the ones […] Read more »

Wix — founded in New York by ex-venture capitalist, Allon Bloch — offers users the ability to create a free, SEO-friendly, Flash-based web site using only drag-and-drop tools. I’m surprised I hadn’t come across Wix before, as according to the company’s PR, more than 500,000 users […] Read more »

OS X has long been labeled the platform for “creatives,” though in recent years it’s finally becoming known for more than that. Adobe’s Creative Suite is generally regarded as the crown-jewel of digital design, and they’re priced to match. So what if you’re a cash-strapped creative […] Read more »

Collaborating on design work is notoriously difficult. Deciding what the perfect shade of blue is, how rounded those rounded corners should be, and whether or not to make the logo bigger is all difficult enough when a discussion is happening between people in the same room. […] Read more »

You may be a great designer, illustrator, or just a generally creative person, but that doesn’t automatically translate to profitable enterprise, as we’re all probably painfully aware. However, there are a variety of services that provide an avenue to sell your services and make it easier […] Read more »

This year’s South By Southwest interactive festival saw the arrival of over 30 British startups as part of a “Digital Mission” to bring the country’s most promising web startups to a global showcase. This mission was backed by Sun’s Startup Essentials program, TechCrunch UK and UK […] Read more »

You might have seen in my post last week (5 Inspirational Workspaces) that I’m planning on building a new home office when I move later in the year. One of the things that struck me about the workspaces that I admire is that most of them required […] Read more »

Get your spoon and prepare to swallow a whole tub of awesome because we’ve got the freshest picks from the App Store to stuff in your mouth. Before we get in to the latest releases, I’ve got a couple of interesting picks from the week’s Apple […] Read more »

Anything that makes going to the gym easier has to be a good thing, right? The iPhone might be just the kick in the gym shorts you need, depending on how you equip it. iPump Total Body aims to provide you with a pocket-size personal trainer, […] Read more »

Tomorrow, no matter who wins the presidential election, there’s one group that will definitely be in a sad state — the intrepid content creators that have been putting out politically themed videos this week. So take a moment to mourn the online video filmmaker who produced […] Read more »

Maybe it is because I am a recent switcher that I notice details long-time Mac owners may take for granted, details that are so minute yet so useful and so quintessentially ‘human’. The level of attention painstakingly paid to the many small details found on every […] Read more »

As a developer and some-time designer, I’m always on the lookout for tools to make communicating with customers easier. For many things, the textual tools that web workers reach for are sufficient: email, wikis, project management systems, instant messages, and so on. But sometimes you just […] Read more »

In the first big network content coup it’s gotten in a long time, YouTube got access to some full-length episodes of old CBS shows today. The shows — five episodes of Beverly Hills 90210 (the original), five episodes of MacGyver, five episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series, and 14 episodes of The Young and the Restless — will be accompanied much more advertising than YouTube has ever shown on a per video basis, including controversial (for YouTube) pre-roll ads. Read more »

Yesterday it was announced that Adobe will be announcing (gotta love announcements announcing announcements) Creative Suite 4 on September 23rd. Adobe will be holding a special little event online showing all of the upcoming features of CS4 (which is rumored to be released as early as […] Read more »

The last time I sat down with Raj Parekh was eight years ago. He was involved with Comstellar Technologies, a telecom incubator that he started with Raj Singh (Fiberlane, that turned into Siara Systems, Cerent & Cyras –- all of which sold for many billions of […] Read more »

It is that time of year again. Time to drool over the best designed apps for Macs and iPhones. Absent from this year’s list, Delicious Library 2, which won Best Leopard App last year. Let us know if you use any of these apps. My favorite […] Read more »

I like simple. Simple means I don’t have to think too hard and – done well – has a kinda elegance about it. Mike Padilla‘s Protonotes is one such idea, a service that provide a simple and elegant solution to a clear problem – annotating web […] Read more »

As a former designer who still dabbles in the odd piece of commercial or hobbyist work, I’m sometimes stuck at the inception of a project, trying to discover the initial creative sparks that ignite a design, for those fragments of inspiration that set out the path […] Read more »

All this talk of “free” being the future of business sure has people nervous. Small wonder. You got into the startup thing to make money! But the concept of ‘free’ is hip, and aint’ going away anytime soon. This is creating new and very real burdens […] Read more »

Editor’s Note: This morning I read of Mint.com’s new $12.1 million funding round, lead by Benchmark Capital. Mint hawks online money management software. TechCrunch highlighted Mint’s impressive growth stats — 160,000 users in just 6 months of life as a startup; 10,000 new users each week, […] Read more »

Do you possess a relentless attention to detail, a gifted eye for aesthetics and the ability to quickly grasp and distill highly complex matters? Then you just may be qualified to design future versions of Final Cut Pro, Motion and Soundtrack Pro! Apple always has job openings, […] Read more »

Note to self: never get a review unit of anything two weeks before or after CES. Not even a new-fangled USB paperweight. OK, not that I’ve got that personal productivity mantra off my chest, it’s time to provide a review of the WiBrain UMPC on loan […] Read more »

Apple certainly did “Think Different” when they began using the white body iMacs. Soon it transcended across all Apple products and accessories. Is a new trend coming? One away from the white light? From the launch of the iPhone it became clear that Apple was reinventing […] Read more »

UPDATE: The WGA councils have accepted the strike recommendation. Writers could form picket lines on Monday if an agreement can’t be reached over the weekend. The Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) is expected to go on strike as early as Monday after negotiators unanimously recommended the […] Read more »

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