Textura Design Blog

iPad: Email is for Old People, So Are Desktops

2010-02-04T14:43:46Z

Anyone with a dog in the iPad hunt has posted something more thoughtful than “it sucks” or “want” by now. After selectively scanning the various provocative posts, I chose Mule Design’s blog to leave a comment. It begins with, “email is for old people” and follows Mike Monteiro’s point that, “the iPad isn’t the future of computing; it’s a replacement for computing.”

Image by Mule Design.

That’s the prevailing thinking and agreed.

the next-generation has no allegiance to the platform and none to the desktop metaphor or “drilling down into the OS,” like the old people do.

They’re using the tools we built for them and aren’t entrenched in the choices we made and battles we fought during the dotcoms and Web 2.0. To us, our life’s work is in these apps and to them it’s just another site to say, “hello.”

I realized this yes when my daughter told me email is for old people, but also upon discovering formspring.me last week. Adrian, my daughter, and her friends all have Tumblr blogs and sometimes want comments on them, so they go over to Formspring.me. They jump back and forth like that without concern for “Drupal, Movable Type, or Wordpress.”

With a Macbook, PC, or Tablet, they’ll go there to check their myspace and maybe an email from Dad, but they don’t care if it’s folders or icons they open up. Doesn’t matter if they touch it, mouse it, or text it. That’s not their battle. It is and was ours.

Uncool

More interesting in the iPad debates is what’s happening culturally. As I said in the comment, I personally don’t care what snark-driven, click-through-ad-chasing, bloggers care about my buying decisions and neither does my daughter and her friends. In the blogging revolution, we upended traditional media, gatekeepers, and tastemakers.

Now we’re seeing the death of uncool. Brian Eno wrote about that last year in a post for Prospect Magazine

There are just too many styles around, and they keep mutating too fast to assume that kind of dominance.

He’s writing about music styles, but the same thinking can apply to gadgets and consumer products.

As people become increasingly comfortable with drawing their culture from a rich range of sources—cherry-picking whatever makes sense to them—it becomes more natural to do the same thing with their social, political and other cultural ideas.

Where 14-yr olds click from social networks to blogs and back they’ll also choose their personal trends in gadgets, in whatever manner makes sense to them. I think with little regard to who makes it and what we say about it on Twitter.

PCs had their chance and failed to deliver a touch-screen tablet. Apple has one now and it’ll sell. Is it a replacement for computing, as Mike says? Sure and another device and platform will come later for the next generation.

The Iliad

2010-01-31T02:26:16Z

Lots going on in this photo, besides the Funky Cool Lion of the 60s. Had I taken that professor career path, would want to live in a building called the Iliad. Hope when that building gets torn down, someone saves the Lion.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the dreeping set on Flickr.

Dreeping: Fountain at Night

2010-01-26T15:56:56Z

The fountain at the Marion Oliver McCaw Hall House at the Seattle Center.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the dreeping set on Flickr.

UI Stencils: iPhone

2010-01-25T18:33:12Z

While user experience isn’t our thing at TDI, liked these iPhone UI stencils and sticky notes. They’re made by Design Commission. They hosted the Refresh Seattle talk last week.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the dreeping set on Flickr.

Design the Ordinary like this Fixie

2010-01-20T18:23:53Z

Talking about bikes and web design at Refresh Seattle tomorrow night with Kevin Tamura from Blue Flavor:

Design the Ordinary like this Fixie explains how fixies are a good study in form and function for web designers. Fixies were built by cyclists from ordinary parts to serve a specific function and they’ve become part of pop culture. We’ll discuss topics like

What if consumers, like bike messengers making fixies, built a purpose-built website to do one thing? What would that look like?

Kevin and I are also presenting this talk at Microsoft Mix10.

Buffalo Stance @ SXSW

2010-01-14T17:31:11Z

We like to kick off the SXSW season by watching this video.

It well represents the serendipity of the event. Sure SXSW has changed in recent years, but is rooted in people like this whom built the web apps we’re using today.

I’ve talked about a variety of topics at SXSW, been on panels, and last year it was interestingness. This year, I’m talking with Livestrong CEO Doug Ulman about Changing the World and Lives with Bikes. The blog I publish, Bike Hugger, is also back at SXSW for another Mobile Social with Mellow Johnnys.

And maybe you were not previously aware of the Buffalo Stance Meme on flickr:

Guero’s, March 10 2002 uploaded by anildash | more from the dreeping set on Flickr.

Pole Hammer

2010-01-13T20:57:14Z

Noticed this worker in the neighborhood — his job is to hammer the telephone poles and if they make a “tinny” sound they get replaced. Thought, “hey now that’s a job, not just talking about how cool you are on social networks.” Instead, you’re outside hammering poles, like the Hammering Man.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the dreeping set on Flickr.

SXSW 2010 Core Conversation

2009-12-23T01:23:59Z

A talk with me and Livestrong CEO Doug Ulman has been accepted at SXSW.

Change the World, Lives, with Bikes and Social Media

This core conversation will talk about how cycling, the bike, and social media are changing the world and lives. You’ll learn about Livestrong’s community and Bike Hugger’s blog, events like the Mobile Social, and the millions who follow Lance Armstrong on Twitter. It’s a discussion of bikes, pop culture, and socializing the good with these Interweb tools.

SXSW Core Conversations are more intimiate discussions about specific topics. They’re in smaller rooms without AV equipment and are for creative people sharing their ideas with other creative people, as opposed to passively watching a presentation.

Doug and I are both excited about this talk and it coincides with Bike Hugger’s Mobile Social, an event at the intersection of bikes, technology, and culture.

We ride, blog, party.

Last years event looked like this during the ride

and this at the after party

Bardessono: Book Art

2009-12-05T15:50:31Z

Spent the past few days riding and relaxing @BardessonoHotel in Napa Valley. It’s a bike and eco-friendly hotel with art like this installation made from old books.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the dreeping set on Flickr.

Dalek directing UX design at the BBC

2009-10-21T20:21:34Z

How UX gets done at the BBC!

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the dreeping set on Flickr.

Textura Design Blog

iPad: Email is for Old People, So Are Desktops

Uncool

Related links

The Iliad

Dreeping: Fountain at Night

UI Stencils: iPhone

Design the Ordinary like this Fixie

Buffalo Stance @ SXSW

Pole Hammer

SXSW 2010 Core Conversation

Bardessono: Book Art

Dalek directing UX design at the BBC