According to the sleuths at Patently Apple, a blog dedicated to researching and postulating hypotheses based on patents filed by Apple, Apple has over the last couple of years filed several patents that strongly indicate the coming of the touchscreen iMac. Such a device would merge the iPhone’s touch-based interface design and capabilities with the iMac’s considerably larger screen size and processing power.

Along with images from patent applications unmistakably showing devices with user interfaces operated by the familiar touch screen technology, Engadget has reported that Sintek Photonics have been shipping Apple 20-plus-inch touch panels, which they have no doubt been experimenting with in the R&D department as future UIs of the next generation of computers. The question is will this concept, like scores of enticing concept cars, remain at the prototype level or will it actually evolve into a commercial product with an innovative combination of touch screen interface design and the familiar Apple features? Considering the iPad’s reality, the chances of interface design on desktops and laptops having to accommodate both the tiny mouse cursor and our thicker fingers seems all the more likely.

Certainly, the biggest clues to this possible iteration of user interface design of the Mac platform will be gleaned from the next version of Mac OS X. The more it borrows from or moves towards the mobile iOS will be most telling. A touchscreen iMac will have several implications for interface designs. Already the iPad’s screen size in relation to the iPhone has led Jakob Nielsen to comment, “An iPad user interface shouldn’t be a scaled up iPhone UI”. There is also the read-tap asymmetry where text big enough to read is too small to touch. This “fat finger” problem would only be exacerbated when jumping to the iMac’s screen size (which ranges from full HD to even more pixels). Apple would essentially have to revise long-standing Graphical User Interface Design guidelines to accommodate solutions to such problems. When or will a touch based Mac come out? Will it be practical for daily activities and business use? Only time will tell…

Palm, the fabled mobile devices company, released the original webOS to counter the threat coming from Apple’s iOS, RIM’s Blackberry and Google’s Android mobile platforms to name but a few. The tide had clearly shifted from hardware to software and although webOS 1.0 was roundly praised by critics for great functionality and interface design it failed to sell as anticipated, resulting in Palm almost going under. Until HP stepped in to acquire it for a tidy sum that is, largely on the strength of webOS.

The user interface design of webOS 2.0 is now cleaner due to some graphic elements being changed resulting in a more refined interface design that is also more legible. A good example of this is with the launcher and search apps (now dubbed Just Type). According to tech analyst Joshua Topolsky the launcher now has clearer navigational elements in its UI, and the search function now provides a “clearer delineation of sections” as well as more options that improve on the OS’ usability.

The overall navigation of the user interface design is improved with the introduction of Stacks as well as the aforementioned search app. The new Quick Actions API allows users to, for example, just type an intended status update in the search field and then through Quick Actions launch the Facebook app with all text transferred directly into the app’s UI. Stacks allows users to better organize their multitasking and overall navigation by grouping apps within the user interface. Users can create, for example, a social stack for social networking apps etc. Whatever you do in a stack that launches a new card, such as a new link or page, they remain grouped within that stack allowing users to easily navigate.

Options like these strengthen the notion that webOS is not merely trying to be a copycat of Apple’s iOS interface design features and functionality in a bid to play catch-up but instead focusing on innovating. As far as the software is concerned webOS is the underdog that matches and in some cases outdoes the competition. The goal for the company now would be to get as many developers on board as possible to take advantage of the OS and create apps with great UI designs and usability.

Digg, the social news-aggregation and recommendation site, recently re-launched as version 4.0 to a storm of controversy coming from a significant number of long-term users. Reworking and relaunching a website with a new user interface design is a delicate matter. Usually the goal behind such an overhaul of the UI design is to make it more attractive and easy to use for the website’s users. Often, changes are done iteratively to optimize the GUI. When done right consensus should be that the new interface design is a marked improvement and should lead to an uptake by new users. The fourth iteration of Digg’s user interface design takes a cue from Twitter and Facebook, something a number of social networks seem to be doing more and more of.  And with good reason too! The popularity of both websites cannot be put down to a mere fluke. These two websites are busy setting the pace as far as conventions on social networks go.

The revolt against the new interface design has already claimed casualties as Digg’s VP of engineering was fired. The biggest gripe users have with the new Digg, in terms of user interface design, is the lack of the ‘bury’ button. Now users can only ‘like’ a news story but cannot ‘bury’ it to make the news story less popular. The reasoning behind the lesion of the ‘bury’ button is that users abused the feature. Now users have the option to either report a story, should they find it offensive, or they can ‘hide’ a story. ‘Diggers’ became attached to the bury button and as such removing it was bound to backfire.

These apps are a quick and efficient communication method, and definitely lend themselves well to the objectives of social networking, not least due to their intuitive user interface designs, but naturally they engender questions about user privacy.  Making your location available to people seems intrusive and it is for this reason that these apps – a few notable exceptions aside – have seen more difficulties attracting conservative users than developers have hoped.  However, the fact that these apps have smartly coupled location information with other social desires—friendship, dating, discourse etc—makes them enticing and will likely lead to greater popularity.  Questions about security and intrusion should diminish given that users have a considerable amount of autonomy over the apps.  Users can choose who they disclose their information to and can control when they do it.  As long as users maintain a sense of jurisdiction over their information, then check-in apps are a harmless way for people to socialize and connect.

During the last year a new type of app has been popping up all over the mobile world.  These so-called “check-in” apps allow users to notify friends and colleagues about where they have been, where they are, or where they are going via their smartphone user interfaces.  App developers have also begun to use extant location-based social networks — such as Friendticker, Foursquare, MyTown, BrightLite, Gowalla and, most recently, Facebook Places — to create games, challenges, city guides and dating services all centered on user locations.
consumers.

The Samsung Galaxy tablet, set to hit the European consumer market in late autumn 2010, is the newest brave and ambitious challenger in tablet computer combat, a battlefield thus far dominated by the iPad, known for its easy-to-use user interface design and highly-praised usability.  The Galaxy is powered by Android and “consumers are able to experience PC-like web-browsing and enjoy all forms of multimedia content on the perfectly sized 7-inch display, wherever they go. Moreover, users can continuously communicate via e-mail, voice and video call, SMS/MMS or social network with the optimized user interface” (samsungmobile.com).   Since VoIP capacities are not supported by the iPad, it is clear that Samsung sees consolidating all possible features into one device as the best strategy for taking a bite out of Apple and gaining a competitive edge in the tablet computer mêlée.  In a metaphorical sense, this method of consolidation can be seen as a Chimera effect, the Chimera being a fire-breathing female monster of Greek mythology whose body was composed of parts from different animals.   The concept of amalgamating different features into one unified body creates a stronger and more fearsome monster.  The same could be true for the Galaxy as a technological competitor.  It remains to be seen how this consolidation will affect users in terms of the usability of the user interface design.

The pidoco° interface design software consists of three main components which complement each other perfectly. In combination, they accelerate the interface design process and optimize the general workflow in all stages of collaborative web design.

Animated and interactive interfaces are quickly sketched with the Prototype Creator (just by drag&drop) and can later easily be shared and reviewed by colleagues, test users or clients. If there is need for even more in-depth feedback on individual aspects of the clickable wireframes, just use the digital prototypes to perform a one-on-one remote usability test where moderator and test user are connected remotely by a shared screen and an integrated phone. All modules are aimed to increase productivity of the interface design process and ease communication within the team.

When you are into interface design, Rapid Paper Prototyping is an old hat! But ever considered doing screen prototyping on screen?

With pidoco’s web-based prototyping software, designers and web developers can save valuable time, easily integrate other stakeholders and build better usability for the web.

Rapid Paper Prototyping has already been known to be the solution to get a website started. Rapid Paper Prototyping is about sketching ideas with pen and paper to be tossed around in the team. This concept will then be put through a refinement process by incorporating feedback from other stake holder. This paper-built prototype will at last act as a roadmap for the whole project – from start to finish. Some web designers even use these basic sketches for performing usability tests. Revealing usability issues in the prototyping phase can save a lot of money, since later alterations in the so called ‘finished’ web application are minimized.

However, there are some drawbacks to Rapid Paper Prototyping.  Sketches on paper are difficult to add to the document servers and also difficult to share between team-members. Transforming paper sketches into interactive, digital documents for web testing is also a time consuming task as we all know!

That is why many screen designers create their prototypes directly in MS PowerPoint or MS Visio and have them distributed to the relevant sources. True, that way one can share the screens more effectively but it is not really more dynamic than copying a piece of paper handing it to colleagues. The prototypes still do not show the real capabilities for test user excitement:  links, dynamic menus and work-flows etc. cannot be reproduced effectively and need to be explained individually in long paragraphs. Again, more time and effort has to be invested to get the message across.

A small company from Berlin, Germany has spotted this problem and made it their duty to tackle it by providing a easy web-based interface design software.

What’s in YOUR mind, when designing a new website? Some web or interface designers apparently must think of something completely wicked – but definitely not the customer, as you can see on webpagesthatsuck.com! Although many examples nominated for worst web design awards are not from the professional business world, there are still some rather shocking examples of really bad web design made by so called professionals.

However, also well designed and pretty websites do not necessarily perform well. What’s good and clear to the interface designer sometimes does not match at all with how real users use the website later, when the site has been launched. Users get confused by stylish new design ideas, cryptic wording or just crammed windows with lots and lots of attention grabbing stuff on it.

But an underperforming website jeopardizes your overall website ROI, caused by lower conversion rates. Therefore changes should be implemented rather sooner than later. And exactly here you lose twice: First, your site’s ROI drops through lower conversion rates (opportunity cost) and second the overall ROI plummets again, when necessary changes on your finished site cost you a lot more (and we are speaking of 16-fold here) compared to when the same changes had been made in the stage of prototyping of your interface design or website project.

Looking on the process how most websites are created, you can see that there are many stake holders involved who all want to add their opinion to the new website. But as we know, too many cooks spoil the broth. Of course some websites must serve several, sometimes even contradictory purposes, but the question remains, who decides how to balance this out.

What is a wireframe?
A website or interface wireframe is a first visual outline used in interface design and web development. With a wireframe, you plan and communicate the overall idea and structure of a website and specify it down to its pages. Wireframes have first been used in rapid paper prototyping in which interface concepts are drawn by hand with pen on paper. All elements of the website are just outlined (in the narrower sense of the word) and placeholders for pictures and other content (e.g. text) are used. Typically, wireframes with all link structures are completed before any artwork is developed.