Dr. Rick on the ONC/NIST Usability Conference
Dr. Rick on the ONC/NIST Usability Conference:I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Rick Weinhaus at this years Creating Usable EHR conference in Bethesda, Maryland. I was also fortunate to assist with this, his latest article on HIStalk, in which he reflects on the lessons learned there.
Why is Photo Sharing Still So Hard?
Why is Photo Sharing Still So Hard?:Phil Freo asks:
I’ve got the latest iPhone with its 8MP camera and HD video camera, complete with iOS 5 and I pay for extra storage on iCloud. Apple’s supposed to be the best at designing simple user experiences across hardware and software – and I believe they are.
So when I want to take a bunch of photos and videos that I took from my iPhone and share those with some family members, it should be simple right?
Yet it’s not.
I couldn’t agree more.
The Ongoing Confusion with iOS App Icons
Whenever Apple introduces an iOS device with a new user interface idiom or screen resolution, developers have to include additional app icons to match the expected dimensions and filenames. For example, before the iPhone 4 or the iPad, there were only a few app icons:
- Icon.png
- Icon-Small.png
- ItunesArtwork
Three icons: one for the home screen, one for Settings.app (and, later, search results), and one for the iTunes App Store. When the iPhone 4 and the iPad were added, the list got longer:
- Icon.png
- Icon-Small.png
- ItunesArtwork
- Icon@2x.png
- Icon-Small@2x.png
- ItunesArtwork@2x
- Icon-72.png
- Icon-Small-50.png
With the introduction of the 3rd generation iPad this year, the list is even longer:
- Icon.png
- Icon-Small.png
- ItunesArtwork
- Icon@2x.png
- Icon-Small@2x.png
- ItunesArtwork@2x
- Icon-72.png
- Icon-Small-50.png
- Icon-72@2x.png
- Icon-Small-50@2x.png
Along the way, much confusion has been created around iOS app icons. Questions that continually plague developers:
Naming: What should each image be called? For apps that must support iOS 3.1.3 or earlier, icon files must adopt the fixed naming scheme listed above. Apple added the soundalike
CFBundleIconFilesandCFBundleIconskeys in iOS 3.2 and 5.0 respectively. You use these keys when setting up the “Icon Files” array in the Info.plist for an app. When using theCFBundleIconskey, filenames can be anything you wish, as long as the retina-resolution files have the same root filenames (plus the @2x suffix) as their non-retina counterparts — unless, that is, you include the file extensions in the Info.plist. If you’re easily confused by all these changes and exceptions, you are not alone.Info.plist Arrays: The Info.plist allows you to add an array of “Icon Files” in which you list the filenames for the included app icons in your app bundle. Apple has a technical document explaining how to set up this array here, but this document hasn’t been updated since July 2011. Since then iOS 5 has been released (along with the
CFBundleIconskey), the retina iPad has been on the market for months, and we’re 2 weeks away from the iOS 6 announcement. This technical document has not been updated with instructions for how to deal with the new icons and plist key. Adding to the confusion, Xcode may sometimes add a duplicate Icon Files array called “Icon files (iOS 5)”, as per this StackOverflow question. It’s still not clear whether this duplicate array is an intentional effect and should be preserved for forwards compatibility, or whether it’s a bug in Xcode.Bundle Location: Apple’s technical documents state that app icons and ItunesArtwork files should be kept at the top level of the bundle directory, but neither Xcode nor iTunesConnect triggers an error if the files are buried in some other sub-directory. I only just discovered this requirement tonight. This may explain why Pillboxie’s iTunes Artwork on the retina iPad App Store is still showing the non-retina 512x512 version, even though I’ve included the 1024x1024 version.
Poor Documentation: Developers have to consult way too many Apple documents just to answer the basic questions about app icons. When a blogger offers more helpful documentation than Apple, you know there’s a problem.
Unexplained App Rejections: A few developers, myself included, have had apps that were built, archived, and submitted to iTunesConnect without any hiccups, only to receive a cryptic email ten or fifteen minutes after submission that states that an app icon file appears to be corrupt. Solutions I’ve found range from disabling PNG compression in the build settings, or making sure that no app icons (or launch images) were exported from Photoshop with Interlacing enabled. See this StackOverflow post for more information.
UPDATED: Inconsistent Border Radii: I forgot to mention the problems that Neven Mrgan has explained better than I ever could about the way iOS, iTunes, and Safari apply app icon border radii. Even if you or your designer submits all app icons without alpha-transparent corners (which Mrgan recommends), it is still very difficult to get edge highlights and shadows to appear exactly the way you wish. The worst offender is iTunes Connect’s app info page. Thankfully, it isn’t customer-facing, but it’s a dramatic illustration of the problem:
WWDC is coming soon, so hopefully some of this confusion will be addressed this time around. Or maybe things will continue to get worse.
Never Go Cheap on Business Cards
With business cards, there really is no middle ground. There are two general tiers: there’s digital (or offset), which are both inexpensive, and it shows. These cards will look grainy and bland. Then there’s the old fashioned way: letterpress, foil stamping, duplexing, quality stock, etc. The difference in cost is not trivial. Based on my experience, digital or offset cards can cost from 20 to 50 cents per card, whereas “real” cards can cost anywhere from 75 cents to 3 dollars per card, depending on the options. But the difference in quality is dramatic.
I spent $750 on one-thousand cards for Splint, and I’ve never regretted it. I used Henry & Co in Atlanta (warning: Flash-only site). Everyone has their own priorities. Some people view cards that expensive as a waste. My opinion is that if I’m giving something to a customer (a product, a meal, a business card) it had damn better be nice.
Designing Great Business Cards The goals I look for in a...
Designing Great Business Cards
The goals I look for in a top-notch business card: a gorgeous logo; a crisp logotype; and clean, spacious contact info that leaves room for the customer to jot down a note.
Business cards are objects in themselves. Unlike a magazine page or a sheet of photo paper, a business card isn’t a medium on which one displays content. The card itself is the content. It’s a tangible artifact. This is why the best cards tend to use things like thick paper stock, letterpress, and foil stamping. Cards that don’t use these things are an imitation of a real card.
Some cards that I think accomplish the important goals:
- Mike Hall
- Unboundary
- Weway
- Milky
- Vief (pictured above)
Photographs on business cards are uncommon, at least among high-end cards. The reason is that a photo is an abstraction that detracts from the tangible experience of a well-made card — like the difference between solid wood and a veneer.
A photo on a card is easy to get wrong. When it’s done well, a photo can help enhance the desired experience. Look at the Vief card pictured above for a great example. Notice how the photo is blurred, and fills the frame. The photo wasn’t included to show a picture of a flower, but to add texture and color behind the stark clean silhouette of the logo. Imagine feeling the edge of the foil-stamped logo under your thumb as it slides across the back of the card.
For the curious, here’s the business card I designed for Splint:
