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Google's House of Cards
theodp writes "In 'The Design That Conquered Google,' The New Yorker's Matt Buchanan reports that 'cards' — modeled after real cards — are set to become one of the dominant ways in which Google presents certain types of information to users. The power of a card as a visual-organization metaphor according to Matias Duarte (lead designer of Android), is that 'it makes very clear the atomic unity of things; it's still flexible while creating a kind of regularity.' Hey, maybe that Bill Atkinson was really on to something with that dadgum HyperCard software of his back in the '80s!"
Here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoomracks
I just want to see a tool which makes it easy to collect information, sort it out, edit it and keep it all consistent --- been using tools for this since Zoomracks came out, and still haven't found the perfect tool.
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
The main advantage of presenting something as a card is that the word "card" is different from the word "page", and people are kind of tired of hearing the word "page" now.
Everything old is old again!
The mobile interface on Google+ just seems frenetic to me, in a TMI sort of way. Others may like being visually assaulted, but it's not for me.
quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.
Also sounds like the dominant paradigm in WebOS...
Lest we forget Palm did a cards metaphor in WebOS, which was quite excellent.
Google Now creeps me the heck out! I'd feel better about it if it wasn't a Google product. I feel my privacy has a little protection when this stuff isn;t so thoroughly centralized in the hands of a single entity.
I understand it's utility when, say, you enter the name of a nearby store and it presents info about it, its hours, etc; or a plane flight, and it tells you the details of the flight.
But sometimes I just want plain, unadulterated search, based on the terms as entered. I don't even want the card presented first and THEN the search results (as it does now). I JUST WANT SEARCH RESULTS, NO CARDS.
I've turned off ALL the cards, all the Google Now stuff... but it doesn't go away on my Android device. Despite all the settings, there seems no way to completely turn it off.
Bah.
- Tim
If I wanted to use a card catalog I'd print off pages of search results on 3x5 cards.
Nothing is easier than line by line search results sorted by most relevant. All making them virtual card shaped will do is add more room for advertisement, which after all is the real play here.
And here I was thinking the article would have been about how Google's search engine and personalization features are degrading the quality of its services to the point the whole company will collapse from the ground up as leaner competitors figure out how to do more with less.
>> neat card in a stack
So...one card at a time, with a primarily forward/back interface...like PowerPoint?
>> On a large monitor, the grid spans three cards wide; on a smaller one, just two.
Oh no - didn't we just get Microsoft to retreat from THAT metaphor?
Hey, maybe that Bill Atkinson was really on to something with that dadgum HyperCard software of his back in the '80s!"
And perhaps Microsoft is onto something applying it to current OS interfaces with Live Tiles.
Have gnu, will travel.
Did consulting work for BP back in the '80s when they were strictly a Mac shop. Hypercard was used extensively in homebrew apps like BP's MSDN stack.
From the article.
[Google] as late as 2009, according to its first visual designer, Douglas Bowman, was “without a person at (or near) the helm who thoroughly understands the principles and elements of Design.”
and also
Larry Page took over as C.E.O. Besides moving to streamline Google’s increasingly sprawling scope as a company, [and] he immediately launched Project Kennedy, an initiative to give all of Google’s products a more consistent look, so everything would be easier to use.
Thank God someone's finally looking to the design of Google, so it will no longer be cursed with the most famously easy to use search page that every other search engine on earth chose to imitate. /s
Seriously, Google has always been a favorite because of its good design. Saying it suffered from a lack of designers is more evidence that designers suck than that Google had a problem.
You might say that - I couldn't possibly comment.
Didn't we all have to do virtual 'cards' in 'decks' when offering WML to Nokia phones, in far off days when they were the main force? Didn't seem to last long, but it's still part of my elderly Dreamveaver.
The power of a card as a visual-organization metaphor according to Matias Duarte (lead designer of Android), is that 'it makes very clear the atomic unity of things; it's still flexible while creating a kind of regularity.'
So... they're Live Tiles?
I don't really have an opinion on cards one way or another but, as a Southerner, I applaud the proper use of the word "dadgum." I haven't seen that one in a while...
665: The mark on the forehead of Satan's slightly less evil brother, Stan.
Everything is a file, everything is a card, everything is a widget, everything is an object, a webpage?
Aren't these all the same damn concept. Come up with a single abstract "item" then treat pretty much everything like that.
The name is just an easy way to conceptualize it.
Personally I grasped the "file" as anything, then the "object" came quite naturally. I see a "card" as a particular representation of an abstract "object"
Wait for iOS 7 to come out with a flat UI and cards and then they will sue Samsung and Google for ripping off their UI "again".
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
It's more of a list view/ grid view. I'm curious in particular what do you think is bad UX ?
PocketPermissions Android Permission Guide
When you think of devices with small screens,
the idea of a card paradigm is better than a "page" or a "screen".
The distinction is important. People intuitively know that a card usually
expresses a single idea, and that is likely to be part of a larger collection
of cards (frequently sequential)
So Kudos to Google, and I hope they can make it work.
I think the best size for card to put some data on is 187.325 mm x 82.55 mm. The card should be put face down, nine edge first.
to Larry Card?
' Cards' are a superior knowledge design element to wading pool depths of 3 deep for learning. For ocean depths and deeper universes, ' Cards' are water-wings for competitive swimmers.
How long until there's a great game for mobile devices which is a 3-D rendered mystery with puzzles to figure out an an errie, Mysty world to explore.... Ohh, can't wait!
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
"Google, Signout"
Got it man!
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
I thought Netflix's "House Of Cards" was pretty good. Don't know why we need another version so soon...
It's not bad per se, but Microsoft has a long history of making the implementation suck. How many ribbons are going to be on the top, sides, bottom? Plus setting(s) window(s), advanced window(s), etc.
You're nothing but a pack of cards!
Sound a lot like Popup windows to me... and in my humble experience users don't like popup windows. Maybe that was just because a popup usually meant something wrong.
Facts are useless, they can be used to prove anything.
As a good example, you should take a look at trello , which is basically an organization/design/progress list tool, where each atomic activity is represented by a card. I've been using it extensively for about a year now, and the card+board metaphor really seems to make intuitive sense to everyone I've introduced to it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Markup_Language
If you're running on Windows 7 or Vista, press CTRL, TAB and the "Windows key" at the same time and watch what happens.
That's "cards" mode. Did you know Windows could do that? Is it useful?
As a cousin of mine is accused of saying. Motifs come, leave and return in computer science as in any other discipline. Bill Atkinsons HyperCard was vey good. Web browser URLs supplanted this several later. But URLs never really captured the geometric metaphors possible in Bill's systems (chains, grids, loop, decks, etc.) .
I thought a bus full of icons and widgets collided with a touch UI...
(this from a daily Android phone and tablet user...)
In this G+ UI update, I really hate the 3 columns of cards layout. Very hard to find info. I can switch to 1 column only, but: 1 - Do not works on communities; 2 - The column keeps using a small width, instead of use more side space.
The "Metro" live tiles are small animated cards. They even flip and float like real cards when you interact with them.
If you have a Google account.
Go here.
Once you see that you can see exactly what Google knows, and that you can have control over who can see it you will not worry as much.
Google has more info than anyone else, but many places have a lot of info on you. Most hide what they know about you and many sell the raw info.
Google, So far, only uses the info to target ads to you. Not really a bad thing. I would rather see a targeted ad than one for Maxipads or Viagra.
Google also give you quite a bit of control over it. The major plus though is that they do not split it up and make it difficult for you.
Google search, Play store, YouTube, Google Plus, Gmail, Drive and more. All those settings, all that information displayed for you to control in one place.
Name someone else that does that for you.
Your response indicates that you either misinformed/uninformed or just plain naive. Google has FAR more data collected about you and your activities than what it displays in your History dashboard. Think about the Google properties, search, Plus, Gmail, Apps, Android, ads everywhere, Voice, Blogger, YouTube, Picasa...
Have you used Google Now? Does your dashboard show when you walk into the airport or any of the other location information that Google constantly collects? Does dashboard show your airline boarding pass? With Google Now, you simply walk into the airport and Now pops up "cards" with flight information boarding pass, car rental and hotel info... It is fantastically cool! The fact that a single source has all that information and that you have little to no control over it is very frightening to me.
Furthermore, that you disable stuff on the dashboard does not mean that Google does not continue to collect, log, "aggregate", track etc. your activities across the web, store that information for at least 18 months and have it readily available for sale to third parties or disclosure to law enforcement agencies or even subpoenas by INDIVIDUALS.
Google is the one stop shop for those wishing to view the expansive dossier that Google has amassed about you. Second behind Google is Facebook, even if you NEVER had a Facebook account or visited Facebook.com!
I have no issue with myriads of people/companies collecting bits of this information in the course of my business and maintaining it in their disparate databases. However, I resent and fear the central all encompassing database that is Google, ripe for the picking. It is a massive tool that someone could use against you. That it hasn't happened, to you, yet doesn't mean that it isn't a threat or that it should be ignored.
Let's remember where Matias Duarte came from -- Palm after the HP fiasco. If you look at his previous body of work, including WebOS you will see the "card" design theme throughout. In WebOS it was simple, elegant and intuitive. But Palm's hardware was awful and detracted from the whole experience. Google's challenge will be to take their fragmented product lines and unify them on the UI level where appropriate so that google's UI design becomes part of its brand. They're getting there. A big challenge: Android. The open source nature of android has invited fragmentation by both hardware and software vendors -- each manufacturer and developer riffing on the android theme with various hardware configurations and a proliferation of "skins" over the stock UI. The result has been a robust but confusing landscape of products and services that seem to lack a cohesive vision, branding, or strategy that can leave users feeling a little bewildered, as in "Which button do I need to push now to do what I want to do?" Cards might be the answer. Will Android and other google products and services become a reprise of WebOS? Does HP own any IP that Google is using in its new efforts? I guess we'll see.
... that's Digital Equipment Corporation m'boy, the mommy of the VAX (and other stuff.) There was an extensive network (the dearly departed DECNET) wide repository of "knowledge" called "Notes". If I were to squint and stress my gray matter, I might be able to recall that Xerox/PARC had a similar unstructured knowledge base. Now you got me imagining tons of organizations that had these hordes of "useful information." No, that can't be. Sorry. Forget all this stuff.
How live titles are different from Wii Channels?
*cough*webOS*cough*