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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.
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.
>> 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.
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.
Good Luck with that. Google, Facebook, Twitter are the new GM, Ford, Chrysler (not in that order necessarily). They are so big that the scale they leverage is untouchable to any newcomers to the market, no matter how lean or competitive they may be. It will be many years before the internet-era equivalent of the electric car comes along to shake up the industry, and a few more after that before the industry is actually shaken. Once your company is valued in the tens/hundreds of billions, competition gets squashed long before it has a chance at challenging you.
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.
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.
Everything is a file
everything is a card
everything is a widget
everything is an object
BURMA SHAVE
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.
I love the old idea "Everything is a file", but I hate that today everything in Windows is something behind complex graphical userinterface and files are hided. Same can be said from iOS, Windows Phone and even from Android.
That is one reason why I like Unix systems like Linux systems with KDE, as I really get access to files most of the times.
I want that every email is a single file and that file is renamed by the subject and sender, file metadata includes the file timestamp when it was received and I can manipulate the email with any text editor and even write one with such.
I love the simplcity what Xerox did in Xerox Star, have a simple outbox and inbox directories on desktop where you can drop files to be sent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn4vC80Pv6Q&feature=player_detailpage#t=315s
It should really be so easy at office, between family and friends computers (in different buildings/countries) just to drag and drop files to other computer. It was impossible at baud modem time but now when many have started to have 1024/512KBits connections and even many has wider bandwith, it would not be problem to drop few text files, few pictures and even couple songs to be transferred to other computer.
Welcome back SSH and network transparency.
At some point people should get noticed that all these "cloud services" are just stupid, that saving time and money it is simpler just to go and buy a cheap Plug-PC and attach USB drive to it and let it connect to your home network and you get NAS what to be binded to computers and get access to it from Internet by those who you want to get access. 250-500GB storage would be enough for most students (expect those who are downloading warez etc).
Or if the space isn't so much required, a cheap 20 buck Android phone with 32-64GB MicroSD card makes wonderful NAS with correct software, it doesn't even require power so much and as you can have attached webcam, microphone and speaker + some other sensors, it can be home security system as well.
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.
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.
Who has the Google one stop shop sold all this info to? :(
As far as I know that information is kept by Google. They have never sold any of. They use it to target the ads you buy better.
They use it to create new products and improve existing ones. They also use that data to kill of some of the stuff they did that I liked.
Those disparate databases you feel so safe with are not so hard to combine. In fact people have brought loads of it together to individually identify people accross many websites building very accurate and scary profiles on people. This data has been and will continue to be SOLD.
So...That cat is out of the bag.
Unless you are a full fledged internet master and work hard at staying anonymous and have been doing so for years, internet privacy is not a choice you have. ,change your habits often and stay on a disinformation campaign or you simply do not have privacy when it comes to the internet. Period.
You need to use many different VPNs
So you are either misinformed or naive.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
... 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?
Time to take your medicine, grandpa.
Bend over for what? ...
The info is out there and is is combined and they know A LOT.
Google has a bit more fully combined, but they do not sell it off. They keep it very private.
So far they give you
The most benefit from your data.
The best control over your data.
The best care over your data.
The most evil thing they do is ad targeting.
First. They do not sell the raw data to their advertisers. They only do targeted ads.
You can like them or dislike them. Some people feel a bit creeped out by it. Some are prefer targeted ads over non targeted.
You are already being bent over by Bing, Yahoo, Amazon, Ebay, and countless others. Google is at least using some lube.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
*cough*webOS*cough*