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!"

Comments

or Paul Heckel w/ Zoomracks

[WillAdams]

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.

Re:or Paul Heckel w/ Zoomracks

[marcello_dl]

or wagn.

Words

[Hypotensive]

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.

Re:Words

[tnk1]

Well, for those who remember actually making out notecards for school work, there was a sense that a "card" actually represented a different way of presenting data that was more concise, and the understanding that space was at a premium. You also were able to manipulate them a lot more easily than pages of paper, as they were both smaller and made of more rigid stock, so the understanding was that ordering would not always be sequentially in a fixed page order.

Whether that is what people are thinking of today when they talk about "cards", I don't know. It did make sense as a metaphor back in the days of HyperCard, though.

Re:Words

[Anonymous Coward]

Googler here. Actually, the problem is internal to Google -- it's too easy to confuse (web) page with (Larry) Page.

Re:Words

[gstoddart]

What say you?

Lay on, Macduff, And damned be him that first cries, "Hold, enough!"

Re:Words

[hsmith]

I also think a "card" forces you to think in a more refined space. It forces you to intelligently (ideally) reduce things down. eg: With a piece of paper you can write forever (a page), with a card, you must condense to utilize the space.

Cards are a decent metaphor for the form factor.

Re:Words

[fwarren]

Much like classic FORTH programming widh disk blocks. 1 BLOCK = 1K = 16 lines of 64 characters. Any word/function/definition needed to fit in 15 lines of text (The 1st of the 16 lines was used for comments). You had the ability to extend a definition beyond one screen of text but it was usually considered bad form. Typically if it would not fit, it was natures way of telling you that you did not undertand the problem well enough to code a proper solution. Clarity comes as you are forced to break things down into there smallest components.

WebOS

[dloflin]

Also sounds like the dominant paradigm in WebOS...

Re:WebOS

[SpectreBlofeld]

I do believe the chief design guy from WebOS went to Google after Palm folded.

Re:WebOS

[noahisaac]

Well, Android became significantly more webOS-like when google poached him from Palm. I hope it continues that trend. I'm very sad that webOS is essentially dead now. The multi-tasking elements of webOS are far superior to that of Android and iOS.

Re:WebOS

[Shadow of Eternity]

Have you had a chance to use a version that supports same-screen multitasking yet? On a large enough screen it's basically true desktop style multitasking.

Re:WebOS

[Sabah Arif]

The similarity to WebOS is no coincidence since Matias Duarte was the chief designer at Palm before moving to Google. He even gave demos at the Pre/WebOS launch.

Re:WebOS

[Dishevel]

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.

Re:WebOS

[Sporkinum]

That doesn't work they way you think it works. They have tons more information on you they don't show. Just because you have search history off doesn't mean they don't have it. It only means they don't show it to you.

Concerning WebOS. My wife tried android on her HP touchpad and promptly went back to WebOS. She probably uses the touchpad more than her desktop.

I've always hated this "card" concept

[bessie]

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

Re:I've always hated this "card" concept

[alostpacket]

You can disable Google Now (I think) and just use the search. Check the setting in Google Now, and/or try disabling the Google Now app itself from your device's main settings > apps.

I remember Hypercard!

[dragonard]

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.

Metro

[jader3rd]

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?

Points for style

[Halo5]

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...

Will he change his name now,

[fredrated]

to Larry Card?

Re:Everything?

[Fri13]

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.

Re:Wait for Apple to patent "cards" UI

[ArcadeMan]

HyperCard?

trello

[thegreatemu]

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.

Been there, done that

[Animats]

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?

Re:Been there, done that

[nickersonm]

WinKey+Tab is an alternate presentation of the standard Alt+Tab window. I don't find it particularly useful, but I imagine someone does. Perhaps when working with many similar windows?