A friend of mine had been thinking of re-doing her website recently and asked me for feedback on her ideas. She’s an interaction designer by profession and I hold her to be one of the more creative people that I know. She wanted to make her website look nicer, feel more organised, hold her portfolio and represent her identity. She got too caught up in too many things and, sadly, came up some really run of the mill stuff. I told her so, and she tried again, but after going at it for quite some time I think she gave up.
Her new portfolio is now online, and in IMO, is as bland as the oatmeal that I eat every morning. Doesn’t come even close to the standards that I hold her up to.
I just stumbled upon this totally radical CV created by designer Greig Anderson – check it here.
It immediately made me think of my friend.
The result of a 2 year long project by IDEO is the new and quite fantastic Automatic Teller Machine Self Service Bank for client BBVA (Spanish Bank). IDEO has tried to retouch every aspect of the experience and done really well. Do check out the product video at http://futureselfservicebanking.com
The most impressive part to me is the way they rotated the machine 90º to enhance privacy:
Keeping the line of waiting people in the corner of your eye, instead of behind your back, let’s people feel safe on a rational and subconscious level.
Takes me back to a quote I once read somewhere:
Creativity is the defeat of habit by originality
- Arthur Koestler
Ofcourse I’m super excited about the new features Apple announced for the iPhone OS 4.0, but, I just hope the experience is less cluttered than what it feels like from the screenshots. Being a cynic, yes (that’s what I do best). Balancing simplicity vs features is not easy, I know.
*Screenshots taken from TUAW
Fantastic host, great guests, really interesting talks. Highly recommended.
