05Feb / 2012

The Three-Horizontal-Line Icon for Primary Entry List

There seem to be a UI trend recently, that the primary entry list / timeline is associated with the “three horizontal line” icon. Here are some screenshots from apps that use variations of such icon design. These apps include Path, Facebook, Google Plus, Reminders, Gmail (mobile web version), and Stitcher.

Here are some thoughts:

This “three horizontal line” icon is not bad for representing a list of entries, which is a visual abstraction of the iOS table view, although sometimes it’s just too general that it might not show the characteristics of the data of individual application.
The icon is almost identical to another UI element “toolbar resize grip” that is commonly used in desktop applications. See the screenshot below.
And perhaps because of the reason above, both Google and Stitcher are using three bulleted lines to represent the primary entry list, to distinguish it from the possible confusion with the toolbar resize grip.
Just curious, what happen to the “Home” icon? What are the reasons that the app designer decided to ditch Home icon for the three horizontal line icon? With the concept of “Home”, at least it carries the idea of a place that you can get back to, the origin of a journey. Home is an appropriate metaphor that exists in real world. However, the three horizontal line icon does not have such metaphorical meaning in real world.

Evernote: three horizontal line icon for side pane resize grip

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04Feb / 2012

JR Ticket Site – Secret Question for Sign Up

The Japan Railways (JR) has a ticket reservation website at jreast.eki-net.com. Just like any other web services, they require users to register an account to make train reservations, check information and so on. A nice touch on the account sign-up form though, is the choices for the secret questions. Here’s the translation of the list:

好きな電車 (Your favorite train)
好きな乗り物 (Your favorite way of transportation)
思い出の駅 (A memorable station)
思い出の観光地 (A memorable sightseeing location)
好きな食べ物 (Food that you like)
嫌いな食べ物 (Food that you hate)
卒業した学校 (The school that you graduated from)
好きなチーム (You favorite team)
ペットの名前 (Pet’s name)
親の旧姓 (Mom’s maiden name)

What I like about this list is that it is relevant to the training experience. When filling in this sign-up form, this little part reminds me of why I want to open an account in this web site – I want to book a trip to travel. Small detail, but makes the sign-up progress a little more present and personal.

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25Jan / 2012

Automatic Sanitizing Revolver Toilet Seat

This is an automatic sanitizing toilet in a public washroom located near the Hankyu Arashiyama Station (阪急嵐山駅).

Official description at the facility:

The toilet seat, toilet bowl, and floor are automatically cleansed after each use.
Fully equipped with heating and air conditioning, background music, baby seat, handrails, mirror hand soap, toilet paper, hanger, dust bin, sanitary napkin disposal etc.
In case of need, there is a direct line to our administration center so you can call us 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

My thoughts on this facility:

pretty interesting to see such engineering effort to create this fully automated self-cleaning public washroom. However, I cannot quite understand what justifies the construction of such self maintaining facility, especially when this is built near a train station rather than a remote site.
As a user of this washroom knowing there is no human operating it at most of the time, it is reassuring to see the telephone near it with a guarantee to be able to contact this administration centre 24/7. More importantly, it’s the most helpless moment of all when people are stucked in washroom
Thinking further from the previous point, as we’re at the age of many self-serving and automated systems such as ATM, Online Banking and vending machines, it gives a sense of reassurance when there is a human operator providing assistance in case of emergency.Another example is the Loppi self-serving ticket machine at the Lawson convenient store (http://www.lawson.co.jp/loppi/). In spite of the pretty comprehensive touch interface, there is also a telephone right next to the screen, so that you can always get a human operator to ask questions in case you need assistance.

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12Jan / 2012

Clever Shopping Mall Poster Design for Year of Dragon

The tag line of this poster is「思わずびっくりかえる、お得です。」(before your realizing, [time] changes suddenly and great deal comes)

Despite of my bad translation, there are two things that I think are clever in this poster design:

1. In the tag line, the word かえる (KAERU) has two meanings:
(a) 「変える」Changing from one state to another
(b) 「蛙」Frog

2. Along with the “frog / change” word play, the illustration above resembles a sitting frog. If you flip it upside down tho, it appears to be a dragon head. The illustration combines three themes into one presentation: frog (KAERU), change (KAERU), and the symbol of dragon.

I wish everybody a happy 2012. I will continue my journey to discover and document beautiful designs in everyday things.

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13Nov / 2011

Sketch Book of Dyson Engineer

This is a sketch book from a Dyson engineer showing the thinking process when designing the company’s revolutionary vacuum cleaner. The notebook is part of the exhibitions in Tokyo Designers Week 2011.

It’s very intriguing to see that how the designer used the sketch book to gather ideas and visual thinking with simple doodles. No worries about structure, fidelity, quality; all it matters is quick and free drawing, or even putting your coffee mug on the notebook and leave a mark. So analog, so beautifully human.