Resimplify

Before Apple's October 2012 Special Event After Apple's October 2012 Special Event

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Apple unveiled many updates to many of it’s products and introduced one new product earlier today. Even when I looked at the current Apple Online Store webpage and speculated along with every other major news publication about an “iPad mini” I began to think about a new store layout.

Why?

To make the product fit in their current layout they would have to retire a product and was that going to be the iPod classic? 

Then I started to look at the layout and wondered why some items were grouped and some weren’t. There was an inconsistency in organization of products. If the store layout was to remain unchanged it would have to be grouped with the iPad just look the new MacBook Pro 15” with Retina Display was grouped under MacBook Pro.

Then I thought well maybe everything is grouped by similar form factor and the difference between the original MacBook Pros and the ones with that Retina Display were so similar they could be grouped together. Even perhaps it was a high end computer that could be hidden, which then contradicts why the MacPro is on the front page but I suppose it is its own category. 

This all got me thinking more…

The new iPad mini would have to have its own section as the iPod touch and nano have their own sections. 

What had to happen is what ended up happening shortly after the special event was over. There was a new layout with simpler organization, but deeper navigation. How much deeper? Just one more level. 

Now you decide whether to shop for Mac, iPad, iPhone, or iPod. That’s it. 

Behind the build of the new Element site

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A new creative shop called Element based in Austin, Texas made a new site for clients and others to view.

Phil Coffman, the creative director, had this to say initially on Dribbble:

… essentially our first site was never meant to be a long-term site for us. It didn’t go into enough detail on who we are and what we offer. This new site offers much more content and gives us room to add our portfolio (which is coming soon) and discuss our services in more length. The brand evolution happened naturally over the course of the past year and this site reflects it.

I know there are some cases where checkboxes are a perfect fit! And my solution here is not one-size-fits-all. However, as product designers we must not settle for thoughtless UX design. Instead, we ought to create experiences that are self-describing, in subtle ways, that honor our customer’s time. The best part? Doing this will simultaneously reduce support overhead and help our customers make better use of our products, and increasing their success. High-res

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I know there are some cases where checkboxes are a perfect fit! And my solution here is not one-size-fits-all. However, as product designers we must not settle for thoughtless UX design. Instead, we ought to create experiences that are self-describing, in subtle ways, that honor our customer’s time.

The best part? Doing this will simultaneously reduce support overhead and help our customers make better use of our products, and increasing their success.