Design and interfaces
A curated reading order. Explore all topics
Design
December 16, 2013
Design is the art of expressing thoughts. It is a freehand manifestation of vision. It is the draftsman’s job to use lab instruments to reflect that vision into precision. The purpose of design is to understand how best we can absorb natural elements spread all around us. Lack of knowledge creates too many complexities around us. Outside wisdom is unlikely to remove these intricacies. It is from the study of the self, through concentration and practice, emerges design. To
Zomato for Android Redesign
April 11, 2017
I took fifteen minutes to make some strategic design changes to Zomato's Android app. I wrote extensively about the iconography, typography, and role of actions in the app’s user experience. I wrote this article originally in March 2016 for the Zomato Android team and publicly published it on Medium in April 2017 since Zomato decided to implement most of my design changes.
Can Design Be Too Simple?
June 26, 2015
John McWade asks a very interesting question in his article How simple is too simple? He says: Whose logo is this? How long would it take to draw? Let’s say 10 seconds in InDesign to make the rectangle and 10 minutes to get the width just right. How much do you bill per hour? To make it easy, let’s say $90. By that reckoning, this is a $15 logo. Not only that, but the yellow border is not the designer’s creation; it’s been the trademark of the client, National Geographic magazine, for
New Google Play Badges
August 31, 2019
When you're advertising your smartphone app, perhaps the first thing you show off are platform badges. They're the easiest and most familiar way to tell users where they can find your app. All major platforms, Apple's App Store, Google Play, and Microsoft Store have official badges which are somewhat consistent with each other. However, these badges aren't that consistent.
How to Name Brands
June 26, 2015
Pinkberry, a popular frozen yogurt chain, has spurred countless imitators with “berry”-studded names, so when a yogurt chain approached Alexandra Watkins, the chief innovation officer of Eat My Words, a San Francisco-based company that names brands, she wanted to help them find a really distinctive name. They ended up calling the company Spoon Me, and the name was such a hit that t-shirts and bumper stickers bearing the new brand name were flying out of the floor.
The Problem with Gaana.com’s Identity
August 30, 2015
What is probably India’s most-used music streaming service, Gaana (“song” in Hindi), launched a new advertising campaign this month. It was very well executed with a great music video, beautiful typography and useful app demos at the end. Campaigns like these add to the brand value of a company — people see themselves dancing to songs on Gaana. But what’s missing here? What is the first thing users see when they download the app?
One Space After a Period
March 23, 2015
Early typewriters used monospaced fonts, meaning that the spaces between letters were always the same length, and so, typists started using two spaces to slightly widen the space between sentences. Now that the fonts on your computer are proportionally spaced, this practice is outdated; it creates unnecessary inconvenience for the writer. To help guide the reader, it is best to use two spaces after a period ending a sentence in this situation.
Internet.org Redesign
October 27, 2013
I recently participated in an event where I was required to redesign Internet.org’s homepage and logo. The content had to remain the same, but the design was to be completely new. The website was required to be responsive, and good in code-quality and aesthetics, without the use of any external code. The logo was marked for creativity and execution. Here’s what I co-designed with Akshat Srivastava in five hours. And why. The relationship between form and purpose—How and Why— is symbiotic.
A Designer on Operating Systems
October 21, 2014
A Silicon Valley startup was founded in 2003 with an aim to develop an advanced operating system for digital cameras. Considering that the camera market wasn’t large-enough, they started work on a mobile OS, and were acquired by Google two years later. Currently, they have over a billion active monthly users, which has doubled from 538 million in mid-2013.
The Apple Remote
March 15, 2015
I had my hands-on a magnificent device this week — a remote. But this isn’t just any remote, it’s one of the most beautiful devices I’ve ever held in my hand. It’s the Apple Remote. When the Apple TV debuted back in 2007, it really had a new vision for televisions. Even with the original Apple TV, you could rent high-def movies or purchase TV shows, music and videos from the iTunes Store, with the addition of YouTube videos.