The sleeker, simpler new Twitter

Yesterday morning, Twitter unveiled a totally redesigned UI for the iPhone and Android which in turn unlocked a new UI for the web. I had no idea that Twitter was gearing up for any kind of redesign, so I was pretty excited to see what they had done. In my opinion, they’ve completely upped their design game.

The entire idea of Twitter has been simplified down to it’s essential pieces. You’re not presented with three main options: Home, Connect and Discover. The home is still where your feed of friends are, the Connect section shows your @ mentions as well as interactions, such as retweeting and favoriting of things you’ve tweeted. Clearly Discovery is a place to discover, and to my surprise the topics have been pretty much in line with things I’d enjoy, so good on Twitter.

Purely from a design point of view I love what they’ve done. They’ve taken out a lot of the heritage design elements and slimmed things down even more, which I didn’t realize was possible. The UI on the iPhone is stunning, I’d say nearly perfect. There are some new behaviors though, like flicking up on the Me tab to see your DM’s, which I found interesting. People don’t like change remember, so this will be hated at first. The web app itself is nice and about as minimal as it gets, just some modules on a background. I don’t use the web interface often, but I’ve been popping on there more since the redesign, and in turn neglecting Twitter for Mac.

There seems to be some differing opinions on the redesign so far. Dan Frommer seems to really like it, while John Gruber really isn’t a fan of it. It’s funny though, because John Gruber also really likes Tweetbot, which I thought was clunky and hated using after a week. Either way, I’m really enjoying the change and applaude Twitter for really going for it.

Bobby

A trove of Peter Zumthor work

Let’s agree, this is proof that the internet is great. To fill the void where Peter Zumthor’s website should be, a humble tumblr site has been steadily amassing images of Zumthor’s work since late August. As proof that the internet is murky, I have no idea who’s adding the images or where the images are coming from. Still, however slowly or steadily, a stream of images is broadening to include Zumthor projects both well-known and less celebrated. It’s easy to browse the hundreds of images, but maybe frustrating to try and learn more about any particular one.

Alex

Visualizing the first Prelude from Bach’s Cello Suites by Alexander Chen

I figure a little classical music in the morning is a good way to start the day, especially if it’s done in such an interesting manner. The video above is from a project called Baroque.me and it was created by Alexander Chen while a resident at Eyebeam. The Baroque.me is a web app of sorts, created entirely in HTML5 Canvas, Javascript and SoundManager, which allows you to fully interact with it. I also thought it was cool how he chose to visualize the piece, with the four rotating spheres acting as fingers and the lines stretching and changing to represent the strings. Pretty rad project.

Bobby

Kaliber 10000, my internet beginning comes to an end

I first started Internet-ing back in the late 90′s. My first computer was a Compaq with a dial-up connection. It was a different time, it’s kind of funny to think about it now. It was also an important time for me as I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. At the time I wanted to be the nebulous concept of an “artist”, not really knowing what my options were. Thankfully I was lucky enough to come across a site called Kaliber 10000, which billed itself as “The Designer’s Lunchbox”. Honestly, I didn’t even really know what a designer was, I hadn’t even thought of things being designed before, and that’s where K10K (as it’s affectionately called) came in to play.

It was a collection of links, of ideas, of events to go to, of people to know. Being 18 or 19 I didn’t really know what to do with it, but I knew I liked what they posted, that it spurred creative thoughts inside my head. Sadly, after nearly 10 years, the site has come down. Though it hadn’t been updated in a very long time, it’s still a bit sad to know that it’s gone, kind of like the ice cream shop in your home town closing up.

It was absolutely one of the biggest influences on me, on shaping who I wanted to be, on why I created this blog. If I can be a fraction as inspiring as K10K was I’d be extremely content. I have to give a big thanks to Toke, Michael and Per, the creators of K10K, and all the other contributors over the years who inspired me to do awesome things.

Bobby

Enquire Within Upon Everything by Richard Powers

Like a house, every paragraph in “Enquire Within” has its number, and the Index is the Directory which will explain what Facts, Hints, and Instructions inhabit that number.

For, if it be not a misnomer, we are prompted to say that “Enquire Within” is peopled with hundreds of ladies and gentlemen, who have approved of the plan of the work, and contributed something to its store of useful information. There they are, waiting to be questioned, and ready to reply. Within each page some one lives to answer for the correctness of the information imparted, just as certainly as where, in the window of a dwelling, you see a paper directing you to “Enquire Within,” some one is there to answer you.

- Editor’s Preface of Enquire Within Upon Everything.

Two years ago I bought this copy of a copy of the Paris Review. I didn’t really have a reason except to be distracted from the monotony of law school. I was half inspired by the opportunity to read an interview with the classic LA writer James Ellroy, and hopefully find a transcendental moment in Rainer Maria Rilke’s unpublished work as was 22 year old. I was stoked. The quarterly always has been a source of inspiration. While not quite religion for me, I cherish it like an appreciating asset. To me, it defines the art of the interview, it stretches an archetype of the short story. And the photography is always rad. I want to be published in the review, someday. It’s on my bucket list.

With all the recent hullabaloo over the Facebook redesign and the new timeline, I was instantly brought back to a story at the end of the Fall 2009 issue. This particular story is by Richard Powers and it is entitled Enquire Within Upon Everything. To give a vague, non-cliff hanger ending, it is a story about about the generation of kids who are turning 21 this year. The kids who never used a microfiche, text better than they can hand write, and never bought music from a store. It follows one boy who makes money in college categorizing other people’s travel photos and then develops a form of advertising, using browser history, that predicts items that people are going to buy in the next six months. He marries by crossreferencing his bride across hundreds of dating sites to ensure compatability. And years later, after a completely digital life, comes to a conclusion that all of the net is about fifty five percent accurate. Especially the parts about your life.

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