As someone who used Spaces in a 3×3 grid, I am extremely unhappy with Mission Control in Lion.

— Ken Yarmosh (@kenyarmosh) July 20, 2011

One of my biggest gripes with Mac OS X Lion was the elimination of Spaces. Specifically, I wrote about how I was a big fan of using a 3×3 Spaces layout because it allowed me to use keyboard shortcuts to quickly switch between each Space. For example, I would place my browser in Space 1, mail client in Space 4, and common work-related tasks in Space 2, which let me switch up, down, and right between my most used apps. When in Space 1, that would allow me to switch between two workspaces easily (compared to one in Lion). If I was on Space 2, however, I could switch between three workspaces just as quickly (compared to two in Lion).

With Lion, Apple moved into the Desktop era powered by Mission Control, where each Desktop is aligned horizontally next to the previous one (see above). This required a pretty fundamental shift in how I organized my workspaces but more so, in terms of how I’d navigate between them. Where Spaces allowed me to be keyboard-driven, with Lion I’ve become almost exclusively reliant on my Magic Mouse or Trackpad. Primarily, I now click the application I want to go to via my Dock, which brings me to the corresponding Desktop where it resides (all my applications are assigned to a Desktop). The second means is Mission Control, where I use Hot Corners via a drag to the bottom left Screen Corner and then click on the desired Desktop. Even with Mission Control keyboard shortcuts, I’ve found these two means to be the fastest way to get from Desktops that are multiple workspaces away from each other.

Thankfully, I’m welcoming Spaces to Lion starting today due to a great new app called ReSpaceApp (thanks, Lifehacker). Currently in beta, ReSpaceApp brings Spaces back to Lion, mapping Desktops to the grid layout allowed in Spaces. In my case, I had six Desktops, so ReSpaceApp allowed me to create my 3×3 grid Space configuration again. ReSpaceApp also has a handful of preferences beyond layout, including keyboard shortcuts, transition type (if you’re daring, try something other than the traditional “Slide”), and transition speed.

To no fault of ReSpaceApp I did have to reassign all of my applications to different Desktops because of the fundamental differences between Desktops and Spaces. So, for example, my Desktop 2 mapped to Space 4, Desktop 3 mapped to Space 2, etc. There’s still some muscle memory leftover from the Spaces days but the most difficult part of using ReSpaceApp right now is that remapping and seeing a different Desktop ordering in Mission Control than I’ve been used to the last eight months or so (again, not its fault). Perhaps, in a couple of weeks, I’ll once again forget about Mission Control for switching Desktops and be back to zipping through Deskto…Spaces with my keyboard shortcuts. For that, ReSpaceApp is a welcome addition to my app arsenal.

List Versus Back Button
I recently wrote about slide-out navigation and Gmail for iOS has a nice slide-out nav implementation. But the use of a back button on the main screen, instead of a list or item button, just drives me nuts. The back button is completely fine to use, if and when, it’s actually returning a user to a previous screen. It should not, however, be used to trigger the slide-out. It’s visually ugly and functionally confusing.

Push
I’m a big fan of Boxcar and historically, I used it to manage all my notifications. Unfortunately, a major limitation of it, is that for email notifications, it cannot open directly to an individual message. If selecting Mail.app as the email app in Boxcar, a Boxcar notification for email will start a new email as the hack to open Mail.app. Similarly, for Gmail for iOS, it just opens the app without going directly to the message. This proves frustrating over time and has lead me to use the iOS notifications for email since the launch of iOS 5.

Right now, Gmail for iOS has a badge, but no push notifications. It’s unlikely Boxcar will be able to update push notifications for email to open to an individual message. So beyond Apple, Google is going to be the other provider that can provide a better experience by opening push notifications directly to its message. I’m surprised Gmail for iOS has been out this long without push notifications being added; Google has indicated it’s a priority.

Composing Mail
Composing an email in Gmail for iOS is a less than ideal experience. In fact, the compose view is one of the main reasons I don’t use the app.

I appreciate the larger composing area relative to Mail.app but the font is extremely small comparatively and not worth the tradeoff. Also, if the mobile signature is checked, a feature that was updated in the latest update, then it should show at the bottom of the compose screen, as with Mail.app.

Responding to Mail
A corollary to composing mail is responding to mail. I’m going to nitpick here even more but I really dislike the fact that Gmail for iOS doesn’t quote the response and instead, shows the previous message below a reply as plain text. This makes threads messier over time, as well as inconsistent, if composing mail in rich text in the desktop browser (where, in that case, the reply will be quoted).

Label and Move
Labeling and moving items in Gmail for iOS is extremely tedious. It takes no less than three taps to move an item and no less than four to apply a label. We might be able to live with with that number of taps but the label screen itself has not been thought out very well.

For anyone who actually uses labels, it’s simply untenable to continually have to scroll through a long list of them to find the right one to apply. On the iPhone, one only needs to have more than ten labels to make the label view scrollable. Outside of redesigning the UX for getting to the move or label screen, there are several ways to streamline this particular experience:

• A simple fix to a long scrollable list is filter them by adding a real-time search box at the top of the view that will start revealing related labels.
• Divide that list into sections to show the most used labels at the top or even offer an option to users to customize an “Actively Used” labels section.
• Respect the Gmail settings available in the desktop browser to keep hidden labels hidden, thereby shortening that list (not a great solution but still better than a list of all labels).

Concluding Thought

I know many are looking for more advanced features, such as multiple login support, “Send As,” and similar kinds of items but the basics need to be covered first. Gmail may never feel as native on iOS as it does on Android but it still can grow into a great app.

With the launch of Facebook for iPad, Facebook has again introduced a new mobile pattern for navigation and this time they’ve created something simpler and more elegant: slide-out navigation. More significantly, this pattern has quickly gained traction and is now being used by more than several notable iOS apps.

Slide-out Navigation

On its blog, Facebook described its new navigation pattern—available on Facebook for iPad, as well as Facebook for iPhone 4.x—as “left-hand navigation.” I’ve chosen “slide-out” navigation because it is more descriptive and universal (e.g., Path includes it on the left and right side). I’m defining slide-out navigation as follows:

Slide-out navigation consists of a panel that “slides out” from underneath the left or the right of the main content area, revealing a vertically independent scroll view that serves as the primary navigation for the application.

Up to this point, the slide-out navigations available in the App Store have typically consisted of a panel (menu) that groups related views together, breaking them apart through headers. The default views provided by the application have been placed at the top of the panel. Facebook’s headers include Favorites, Apps, Pages, Lists, and a non-labeled help area.

Facebook implemented its slide-out nav via a list button, with the left panel always snapping out to a single, fully extended position. Once the left panel is visible, it can be closed by either tapping the list button, by touching the mostly hidden main content area, or by swiping that area left. For that final closing action, any swipe left—even if it’s very minor (i.e., a flick)—will close the panel. These nuances are important, as the other implementations are observed.

Other Implementations

Gmail

Gmail for iOS was the next app to implement a slide-out navigation. Considering it launched several weeks after Facebook for iPad came out, it’s not clear how much Facebook actually influenced it. Its main functionality is the same but it does have several distinctions. The first is that instead of a list button, it uses a back button labeled with “Menu.” In my opinion, that is the biggest eyesore with Gmail for iOS. Secondly, it’s possible to swipe or drag right on the main content area to open the left panel. And finally, the left panel can expand or contract to a minimum and maximum size respectively.

Path

Path 2.0 is one of the most innovative iPhone apps to hit the App Store in some time. With all it’s flourishes, transition animations, and polish, it clearly received a lot of love and attention on even the smallest details. It’s slide-out navigation closely resembles Facebook’s, with a list button being used. But unlike Facebook, they include a swipe right gesture to see the left panel, similar to Gmail for iOS. They don’t, however, allow left panel resizing.

One minor annoyance regarding their slide-out nav is that the main content area and the list button actually don’t provide the minimum tappable target sizes suggested by Apple when in its expanded position. As far as I can tell, they’re roughly 40 pixels instead of the suggested 44 pixels. Beyond being slightly less gesture-friendly, the byproduct is that the list button is also partially cutoff.

My final comment regarding Path is that it’s arguable whether it really requires a slide-out navigation at all. Generally, it’s more useful when there are many content views, especially ones that can grow dynamically, as is in the case with Facebook and Gmail (e.g., Gmail labels).

Authentic Jobs

The Authentic Jobs app was featured by Apple back in early December 2011 and its version of a slide-out navigation is probably one reason why. Technically, it doesn’t fit the definition above, but it’s effectively providing the same user experience.

Authentic Jobs uses an item button in place of the list but more significantly, does not slide the view when that item button is tapped. Instead, it provides a popover-like view with a vertically scrollable list.

Astrid is another iPhone app that opts for using an item over the list button but it then follows Facebook’s slide-out interaction pattern exactly.

Concluding Notes

These patterns help formulate how to properly implement a slide-out navigation. Should it be a navigation scheme implemented in your iOS app, there is some leeway and flexibility available, as shown with these examples. But, there are at least four best practices that should be followed:

1. Slide-out navigation is best served in content-related apps, especially when there are many views that can grow dynamically.




2. Use a list or item button to trigger the panel or popover (i.e., not a back button like in Gmail for iOS).




3. When the navigation panel is in the expanded state, ensure the minimum width of the mostly hidden main content area consists of at least a 44 pixel wide tap target size (i.e., not like Path).




4. Keep the opening and closing gestures for the slide-out navigation consistent with these observed patterns; snapping the panel closed versus making the panel resizable is winning the day, at least for now.

The first interesting choice was the alternate way to change views. Like our app Agenda, they’re using paging to more quickly change views. It’s also possible to save specific views and switch them from the main timeline. Notice the page indicator above the main timeline in the screenshot below.

The second neat feature is inline image previews that reveal different parts of an image as the view is scrolled.

I’m also really liking this beautiful popover-like interface, which they also happen to feature on the app’s website.

Congrats to Ollie Wagner and Andrew Stone on this release.

I’m trying it out in an Android-like setup, with these toggles now on my second Home screen.

(via MacStories)

Link ↗

(via RT by @neilinglis)

Link ↗

Also, check out the video.

Link ↗

His return to Apple saved it from oblivion. And then we got the world-changing products: Not just the Mac, which had redefined what a “personal computer” was in the ’80s, but the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad.

- Jason Snell

And so more than ever, I find myself inspired. Steve’s untimely death reminds us we can never give up. He could have given up at any point in the seven years since his first cancer diagnosis, but he did not. The vast majority of Apple’s unprecedented resurgence took place while Steve Jobs stared death in the face. How many of us could have lasted this long at all, let alone accomplish all that he did along the way?

- Matt Drance

I am thankful for Steve’s life and what he accomplished. But I also remember that he was still just a man, like all of us. We continue by seeking to live with intention, by loving those around us, pursuing our dreams, trusting our gut, and remembering that life is fragile.

- Shawn Blanc

But I always thought…for him to die young, it seemed so strange because for other people of his magnitude like Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, you sort of feel like we wrung everything out of them. They were old when they died. But for Steve Jobs, you really got the sense like, ‘Ahhhh!!!! We’re not done with you yet.’ And it was this sense that, what are we supposed to do now? What’s next?’ It’s sort of like an alien that comes down and gives you this new technology and then kind of shows you how to use it and then takes off in a spaceship. And then your like, ‘Ahhhh!!!! What’s this green button?’ Strange. Unusual character and we won’t see the likes of him for quite some time.

- Jon Stewart

But in the end, when I think about leadership, passion and attention to detail, I think back to the call I received from Steve Jobs on a Sunday morning in January. It was a lesson I’ll never forget. CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday.

- Vic Gundotra

Just 14 years ago, Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy…[b]ut that was just the start of Apple’s return to glory, the greatest corporate comeback story of all time, led by Steve Jobs.

- Business Insider

Cupertino council woman,

‘People are curious, how can this city residence benefit from this new campus?’

Steve Jobs,

‘Well, we’d liked to stay in Cupertino and keep paying our taxes….if we can get out of taxes, we’d be glad to put up free Wi-Fi.’

- Steve Jobs, presenting to the Cupertino City Council (6/7/11)

This moving video was created by Apple employees for Steve Jobs’ 30th birthday on February 24, 1985. The five-minute movie contains a slew of images of Steve that we’ve never seen before — as a baby; as a toddler on his bike; with friends and colleagues — and is a fitting testament to the way in which Apple workers viewed their great leader.

- Cult of Mac

Who wants a stylus?

- Steve Jobs, at the introduction of the iPhone (via Johh Gruber)

Steve’s last keynote, last words,

‘So go at it, have a great week, and thank you very much for coming this morning.’

(via David Smith)

Mac

Users: 58M

iOS

Devices: 250m
iPhones: Half on the market are iPhone 4′s
App Store: >500k apps; 140k iPad apps

Accounts/Downloads

App Store: 18b; $3b paid to developers

If you compare these numbers to the WWDC keynote just four months ago (or so), what stands out to me is that there is a 55% increase in the total number of iPad apps (90k iPad apps then).

For more comprehensive stats and visuals, see MacStories post The (Big) Numbers Apple Touted At Their iPhone Event.

If you aren’t familiar with it, the book Paradox of Choice lays out why having too many purchasing options is actually crippling to consumers. Americans in particular face angst when looking at the seemingly infinite number of options to make purchases. For example, at a local grocery market author Barry Schwartz finds 75 iced teas and 285 varieties of cookies. Then consider the paradox of choice at work for larger and more expensive purchases, such as electronics or cars. Nearly everything is customizable and the stress of making a decision can be paralyzing.

Apple has largely removed this complexity from their purchasing process. In fact, the iPad 2 launch was probably their most complicated iOS product to date. Consumers had to choose a color, size, and what kind of network capabilities they wanted. If they wanted a Wi-Fi + 3G model, they then had to select AT&T or Verizon.

Still, selecting a particular version from those twenty-four different possible combinations is only a decision that must be made once a consumer believes he wants an iPad. Essentially, the choice is a single iPad versus any other tablet. The paradox of choice is at least one reason the latest numbers have 25M iPads on the market compared to 3M tablets of everything else.

From a development perspective, the paradox of choice also makes building apps for iOS significantly easier, because in general, there are at most about three generation of devices that need to be supported. But it could be possible to get away with two. For example, at the moment most of the non-tablet market could be covered by supporting third and fourth generation iPod touches and iPhones (i.e., the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4). Since Apple phases out older products, it makes device support fairly predictable.

Even on the design side, there are only two screen sizes, one for the iPod touch and iPhone, and one for the iPad. Of course, there’s Retina display but Apple’s made it more straightforward for designers by just doubling the pixel dimensions. Compare this simplicity against building for Android, where there are many different screen sizes, many different hardware specifications, and little consistency available to developers and designers. This lack of standardization is one reason most Android Market reviews focus on why the app doesn’t work on a particular device instead of addressing actual features of the app.

Ultimately, it’s a win-win for Apple. Consumers aren’t overwhelmed when deciding to “buy Apple” and developers can better support their apps. The Apple philosophy of less is more is apparent in all of their culture and it’s apt considering the subtitle of The Paradox of Choice which reads, Why More is Less.

To try to capture the new “candle” effect, I snapped a few photos of my iPhone 4. The picture qualities aren’t phenomenal because I used an iPhone 3GS but I think you can see the difference. The screen on the left shows Flux enabled.

Because the iPhone 3GS camera was attempting to adjust the lighting, I also took these shots of the Flux settings. Note that the photo with the applied “Candle” effect had to be snapped as Flux was being enabled, so that the camera would not adjust its lighting. That’s the reason for the discoloration at the top of the screen.

I’m a big fan of this tool. It should ship with iOS itself.

Link ↗

For some background, the problems of sitting for long periods of time are clearly and extensively documented. I’m not going to link to all the data and research but here’s one article I saw only yesterday from CanadianBusiness.com,

What we generally see,” says the Canadian-born Katzmarzyk, “is that people who sit more during the day have a higher risk of dying from any cause, and in particular, mortality from heart disease.

The comments from Cornell don’t try to debunk these kinds of studies but they also seem to downplay them with only a short paragraph on the perils of sitting. More importantly, their criticism of standing desks seem to only consider them when they are used improperly.

Their first issue with sit-stand workstations, “is that when you raise desk height for keyboard/mouse use you need to also raise screen height above the desk or you get neck flexion.” This “problem” seems like no problem at all if the screen height is above the desk…I haven’t seen many sit-stand workstations that don’t work that way. The second observation seems like a similar non-issue because standing can fix posture no more than sitting can.

But here’s my big problem with their piece and why they seem not to prove much. They write,

In our field studies of sit-stand workstations we have found little evidence of widespread benefits and users only stand for very short-periods (15 minutes or less total per day). Other studies have found that the use of sit-stand stations rapidly declines so that after 1 month a majority of people are sitting all the time.

It seems to me that they’re not seeing widespread benefits because as they observe, people are actually not standing. So, how does that prove that it’s not actually healthier? It doesn’t. They’d need to compare people who actually stand versus those who sit (which is what the studies that compare the health benefits of sitting versus standing do). Just because people who have sit-stand workstations don’t stand doesn’t mean there are no benefits; it just means those they observed were being lazy. And that’s what I consider these observations…a bit lazy.

Link ↗

I’m releasing this Mac OS Lion UI Kit for those who need to create mockups. This is free to use, but please link back here for download!. I believe I have all the ‘most used’ UI elements covered, but let me know if something important is missing.

While any useful mockup tool piques my interest, I’m particularly intrigued by Lion UI Kit, as we are eyeing Lion and the Mac App Store more and more.

Link ↗

Thankfully though, our experience with some of our other apps put us in a position to quickly deal with this significantly increased volume. Here’s how we did it.

1) In App Emails with App-Specific Subject Lines

In app emails are probably the best way to provide customers a way to get in touch with you. You’ll find that including this element in your apps will drastically increase customer contact with you (and that’s a good thing!). If you’re not doing this already (and many are), check out InAppSettingsKit.

Don’t stop with populating the in app email with your support email address only. Add two more elements. The first is a subject line that is app-specific. For Agenda, we use, “Agenda – Support Request.” I’ll discuss why adding the subject line is particularly useful momentarily.

The second item to add is diagnostic information for troubleshooting issues (hat tip to Dave Smith). We include the device type, device OS, and application version in the footer of the in app email. This information let’s you start assessing any issues right away and can reduce email volume by 50%.

2) Form Submissions with App-Specific Subject Lines

Some customers won’t use in app emails. Instead, they’ll visit your website to try to find help. That’s why on our Agenda website, we have a web form at the bottom of the page. This form also generates an email with the “Agenda – Support Request” subject line. Between these two channels, almost all Agenda emails being sent to us have the “Agenda – Support Request” subject line.

3) Gmail Canned Responses

A powerful feature of Gmail is “Canned Responses.” They allow common responses to be saved as drafts. That text can then be inserted quickly into any message. You can read more about Canned Responses on the Gmail blog or Lifehacker.

We have a canned response for every one of our popular support or feature requests. But we actually often don’t have to use them. What’s even more useful is the “master” canned response we have setup for any email sent to us with the “Agenda – Support Request” subject line.

4) Filters with a Canned Response

Combining the master canned response with a Gmail filter for the “Agenda – Support Request” subject line, most Agenda inquiries are answered without our interaction. Our canned response immediately gets customers a response from us, sets their expectations about turnaround time, includes some frequently asked questions (with a link to all of them on the Agenda website), and provides the release notes from the last update. After each release, we update all canned responses (as needed), including the master canned response with the latest release notes.

The downside to this approach is twofold: 1) It’s slightly more impersonal. 2) Customers will receive the auto-response for additional inquiries. But for the 1-2 customers who complained about that, many, many more appreciated their questions being answered instantaneously.

Concluding Note

This solution is not perfect but it has allowed us to provide stellar customer support and answer almost all actual inquiries within our stated goal of 1-2 business days, even with the high volume of inquiries.

By focusing on real issues or requests, we’ve been able to better triage what bugs and features need to be addressed. While selectively inputting issues into our bug and feature tracking solution (Unfuddle), we also circumvented costly and complicated customer support solutions that really aren’t necessary for independent software developers.

Because we are still discovering the ways in which we use tablets, we need to re-think how furniture might be better designed to accommodate these new lifestyles.

(via Graham Clarke)

Mac

Users: 54m
73% of all users are on notebooks

iOS

Devices: 200m
iPads: 25m
44% of mobile market
App Store: 425k apps; 90k iPad apps
Push Notifications: 100b

Accounts/Downloads

iTunes: 225m accounts
iTunes: 15b
iBooks: 130m
App Store: 14b; $2.5b paid to developers

Prototypes for Mac turns your flat mockup images into tappable and sharable prototypes that run on iPhone or iPod touch.

A new Mac app, Prototypes joins the growing number of mockup-related tools to add to your iOS arsenal. We’ll be experimenting with it, along with InVision (thanks, Harold) in future internal and client projects.

One of the reasons Prototypes is slightly more appealing to us though, is that it provides on-device testing. Unfortunately, however, it seems there are many more tools that only support this kind of functionality for the iPhone or iPod touch and not the iPad.

In any case, InVision could be used earlier in the process, just to get a high-level overview of application flow, moving to on-device testing once the user experience is refined or approved by a client. So, I don’t see these kinds of tools as mutually exclusive. Give them both a look and see what best fits your workflow.

(via MacStories)

Link ↗

What we can conclude though, is that Android and iOS are very similar in terms of usability, at least in the apps we have tested. Of course, there are apps on both platforms that are really very well designed, and apps which should never have been let into the store/market. Neither platform is immune to poorly designed apps.

One difference that also needs to be considered as part of the user experience is the hardware, and this is where some issues come to the fore. Although you can buy very high quality Android phones, you can also buy very cheap, very poorly designed phones which can cause a terrible UX. One thing you have to admit about Apple is that their hardware is of a very high (and well designed) quality.

Interesting results from IntuitionHQ, where Android vs. iOS apps yielded a final tally of 9 to 7.5 on usability, in favor of Android.

Link ↗

I previously was a customer of Ergotron products and almost rigged one of their desk mount arms to work as a makeshift standing desk. Thankfully, I didn’t have to though, as they have several outstanding standing desk-specific products, which unlike other options, work without altering an existing desk or purchasing a new one. They also require no power source.

I’ve been using my workstation since the start of the year and my favorite part about it is the being able to quickly switch back and forth between sitting and standing. If you haven’t purchased Ergotron products before, they are extremely well-made. I’ll share some pictures of my particular setup and usage in a future post but for now, if you’re jumping onto the standing desk bandwagon, definitely give Ergotron a look.

Link ↗