Design Is for Function. Looks? A Bonus.
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”
—Steve Jobs, US computer engineer
& industrialist, Apple (1955 – )
Flipboard, meet Steve Jobs. Actually, you already have! You’ve created a product for Steve’s iPad that follows his philosophy that good design is about good functionality (“how it works”), and you’ve given us good looks and good feel as a bonus.
And what a bonus it is! Just the act of “flipping” a page makes Flipboard inviting. You’ve got us flipping virtually. We’re flipped out over the way Flipboard makes sense of our virtual worlds and brings them all together in one gloriously designed app, where function overtakes form, and both are champions.
Now we’re connected in one virtual fell swoop to Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, Instagram, Flickr, LinkedIn and more than we can ever save to Read It Later, plus more professional online content than we can contemplate on Instapaper. We can thrill to feeds on Art, Design, Tech, Lifestyle, Oprah and over 30 industry professions, and it will seem just like a lark with a magazine to us.
You’ve made our work seem like fun, Flipboard 1.5. And you’ve done Steve proud.
Sources
Flipboard 1.5 from the Official Flipboard Blog
Design quote adapted from InspireUX.com
Functionality comes hand in hand with the aesthetics. If ones missing… it just feels odd.. but this flipboard app thing..!!!! just cant stop collecting pages and flip. flip. flip! eeeee!!! going to go grab the ipad!
It’s always a treat to find functionality working just as well as aesthetics, isn’t it? Of course Apple is one of the leaders in that arena. Flipboard, too, and it obviously has a loyal following (us, at least!)—thanks for your flippin’ comments.
Flipboard is an absolutely fantastic app. I was fortunate enough to be invited to this app early in it’s release and have been a daily user since. It is a fantastic way to view feeds from twitter and Facebook, as well as numerous blogs. It is because of this app that I no longer use Twitter.com to view feeds. It has truly changed how I receive and view my online content. I highly recommend it and demo it often. This alone is reason enough to have an iPad.
Isn’t having Flipboard just a Lucky Strike Extra for the iPad? The design is so fabulous, which I really appreciate as a former magazine designer, and of course, the afore-mentioned functionality. I somehow found Flipboard early on, and have been intrigued ever since. Thanks for your input—since you seem to have beta testing skills, any idea what’s the next big thing after Flipboard?