Comments on: Google Calendar: design matters?

By: Grant

Grant — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 19:23:13 +0000

Jon, thanks for your comment, good design is not about prettifying software. It's about making it easier to fathom, faster to use, and, ultimately, allowing it to make my life, especially the shifting temporal details thereof, more lucid. See Virginia Postrel's The Substance of Style for more. Best, Grant

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 18:44:11 +0000

This is how Google Design disappoints? These things aren't critiques. 'Designers' confuse me.

==
1) we live our lives in the wind tunnel of contemporary culture. Data howls past us. We are Floridians in a data storm.

2) people need us to take information and make decisions. Preferably by lunch time. Certainly by the end of the business day.

3) most of us are always 2 or 3 data points away from chaos. ("That roof's about to go. Get in the basement!")
==

By: Shloky

Shloky — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 20:00:20 +0000

I'm also of the opinion GC is a clean simple elegant design. Goes well with the Google suite (Finance's graphs are above par design).

By: Chas. Porter

Chas. Porter — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 18:27:29 +0000

Your writing is so good that it makes me believe you're right without my ever even looking at Google Calendar. That's sort of scary (Ha!) What engineers need to learn is that design is functionality, but the best design is functionality jiggered with a whisper of vermouth and a twist of lemon: Ah, now that IS better.

By: William T. Foxtrot

William T. Foxtrot — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 15:06:21 +0000

I've tried out Google Calendar, and it seems just fine to me. I don't think I'll switch over from iCal, but I can see why people are so interested. What exactly would you have liked to see at Google Calendar to make it more elegant?

By: Grant

Grant — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 17:13:20 +0000

John, sorry, I had an image from Trumba (and a passage about Trumba) in the original post, but Pam, my wife, was not keen on having the former made public. So now I have a "trace" problem. Oh, well. Sorry. Best, Grant

By: John Galvin

John Galvin — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 14:54:41 +0000

I'm sorry, but I've looked and looked on this page and I can't find any reference to Trumba except in the comments. Where is this picture of Trumba?

By: SEO Consultant Esoos Bobnar

SEO Consultant Esoos Bobnar — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 02:24:34 +0000

Google Calendar Gets Some Heavy Blog Lovin’

So Google Calendar was released yesterday (see the press release and blog post). And it’s pretty good. But what’s really interesting is the massive exposure it’s gotten in the blogoshperic blogoverse of blogdom. It’s different kind of viral marketing f…

By: Grant

Grant — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 23:29:45 +0000

Steve, please tell me you are not confusing elegance and decoration. Elegance is built right in, no? Thanks, Grant

By: Steve Portigal

Steve Portigal — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 22:53:16 +0000

It's almost as if you are talking about decoration, not design. Perhaps like the Scion tC, it's just not designed for you?

The first thing I read about the Google Calendar was http://google.weblogsinc.com/2006/04/13/google-calendar-staying-organized-has-never-been-so-easy/ and it really emphasized the feeling aspect of the interaction (one version of "design" in an interesting way)
"This thing is gorgeous, easy, flawless during my initial poking, lubricated with Web 2.0 juice, and brain-dead simple to use."
"The site is clickalicious, springing to life with each mouse bite. In fact -- perhaps the page's responsiveness is somewhat oversensitive, but that's Web 2.0 for ya."