Linked List: December 26, 2014

The Talk Show: ‘2014 Year in Review’ 

Special guest Rene Ritchie joins me for a year-end wrap-up of 2014’s Apple-related news.

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Old Fashioned 101 

Great little single-page* website by Martin Doudoroff on the Old Fashioned:

Circa 1800, the Cocktail was a “hair of the dog” morning drink that tamed spirits with water, sugar and bitters (patent medicine). The late 19th Century expanded the use of the word “cocktail” to encompass just about any mixed drink. Since then, the Old Fashioned — literally, the old-fashioned way of making a cocktail — has been our contemporary expression of the original drink.

During the 20th Century, various bad ideas encrusted the Old Fashioned. Here we will strip off those barnacles to expose the amazingly simple and sublime drink beneath.

* Technically, there’s a page 2, which is worth reading as well.

IBM Design Language 

Words I never expected to write: Elegant, thoughtful, design guidelines and examples from IBM.

Here’s a story by Larry Dignan back in March on IBM “betting on design”. I’m starting to believe it.

Horace Dediu Calls Apple/IBM Enterprise Partnership Biggest News of 2014 

Horace Dediu:

The recent apps release showed just how transformative this relationship could be. We were witnesses to apps which appeared to be designed for users[!] They were not designed for committees that prepare checklists of requirements.

We must applaud IBM for having the courage to resist the featuritis which plagues enterprise software design. This resistance requires saying No to those who specify and are thus authorized to purchase software and hardware. IBM has had to essentially say no to those who buy and yes to those who are paid to use. The quality of the experience is evident at first sight. The number of user actions, the number of screens to wade through have been ruthlessly culled. These are concepts and ideas which now permeate app design best practices. Yet they are practices which still elude the spec-driven enterprise software wastelands.

From the DF Archive: Merry 

As true today as when I wrote it three years ago.