On Toilets, iOS 7, and Æsthetics

Yesterday, November 19th, we opened a new “bathroom” in our office. Yes, that kind of room. Сoincidentally (or maybe not), we managed to finish the renovation of the block to World Toilet Day. The company, which resided in the floor we currently occupy did a decent job in renovating the space several years ago. But time passed, and we needed to make it right for us anyway.

It should be said that making four toilet cabins and one shower room now costs more than a two-room apartment in the center of Kharkov city some ten years ago. But, even not frequently pronounced, such an important aspect of life shouldn't be neglected. We wanted our restroom to work and feel better than at home, and managed to make a “nice celebration” in the name of the November 19th day.

But there's another aspect about the event that I wanted to share. Some time ago Apple released iOS 7. The release of new UI design brought in many discussions among people who use Apple products, and even among those who don't. The company indeed affects our life much. After I posted my thoughts on the event and shared with some of my non-IT friends, I heard the statements that aesthetics is yielding the design path to utility. It seemed to me as a somewhat superficial consideration of the matter, but I didn't have a chance to explain my view until I found a real life example.

Here are two door handles. One on the left is the old door. On the right is new one. 

The old door has sophisticatedly carved door handle. Even though it was made some fifteen years ago, it gives the feeling of old good times. And indeed it looks nice. But...

Dealing with a handle like this is pain. It feels bad in your hand because of the sharp edge. And it's really awkward to turn. We had a door, which looked nice but didn't serve well. What's also important is that because of all those carvings, it's hard to clean and sanitise. This is an important aspect for a door handle which is used by all people during a day.

The new one feels good, opens easily, and is easy to clean. To me, this is æsthetics.

IT Karting

Just returned from IT Karting. It was the first time our company participated in this tournament, thanks to +Dmitry Staversky who gathered our team. Having almost zero experience in karting, we didn't plan to win. Would you imagine a programming tournament among racers or taxi-drivers, BTW? We didn't make it to final, but went to semi-final, thanks to +Yevhen Panko, who came first in one of the “quarter-final” rounds, and brought our team 10 points.
I'd like to thank Sigma Ukraine for gathering the event. It was really well-organized, with friendly atmosphere, hot drinks, and pizza.  It was good to see old friends.  And it was fun! I hope photos from our chief photographers +Dmitry Staversky and +Maria Tymoshenko are coming soon.
And I also would like to thank +Alexander Kireyev for bringing a bottle of Vieille Kirsch from Switzerland. It's really nice to have some of this delicious drink after such a chilly weather day.

iOS 7: Update or Not Update?

There was an event in my life that I initially attributed as personal, which can be only interesting to family members and close friends. But it appears I was wrong...

My daughter called me in the middle of the day. “Daddy, I like it so much. I’ve just updated!” The first question she got from the classmates was: “Have you updated yet?” Yes, it was about iOS 7. And no, she doesn’t go to a special school for young geeks. It’s a normal Ukrainian school, but with a bit more focus on English.

When I installed the early developers’ preview of iOS 7 I was a bit puzzled. Initially it felt way too different. All those cute bits, shades, textures here and there were gone. The difference to me looked like this:

There are lots of jokes appearing on internet, like: “Son, we know you installed iOS 7. Me and Dad understand... We still love you. And now you can take my lipstick when needed...”
This almost the same I told my friends when I saw the developers’ preview build for the first time. I expected it would be unstable, I expected it would be different, but I didn’t expect it would feel that different. Then after a couple of weeks I get used to it.

No, I got used to it not because I’m becoming a “couturier”. This blog is from a straight man.

First of all, I thought that Apple guys who created the new version understand this stuff more than average users or even people who write for iOS. After all, it’s us buying stuff they make, not vice versa! So I thought there should be something in there. Me and my colleagues learnt a lot when we created Travel Pocket. But people who create tools for billions of people see things from a different perspective.

I would highly recommend viewing the Google I/O 2013 session on Cognitive Science and Design. It’s mainly not about computer software. The talk is about how we see and interact with the world around us, it’s about “software” within our brains. So if you’re in design, psychology, or just curious to know how things work, this session would give a yummy food your brain.

Those who are really busy, scroll the video to 8:15 to the section on geons. It explains the reason behind making things simpler and flat in UI design. Of course, the talk from Google I/O says it all about Android, but Apple guys do their homework as well.

Now consider this, if only one operation done one time saves only 20 milliseconds for 1 billion people around the world, it gives us over 2 years of work for one person. Are you willing to spend 2 years doing a stupid job to reverse the below change?

On Learning

Yesterday I visited my parents. We don’t see each other often, but when we do there’s always something I can learn from my mom and dad. This time it was about software...

My dad got an engineering degree, but he made his career as a photojournalist in central newspapers of USSR. He traveled a lot and had a lot of “analog” photography gadgets. Dad retired long before digital photography appeared. He is celebrating 78th birthday this October, so he saw computers that took a couple of rooms. They were able to compute less than a cell phone in his pocket now. He watched TV sets with water filled lenses screens, that stuff.

My dad never dealt with computers and software until recent few years when he wanted to browse the Web and communicate with friends etc. He learnt Windows by books and internet. I remember only a couple of questions from him. And yesterday Dad told me: “You know, it was enough for me of viruses and all those updates. I searched internet and decided that Ubuntu is right for me.” There was a new white notebook on his table. He wanted it white.

Look, this post isn’t about Linux better than Windows. As an “opposite” example, last week we presented a new Windows 8 notebook to my father-in-law. It was his 60th birthday. The man is so happy with the touch interface! A mouse is too small to his arms, which used to hold steering wheels of big aircrafts years ago.

Sometimes I hear from my colleagues, “Why do we need to learn technology Y, while X we use now is OK?” Chaps, “OK” isn’t enough. We still have much to learn from our dads.

Why this blog?

I frequently discuss various software and technology matters with my colleagues at TeamDev. I feel some of these talks are worth sharing with folks outside the company. Many of the topics we discuss do not directly relate to our products or services, so I thought a separate channel would be appropriate.

Also, by doing this I want to follow the principle DRY for communicating with guys who join us.