https://www.andy.works/words/honor-the-material
Phone makers announce their latest models promising to be the “best phones we’ve ever built”. While the yearly ritual has become routine to the point where the media reviews are almost written in advance, it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture of just how far these devices have advanced over the past 13 years
Apps have fallen behind
Despite the exponential leaps in hardware capabilities, many of the apps that we rely on every day aren’t much different from what they were 13 years ago
- Fundamentally, our approach to software design hasn’t evolved so much as been optimized
- Even the most innovative apps rely on the same foundations
Craft
Knowing your materials-their strengths and weaknesses-will allow you to marry real needs with what a platform and device can deliver
- Move with the grain, and you can unlock amazing experiences
- Be able to work within the constraints of your own mind and not against the grain
This is on us
Modern day mobile devices are fundamentally different from those of a decade ago
- It’s on us to develop new approaches that better honor this material by utilizing its full capabilities to solve real needs and unlock new software experiences
- If you’re working on a product that’s struggling to evolve, there’s a question you can ask yourself: If you could throw everything out, what would it look like? How would you honor the material?
We are holding phones from the future, running software designed a decade ago
Most have room for improvement
- Calculator app is the most error-prone calculator
- Alarm app is just broken
- The issues extend to the visual design of these apps which often still hold the stamp of their origins on a small 3:2 phone
Honor the material
To honor a material is to celebrate its unique properties and utilize its strengths
- It’s using a material to its full potential
- Every material is good at something and poor at something else
- Charles and Ray Eames knew the strengths of their materials and brought together beautifully in form and purpose