Graphical user interfaces are full of symbols. Symbols need to be reduced to their essence. This helps avoid cluttering the user interface with meaningless distractions, and makes it easier for people to «read» the symbol and figure out the meaning of an interface element. Realistic details can get in the way of what you’re trying to communicate to your users.

Plus there are some fun charts on to help illustrate the points.

ignore the code: Realism in UI Design.

Mint was a key leader of the next generation of game changers. And now it’s property of Intuit — the poster-child for the last generation. What a loss. Is that the best the next generation can do? Become part of the old generation? How about kicking the shit out of the old guys? What ever happened to that?

Its difficult for innovation to come from within a company that is set in its ways, so I can see this as positive move for Intuit. But from Mint’s perspective I do question the move as it feels that they are at risk of losing what made them special in the first place.

The full rant – The next generation bends over – 37signals.

People are searching for a creature that has no name, only stories. People commonly refer to this beast as the Velociroflcoptersaurus, or Flcopters for short, but mostly just Velociroflcoptersaurus.

No one knows for sure when the first sighting was, but recently logs point here as a possible first find. News spread quickly of the sighting as the name was whispered between people.

A man, no.. a Company of mans, named Happener has even put for a reward for the individual that is most successful in his search for the Velociroflcoptersaurus. The full breath of their reward can be viewed here.

These are wild and crazy times, what with a Velociroflcoptersaurus running wild through the Interwebs the likes of which we have not seen in a fortnight. Any information that anyone has on this creature, be it a picture or otherwise, please post it below.

Additional information about the Velociroflcoptersaurus can be found here.

These days it’s not uncommon for companies to setup youTube branded page as a way to generate interest around product offerings or compliment other online efforts. Most of these pages go the route of some branding elements and a couple videos with some space for comments. The standard youTube page.

But Nintendo recently put up a page that took a more novel approach for getting your attention. Starting out as a standard common looking youTube page and turning into something quite different.

http://www.youtube.com/experiencewii

Take a look at it for yourself and let me know if its something you like? or just a novelty.

No longer is it a mystery as the people over at EQO have done some research and have published their findings. Information is represented by country and take into account the major IM services that are out there.

If you like charts and graphs.

Global IM Market Share Stats July 08 ( pdf )

If you like spreadsheets

IM Network Market Share by Country – July 2008 (Google Docs)