The Web 2.0 Awards

It was with great interest yesterday that I scrolled down the list of award winners of the Web 2.0 Awards. Admittedly these were given in May (and this is July) but I had just seen a link to it recently.

I also forwarded the link on to my coworker and friend David who remarked something to the effect of.. "I use a lot of these sites!" Perhaps Dave should start his own awards site as well. But he brings up a very good point in that simple statement.

Web 2.0 is really about usability. Taking all of the things that we have supposedly LEARNED over the past 10 years and applying them to clean, well thought out interfaces that are all about community. And the simple rule is, you don't gain a community without making it easy to use. All of these sites excel at that.

David is a member of a lot of these communities. As are many of us. The court of public opinion could decide these awards very easily in many ways. However it doesn't always work that way. You won't notice a single award to MySpace. Thankfully.

Anyway, look down the list of winners, check some of them out. Join some of these communities and see how they work for you. These are sites that we should be trying to CONTINUE to learn from. I am praying that we don't have to endure a Web 3.0 and on and on... but simply just start adding what we are learning today to what we build tomorrow.

To me, the whole Web 2.0 term is just a short way of saying that we have finally started to recast the very foundation of the Web. To dig new footings and pour new concrete that we can REALLY build on this time. These sites have rebuilt this strong foundation on the Web that will indeed allow that growth. Check them out.

iPhone makes me think... again

I love new technology. Really I do. And not much else has gotten my attention recently more than the new iPhone.
I neither have the money or the ability (my current Verizon contract standing in the way) to actually GET an iPhone right now, but I did have the opportunity to mess with one the other day at a local Apple Store.

A lot has been written about the iPhone and I certainly don't need to go on blabbering on here about all of its bells as whistles. But I will take a moment to talk about its interface.

As a designer, I was very interested to see how it actually worked.

I was not disappointed. Apple has been able to develop an interface that was as instinctual as anything I have ever used... even a hammer. To me it was THAT simple. I immediately understood HOW to use the device. And as anyone who gets the newest and latest cell phones can tell you, that is NEVER the case. They come with books for a good reason. And that first night you have your new phone, you lay in bed with all of that stuff on the bed, the phone in one hand and the manual in the other letting out a series of sounds that go something like... "huh? hmmm. Sheesh. Oh! Hmmm. THATS stupid!"

I stood there for some time messing with the latest in interface design and could finally see where all of this is taking us. Hopefully I will find some inspiration in that simple moment and move my little part of the design world along too. But I sure do want to design something for that cool little phone!

In the meantime, if anyone wants to donate an iPhone to my favorite charity... I am sure I, errr... i mean they, would appreciate it.