I finally finished my fictional redesign of X-Plane for the iPhone. My first effort wasn't bad, but it was little more than a reskin. As I thought about it further, I thought of changes to both the controls and the organization of the app itself that would dramatically improve it.

As I stated last time - I do not have any connection with any X-Plane project. This is not something you should expect to see coming to the app anytime soon. This is just a design exercise.

But I had six Bank of America projects, one Merrill Lynch project, a Chrysler design study, and one bit of pitch work for Budweiser to add to my site, and now is as good a time as any. Check them out at danielboyle.net.

• First, I am going to update my portfolio. I haven't updated it since I started at Organic in June of 2008. That should say how happy I am to be here. Still, I don't want it to look dormant. I have a bunch of work for Bank of America and Merrill Lynch to post, plus some concept work for pitches. I'd love to share the site I'm current working on (pet care), but it's still under production and (I think) NDA.
• I'm still working on a redesigned UI concept for the iPhone version of X-Plane. It's just a design exercise, not an actual job, but it's a nice challenge. I finished the wireframe and interaction design, and am about ready to start pushing pixels.
• I keep noticing a small but steady stream of traffic coming here after searching for "cooking for nerds." I plan on restarting that series, but expanded into its own blog, with a custom design and a heavy emphasis on design and information, as well as the food.

I won't be bored anytime soon, I think.

• A design piece revolving around airliner traffic. I'd currently put the status at 80% finished.
• A revised design study for the X-Plane iPhone app. Honestly, my first attempt was pretty basic. But after viewing some of the icons at IconWerk.de, I really want to reimagine it and refine the interface significantly.
• A design study for Pandora. I love Pandora. But there are some things that bug me.
• A Flash project. It's been a long, long time since I've done any programming, and I really don't want to lose any skills. I was considering trying to program a very dumb combat/AI system, but that's not realistic. I need something simple, but I'm at a loss as to what to make.
• A PHP/MySQL/JQuery project. Again, I don't want to lose any skills. I have an idea about this one though.
• A longer-term illustration project with a friend. It involves a delusional tattooed lawyer and a ham sandwich.

One thing I want to be very clear about with any redesign projects: I'm not going to go the route described here and here. I really want to stress that I only do this as an exercise, not as an insult to the people who make these wonderful products.

Fear is the mind killer.

I love this game on the desktop, and starting up the mobile version and flying a couple approaches in a great timekiller. It feels remarkably similar to the desktop app, widely regarded as one of the most realistic flight simulations available. Unfortunately, it shares some UI design issues with desktop application.

To make things clear - I am not involved with the creation of X-Plane - that is Laminar Research. I'm a fan only. If you want to learn more, go to X-Plane.com.

If you want to learn more about the issues I have with the design of this App, and my solutions (and promise not to get mad/sue me if you're involved with the creation of this App), click the more button below.

This was a great little toy to remind myself how to use PHP, MySQL, and teach myself some more uses for JQuery. The basic rules are fairly simple - if there's a group of cows on your side - add one to your total. If there's a cemetary, your cows die (your total becomes zero. Obviously, it requires honesty - the drive is at a huge disadvantage, and there's a gray area as to what constitutes a cow siting - one cow? A large herd? What if there are multiple groups? Do you only count right along the road, or off into the scenery? A little human intuition is neccesary, but the basic logic is pretty simple.

The great thing about JQuery (and other AJAX scripting libraries) is that it really simplifies building lightweight sites that still have rich interactions. This was doubly important, because I wanted it to work on my iPhone on a drive from New Jersey to North Carolina, then to Tennessee, and back. AT&T's 3G data connection is OK, but there's no need to push your luck if you're stuck on EDGE in the middle of nowhere (I believe that's an actual town you pass on I-81 in Virginia. If it's not, it should be. If saved a ton of time reload the entire page, and instead just making calls to and from a database.

I have one major bug fix - and it's the first user interaction you should check for - "Idiot Clicking." Essentially, you need to know what's going to happen when someone clicks a button 20 times in a row when the site freezes, or your data connection hangs because you went into a dead spot between some mountains. And, of course, this is the first thing my wife discovers. It's not a big deal - I simply need to disable the buttons and show a "working/please wait" message of some sort.

We also got creative with the rules (we were in the car for over 24 hours this weekend). You constantly pass rather large crosses on hills when you get out past the Mason-Dixon line. Should they count as something? Maybe, if you have no cows, you get some back from the dead. It would've helped me - every time I'd get close, I'd hit a graveyard. The closest my wife got was a monument of some sort. Do Chick-Fil-A billboards count? The cows aren't live, but they are pretty funny.

Once I fix it up, and secure it, maybe I'll put it live somewhere.

Budget airlines used to have a bad reputation. Southwest changed that by offering a basic, but friendly and positive experience. It's propelled their airline to the top of annual quality surveys, and consistent profits. JetBlue took this model and exanded on it, offering high quality entertainment options and more comfortable seating. Virgin America is a newcomer, but is following the same model - low prices, basic comforts and new technology.

The old, traditional airlines have lagged behind significantly, while finding ever more creative ways to charge you - such as charging for checked luggage, while still allowing anything short of an overseas steamer as a carry-on.

For the record, I think anything that is a carry-on, ought to be something you actually carry - not a rolling suitcase.

Bare metal has NEVER made anything look new – instead the plane looks like it's lost half of its paint. While I respect any airline that hasn't had the urge to make their planes look like a flying whale or web 2.0 startup, but the artwork on the plane says, "We haven't updated our look since 1975, and we're ok with that. Combined with the fact that AA DOES fly a large amount of older planes (the MD-80 pictured was introduced in 1980, and is basically a modernized DC-9 – which was itself introduced in 1965). It's old, loud, and inefficient. Of course, a plane from 1980 is still perfectly safe, because of frequent high-level maintenance. But the plane can still look old - particularly if you haven't cleaned the interior since you bought it.

There are a few other video sites I use (or have used) on a regular basis: AdultSwim.com, ABC.com, CBS.com.

A Short List of Things That Surprise Me

Trigun
What starts out as a very simple anime (clumsy, super-powered hero with a heart of gold fighting progressively bigger and more dangerous villians) suprises you with some actual depth to both storytelling and characterization.

Full Metal Alchemist
Yet another anime series that starts out as a cliche (brothers with magical powers who are incredibly strong despite their youth), but ends up suprising the viewer as the characters are forced to reconcile not only their horrific decisions, but those of their father – and the ethics of the world as they know it.

Runaways
Comic books, particularly superhero stories, are never known for their subtlety, particularly when they're aimed at a younger ‘teen’ audience. A story focused on a group of teenagers (several not old enough to drive) shouldn't make a reader remember exactly what it's like to be in high school and feel like your parents are the world's greatest villians (literally, in this case).

Nine Inch Nails
Trent Reznor is in his mid-40's, and has gotten off drugs. Somehow, that combination means he's writing better music and puts on a better live show (pushing the limits of video and technological interaction) than damn near anyone.

One of the reasons I have used Flash for my main site for the last few revisions was the ease of updating via the XML files. This allowed to to easily and quickly update my portfolio. What used to happen was I'd create my portfolio, and by the time I motivated to update everything, I'd essentially have to rebuild the site from scratch. This version uses PHP to read the same XML file that powers the Flash version, although for the sake of load time and preventing interminable scrolling, I only load projects that have been flagged as new.

Why?

Last week, a Creative Director here at Organic made a comment that while he doesn't always appreciate the aesthetic of single-page portfolios, he loves being able to check out a link on his iPhone and browse it easily. In the age of smartphones, it's a good point.

As far as why PHP, it's simply to move the processing off of the user's browser. JQuery is much easier when it comes to processing HTML, however it relies on the browser's Javascript engine to read the file and create usable HTML. On a mobile device such as the iPhone, that will hurt performance, whereas my server can handle the load without blinking, even with many simultaneous requests. Also, JQuery doesn't create 'actual' HTML, so search engines would not index it properly. I'd imagine that other mobile browsers such as Opera Mini, or browsers on the Blackberry or Windows Mobile platforms (and lower-power processors than the iPhone) Javascript performance is poor.

So, the site is up. It's accessible as a direct link which you can find here, or as a link if the Flash detection fails on the main page.

Also, I used this excellent PHP5 tutorial to help me figure out the backend code (since I'm not a PHP expert by any means).