You Can't Miss: Similarities between web and print

By following Made By Many for a month now, it's really hit home how similar the goals are for web, print, apps, etc.

For example, in this post about designing apps that become integrated into people's lives, Simon L'Anson writes "I feel that for an app to really succeed it needs to become embedded in the user's daily behaviour."

Isn't that also what we want our print product and our website and our iPad product to do? It comes down to the different ways to have that work on different platforms. Whether it's by subtly reminding people to text a response at a convenient time or providing a design that people just can't miss, it's about integrating the experience into the daily experience.

It's also about content. L'Anson uses the example of an app he uses to track all of this information when he bikes on his phone as an example of a great app. He loves it. I would find it useless. But it points to needing great content that people can interact with.

In a Folio article on re-designing websites, Jonathon Hills debunks the idea that a re-design will solve all problems. In fact, it's the content that often needs the re-design more than the design. He compares a re-design to hydrogen peroxide, which makes people feel like they're doing something, when really they aren't. He applies it specifically to websites, but I think it's something to remember even with print and apps as well.

I think a re-design should encompass what's changed in the product that people now find useful that they didn't have or have use for before. But it shouldn't happen just for the sake of change.