Design Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Pixelmator 2.2 available with over 100 new features and improvements

by John-Michael Bond (May 9th, 2013)

Popular image-editing app Pixelmator has released version 2.2, which brings a slew of new features to the already powerful program. The update comes with an expanded collection of shapes, tools to manipulate them, enhanced gradient palettes and a new paint selection tool among the more than 100 ...

Adobe to go subscription-only with Creative Cloud software

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (May 6th, 2013)

As Adobe finds its footing in a cloud-based world, it pulled a move that most likely will generate a backlash from the students and creative professionals that rely on its software. Adobe announced that the Creative Suite software will be rebranded as Creative Cloud and confirmed it will no longer ...

Volkswagen to introduce iBeetle iPhone-equipped car

by Michael Grothaus (Apr 22nd, 2013)

Volkswagen will unveil the "iBeetle" this week at the 2013 Shanghai Auto Show. The iBeetle will be "...one of the first cars in the world to have a genuine integrative interface for the iPhone that was coordinated with Apple," according to the company. iPhone fans and gear heads shouldn't ...

Jony Ive named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world

by Yoni Heisler (Apr 18th, 2013)

Time magazine's annual list of the top 100 most influential people in the world is out and Apple design guru Jony Ive made the list. Ive's write-up in the magazine was penned by none other than U2 frontman Bono, who you might remember had a particularly close relationship with Steve Jobs and a ...

Skitch update (iOS and Mac) includes PDF annotation, stamps

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Apr 18th, 2013)

If you are already a Skitch user and happen to have an Evernote Premium account, a new update now allows you to annotate PDFs using the app. Once you open a PDF in Skitch you'll get a 30-day trial of the premium PDF annotation feature. All users see a new way to add graphics to documents in ...

Online Steve Jobs memorial pays tribute to the original Mac OS

by John-Michael Bond (Apr 4th, 2013)

Rememberum is a new start up company that provides clean, customizable options for creating online memorials for loved one. To promote their new service the company has published a stunningly creative tribute to Apple founder Steve Jobs, designed to look like the original Mac OS. On his ...

Rocketcat goes deeper into the Mage Dungeon with Wayward

by Mike Schramm (Apr 1st, 2013)

Kepa Auwae's Rocketcat Games is one of my favorite iOS developers: Auwae himself is full to the brim with creative ideas about gaming, and all of Rocketcat's releases, from Hook Champ to Mage Gauntlet to Punch Quest, are extremely polished and well-designed. I got to meet with Auwae in person ...

WSJ profiles Letterpress creator Loren Brichter, the 'high priest of app design'

by Mike Schramm (Mar 18th, 2013)

Here at TUAW, we're big fans of Loren Brichter, the app developer behind Tweetie (which eventually became the official Twitter app) and the great word game Letterpress. But the Wall Street Journal appears to have just discovered the dev -- in a profile that appeared over the weekend, the paper ...

Dad hooks up an iPad and Hue light to Minecraft for his son

by Mike Schramm (Mar 13th, 2013)

Sure, the Phillips Hue (a light bulb that can be controlled with an iPad) might seem slightly silly, but one dad found a really good way to use it: By helping his son play some Minecraft. Dad #1 Jim Rutherford set up a quick iPad app to easily and quickly sync up the Hue light with wherever the ...

Gmail's mobile web interface now looks just like the app

by Mike Schramm (Mar 11th, 2013)

I use Gmail pretty much exclusively for my incoming email, with three or four different accounts that redirect to my always online, easily accessible, and seemingly bottomless inbox. I thought the app the company recently released with a brand-new look was pretty impressive, and apparently so ...

Jonathan Ive on Apple's design philosophy

by Kelly Hodgkins (Feb 20th, 2013)

Late last year, Tim Cook put Jony Ive in the position of heading up Apple's Human Interface (HI) design across the company's products. Known for his work on Apple hardware, the British designer has worked his way up the ranks at Apple. He was highly regarded by Steve Jobs, who called him his ...

Macintosh pen holder holds your writing utensil in a classic way

by Mike Schramm (Feb 19th, 2013)

Sure, at over US$53 it's a little pricey, but I am completely charmed by this pen holder shaped like an old Macintosh. Maybe it's that Susan Kare face, or the floppy drive slot, or just the reassuring, all-in-one, boxy shape, but there's something about this little 3D-printed desktop decoration ...

Tony Fadell discusses inspiring designers

by Michael Grothaus (Jan 18th, 2013)

Tony Fadell, the CEO of Nest and former designer on Apple's iPod team, has revealed his list of secrets that inspire designers to make amazing products. Speaking at the Bloomberg Design conference this week, Fadell said it was important for companies to try to create a culture where everyone is ...

Touchscreen gestures turned into physical interactions

by Steven Sande (Jan 16th, 2013)

Let's say the year is 2023, and we're now interfacing with our iPhones in a totally new way. How would you explain to a young person of the future how we interacted with our iPhones back in the touchscreen days? Gabriele Meldaikyte, a student at the Royal College of Art in London, has the ...

The proper way to design an empty space in your app

by Michael Grothaus (Jan 14th, 2013)

App designers (and Apple), take note! Designer Craig Dennis has an excellent article on Codrops about designing empty space in your app. These are pages with no data, such as an empty mail inbox or a folder barren of any documents. Dennis argues that no empty space in an app should ever ...