Cards Against Humanity

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Nice piece about how Cards Against Humanity happened. I had no idea it was so insanely successful:

At $25 per copy, the original game has likely generated at least $12 million in revenue since 2011 (the company won’t give sales figures). Industry experts estimate the game costs less than $10 to make, sell and distribute. The Chicago-based company behind Cards hasn’t spent a dime on marketing and has no full-time employees.
Two extra bits of genius have also helped - they made a PDF of the game available free - the ultimate form of viral marketing for the 'real' game:

Customers have downloaded PDFs of the game ... 1.5 million times since the founders began tracking the number last year.

And, somewhat accidentally, their choice of controversial subject matter has probably put off mainstream gaming companies from copying the game.

Boardgames and especially ones that only involve cards are an interesting niche. The production costs are so low and scalable, and with Kickstarter available to generate funding, if you have a great idea that people want: it's relatively easy to make happen. 

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Google+ still looks like Facebook

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Perfectly reasonable article on gigaom this morning: 

What Google was thinking when redesigning the new Google+​

Except for this amusing gem:

Yet, I can’t help but admire the newly announced version of Google’s social network. It is a much needed improvement and Google has finally developed an aesthetic that is visually different from Facebook.

Really? The cards aesthetic that Google+ has just introduced that Facebook essentially invented via their mobile apps is visually different from... Facebook?

Here is Facebook's new news feed design for the desktop, announced earlier this year:

And here's Google+'s new design, launched yesterday:

There are certainly some functional differences - Facebook's new design is essentially a single column feed, versus Google's two columns, and Google now has all the clever auto hash tagging... but to claim that they are strikingly visually different simply isn't true.

Let's see...

Card-style stories: check.
Small user portraits and names top left: check
Likes, shares and comments as well as participating other users along the bottom: check
Extremely similar colour scheme throughout: check

Their interfaces are broadly identical.

As I posted a couple of days ago: ​Everything Is A Remix - so I have absolutely no problem with these two platforms sharing ideas and inspiration... but let's not pretend one has struck off in a bold new direction.

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Update: it's possible that the first big hitter to use cards was actually Google with Google Now... or maybe Pinterest... or Tumblr - I've heard a number of options when I asked the question on Twitter; but my point still stands - it's not about who got there first, more about the fact they are The Same.

The one about flat design and iOS 7

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There's been a huge amount written about the current trend towards flat UI design and a recent glut of speculative articles about how iOS 7 might look.

This is easily the best succinct summary of some of the current trends (removal of button chrome, cards, etc.) and their manifestation on iOS that I've seen so far: 

The future of iOS design?

There's one part I don't agree with though:

Google and Facebook have led the charge recently for throwing design resources at their iOS apps and redesigning them in a beautiful, subtle and elegant manner. The idea that either of those wouldn’t have inside information about the direction of iOS 7's UI and styling is beyond belief and we can only assume that the similar route they have taken (away from Google’s completely-flat Android style) indicates the direction in which Apple is pushing.

I doubt anyone outside Apple has been given a preview of the new iOS 7 UI; perhaps I'm being naive - I guess if iOS 7 includes the frameless hamburger and back buttons we'll have our answer.

I don't want your fucking app

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This guy is perhaps slightly angrier than is strictly warranted...

Dear Rotten Tomatoes, “Cancel to continue” - really? Look, I’m trying to read a moview review quickly. I don’t want to have to piss about installing an app and then trying to find the fucking movie I was looking for in the first place. I don’t want your fucking app.

​But I broadly agree with the sentiment.

Half the time I already have your app installed anyway but had specifically chosen to use the website, usually to arrive somewhere specific via a Google search.

It would be trivial to solve this annoyance in a lot of cases - if you really want to have an app suggestion splash, have it load when the user arrives directly on your homepage only. If they've googled a particular article or review, they'd probably much rather read that than have to click past your blocking suggestion each and every time.

Inspiration, mark making, and remixing

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Love this post by Jon Bell about the importance of starting ​somewhere, anywhere:

There’s no defined process for all creative work, but I’ve come to believe that all creative endeavors share one thing: the second step is easier than the first. Always.

That in turn reminds me of the incredibly awesome video series Everything Is A Remix. If you haven't watched them, I can't recommend them enough. If you're still not convinced, in the words of Maria Popova of Brainpickings:

Kirby Ferguson’s excellent Everything is a Remix project is, as I’ve previously written, one of the most important efforts to illuminate the mechanisms, paradoxes and central principles of creative culture in modern history.

They really ram home the notion that nothing is truly original - and that it can't possibly be. Every new idea is necessarily a transformation, a re-contextualising or a mash-up of other ideas. Acknowledging that will set you free.

Another author on this topic that I like is Austin Kleon. He covers some similar themes to the video series above. Most of his thoughts used to be available online but it looks like now you have to buy his book Steal Like An Artist.

Relatedly I also like both of Paul Arden's books: Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite and It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be. They both contain some great, if pithy, insights and probably take less than 30 minutes to read.

​I can't remember where I first encountered the idea that the most important first step in creation is to make a mark (e.g. start a sketch, write that first line of code...) - any mark - and to try not to judge your ideas too quickly, but it's helped me with everything I've done ever since.

Now go and watch Everything Is A Remix.