Enterprise applications are complex. It takes time to understand how they work and even longer to master them. Employees are constantly learning new systems or applications. This happens during a reorganization of a company involving new IT systems or an onboarding process after changing the job. Learning new systems and…

How to design for mobile and head-mounted displays using a language learning application as an example — I failed to learn Dutch I remember the last time I tried to learn to speak Dutch. To learn that language I could choose between books, articles and videos with the best practices and apps. They promised me to learn Dutch in a short amount of time. Of course, I wanted quick results, like we…

A refurbishment of a basic design tool. — Gradients are well known tools for designers that have practically been used since the beginning of computer graphics software. They are often used to mix colors in ramps, to shade objects or to control complex parameters in 3D applications. …

A case study how we implemented tools for designers breaking mental models and dealing with complexity. — With release R20 Cinema 4D got a new modeling feature that allows artists to design models with almost zero learning. This new modeling feature called „Volumes“ is based on voxels, which are basically pixels in 3D space. Creating a feature which fun and easy to use, caused challenges for design…

Looking at the history of Adobe Illustrator, you can see how computers changed the discipline of design. There was a time when computers were only used by scientists and engineers. They were basically only for people with deep technical knowledge. The human computer interaction was limited to typing commands and…