All Posts

There are many situations where you don't want to leave a page but just quickly get to know what's behind a link. While it’s an easy task to quickly open (and close) a link in a new tab on PCs today, it’s a totally different experience on mobile devices.

Using Google Chrome on Android, you could either simply open it and then awkwardly navigate back once you’re done, forcing the previous site to load anew and losing your position. Or you could alternatively open it in a new tab, which however on mobile requires many manual actions and thus is a similar uncomfortable experience.

Even if opening links in new tabs worked more stable on mobile devices, it would most likely often still not fit that well after all. The reason for this is that people are browsing different on their mobile phones. Whereas it’s easy to keep track of many tabs on a PC, users are more ‘focused’ on mobile devices.

The option to open links in “windows” aims to fill this gap of quickly getting to know what’s behind a link and is specifically made for the way people are browsing on mobile phones.

One of the great aspects of your PC’s keyboard is that it’s just always there and directly accessible when needed, but at the same time also never in your way when you don’t need it. Virtual and hardware keyboards both completely break down at this, having to be plugged in first when needed, and in the meantime always be carried around by you.

Instead of coming up with a better solution, manufacturers are currently trying to temporarily transform your tablet into a laptop. Of course new software solution will still be far away from the typing experience offered by a hardware keyboard, but at least the gap between the two could be significantly smaller.

Iit’s totally clear that Google+ Photos service will become an independent service very soon. So while losing it’s most anticipated and praised feature, Google+ should become what Google always claimed it isn’t: simply a social network.

Thanks to Android, hundred millions of users all over the world already have Google+ pre-installed, and Google should finally take real use of this. Currently, if someone opens the Google+ app - maybe per accident or because of curiosity - he is halted by a characterless screen-filling sign in page. Google+ already has a bad reputation because of all this login stuff, and for a new user this login screen might just be a verification and the reason to leave the app again.

Instead, Google+ could act more like YouTube, giving the user the possibility to discover it’s advantages and greatness without the direct need to sign up first. Of course Google+ and YouTube are very different services, but the concept could certainly be applied anyway. While this might not work for most social networks, Google+ is a very underestimated service, with an overwhelming user experience, that could be capable to convince users to voluntarily sign up permanently after testing it for a while.

It’s probably rather hard to come up with great changes to an interface that hasn't changed much since decades and that you might even think of as perfect. Nevertheless, Microsoft did an overwhelming job with Windows 7. A lot of small enhancements, add-ons and adjustments to old elements made it a great evolution of the desktop and a big step forward for Microsoft. The feature I presented within this article - the so-called Pin-feature - is also just one small update. This concept is really not about guessing what Windows 9 will actually be like, but only about explaining this one idea and discussing its impact and advantages. The feature could work as well next to all the more likely changes coming to Windows. It might not even be specifically restricted to Windows 9, but would be a great addition to any desktop OS.

It’s very interesting to imagine any app being rethought with Material Design, but YouTube - which is part of Google - is especially interesting for a variety of reasons. This concept imagines what YouTube could look like on Android going all-in with Google's new design language.

Interestingly, YouTube was actually not even mentioned at this years I/O in the context of Material Design. And this although the very same service might actually could have been the origin of Material Design.

It’s very interesting to imagine any app being rethought with Material Design, but YouTube - which is part of Google - is especially interesting for a variety of reasons. This concept imagines what YouTube could look like on Android going all-in with Google's new design language.

Interestingly, YouTube was actually not even mentioned at this years I/O in the context of Material Design. And this although the very same service might actually could have been the origin of Material Design.