[IxDA Discuss] product SUITE design

[Andrei Herasimchuk]

On Aug 3, 2007, at 8:47 AM, Wilson, Russell wrote:

> 1) What design elements (banners, navigation, interaction patterns,
> etc.) should be the same?

Things that are the same at the conceptual or architectural level.  
For example, picking the color "red" is the same regardless if you  
want to color a pixel in Photoshop, color a vector line in  
Illustrator or color a piece of type in InDesign, the act of picking  
"red" should be consistent.

Someone might try to use the excuse that the product's purpose gives  
them the right to make the function different inside one product  
versus another. This is false. For the very same reason that Apple  
pushed "Cut, Copy and Paste" as the same keyboard shortcut regardless  
if you were writing text or painting pixels, when you encounter  
something that transcends the product (picking a color, choosing a  
typeface, deleting an object) you must make them consistent when  
attempting to design a suite of products that people will use together.

> 2) What can be different?  Can I have different navigation
> mechanisms for two tools in a suite?

Things that have no relation to any other feature in any part of the  
suite. For example, creating multiple pages in InDesign does not  
exist in Photoshop or Illustrator, so the InDesign team has room to  
make this work how they deem appropriate.

> 3) What is key (from a design perspective) to presenting a
> connected suite of tools?

The actual interface widgets themselves. In the Creative Suite, this  
was the tabbed palette interface. That was the main link that paved  
the way to make a suite of tools that felt cohesive. Another very  
important component that does this are physical behaviors and  
interactions. For most software, this relates to keyboard shortcuts  
and such (using the spacebar for the Hand tool, or using the Command  
key as the Move tool shortcut), but it will stretch into multi-touch  
interfaces and various I/O devices in the near future.

I could write an entire book on this thread, but it's Friday. The  
above notes are the core concepts from my experience.

-- 
Andrei Herasimchuk

Principal, Involution Studios
innovating the digital world

e. andrei at involutionstudios.com
c. +1 408 306 6422