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w1n73rmu7e
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 Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 6:53 pm Post subject: Palm Loses Lead WebOS Designer To Android Team |
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| MobileCrunch wrote: | In what may very well be considered the geekiest sort of fandom possible, I consider myself a fan of Matias Duarte. As I’ve written before: “Wherever this guy goes, awesome user interfaces follow.” He and his team at Danger built a tremendously usable interface for the Sidekick, his work at Helio (especially the stuff that went to waste at the end, never to be seen by the public eye) was incredible, and then.. then there was webOS.
Say what you will about the Palm Pre and Pixi from a hardware standpoint, but the software that runs on’em is pure user interface gold. That’s largely because of the work of Matias and his team. Alas, Palm just lost Matias to the lil’ green robot that could: Android. Google has confirmed that Matias is joining them as the Android team’s User Experience Director.
Score one for Google.
This talent acquisition could be incredibly important for the folks in Mountain View. Android has a lot of fantastic selling points, but its user interface has never, ever been one of those. Since day 1, users (and nay-sayers) have been vehemently complaining about the interface. It is — and I say this as a pretty huge fan of the platform — rather ugly, and far from intuitive. (Every time I speak to someone who just got their Android phone within the last few days, its the same story: showing them how to reveal the (very important) notification bar results in wide eyes and gaping maws, as if I’d revealed the key to time travel. That’s not good.)
And what does this mean for Palm? Given their recent buyout by HP, it’s probably a bit of a mixed bag. HP has their own team of designers — failing that, they’ve got the money to hire replacements. No matter how talented said replacements may be, though, it’s an uphill battle. webOS has very finely tuned design messages; throw a new cook in the kitchen, and half of their work will be learning the old cook’s recipes.
Making things worse, Matias doesn’t generally roam from company to company alone. When he left Danger for Helio, he brought members of his team. When he left Helio for Palm, he brought members of his team. When he leaves, a good chunk of his team tends to go with. Neither Palm nor Google has confirmed any shifts beyond Matias; with that said, I wouldn’t be surprised if Palm lost 2-3 more designers to Google in the coming weeks, if they haven’t already. |
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jdmulloy
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| Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 8:22 pm Post subject: |
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Whatever. Palm already has webOS and they own the brilliant UI that goes with it. This doesn't change that. It will be nice for Android users to finally get a non-ugly/clunky UI. We'll be just fine.
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w1n73rmu7e
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| Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 8:25 pm Post subject: |
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You missed the issue. This comment from HN sums it up nicely: | morternjorck wrote: | I have to admit I'm suddenly just a bit worried about the future of WebOS. Not for HP/Palm's loss of one (or possibly more) smart UI designer, but for who or what will replace him.
If Duarte's shoes end up filled by some HP design committee and not a strong UX leader who can earn the respect of his teams, there's trouble brewing. WebOS is far too immature right now to be left to grow in that kind of bureaucratic environment.
I really hope they treat this search with the gravity it deserves instead of just dumping a suit in the seat. |
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poly_poly-man
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| Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 9:46 pm Post subject: |
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opening up webos would be the best thing right now - let it gain a user base on more phones without any extra effort on their part...
worked with android...
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jdmulloy
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| Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 10:19 pm Post subject: |
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| poly_poly-man wrote: | opening up webos would be the best thing right now - let it gain a user base on more phones without any extra effort on their part...
worked with android... |
It also lead to splintering on Android. Google's the only one using this sort of divergent model. Even Microsoft is leaving the base OS model and reigning in much tighter control on Win Mobile 7.
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w1n73rmu7e
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| Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 10:24 pm Post subject: |
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| jdmulloy wrote: | | poly_poly-man wrote: | opening up webos would be the best thing right now - let it gain a user base on more phones without any extra effort on their part...
worked with android... |
It also lead to splintering on Android. Google's the only one using this sort of divergent model. Even Microsoft is leaving the base OS model and reigning in much tighter control on Win Mobile 7. |
Windows Mobile's basically dead. Skype even dropped support for it.
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