Webinar – is this thing on?
My publisher has been sending me boxes of interesting goodies recently – acoustic foam, fancy headphones (sorry ‘studio monitors’), an anglepoise stand and a very impressive microphone. All this is to prepare for a series of webinars that I’ll be hosting, currently scheduled for November 2011.
I’m looking forward to them. I’ll discuss the ideas and techniques in my book in a little more detail with some new examples and tips.
But it’s the creativity and curiosity of the people who take part in my presentations that I love the most. So there’ll be a chance to talk to people all over the world about their questions, ideas and experiences. (So if there’s anything you’re busting to find out about let me know.)
I’ll keep you posted as I put the webinars together. Meantime, here’s a photo of that awesome microphone:
How to remove the faux leather in iCal for OS X Lion
Among the many changes to iCal in Apple’s OS X 10.7 Lion is a rather horrible leather effect.
Sometimes dressing up software in this way is useful – it makes it approachable, fun or easier to understand. But in this instance it clashes badly with the rest of OS-X which takes a minimalist approach. The leather-effect is distracting and out of place.
Fortunately, fixing this is fairly simple – just a matter of changing a few graphics files hidden inside your Mac.
What might go wrong
First, a word of warning. Alongside the graphics files you will have access to files that can have a profound effect on iCal. If you follow the instructions you should be fine. But if you accidentally move, rename or delete those files, iCal might stop working properly or you might lose data from your calendar. If you’re the kind of person who accidentally deletes files, don’t try this.
I’m not providing any technical support around this hack. If you choose to try it, it’s entirely your responsibility if you lose any data, waste time, need to re-install iCal or purchase any software or services to fix things.
How to get rid of the leather theme in iCal
You’ll need an administrator password. For most people this is the password they use to log on to their Mac, but if someone else administers your Mac (meaning you’re not allowed to install software and so on) then you’ll have to ask them for help.
- Make sure iCal is closed and that you have a backup of iCal.
You can do that by creating an empty folder on your desktop, selecting iCal and dragging it into the folder whilst holding the ALT key. If you do this, you’ll see a little plus sign in a green bubble when you drag it. Make sure you do it this way, otherwise you won’t copy the iCal properly, you’ll just get an alias. - In your Applications folder, click on your original copy of iCal while holding the CTRL key so you get a pop-up menu and choose ‘Show package contents’.
This lets you see ‘inside’ iCal and look at some of the files it’s built from.
- Open the folder ‘Contents’ and then within that, open the folder ‘Resources’.
Inside, you’ll find the icons and background images which are used to draw iCal on your computer’s screen. - Download ical_lion_silver.zip, open it up in your Finder and Select All.
These are plain grey versions of the background and buttons you will use to replace those that Apple shipped with Lion. - Drag the files into the iCal: Contents: Resources folder.
You will likely have to authenticate this action (i.e. enter your password). You’ll be asked whether you want to ‘Keep both files, Stop or Replace’. Click ‘Apply to all’ and ‘Replace’ then enter your password.
- Close the ‘Resources’ and ‘Contents’ folders if they’re still open, start up iCal and hey-presto! you have a plain silver theme.
And that’s it. Good luck!
(PS I’m not the first, or the only person to do this – MacNix has done the same thing for Address Book and Stu has a choice of red or silver themes at his website.)
Design Critique
This week I had a call from Timothy Keirnan, presenter of the long-running Design Critique UX podcast. He’d been reading Simple and Usable and wanted to discuss the book on the upcoming edition. Here’s a pro tip: if you’re being recorded, try not to drink two cups of black coffee beforehand as it gives the voice a growly quality. You can hear for yourself by listening to the Design Critique Podcast on Tim’s website.
Weird remotes
Here are a few of the strangest remote control ideas I’ve come across over the past few months.
Cushion remote?
I don’t quite understand Brookstone’s thinking on the cushion remote. I guess it goes something like:
‘People are always losing remote controls behind cushions, so if we make a remote control that is also a cushion, we’ve solved that problem. High five!’
I have to admit that even though I know Brookstone is full of gadgety junk, I can’t walk past their stores without wanting to go in. They speak directly to the seven year old kid inside me who wants to watch a big TV and get served dinner by a remote control butler.
Another way to make something hard to lose is to make it so enormous that you can see it from space. On the other hand, maybe this isn’t a big remote. Maybe the guy holding it is just really tiny.
Big, but it’s Art
Russian designer Art Lebedev is always coming up with designs that bridge the gap between clunky and cool. If you’ve got too many channels on your cable TV, I guess this is for you. There are only 103 buttons, though. If you need more options than that, this remote looks long enough to poke the TV.
Dance, dance, revolution
Creativity often comes from combining two seemingly unrelated ideas to make something completely new. So what happens if you combine a dance mat with the device that’s supposed to stop you from having to get up out of your seat?
In the dark?
I’d like all my remote controls to be backlit – it’s such an obvious improvement. But I can’t help feeling that a stick-on pop-up torch is the worst of both worlds.
Magic!
The magic wand might actually be quite good fun. Wave it in various gestures to change channel, adjust the volume. Just make sure the curtains are drawn!
The orb
The thing about a circular remote control with a touchscreen surface is you’d have trouble in a dark room knowing whether you were holding it the right way round. Fortunately there’s room at the back for one of those pop-up microlights. Problem solved.
Come to UX London
UX London is one of the highlights of my calendar as it always draws such an amazing line up of stars and thinkers from the world of user experience and design.
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