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Intelligence
Designing for a Limited Interface

Intelligence

Designing for a Limited Interface

Aug 31, 2007By Michael Stoner

But that wasn’t the case! Great book designers will sweat every detail. I’ve heard cogent arguments about running heads versus running feet and lots of others about the finer points of information placement, fonts, and sizes.

Jason Fried posted a thoughtful piece on 37signals’ Signal vs. Noise blog that pointed out another fascinating design challenge. Consider a watch and the constraints of designing within a 2‑inch circle. Then look at these watch designs and see how watch design is flourishing. Lots of forms, colors, as well as different ways of approaching the simple task of telling time.

One of the points of this amazing collection of images-and Fried’s post-is that it may seem that watch designers would be terribly constrained by form, but they aren’t. Note, too, that they don’t let the basic interface of a watch constrain them. Most watches that are designed to tell time have a stem that’s used to adjust the time. A common interface that’s easy to use, whether you buy a $50 analog watch or a $10,00 Rolex.

I’ll admit that I’m a pretty basic person when it comes to watches. I wear a Bodoni Watch designed by M&Co. in 1984, which has black numerals on a white face with two black hands. One of the reasons I like it is because it’s simple and elegant—and I’ve worn it for a long time. Another reason I like it is because it’s very easy to read, so when I’m teaching or doing a presentation, I can take it off, put it on the podium, and can still see how much time has elapsed. While I admire the look of watches like the AL3000 Alessi watch, I couldn’t wear it because it’s too hard to tell time with it.


  • Michael Stoner Co-Founder and Co-Owner Was I born a skeptic or did I become one as I watched the hypestorm gather during the dotcom years, recede, and congeal once more as we come to terms with our online, social, mobile world? Whatever. I'm not much interested in cutting edge but what actually works for real people in the real world. Does that make me a bad person?