My Dream App

Gedeon holds a BA in Graphic Design and an MFA in Electronic Media Design, both from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. He worked in graphic design, user interface design, web design, and interactive media before helping to form the Iconfactory with Corey Marion and Talos Tsui. Gedeon's specialties at the Iconfactory include strategic business planning, company marketing, art direction and icon/user interface design. His most significant projects for clients have included designing icons for Best Software ACT!, PalmOne, and FileNET.

A great idea for an application and for anyone who has had this problem of a tune stuck in their head, but no way to get it down on paper, a blessing. Not sure how marketable it would be however and I’m not exactly sure how well it would sell. Challenges there to be sure.

By far, the most creative idea in the contest. A sort of fauna chia-pet Tomagachi for the masses! I agree with other judge’s comments that it would have to be extremely realistic and visualized in 3D for it to really work. There would have to be a way to “minimize” it so you could keep an eye on it while you work, but also peek in on it from time to time and make sure your efforts were really helping out.

The quandary comes in when the Blossom must calculate the time you spend taking care of Blossom. Does checking in on it, looking at it, playing in the preferences, etc count as “work time” or “play time”? You’re not really being productive, you are just checking to SEE if you’ve been productive. Why do I feel like I’m stuck in a temporal loop now???

I’m with Cabel 100% on this one. Unless the way the UI is done is changed from the original idea, I’m not really sure I would want this on my Mac. I hate when I get a small pile of stickies on my real life desktop let alone my Mac. I’m also super anal about aligning them when they are minimized so my desktop doesn’t look cluttered and all out of sorts. I might be strange that way, but since we’re used to seeing Windows user’s desktops with about a BILLION icons on them, I suspect many people would stick stickies on just about anything in their computer until they couldn’t see a the actual Finder anymore. I like this idea, but its realization needs work to make it something that helps you stay organized without getting out of hand visually.

The latest video mock-ups of this app have really helped to visualize it and put a “face” on the software. I can see this application having a real, productive use that thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of users would like to have at their fingertips. There might be a temptation however to go overboard with the UI and over eye-candy it a bit I think. Its usability is paramount to its success or failure. It must be super-easy to use and navigate and should just “work” in order for it to become anything more than a techie’s wet dream. Unison is a nice example of what I’m talking about here. Panic did a great job of making something technical and remote, easy to understand and navigate and the same would have to be said of Hijack I think.

When I first read about this idea, I was hesitant, but the more I learned the more I liked it. That was until I saw the latest mockups of the green grass of the battlefield and the little rendered soldiers. Pushing the game in this visual direction is cliché and has been done before.

I have no interest in Desktop Wars if it is not a version of the originally stated idea. A war waged on your desktop itself. By inhabitants of your desktop for the very possession of your desktop. Of course this would be extremely challenging from a programming point of view and it could also tend to date the program quickly since the look of desktops change so very rapidly. Done right, it could be extremely cool, plus it gives life to icons, what could be better than that?