I'm currently working on a new iPhone app and starting to understand how difficult it is to build something that is both good looking and also simple to understand/use.  There are so many small nuances to consider since there isn't a lot of real estate with which to get your point across.  One of the most maddening things to get right are icons.  People don't realize how difficult it is to build great looking icons from scratch.  There are only a handful of apps that I consider beautiful and even among those, I have issues with the icons.  After revision after revision of icons from my designer, I started to scour the web for examples of good icons.  To my chagrin, the answer was staring me right in the face - Glyphish.  Here was an extensive set of beautifully designed icons that are so simple and yet so clear in what the icon is supposed to represent.  How good are these icons?  They're used by little known companies like Google, Twitter, and a small phone manufacturer called Apple.  The best part of it?  $25 for a full pro license that doesn't require attribution and can be used in an unlimited number of projects (free version requires attribution, doesn't include Retina Display version of icons).  I've seen icon sets costing four times as much that are no where near as clean and well designed.  Kudos to Joseph Wain for creating these and providing them at a ridiculously cheap price.

Oh, and his $10 set of background images are well worth it, too!

Only on a Mac would I have found this out.  The iPhone has so permeated the behaviors of how the Mac works that the rubber-bannding effect allows for some interesting design aesthetics.  Check out the Posterous logo on my blog when I over-scroll.  Very slick!

I'm testing out Asana, the project collaboration tool started by some high level ex-Facebookets. The full browser interface is very nice. However, the web app is one of the slickest mobile web apps I've ever seen. The font is amazingly clean and clear. Big ups to these guys for making a useful and beautiful UI.

via kickstarter.com

This is really slick. Not just the product itself but also the way Kickstarter has, well, given this project a huge kick start. I don't normally wear a watch but I may just think about it now.

On a side note, this is designed by MINIMAL, a design shop in Chicago. Some really great designs coming from here. Didn't realize that they were the ones behind the iBelieve lanyard for the iPod Shuffle from way back in the day. I can't find their site any more but I remember them also having a very clean single page design for ordering it.

Came across rule.fm and was very impressed by the site design. Very clean, functional. I especially liked the way they setup their Take a Tour page. A great way of navigating through a long page. Just signed up for my beta invite so will give more details about the actual product suite itself when I've test driven it. Might be a good alternative to Basecamp...

I've just started reading Getting Real by the good folks at 37signals. So far, it's a pretty interesting read. For those of you not familiar with 37signals, they are the folks behind some of the more popular web apps like Basecamp, Highrise, etc. We've been using Basecamp for a long time here at Centrro and I've used it for some of my side projects. What I like most about their apps is the clean design and attention to detail re: UI.
 
Back to the book, it's a primer of sorts for building web apps using agile software development. Though we have a pretty lean shop here, I can see the advantages of actually getting even leaner. Not in head count but in how we develop new products. Fewer meetings, very quick/general spec docs, faster and smaller product roll outs, etc. I highly recommend this book and the price can't be beat!

I've been watching a lot of videos on Vimeo lately and I really dig the design of the site. Very clean, big fonts where needed, nice colors. I think the layout of the site doesn't lend itself to watching lots video or exploring for new videos but maybe it's quality over quantity? Anyway, this video was forwarded to me and it's hilarious.