Every Bit Is a Thoughtful Decision

You may already have heard of it since I’m very late to the game: Tim Van Damme has showcased on Dribbble its Instapaper for iPad redesign.

Now, let’s not forget that Tim is an humble man¹. He put a disclaimer:

This is not me criticizing the current interface for Instapaper. Marco did a terrific job with it, and it is hands down the best app on the iPad. This was just me being bored for an hour or 2.

His redesign had some flaws — in my opinion — but I have to admit it seemed to be nicer than Marco Arment’s design.

What is most interesting, though, is that Marco actually took the time to respond in detail to Tim’s proposed changes. So he goes and explain why every element currently is the way it is.

What seemed to be a developer’s design — made to just work — is in fact user-driven choices carefully thought over by Marco.

If you are into UI and UX, as I am, this is a very interesting discussion Tim and Marco are having.

P.S.: Lukas Mathis posted an interesting take on unsollicited redesigns.