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I’m usually the last to say this about anything Microsoft but, from an information architecture perspective, it isn’t quite bad at all. It’s easy to visually parse and it strips our a lot of information bloat without sacrificing key content.

I do wonder what MSN’s very mainstream audience will think about the very stark and minimal aesthetic though.

Now

Soon

For the upcoming Wired issue, Khoi Vinh and a couple of his crew from NYTimes.com put their spin on Craigslist. Just don’t call it a redesign:

Any truly serious redesign of Craigslist would inherently look very different from what we produced, and we kept that in mind from the very beginning. And, yes we took some artistic license, too, which is why it’s probably more accurate to call this a re-imagining than a redesign.

Craigslist has been awesome for me over the years – I’ve used it to sell my car, look for a job, buy vintage furniture and everything in between (except the adult listings). It’s clear that the new design takes into account how to make user flows like that even easier.

Hopefully, Khoi’s ideas can seed a refresh of this great tool.

Here’s an hommage to newspapers in a way. Really Interesting Group’s “Things Our Friends Have Written On the Internet”.

Via thishappened.org

Apple will be hosting an event today at 1pm PT where they will announce the features of the upcoming iPhone 3.0 software. (You can follow a live blog of the event on Macworld.)

For those not a member of Apple fandom (or a shareholder), here’s what this means:

For the business, the event is aimed at keeping the luster on a product that has become the benchmark of the mobile phone industry but is at risk of losing traction as competitors come around to duplicating what made it a success. (Read: The Palm Pre)

For developers, many of whom have made careers out of developing applications for the iPhone, this will hopefully mean a few new tools they can play with to bring an even better experience to the phone. I’ve downloaded several great apps since I got my iPhone and whether I use them to tune my guitar, chat with friends, play a game, check movie listings or find a restaurant, they’ve all been worth it.

That brings us to the consumer. End users will benefit from today’s announcement in a mostly indirect way. I suspect a lot of features announced won’t be cosmetic but rather aimed at expanding the development feature set. Other than Kevin Rose’s (probably correct) prediction that copy-and-paste functionality will be included in today’s announcements, I can’t imagine there will be more tangible updates for the user to look forward to in the iPhone interface.

But of course, no one ever really knows until it happens. Especially when it comes to Apple.

Update: Macworld is reporting that Apple has over 100 features for end user including, as reported, cut, copy & paste and shake to undo. (Developers have over 1000 new features to play with including a notification system and peer-to-peer connections via WiFi or Bluetooth.)

Update 2: In the end it looks like there are a lot of great new features that users will immediately benefit from and a whole lot more that developers can sink their teeth into. Rather than summarizing all the new features here I’ll point you to the Apple site, now updated with all the features in the coming software update.

ImageSpark officially goes live today.

This is one of the most creative and fun projects I’ve had the chance to work on. What started as a simple idea – to store, share and discover inspirational imagery – evolved over some long weeks (and weekends) into the site you see now.

Though the ImageSpark team was officially six-deep (IA, Designer, Developer A and B, Project Manager and a Partner overseeing it all) this project has touched many hands to get it to this state.

The best part is that this is really just the beginning (read:Beta); As we monitor feedback via Twitter (@imgspark) and use the site ourselves, we’ll be constantly considering how we can improve this great little tool.

Cheers to my colleagues at Teehan+Lax on a cool idea, now live.

Kanye West, who was sitting front row at the Vuitton show, has designed a line of five LV sneakers. Only one design, above, was featured in the show — a monochromatic midtop with no frills, save for a quilted flap in the back, all the easier to tuck pants into. “The inspiration came from a jacket with a huge collar in the movie ‘Dune,’ ” West says. “Most sneakers focus on the tongue, so I wanted to do something different.”

West plays off the key part of his design here. He didn’t just do something different to be different. He addressed a specific need he knew other people might find value in (i.e. not sullying up the cuffs of your jeans) and used some inspiration from a different medium to come up with a creative remedy. Isn’t that what we’re all charged with as designers in the interactive realm?

Via The Moment

ImageSpark, the tool for creative professionals to share inspiration, is currently in private beta.

This is something we’ve been built from the ground up at Teehan+Lax and we’re really proud of. It’s been quite the process conceptualizing, designing, marketing and building out the ImageSpark site. Now that we’re in the homestretch the entire team (and the select group of users who are beta testing it for us) are getting goosebumps. We really feel it’s something all creative professionals will be using on nearly a daily basis. I know I will.

For those who didn’t get the invite, here’s an exclusive sneak peak of the site.