Redesigning the Bloomberg Terminal would be any interface designer's dream. There's obviously much room for improvement since the interface hasn't changed for a long time, and the personas using it are quite easy to define.

But the complexity and richness of the displayed data, the necessity to fully understand how traders use the tool, and the immediate impact on the work efficiency of more than 156,000 users around the world make it tremendously challenging to make any changes.

Here is a picture of the Bloomberg Terminal as it stands today (2010). As most users say, "it's hideous."

Here is the Bloomberg keyboard:

IDEO has submitted a redesign proposal back in 2007 after a 3-week study. Here's how it looks:

A widget allows you to zoom in on some detailed part of IDEO's design and have some explanation on the choices they've made. You can also read a short description of the project on their website...

Read the rest of the article here: uxmag.com

This project reminds me of two that MJ and I had back in the 90's where we had to redesign the terminal software for airline booking agents at travel agencies. We had TWO projects from two different companies where this was the task.

They LIKE their complex text-based, keyboard based UI. It gives them status.

In the end, we made a very cool terminal that automated some of their text manipulation. We respected the user experience rather then our own ideas about good user interface.

The article is a good read and wake-up call for consultant who cling to their HIG guidelines like the Bible.

Principle 1: A system is more than the sum of its parts. If you take the system apart these properties are lost, and every part of the system affects every other part. Nothing is outside the system.

Action: Internalize the concept of the system. Using this simple diagram by Bruce Mau, it's easy to see how you can understand matter as a long piece of string with two fixed points. Where you pull one bit, others have to give. You can map your projects, your resources and your impact this way.

Principle 2. Delayed feedback results in "design traps." The time-lag that obfuscates what really needs to change, combined with the bounded rationality that comes from operating from what you immediately know, can cause designers to make bad decisions.
Action: Stop designing for the symptom. A lot of design work focuses on making the problem easier to stomach, rather than tackling its problematic source. Something like Recycle Bank rewards people for recycling without encouraging them to buy less or buy local. The numbers don't lie: For every $100 spent locally, about $68 stays in the community, if you buy from a chain store, it's only $14.

Valerie Casey gave a great presentation last week at SXSW. Here she lays out seven basic, powerful principles of sustainable design applied to social change and movements.

You may think that as a software developer you are bound by your OS, tools, clients or markets—but you're really not. Reading this may set you free.

Over the last forty years my software designs have been most influenced by industrial designers. Luckily, a WAY of thinking can be contagious.

Binder clips apparently work great as cable organizers. Is there something right in front of your nose that you're not using? A command, a function, an object...some old code?