Flatland

Flatland

-Should the virtual world try to look like the real one?-

Kiyotaka ISHIKAWA

A trash can on your computer screen. You know what it is for, but should it be like a real-world trash can? Today’s software design world have questioned itself about this, and finally turned out to be against any kind of mimic or skeuomorphical design, as Apple’s iOS7 unveiled with its entirely abstract and flat interface. The term skeuomorph actually refers to an element in an object’s design that is no longer functionally necessary but has been retained anyway for ornamental purposes. However, skeuomorphism have played a significant role in the realm of software design for functional purposes. What function was it, and why is it no longer necessary?

What skeuomorphism have done in software design?

When we face a new technology like a smartphone, its interface does not have to look like a real world stuffs, but it does because it works well in the way we instantly know what it is for. For example, in 1984, Apple introduced the original Mackintosh with a digital rendering of a desktop, where windows, documents, folders, and a trash can were skeuomorphically designed to mimic the real physical work environment we were used to. 

Although skeuomorphical design has made unfamiliar digital environment feel safe and easy at at the very early ages of personal computers, there is a powerful sentiment against it among most software designers. It was Apple that introduced skeuomorphical design successfully on personal computers for the first time, but now the same company is going to reject it from its latest product’s interface. 

Why skeuomorphism is no longer necessary? 

How many people still need to learn what the virtual trash can is for? Computers are  already indispensable to our schools and jobs; even pre-school children know how to use computers before they learn to read and write. There is no more need for skeuomorphical designs as an intuitive understanding of its function. 

On the contrary, even different problems has arisen in importing designs from the physical object into the digital one. One is that skeuomorphism puts limits on what digital objects can do. While using a trash can on the virtual desktop, three physical action are required to just delete a document: drag it, drop it on the can, and click the empty button. This sequence feels quite bothersome for those who get used to simple and easy practice of smartphones and tablet computers. 

What is the post-skeuomorphic future?

The desktop will be soon outdated as the sales of tablet PCs and smartphones grow. At least, it is the least effective in consuming information over the internet, that is the function today’s users want the most out of computers. Moreover, the conventional system of document reserving and classifying will be completely replaced by sharing and searching over the air. In fact, the virtual desktop can handle a lot of documents on a single screen, but why not possible it is on other forms of interface?

*Article from TIME issued June 3, 2013

WHAT THEY’LL WEAR TO THE REVOLUTION

WHAT THEY’LL WEAR TO THE REVOLUTION

-Can Uniqlo’s retail revolution revive Japan?-

Kiyotaka ISHIKAWA

Where did Uniqlo come from? No one, nor the Japanese, know because the fashion company has grown up so fast since its first big hit of a fleece jacket in 1998. Even after that, Uniqlo has never stopped to scale up its business at an incredible pace—tripled its sales over the recent decade, and now it sells $11.8 billion annually, unlike any other good-price clothing rivals. Also, Uniqlo’s workforce management style is totally different from the conventional Japan Inc.’s way. What do the CEO, Tadashi Yanai, do in the company, and will his style save Japan?

What difference dose Uniqlo make from other “fast fashion” rivals? 

Just a few numbers tell everything. Even though sales at the Gap, one of the most successful reasonable-price fashion brand, have remained almost unchanged over the past decade, Fast Retailing, Uniqlo’s parent company, have tripled to $11.8 billion. However, offering clothes at low prices and showing them at gorgeous stores are not only the reason why Uniqlo makes the difference because just a few minute’s walk from the store can take customers to similar cheap fashion stores. 

The article’s customer interview* says they are attracted by the brand’s reputation for innovative textile technology. For examples, a down coat, one of top-selling items, is responsible for chilly temperatures but compact enough to pack into a small bag. Another recent hit item is underwear made of a special fabric called Heattech, that is a thin but insulated material developed by Fast Retailing. Uniqlo’s distinctive quality is such a sense of matching engineering with design. 

How he runs the company, and why his way is sometimes unwelcome in Japan?

As the product’s quality keep Uniqlo a step ahead of the rivals, the CEO Yanai’s corporate administration make the company remarkable in the society of Japan. As always Japanese characteristic CEO does, Yanai single-handedly controls the firm’s direction and especially  focus on human resource management, saying “each one of us needs to embrace the concept of ‘change or die,’ or there will be no future for us.”

Uniqlo’s employees do not spend their entire careers at the company as usual Japanese workers do in conventional “salaryman” system, but the company is open for those overlooked by other companies, such as workers switching jobs midcareer and senior students who have experience abroad. However, a lot of employees resign their jobs in the company for working long hours, exacting standards and high stress. 

Although this labor management style is unacceptable for traditional Japanese companies that treat their labors as family, just as blaming Fast Retailing as a “black company” that mistreat workers, it is just another way of treating labors that employees are only parts and something replaceable. 

Will Uniqlo’s business structure and new corporate culture save Japan?

Uniqlo’s corporate structure is a very good opportunity for those who think about changing their careers in the middle of life, or who try to make use of their abilities and experiences abroad. The society should understand the new working style practiced by Fast Retailing, and aware that Japan Inc. is not the only way to run the economy, even if that is difficult while a majority of people still live up with the “salaryman” system.

Nevertheless, it is not that all Yanai’s proposals for reviving Japan are quite appropriate. Japanese workers, he says, “never work long hours and that’s the problem,” adding that “Japan got rich, then it got spoiled.” Actually, his statement could be corrected that “we are already too rich to work longer hours.” Japan rather came across a new life stage, than got spoiled, and it is good time for Japan Inc. to think about work-life balance. 

*Article from TIME issued May 13, 2013

What Is My Generation Like?

What Is My Generation Like?

-A Comparison of American “Millennial” Generation to Japan -

Kiyotaka ISHIKAWA

“Millennials” mean an American generation born in 1980s and onward and so include me, whose characteristics are generally described as narcissistic, self-centered, and lack of establishment*. These trends in personality seem more or less common in young people over nationalities who grew up with social networks that enable them self-branding. However, there are various way to adapt this personal preference into society in different culture, and Japan have come up with totally different application from how Americans have done. 

What do Millennials do?

The most characteristic behavior among Millennials is easily found everywhere on the Internet. They constantly hold their camera built in the smart-phones, take pictures of themselves, and post them on the SNS they belong to. When they hung up with friends, they prefer to be surrounded by peers in similar age, but never pay full attention to conversations even at bars because they are seriously anxious about whether they might miss out something better on the SNS timelines. 

Another mental aspect of Millennials is that they have relatively better relationship with their parents than any other previous generations do; in turn, they show stronger dependency on their parents over housing, finance, and decision making at important stage of life. 

Socially, although they look active as observed on the Internet, they have less opportunities to communicate with the older generations. This is partly because society has been innovated into empowering individuals by the emerging Internet-based technology, which allows people to create small (sometimes game-changing) business out of corporations. 

What are social aspects in Japanese youth?

While mental changes by the emergence of social network services are not only in the United States, some changes are quite differently applied into the young in Japan. 

For one thing, widespread smartphones and real-time communication apps among teenagers have made them rather more unselfish than when I was in the ages. They are required immediate response to their friends’ post on the timeline even after school hours, with “marked as read,” “Like,” or something. Otherwise, the friends will think they do not “Like” it, and, at worst, they will find they are alone at school next day. 

Once lost a good distance from friends, the 24h/7d relationship within people at school ages, in turn, bring with mental troubles, severe bullying, and poor achievement in study. Such a social aspect might be seen over every generation in Japan, but it is remarkable among vulnerable ages like teenagers because they are on the process of mental growth and in the closed community.  

*Article from TIME issued May 20, 2013