Apple Acquires 18 'Axis-Based User Interface' Patents from Maya-Systems

[grahamperrin]

Graphical Multidimensional File Management System and Method

An invention by Mathieu Audet, President of Maya-Systems.

A World Intellectual Property Association (WIPO) view of the patent application:

20110307832 Graphical Multidimensional File Management System and Method

Granted last week: United States Patent: 8645826

> Assignee: Apple Inc.

Related, but please note that file system may be a misnomer (I see the phrase nowhere in the patent):

Apple Granted a Patent for a Radical New Multidimensional File System for Macs and a Gaming Console - Patently Apple

 

[grahamperrin]

From a poll about the appearance of pre-release Yosemite (quoted in full):

I think what I am trying to say here is that Mavericks did not have the ambition to be minimalistic. The icons were certainly not consistent, but it did not really matter, because they did fit the big picture. Icons in Mavericks are mostly images (in semiotic terms), that is, they visually represent the object tor action they point to.

In Yosemite, some of the icons have been reworked in a minimalist style, while others have not. The problem here is once you start going minimalist, you'd better see it all the way though. And being consistently minimalist is much more difficult than many or our friends, the 'flat look critics' seem to comprehend. Again, when we talk about semiotics, icons in a minimalist style have more common with diagrams and metaphors than just images.

Basically, once the icons have been redesigned, one needs to ask the question as to the purpose of the redesign (they could have left the old icons and it would still look quite ok with Yosemite, wouldn't it?) A minimalist redesign usually involves some kind of red thread, a core design principle — say the grid system so widely praised by Apple. So far, some of the Yosemite's icons appear to follow the grid system, and some not, some use the iOS design and some not, some seem to be color coded and some not. One of the core ideas of minimal design is to establish visual invariants (elements) that help the user to learn the purpose of the interface items. Yosemite performs quite admirable on this front, IMO, but it fails short if its icons design is considered. I'd prefer either a more heterogeneous design or a more consistent one.

The phrase red thread is new to me (I'm not a designer) but what leman writes makes sense. I replied:

Interesting. Some of that might be revisited after tomorrow's Apple event. (In the meantime, leman, please watch for a quote notification; I'll bring part of that quote into another topic, outside the Yosemite area.)

Recent discussion: Apple Issues Media Invitations for September 9 Event: 'Wish We Could Say More'

leman, I recalled this 2013 topic for its mentions of the 'Graphical multidimensional file management system and method' patent.

File management system not to be confused with file system. Incidentally there's something file system-related (the 'Location independent files' patent) in the Yosemite area.

I doubt that anything multidimensional will be mentioned at tomorrow's event. Whatever happens tomorrow: it seems timely to draw your attention to this topic. Both patents mentioned in this post are somewhat mind-boggling, and it's not only the legalese that boggles my mind.

For what it's worth – and I gave much more attention to the file system patent than to the file management system patent – my condensed view of the two is:

• one has the potential to allow a minimalist approach to redesigning the parts of Apple's human interfaces that relate to storage
• the other is so complex that I have not begun to imagine how the system, in part or whole, might gain a user interface on (for example) a Mac.

(Too much to take in? Fun for some students, maybe!)

If Apple does something public with the file management system patent, then maybe a red thread will become clearer or stronger.

Maybe there are already multiple red threads, most of them secret, with Apple aiming to bring them together in as painless a way as possible. (OT: that might explain some of the pre-release pain around Yosemite.)

 

[leman]

The phrase red thread is new to me (I'm not a designer) but what leman writes makes sense.

Most likely, its a calque from German due to my bad english. I was referring to something like this: http://english.stackexchange.com/qu...nglish-use-red-thread-as-expression-for-theme

Incidentally there's something file system-related (the 'Location independent files' patent) in the Yosemite area.

That is a very interesting one! It looks a bit like Fusion Drive in the cloud I wonder whether they are already using it for the iCloud drive.