Bloomberg’s terminal is characteristic of the company’s profile: succinct and unassuming. The 17-inch dual screen setup has interface that belongs to the MS Dos age. In this day and age however, when packaging is all the rage, the interface is a disaster. Accordingly Portfolio.com asked three of the big names in designing i.e. IDEO, thehappycorp, and Ziba, to redesign Bloomberg terminal including the interface. Well, the redesigned interfaces, as expected, are inspiring and vibrant. First up IDEO’s design. Well, this one’s all about the information, loads of it. There’s nothing too flashy about this one and it is orderly and work related. It calls for very little navigation as nearly all the information is available simultaneously.
Moving on, there are the designs by thehappycorp and Ziba. The former is more lively and latter more to the point. However, both lack the direct appeal of IDEO’s terminal. Thehappycorp’s design suffers because it is too succinct – sacrificing information in trying to incorporate design elements – and seems a bit over-loaded for a financial terminal. Again Ziba’s design seems to be too focused on appeal rather than content. It seems flashy and extravagant; too messy for my liking. Obviously all the readers are likely to form their own judgments. So go ahead, tell us what you really think of the various designs. The pictures are in the order of description.
