Luke Wroblewski has a really nice write up of the new Apple store checkout process. There are some solid principals in paly here. It’s really nice to see a large company doing something that we have been trying to convince clients of for a little while. Although showing people Apple’s design and saying “here, look at how Apple does it.” is pretty trite. If it starts opening people up to better design, I’m all for it though.
I’m especially a fan of labels in fields. It can save a ton of space, and is even more directly contextual than a label above the field. The only drawback I see is that if somebody enters some information and somehow forgets the context. The context of the data the box contains might be lost. Sometimes. Maybe. Ah well, good job Apple. High five!