I finally got a around to reading Don’t Think of an Elephant! in which George Lakoff applies his linguistic and cognitive ideas on framing to American progressive politics. It’s a compelling, important book, and the theory can be used anywhere, particularly the hierarchy of vision -> values -> principles -> policies -> ten-word philosophy. It’s… Continue reading Don’t Think of an Elephant!
Results for "concept design"
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Edge competencies
I’ve been thinking about how organizations today are more distributed and decentralized, relying on the performance at the interface to the customer. Compared to core competencies that power the creation of new products and live deep within the company, most companies have one or more particular capabilities that live at the fringes where organizations exert… Continue reading Edge competencies
Product instinct & venture capital
I had a great conversation with Phi-Hong the other day about how despite our having seen the insights and risk management that user research can achieve, some companies seem to do just fine without it, thank you very much. Apple’s product design, the early Google, much of Amazon.com. While teaching others the product development process,… Continue reading Product instinct & venture capital
The importance of being silly
I recently had a good conversation with Sara Beckman of Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Comparing what MBA students do in relation to designers, it’s hard to identify what skills they’re missing — other than hard skills like illustration — that designers have. What business students learn in courses like product development is surprisingly similar… Continue reading The importance of being silly
Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind”
Recently I was emailing with Andrew about Daniel Pink’s new book “A Whole New Mind”. Andrew caught Dan’s great talk at SXSW and was reading his book, one chapter of which is devoted to design. There’s a review at the CEO Read site. “His key thesis is that the future no longer belongs to analytical… Continue reading Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind”
Alexander and Eisenman
Katarxis reprints this wonderful 1982 debate between Christopher Alexander and Peter Eisenman, Contrasting Concepts of Harmony in Architecture. Here’s Alexander being snarky: It’s very interesting to have this conversation. If this weren’t a public situation, I’d be tempted to get into this on a psychiatric level. This whole issue of Katarxis feels like a Christopher… Continue reading Alexander and Eisenman
Everyone’s punk rock band
The nice people at Amazon recently delivered a book on design history along with all-time quarterback from Death Cab for Cutie songwriter/frontman Ben Gibbard, a lo-fi homemade recording. Reading one while listening to the other is oddly complementary. Gibbard, playing simple and melancholy pop songs, self-reflexively sings of his relationship to his punk rock influences…… Continue reading Everyone’s punk rock band
Dillon critical of navigation
Andrew Dillon, in his report on the fifth annual IA Summit, gives me props but is critical of the idea of navigation…. …I really enjoyed, again, a session on navigation by Victor Lombardi, which probably appealed to my academic sensibilities more than some of the other sessions. I have been a strong critic of the… Continue reading Dillon critical of navigation
Doblin’s Short, Grandiose Theory
Thanks to Zap — who invited me to a panel on design methods (.ppt) at the IA Summit — I finally got my hands on a copy of Jay Doblin’s A Short, Grandiose Theory of Design, an article from the 1987 STA Design Journal. In its seven pages Doblin presents a straightforward and persuasive argument… Continue reading Doblin’s Short, Grandiose Theory
10 Classics from Cognitive Science
PeterV links to 10 Classics from Cognitive Science, several of which look applicable to digital design. And there’s this one that is just darn cool: ‘Do systems larger than single individuals qualify as “cognitive?” In this article, Hutchins argued that they do. He supported his claim by analyzing remembering by commercial airline cockpits, considered as… Continue reading 10 Classics from Cognitive Science
Navigation Research
A short time ago David Danielson posted a handy list of web navigation resources, and then it disappeared from the Internet. He was nice enough to send it to me, and I’m posting my own version with some of his links and some of my own: Conceptual links trump hyperlinks…more closely align the way Web… Continue reading Navigation Research
IA Summit 2003
The 2003 IA Summit is now over, and again it was a wonderful affair filled with friends, interesting presentations, and a bit of the ol’ controversy. As Peter Merholz said during the five-minute madness, there was no where else I would have rather spent that weekend than among these friends. Highlights for me: Stewart Brand’s… Continue reading IA Summit 2003
Controlled Vocabularies in the Trenches
Has anyone written about what it’s like to create controlled vocabularies (CVs) in the context of actual project work? I can’t think of any. Below are some spurious notes of my recent experience, probably not understandable to anyone else ’cause I don’t have time to instruct. We’re racing to deadlines and I’m driving as fast… Continue reading Controlled Vocabularies in the Trenches
n_gen Interview
Remember n_gen (site’s down, or else I’d link there)? There’s an interview with its makers. Smart, sensible folks. My favorite bits: By analyzing what we believe to be successful designs, is it possible to determine formulae for what is pleasing to the eye? What are the rules and principles that talented designers instinctively employ in… Continue reading n_gen Interview
Untitled
oh yes, just discovered The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems, a new book from Jef Raskin. I can’t order this one fast enough. The link below was found as I was searching for more of Raskin’s thoughts on “human interfaces.” I saw the phrase somewhere and thought it was an older concept… Continue reading Untitled