February 2012
7 posts
7 tags
AWOL →
There’s a tendency to explore the design of systems and experiences (as opposed to the design of objects) in a way that’s ultimately context and location specific (I’m on a bit of a kick on context v. location, after yesterday’s link to Whitney Hess’ post). There are certainly a number of good reasons for this - chief among them that designing experiences that are...
6 tags
Intentional context and the device universe →
There’s an especially-intriguing post over on Whitney Hess’ blog today, in which she explores the idea that device-specific use maps more directly to what she’s referring to as ‘intentional context’ than it does to location.
This year I have learned to see devices as location agnostic and instead associate them with purpose—I want to check (mobile), I want to manage...
6 tags
Notions of Fixity and Fluidity →
Two really interesting posts this week, ostensibly about the nature of e-readers, but more-fundamentally about implications of experience (and product) design. Nicholas Carr penned an excellent piece expanding on the well-tread notion of typographical fixity espoused by Elizabeth Eisenstein in The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, in which she writes that:
Copernicus’ life spanned the very...
3 tags
Sharing and the structures of teams →
I ran across a thoughtful and well-reasoned post this evening from Allan Ecker over on the Thingiverse blog, in which he delineates between individual mindsets towards open source and the positions commonly taken by organizations and institutions:
Winning with Sharing in these cases is a heck of a lot more challenging than if you’re working in a field where what you sell goes directly to...
4 tags
Designing for magic and abstraction →
In a summary of Anthony Dunne’s keynote address at IxDA Interaction 12for the Core 77 blog, Ciara Taylor poses a question framed by a series of case studies and exhibits that comprised Dunne’s presentation, namely:
I am not sure the attendees at Interaction12 were expecting such an abstract and experimental concept of “interaction design” or in this case “designing...
3 tags
Manuals and such →
Over on the KK CoolTools site this week, Kevin makes a terrific argumentfor the value of readily-available, online owner’s manuals, and outlines the role that they play in his purchasing process:
Equally important as finding the operating instructions and basic specs, is to get hold of the installation instructions. There are few sites that aggregate manuals and specs of major lines, but...
6 tags
