Blogs



Visual design’s trajectory

Posted: Thu, July 17, 2014 - 4:50:11

Some graphic artists and designers who spent years on the edges of software development describe with bemusement their decades of waiting for appreciation and adequate computational resources. Eventually, visual design soared. It has impressed us. Today, design faces complexities that come with maturity. Cherished aesthetic principles deserve reconsideration. An enthusiastic consumer People differ in their ability to create mental imagery.…

Organizational behavior

Posted: Mon, June 23, 2014 - 11:36:18

Two books strongly affected my view of organizations—those I worked in, studied, and developed products for. One I read 35 years ago; the other I just finished, although it came out 17 years ago. Encountering Henry Mintzberg’s typology of organizational structure In 1987, an “Organizational Science Discussion Group” was formed by psychologists and computer scientists at MCC. We had no…

Philosophical robbery

Posted: Wed, May 28, 2014 - 10:19:20

In 1868 I read Dr. Holmes's poems, in the Sandwich Islands. A year and a half later I stole his dedication, without knowing it, and used it to dedicate my "Innocents Abroad" with. Ten years afterward I was talking with Dr. Holmes about it. He was not an ignorant ass—no, not he; and so when I said, "I know now…

Bringing together designers, ePatients, and medical personnel

Posted: Fri, May 23, 2014 - 11:06:54

Back in 1989–1991, I served on the committee that founded BayCHI, the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of ACM SIGCHI. I became its first elected chair and served as its first appointed program chair for 12 years. I also served as SIGCHI’s Local Chapters chair for five years, supporting the founding and development of SIGCHI chapters around the world. Much…

True digital natives

Posted: Tue, April 22, 2014 - 12:49:32

They’re coming. They may not yet be recognizable, but some are walking—or crawling—among us. The term digital native was coined in 2001 to describe technology-using youths, some of whom are now approaching middle age. At an early age they used family computers at home. They took computer skills classes in school. They met for other classes in computer labs or…

Swarms and tribes

Posted: Mon, March 31, 2014 - 11:03:23

A crack team led by Deputy Marshall Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) race about in hot pursuit of Harrison Ford’s fugitive Dr. Richard Kimble. Gerard finds one of his men standing motionless. Gerard: “Newman, what are you doing?!” Newman: “I'm thinking.” Gerard stares. “Well, think me up a cup of coffee and a chocolate doughnut with some of those little…

Theory weary

Posted: Fri, March 14, 2014 - 10:09:08

Theory weary, theory leery, why can't I be theory cheery? I often try out little bits wheresoever they might fit. (Affordances are very pliable, though what they add is quite deniable.) The sages call this bricolage, the promiscuous prefer menage... A savage, I, my mind's pragmatic I'll keep what's good, discard dogmatic… —Thomas Erickson, November 2000 "Theory Theory: A Designers…

What serendipity is providing for me to read

Posted: Thu, March 13, 2014 - 12:48:54

In the spirit of the new What Are You Reading? articles that appear within Interactions magazine… My use of Twitter and my attending local professional events have had a big impact on what I'm reading. Indeed, both have increased my reading greatly. Every day I spend at least a few minutes on Twitter—time which often surfaces an abundance of online…

Metablog: The decline of discussion

Posted: Tue, February 11, 2014 - 1:06:58

Is our changing relationship to information rendering discussion obsolete? More information of interest is online than I can consume. Pointers may be enough. Today I may need help or time to find some of it, but before long rivers of gold will stream to us; we will have to push some of it away. The cafés of Paris and Vienna,…

Engineering in reverse

Posted: Thu, January 09, 2014 - 10:34:14

As a new year starts, we may review the year past, taking note of passages and travel, selecting events that provide humorous, solemn, embarrassing, or celebratory glances back. A crafted retrospective might be accompanied by a resolution to do better. More broadly, much time is spent analyzing the past. Acclaimed successes—a project or product, a career, a discipline—we wish to…