Monthly Archives: March 2010

What a gauge or any indicator on a dashboard should display is either status (what is happening now, e.g. my radio station, the time, signal strength, wash cycle, etc.) or resources: how much of a particular thing I have remaining. Could be fuel, could be unread messages, could be time. Figure out what the most important resources and statuses are, filter by the frequency of use, then make those indicators the most prominent.

Filed in Visual Design | Comments (3)

There’s a bit of a backlash against what are called “rock stars” in the design profession (although I suppose every profession has its so-called rock stars.) When I said last year in my keynote at Interaction 09 that the role of any professional organization is to make its practitioners into stars, people groaned, saying we didn’t need more rock stars. Jeff Howard has even noted (“Rock Stars Need Not Apply”) that the rock star stance is anathema to doing service design. I’m in favor of more design rock stars, not less, for three reasons.

Filed in Inspiration | Comments (10)

Why @ Is Held in Such High Design Esteem http://nyti.ms/bIiTtS [MoMA enters "@" into its collection.] (via @daveixd) # "If you have the opportunity to stick a mirror on here, why wouldn’t you do it?" RIP Palm and Here's Why http://is.gd/aTk0e # "6/29/09 is the 2-year anniversary…of iPhone. [No one] will still be using an [...]

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The Language of Things: Understanding the World of Desirable Objects by Deyan Sudjic, director of Design Museum in London, is a curious, interesting book. It looks at the world of objects through several lenses: language, archetypes, luxury, fashion, and art. Some of these (language, archetypes) I found more interesting than others (fashion), but it has some smart ideas about the objects that surround us, and how we should design them.

Filed in Book Reviews, Industrial Design, Inspiration | Comments (0)

Trying to figure out how to get some BBQ into my day. BBQ options in SF mostly suck. #sxsleft # Could GPS create a world without signs? http://is.gd/aJeSc #IAvsIxD # How Robots Think: An Introduction http://is.gd/aKGV2 # Bill Buxton's thoughts on the big picture behind natural user interfaces (NUI): http://bit.ly/aOyAlw #mix10 (via @lukewdesign) # Interested [...]

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Content strategy is all well and good, of course, but it has brought with it the rallying cry of “Content First!” and a million articles about how “Content is King.” Content is king…except when it’s not.

Filed in Interaction Design, Theory | Comments (2)

Where MS Courier (seemingly) beats the iPad http://is.gd/a3haN # "Copying ideas is how progress is made. It’s copying implementations that is wrong (and illegal)." @gruber on patents # Ten Steps to Becoming the Designer You Want to Be by @laurasgt http://bit.ly/cFhzmL (via @inspireUX) # Is iPad just a big iPhone when it comes to UI? [...]

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An overview of the Eames films http://is.gd/9sKwJ # Studio is filled with the sounds and smells of happy dogs chewing beef sticks. # Synaptic's Fuse prototype http://is.gd/9tH8H capacitive touchscreen + accelerometers + rear-panel trackpad + side-mounted pressure sensors # Sycophantic clamoring around Tufte's comments on the Windows Phone http://bit.ly/cKtRi0 (via @heyotwell) # Counterfeit tech has [...]

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"Hey, I saw Weekend at Bernie's." "That's the bar for knowing the 80s??" "For knowing 80s fashion, yes." "Better: Earth Girls Are Easy." # Composer Uses WiiMotes and AI To Form Robot Band http://is.gd/90BLP #morecowbell # Augmented Identity: identify people and learn about them just by pointing your phone http://is.gd/93La1 # Curling is Project Management [...]

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