Archive for August, 2007

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Powers of 10 – Eames and Spore

August 31, 2007

Here is the Simpson’s spoof of the classic “Powers of 10″ short film by illustrious designers Charles and Ray Eames.

Trippy stuff….and IMO a healthy mental stretch. Cognitive yoga. The film, which was noted as culturally significant by the Library of Congress, is detailed on Wikipedia here.

It was this film that inspired Will Wright to design his equally mind expanding game Spore. Listen here for a discussion between Brian Eno and Will Wright. A delightfully meandering chat about how they use generative systems in their creative works. which finally gets around to discussing Spore.

But back to Charles and Ray Eames. This film is not what they are most famous for. Perhaps their most significant contribution (or at least their most famous) is the Eames Lounge Chair. It shows up everywhere, for instance if you look at the set of Fraser, that “sophisticated New Yorker” has one.

Directors will use furniture like this to make a particular statement about the characters or the setting. Another common one is the Aeron showing up in sci-fi films or “hip/creative” places.

This is piece of design history I’m sorely tempted to buy – I’ve been thinking about it for years :) .

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Low-grade Amount of Annoyance

August 31, 2007

Nice snippet on Agile process that Doug Wright picked up at his Rails conference last week:

“Every team should have a very low-grade amount of annoyance that you have not quite enough process. This means you have just enough process.”

Doug just alerted me to the source…he was paraphrasing Stuart Halloway of Relevance, a great Rails developer who was previously a big figure in the Java developer world.

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Reality Bats Last

August 29, 2007
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Design Communicator – Brief Definition

August 28, 2007

 

ID and DC (A Design Team of Two)

 

A design communicator (DC) works with an interaction designer (ID) as a full-time thought partner to interview users, develop personas, generate scenarios and requirements, and create design solutions. They also facilitate collaboration with engineers, product marketing, and other related disciplines.

While the interaction designer leads the creation of design solutions, the design communicator leads the evolution of those solutions by synthesizing information, evaluating prototypes with target users, and, finally, documenting the design for efficient and precise implementation.

In addition to facilitating quality work, the design communicator makes the work go faster, helping the individual designer iterate ideas rapidly, and helping broader teams collaborate efficiently.

 

 

 

 

 

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The Power of Less Text

August 26, 2007

Writing has never been more powerful. The advent of new forms of media (digital video, audio, animation etc) has not diluted the raw power of text. On the contrary, text is king. Consider the billions of email flying around the world each day. The web is mostly text. Consider what media you use the most. How often do you edit a video, compared to dashing of an email? How often do you communicate in video at all? I depict concepts a lot. I embed these visual diagrams in many things I write. But despite being overtly visual, my picture quota pales in comparison to how much text I produce. “The pen is mightier than the sword” is a platitude that has been bulstered and amplified by Moore’s law.

I’m reading a book at the moment called “On Writing Well” by William Zinsser. A classic guide to writing non-fiction…up there in the New York Time’s opinion with “The Elements of Style.” Lesson number one, reduce clutter. Removing words adds clarity and power to what you write. Saying less delivers more.

  • “with the possible exception of” (except)
  • “due to the fact that” (because)
  • “he totally lacked the ability to” (he couldn’t)
  • “until such time as” (until)
  • “for the purpose of” (for)
  • “in order to” (to) – added by Rick Bond

I like this. It’s why Haiku so arresting.

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Mental Model vs. Implementation Model

August 26, 2007

I have renamed my blog – the “Mental Model” the new title refers to comes from this concept:

Mental Model vs. Implementation Model