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Tag Archives: design
The process of certainty. And mojitos.
You know that feeling when you know someone very well and you buy them a present? You know they will love it and you are excited at the very thought of their delight? Part of you is a little scared though. A few butterflies in the stomach. What if I have misread? What if they [...]
Living beauty
Reading Roger Scruton’s essay in The Times made me think. I like that. The title of the article is ‘What has art got to do with beauty?’ – in a time of Turner prizes – a very interesting question I am sure you will agree.
The article raises many interesting points and rather than dilute, I [...]
Do design? Do open source?
One evening a few months ago, Leisa and I had dinner and were chatting – as one does – about work and the challenges of design in the open source community.
One outcome of the evening was Leisa going home and registering http://www.designintheopen.org/.
It sat for a while.
Then, last week, as we were chatting about my last [...]
Thoughts on Inclusive Design
I was thinking about that phone I commented on recently and, in that context Inclusive Design and what it means.
The reason I struggle with the phone and its intended audience is that it is limiting. When someone arrives in a foreign country where they don’t speak the language we may choose to start them off [...]
It ain’t just about usability
These days I work in a User Research department. Ah, user research, I hear you say, that’s about usability! Well, yes, but that isn’t all it is.
Here is a post from Leisa at Disambiguity in which she illustrates very clearly the way I see things. Creating something that people will use is a little [...]
Recipe for Innovation
I attended the NMK Beers and Innovation event last night. There was some quite lively debate, a few interesting bits and pieces and an opportunity for some thought. The headline was “Do agencies innovate” but most of the discussion was around what makes it hard to innovate. There were various thoughts; here are mine.
Ingredients:
Knowledge [...]
Design in a Global Village
The Voice and I have just returned from a little over 2 weeks in India.
We had a great time.
What struck me – again – is how much we like to think that with the ubiquitousness of the Internet we can design for a global market. Can we though?
My own mental model of what is and [...]
Worse than self-referential design is design for your mum
I have often sat in design workshops and user research debriefs with groups of people who can’t help but bring their mother in the equation. Pot kettle and black I hear you say (I quote mine repeatedly) and go as far as having a category for her on this [...]
What makes a good design critic?