“The past” is filled with far more examples of products, innovative thinking, and success stories based on activity-centered research, magic, genius design, and just plain luck than UCD can claim even on its best day. What’s cheap and easy is the idea that we can dissect a chef’s work and call it a recipe. That [...]
Brand Tags asks people to describe a brand with a single word. The results are aggregated, painting a picture of how various brands are perceived. I was struck by how unaware most people are of some of the most popular internet sites and services. Look for the giant ? symbol: WordPress TechCrunch Flickr Gawker It’s [...]
Two quick—and only tangentially related—reads for Wednesday morning: On imagining Steve Ballmer embracing Firefox 3: But it’s also a nice little “thought exercise.” It is impossible to imagine Ballmer acting with this kind of initiative, imaginative or vision. (I’m not suggesting that what Briggs proposes is a good idea. Only that it is hard to [...]
Our minds are quick to convert new optical experiences into familiar stories, favored viewpoints, comforting metaphors. No wonder, for how else can we manage optical data flows of 10 MB per second without familiar categories for filing, without the rage for wanting to conclude? An excerpt called "See Now… Words Later," from the Edward Tufte’s [...]
I’ve been reading A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction on the subway which, despite its volume, is a perfect book to digest in five to ten minute chunks. It’s a collection of 253 patterns which, in two to three pages per pattern, guide builders toward humane ways of designing buildings, organizing public spaces, and facilitating [...]
I Love Typography featured some of Maggie’s letterpress work in the “Sunday Type” post for April 21. We’re always excited when her work is recognized, but to be noticed by one of our favorite blogs is truly very flattering. You can check out more of Maggie’s letterpress work on her blog and at her Etsy [...]
I’ve mentioned political typography here before, and the Times blog piece linked below is just an extension of that discussion. What I want to draw your attention to is what I think might be the first ever appearance of Comic Sans in the gray lady: Change you better believe in. Thanks for the link, Maggie! [...]
He brought his own frustrated consumer experiences to bear in creating the business model, and eliminated many of the usual array of motor-oil choices—startup, high-mileage, various blends—from his inventory. “You get the shit out of the ground,” he said, referring to standard Castrol GTX, “or the shit made in the laboratory that’s the perfect lubricant” [...]
I found myself riveted to this scathing writeup of the MTA’s Hudson Yards plans, announced today. (For those outside of NYC, the Hudson Yards is a large piece of undeveloped property in Hell’s Kitchen (or “Midtown West”), basically the last large piece of undeveloped property in Manhattan. As you might guess, it’s valuable. The Metropolitan [...]
Inspired by a new article on A List Apart: Sites that use tagging systems like Magnolia, Flickr, and Digg also provide insight into search behaviors, as each user defined tag illuminates the way in which users label content for retrieval. Simply search for a term you think people might use to find your site, then [...]
Sans Comic Sans is written by Matt Raw in Brooklyn, NY.