Archive for April, 2007

Designing Interactions

Tuesday, April 24th, 2007

Just finished up reading Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge. While it meanders at times, and seems to be repetitive at points, it is a fine read. Written by one of the founders of interaction design and the term itself (the term is properly attributed to Moggridge and Bill Verplank), it is a survey of the history and future of Interaction Design. Designing Interactions is a who’s who of interaction design, with interviews cleverly woven into the story as told by Moggridge. The author approaches interaction design much (and not surprisingly) in the same way that Ideo does (Moggridge being a co-founder of arguable the most innovative industrial and interaction design firm). A very wide view of interaction design is presented, though Moggridge carefully articulates his personal breakdown of IxD in the last chapter of the book. In closing, great read. The early history is particularly fascinating and inspiring. I highly encourage anybody interested in interaction design to snag this book.

Annual Web Design Survey

Tuesday, April 24th, 2007

If you haven’t already you should take the A List Apart Web Design Survey. I did, which means I’m a good boy and get to eat lunch out today!!

http://alistapart.com/articles/webdesignsurvey 

New Music Thursday, pt. 3

Wednesday, April 18th, 2007

Thisuns called: Tides Roll Out

Dig it?

http://www.mentalx.com/music/tides.mp3

Design Matters

Friday, April 13th, 2007

I have been a long-time listener and fan of Debbie Millman’s Design Matters podcast. Today she is having the famed designer and photographer Barbara Kruger, which should be a great listen. Past guest have included: Ze Frank, Seth Godin, Jakob Trollback, Chip Kidd, John Maeda, Hillman Curtis, Paula Scher, Michael Bierut, Milton Glaser and Stefan Sagmeister. You can catch Debbie’s blog and podcast at http://debbiemillman.blogspot.com/

Quick Idea

Monday, April 9th, 2007

Need to work on creating microformats for class notes. How cool would it be to have notes available in a standard microformat that could be made available to a variety of applications. Will get to this asap.

Something like:

<div class=”vnotes”>
<span class=”topic”>Acoustic Guitar</span>
<ol class=”XOXO”>
<li class=”note_l0″>number one instrument of choice by self taught musician</li>
<li class=”note_l0″>acoustic guitars consist of 6 or 12 strings and hollow body
<ol class=”XOXO”>
<li class=”note_l1″>strings can be made of nylon or metal</li>
</li></ol></ol>
</div>
OK, not sure that’s going to work, but it’s a start.