I gave a short (10 minute) talk called A (very) short history of ambiguity at UX Australia last week. I think it went well. Building the presentation certainly helped me to explore some ideas I’ve been trying to work through in my phd around ambiguity and affinity. Heres’ the slides, with notes. I’ll try get [...]
Category Archives: phd
Visualization as reification
August 6 10
I’m thinking of the presentation I’m giving in a week or so at uxaustralia titled “A (very) short history of ambiguity”. Its related to my PhD, and I need to be careful to hit the right tone as its not an academic conference or audience.
One thread of the presentation will discuss Etienne Wenger’s take [...]
Affinity & Artifacts: linking the inside with its activator
February 21 10
I’m currently writing two papers. At this point, bits of these papers seem to resemble two chapters of my thesis.
(Teaching) Models of Models
February 20 10
Hugh Dubberly recently published an article called Models of Models where he introduces the concept of models and then breaks down the constituent parts so the reader can think about how to make and evaluate models for themselves. (hint – read the pdf, it communicates more richly than the post. the article also appears in [...]
on design literacy
October 7 09
After yesterdays chat with Dan Hill, the EdDirections workshop, and werock event last night, I’ve been thinking about how design moves out of the studio and into the cubes & labs.
design. experience. interaction.
September 25 09
so – after a few weeks getting my head very damaged, I’m feeling a lot better about were I am wrt a meta discourse on interaction design. Highlights from the past few weeks for me were:
Herbert Simon’s use of the word “cookbooky” in Sciences of the Artificial
Richard Buchanan’s “placements” and subsequent alignments I started to [...]
A college whose goal is
September 8 09
“… the creative person who thinks politically and is familiar with modern methods, and who with social responsibility and his own creative talents designs the lifestyles of our technological and industrial age.”
Inge Scholl, 8 May, 1950
The view behind the foreground. The political history of the Ulm School of Design (1953-1968)«. Stuttgart 2002.
Photo: Hannes Rosenberg: Inge [...]
Design at the threshold
August 23 09
At our recent ixda board retreat (caveat – I’m an IxDA Director) there was overwhelming agreement that we (the org, network, & field) were at a tipping point. Technological culture has extended to affect so much of our experience*, and it’s clear that Design is going to play a pivotal role in helping us thrive [...]
making it up as we go along
May 28 09
I believe that interaction design (and by extension, service design) is an emerging practice.
Designers who do this kind of stuff are making a lot of it up as they go along. They’re inventing new methods, creating hybrids of “best practices”, testing the effectiveness of their existing methods, and (thankfully) sharing their discoveries with the wider [...]
