I don’t know about you, but I will definitely be at ECIAD on November 8th. Last year I completely devoured Bill Moggridge’s book Designing Interactions. A comprehensive historic look at the innovators and milestones of interface design. Bill Moggridge is co-founder of the Silicon Valley-based design firm IDEO, independently ranked by business leaders as one…
London was buzzing for the last two weeks of September. Everywhere you looked, on every street corner there seemed to be something about design. The city was filled with museum exhibits, public art and storefronts with interactive installations. I took in what I could in a week before heading to the south of France for…
Content Management Systems are great. They’ve become more flexible and easier to implement, allowing companies big and small to have the ability to manage the content on their websites without breaking the bank. There’s a problem though, and it’s not a technology one. It’s a people problem. If you’re having trouble managing the content on…
While cruising the streets of London I was approached by a smart looking guy offering me the chance to grow my own jalapeno peppers at home. He handed me a small pink package, that looked a bit like a book of matches. Inside were five chilli-pepper seeds, with instructions on how to plant them. As…
It’s no surprise that I’m a big fan of open source software, after all, I use software like WordPress and Drupal a lot. I have also been a strong believer in ActiveCollab, an open source project management software, and so it came as a big surprise when they decided to close their open source model…
While in London for their design festival I visited an interesting interactive installation at the Beyond the Valley showroom. The installation was put on by SHOWstudios, who’s Head of Interactive Ross Phillips I met at the iDesign conference. The piece is a collaboration with Evian (the people that bring us expensive water) and uses 1…
As part of the London Design Festival I attended a new opera called “The Corley Conspiracy”. The event was cowritten by a friend and collaborator Sean Starke, who is also part of the MIRROR project that I’m involved with. Based on a true story that unfolded on Usenet bulletin boards in the early 90’s, the…
Between 2004-2009 I had the privilege of working on a project called MIRROR with my good friend Thomas Anselmi. Our collaboration began with a breakfast meeting about a website and quickly evolved into us writing music and creating the MIRROR brand together. MIRROR released an album that was filled with great performances and a guest…
Lately there’s been a lot of talk about Edward Tufte. Who is he? He may be the only designer with a roadie. If you have yet to read any of his books you will find depth and clarity in his explanations of information design that simplifies complex data systems. Or perhaps you could read his…
More and more, it seems that one of the stronger motivational factors of the web is to tag, mark you space, define your borders, or claim your territory. Call it what you will, it seems like a new continent has been discovered and everyone wants a piece. No visual representation shows this more that DrawBall.…