Achieving simplicity is not that simple when you are dealing with complex modern device design. Rob Tannen mused on lazy shortcuts, artificial constraints and Maeda’s crusade on the complex.
An Interview with Barry Schwartz
Life is full of choices, and making these choices seems more difficult each day. Boxes and Arrows interviews Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice, to dig into these decisions—when we make them and when we don’t.
How I Learned to Stop Getting Lost and Love Tokyo Rail
When navigating a complex system—be it a website or a large
transport network—it’s easy to get lost. Ross Howard points out how
subtle signifiers can make a big difference.
What if E.B. White had written “Hanging Commas 99% Bad” instead of a gentle list of reminders for young writers? Wodtke outlines how White’s list of 22 reminders for writing can be just what young designers need.
We know a product has a lifecycle, but does the language we use for that product also have a lifecycle? From TiVo to the Internet Superhighway, Rice shows us how the metaphors we use have an evoluation all their own.
Where do we look for standards and guidelines that we can incorporate into our design work? In addition to the canon of trusted advisors, Wodtke reminds us of a teacher and student who created a series of uncommon guidelines that have a lot to teach about web design.
The enterprise environment offers unique challenges for information architects. In this context, we need to develop skills to help us understand and model how organizations deal with information.
Is there a need for a Strunk and White of usability principles? Boxes and Arrows talks with Eric Reiss about sites designed by the neighbor’s kid, how we didn’t get Web 1.0 right, and the Web Dogma ’06.
Information-seeking behavior varies from situation to situation. Donna Maurer explores different ways in which users look for information and offers tactics for accommodating them.
How does the pursuit of one man’s interests result in the creation of kindergarten and timeless design principles? Bill Lucas shows us how Friedrich Fröbel took basic elements to create intricate, scalable systems that can serve as a model for creating new experiential systems today.