Al Gore and Iron Eyes Cody. Go check out the original TV ads: Canoe and Horseback Whenever I am about to do something wasteful, like throwing a plastic bottle in the trash or turning the air conditioner on when it’s 74 degrees, my wife says these words to me: “Think of Al Gore.” The phrase, … Continue reading Think of Al Gore. Don’t be a Dick.
I’ve always wanted to believe that rational scientific thought and creative/artistic thinking are not just incompatible, but that they are in fact closely linked. Both in my personal art projects and in my professional work as an interaction designer, artistry and science have always gone hand in hand. My peers and friends generally share this … Continue reading Creative Creationists
Scientists say that a vibrating eyelid is typically the result of either not enough sleep (check), stress (check), or too much caffeine (check). I hope this photo illustrates why I’ve not posted in a while. I’ll catch up soon, I hope.
A fascinating article in last Sunday’s New York Times documents a recent study in which it is shown that predicting the success of cultural products (such as movies or music) is impossible, and that a phenomenon called “cumultive advantage” — where people prefer something largely because other people already prefer it — will usually overcome … Continue reading Predicting User Experience Success
I am speaking next Monday at the 2007 ASIS&T Information Architecture Summit in Las Vegas. My topic will be “Interaction Design Style“. It will be a highly visual romp through a variety of topic having to do with the concept of style and how it fits into the design of interactive systems: The definition of … Continue reading Come to my Stylish Talk at the 2007 IA Summit
Everywhere you go, you see 16:9 widescreen television screens playing regular 4:3 video programs stretched out to fit across the whole screen. You see these in airports, banks, bars, and offices. Maybe you even see this in your own home. Presumably, the owners of these TV screens can’t bear to see all those extra black … Continue reading Are Some People Just Visually Dull?
Essentially, Twitter permits large and disparate groups of people to synchronize their activities with one another without there being any obligation to actually engage in real planning. When you announce where you are and what you’re doing, there is no “deal†in place that any action will be taken on the information you’ve shared, unlike the kind of expectation that you might have in a face-to-face conversation, a phone call, or even an instant message.
My SXSW panel, High Class and Low Class Web Design, is over now, and I can now share a little bit of about how I and a few others think it went. Some bloggers who attended the panel have already published their own notes and reviews, too, so if you want to skip what I … Continue reading SXSW 2007: Class Dismissed, or How My Panel Went
Just thought I’d post a couple world maps to compare with my own drawing. First, let’s see what the big shots say over at Rand McNally: Not bad. Almost as accurate as mine. Let’s see how I compare to the 17th century cartographer Nicolas Visscher: I think I kicked his ass.