Author: Christopher Fahey
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Does anyone REALLY understand Fitts’s Law
Most information architects are familiar with Fitts’s Law, which basically governs how to structure the size, position, and shape of links on a screen so that those links are easy for users to click on with their mouse. Fitts’s law states: “The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and…
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AIGA: Graphic No More
The AIGA has quietly changed their name. What used to be an acronym is apparently now just a “nym”. The letters AIGA no longer stand for anything, but the organization now stands for a lot more: a “greater recognition for design’s role in culture, civic society and business.” I frankly think it’s a mistake for…
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“Graphic” + “Designer”
I think we are seeing a trend whereby graphic designers who had been calling themselves “designers” for the last few years are now becoming proud of being “graphic designers” again, and are finding a new appreciation for the graphic design traditions that, during the internet boom, they were patronizingly told over and over again “were…
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Christopher Alexander, Peter Eisenman, Minimalism
In response to a recent post by Ryan Singer at 37signals, I learned a lot about the architect Christopher Alexander. I explored this site about his work and his legacy quite a bit, and was particularly interested in his 1982 debate with Peter Eisenman. The debate repeatedly seemed to boil down to a debate between…
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Vote 2004
Hi there! This message is for my old Upper Darby High School friends and classmates. Even if you didn’t know me, or if you didn’t like me, (or even if you didn’t go to Upper Darby High School!) this message is also for you. I hope that if this message means anything to you, that…
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Radio Buttons & Checkboxes
The political organization Move On is sponsoring a kind of online 2-day “straw poll” (Tuesday and Wednesday) to determine if (and potentially who) they will endorse for the Democratic nomination for the US presidential The design of their online ballot is very interesting… The first column asks you to pick a single candidate, and the…
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Politics and War Games
Hezbollah has published a video game called “Special Force“, in which the player’s job is to, well, kill Israeli Jews. Many are surprised to see politics injected into the fantasy world of video games. To me this isn’t surprising nor is it new. Any game which simulates real-world events is inherently political. A typical example…
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ZOMBIES!
I just re-read Alan Turing’s “Computing Machinery and Intelligence“, for something like the 5th time. It’s worth reading every few months or so just to see how cogent, thorough, and prescient it is. I can’t punch a hole in it. And everything I’ve ever read where someone else tries to punch a hole in it…
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Conceptual Art ROCKS!
(This is a rebuttal to Curt Cloninger’s essay “Conceptual Art Sucks“, which you should read first.) CURT: “I figured it was about time I write an article explaining why conceptual art sucks, since every time I encounter conceptual art, I start to twitch.†Curt, your “Conceptual Art Sucks†essay has a bitter seething tone that…