Viewing all posts in: Design
Monday November 9, 2009
“Good Design is a powerful weapon. Prepare designs – not arguments – to win the war!”
Design > Argument Quote posted by Matt Donovan in Consulting, Design .
Thursday November 5, 2009
Creating Controversy for its own Sake (and How Humility is a Rare Bird Indeed These Days) →
A very convicting article by Joshua Blankenship on unsolicited redesigns and the arrogance that drives them. Convicting, because I personally wrestle with the same arrogance he’s calling out. Whether you work as a designer for a corporate giant or as a lonely freelancer, it’s definitely worth a read.
Creating Controversy for its own Sake (and How Humility is a Rare Bird Indeed These Days) Link posted by Matt Donovan in Business, Design, Graphic Design, Interface, User Experience, Visual Design .
Tuesday October 13, 2009
NYT Video Segments
The New York Times does a fantastic job of providing just the right detail in just the right way to keep me engaged and informed. Not seeing this same kind of effort from big TV, online or otherwise.
NYT Video Segments Image posted by Matt Donovan in Accessibility/Usability, Design, Information Design, Interface, User Experience .
Tuesday October 13, 2009
Sketch The Right Problem
Designing websites and applications for large companies often involves a political tug-of-war to some degree. It’s easy to get stuck in a cycle of designing on the fly to accommodate varying (if not competing) agendas. Bringing a picture to the table, even if it’s the most juvenile sketch, can breathe new life into the ideas that matter.
Sketch The Right Problem Article posted by Matt Donovan in Consulting, Design, Infographic, User Experience, Visualization .
Tuesday July 7, 2009
Elegance as one way to describe "the quality without a name"? →
We talk often about Christopher Alexander’s “quality without a name” that makes a design feel natural and right. Alexander describes it as:
There is a central quality which is the root criterion of life and spirit in [all things]. … The search which we all make for this quality, in our loves, is the central search of any person, … . It is the search for those moments and situations when we are most alive.
While the quality can be elusive to create, an attribute that certainly leads to it is elegance. Guy Kawasaki interviewed Matthew E. May on elegance as a business concept in his book In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing . Simply stated, May describes elegance as:
Something is elegant if it is two things at once: unusually simple and surprisingly powerful. One without the other leaves you short of elegant. And sometimes the “unusual simplicity” isn’t about what’s there, it’s about what isn’t. At first glance, elegant things seem to be missing something.
The interview is well worth a read, and will be a new consideration for me as I work on interim and final deliverables. How can I find and apply “the quality without a name” on this piece? Perhaps by seeking elegance.
First found via Dynamic Diagrams: Information Design Watch
Elegance as one way to describe "the quality without a name"? Link posted by Mark Kraemer in Business, Design .
Friday May 22, 2009
Make friends, not war
Last week, Matt Donovan twittered (tweeted?) “Wireframes don’t help web design. I need to start using this process more: 1. Sketch 2. Prototype (when necessary) 3. Implement”.
I echo that sentiment in many cases. But besides just reducing document debt, sketching/prototyping is a positive way to build teams. Creating requirements specs and other such documents are essentially contracts, which are (potentially) divisive means of defining relationships.
The collaboration required to develop prototypes also develops relationships that are more capable to work through differences later in the project.
Make friends, not war Image posted by Mark Kraemer in Consulting, Design .
Friday October 24, 2008
404 desktop
Kind of a fun play on this idea: www.tutzor.com/index.php/2008/06/sleek-phone-advertisemen….
404 desktop Image posted by Matt Donovan in Design, Identity/Branding, Visual Design .