Archive for the ‘design’ Category

It’s a mistake to let content drive design, just as it was to let design drive content. We mustn’t let the pendulum swing too far. If we are to go beyond mere information and style to create meaning, the two must be partners, feeding from and influencing each other.

Today I changed my signatures, my profiles, and my label to “digital product designer”.

A friend has been steadily redesigning his e-commerce site with the help of an external design team. But he hadn’t yet seen the bottom-line rewards he’d hoped for, so he asked for my thoughts.

Knowledge work is a pendulum. Think. Do. Think. Do. You can use other labels – act/reflect, execute/measure – but gravity is the same everywhere.

I speak with Eleanor Seelig, designer of the Nottingham tram information graphics, about the recent updates.

My theory is that “taste” is simply the ability to draw on patterns and experience to help us choose better candidates for analysis.

Evidence that, despite my scepticism, there’s something in this technology-as-behaviour-change-catalyst argument.

Peter Merholz’s rant is bold, uncomfortable and dogmatic, as all rants should be. I’d like to make a more reasoned case for the offense.