–Engage

“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It's not about money. It's about the people you have, how you're led, and how much you get it.” - Steve Jobs

Why It’s Not Damning to Define the Thing

This was originally published by ACM Interactions magazine in their May-June, 2013 Edition as part of their Confessions column. I re-print it here with their permission as columns like these are not made available to the public as a whole. Thank you ACM for allowing me to do this. Why It's ...

Coordination vs. Collaboration

Recently I've been made aware of different ways of thinking about "collaboration". It kinda took me for surprise be specially given the geo-social contexts, but there is no ignoring it. What I learned as two completely different activities some use the same word for or more correctly use the term ...

Report from Up to All Of Us

I'm currently on a plane heading back home after a short weekend with a group of mostly instructional designers who are at a new type of unconference (something I've never experienced before). It felt more like a retreat than a conference due to the setting and the style of interaction ...

As Corona says, “Change your Latitude [Longitude]” – Travel is awesome.

Today I sparked a bit of a conversation after I tweeted: Everyone who is creative should move every 5-10 years; to minimally find a way to live somewhere else for a yr (sabbatical). http://twitter.com/daveixd/status/278919010391826432 Why do I put such importance on travel? What value does it give a creative person? And to the ...

Today Johnny Holland says Goodbye and I am sad & grateful

Today Johnny Holland, the amazing Interaction Design online magazine says goodbye. This news makes me feel both sad and grateful. Johnny Holland (JH) has been a rare place that allowed me to include my voice where other magazines rejected the types of topics I was interested in discussing: esoteric, foundational, semantic, ...

Fill your passport – I know I’m not done yet

Today I was invited to speak to a class of The Creative Circus (@creativecircus) over Skype about my story as a designer, community organizer and entrepreneur. I was invited by Liberty White (@i_am_liberty). During the call I was asked what advice I'd give to these folks who will be looking for ...

Describing my consulting practice. Opinions welcome.

I've been thinking about how to market my consulting practice better (yes, I know it needs it's own voice outside of this space.) I've been trying to describe all weekend to people at RemixSouth what I want to be doing and I think I've been getting better at it. So ...

Is design being evolved out of existance?

This is a thought I posted to G+ (I like it for longer thoughts like this) but feel that after 24+ hours that its withstood the initial "did I shoot that off too fast?" feeling. Enjoy! Ok, design is inherently a deconstructive/reductionist process. That means you have to create more, learn ...

3 Steps to creativity – Wash, Rinse, Repeat (Get Flattered/Insulted)

... Or ... Work Hard, Rest, Repeat ... Criticism ... Repeat. This post was inspired by the recent piece by Scott Berkun, called "How to be creative - the short honest truth". In the post Scott, who has made it his life's work to observe and research how businesses, especially the ...

They actually did it behind my back! (New EBS system for Wireless Phones to be released)

So late last year I had an epiphany. I'm barely ever watching standard TV anymore. But I live in a place that has a ton (compared to Brooklyn; my previous residence) of EAS announcements come over my TV screen. I'm on the Internet usually: Apple TV, Netflix, Hulu, etc. So ...

What are the characteristics of good interaction design

[This is a response to the question on Quora, "What are the characteristics of good interaction design?"] THAT is a great question and I don't think anyone has truly answered it from all the intricate points of view that go into the making of a a fantastic interaction. The area that I ...

What’s your creative/collaboration super power

I was reading the great wrap up of the 99% conference by Behance. There is some really great thoughts captured/curated in that piece. It's like a real Making Ideas TED. Kudos to the organizers and editors. The one thing that jumped out at me was report of Keith Yamashita's talk: KEITH YAMASHITA ...

Studio = Serendipity by Design

[Today, I read a great piece by Mark Boulton (@markboulton) on his experience past & present with design critiques and how they've sorta been lost in the web design (and by extension I'll add the UX community). I've had this 1-2 written piece on the design studio and Mark's post ...

Being able to take abstract direction is a key to being a great designer. True or False

I've been teaching design now for a bit over 3 years. By teaching I mean in a higher-ed institution. I've been doing design for close to 20 years. I feel it makes me a bit of an expert in the field. But even experts have questions from time to time ...

Is “the server” beyond the app?

This will be a short post. ... Recently there has been a lot of hoopla about privacy especially around the recent "breech of trust" by one of my favorite apps, Path. I'm one of the people and looking at my Path stream I'm not alone, who seemed to just not care. ...

In search of opportunities

I am very interested in learning about opportunities where I can learn, design and teach this coming summer. As a professor, I have 16wks off during the summer. As a professor, I am also severely underpaid and need to find ways to supplement my income. I've added to my site a ...

The state of IxD: Diverging

Today, Core77 published my latest article on the current state of IxD and why it will impact your practice. I would really love people to use it as a point of conversation as I believe this moment of division is a powerful time as we can do so much with these ...

Emergency Announcement System – EAS

Today was the first National Emergency Announcement System test. We're all familiar with the EAS system. It is what tells us about the imminent hurricane or tornado heading our way, or when there is a Northeaster. Today for the first time there was a national test. That means that if ...

Observation as skill

Hi, I recently had a talk rejected from IxDA's Interaction 12 | Dublin conference. I'm far from bitter about it. (Mainly because I have a longer talk and a workshop accepted.) But I kinda liked the idea, or at least the premise behind it. I even had the chance to explore it ...

What makes a great IxD student

After teaching almost 3 years now and after conversations with co-teachers I have determined that there are 7 key attributes that make a great IxD student/designer: (aren't we students forever?) 1. Tinkerer: A passion for making of course, but more importantly a love for fussin' around to discover new possibilities through ...

Why It’s Not Damning to Define the Thing

This was originally published by ACM Interactions magazine in their May-June, 2013 Edition as part of their Confessions column. I re-print it here with their permission as columns like these are not made available to the public as a whole. Thank you ACM for allowing me to do this. Why It's ...

Coordination vs. Collaboration

Recently I've been made aware of different ways of thinking about "collaboration". It kinda took me for surprise be specially given the geo-social contexts, but there is no ignoring it. What I learned as two completely different activities some use the same word for or more correctly use the term ...

Report from Up to All Of Us

I'm currently on a plane heading back home after a short weekend with a group of mostly instructional designers who are at a new type of unconference (something I've never experienced before). It felt more like a retreat than a conference due to the setting and the style of interaction ...
December 12th 2012
Tags: education, general thoughts One Comment

As Corona says, “Change your Latitude [Longitude]” – Travel is awesome.

Today I sparked a bit of a conversation after I tweeted: Everyone who is creative should move every 5-10 years; to minimally find a way to live somewhere else for a yr (sabbatical). http://twitter.com/daveixd/status/278919010391826432 Why do I put such importance on travel? What value does it give a creative person? And to the ...

Today Johnny Holland says Goodbye and I am sad & grateful

Today Johnny Holland, the amazing Interaction Design online magazine says goodbye. This news makes me feel both sad and grateful. Johnny Holland (JH) has been a rare place that allowed me to include my voice where other magazines rejected the types of topics I was interested in discussing: esoteric, foundational, semantic, ...

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