Rethinking my T-type (maybe even my I-type) against the commodity, firmness, desirability framework ala Vitruvius. I’m pretty much focused on commodity, utility or usefulness. This doesn't mean I don't understand the greater whole that the triumvirate express together so well. It means that my self-admitted mindset and bias focuses my attention ...

I apologize for throwing this 4000 word essay out there like this. I thought and thought and just didn't know where else to put it. I hope someone enjoys it. Yesterday a very respected colleague, who I also call friend (not in that Facebook way, but in that pre-Internet kinda-way), wrote ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

.prezi-player { width: 500px; } .prezi-player-links { text-align: center; }Understanding Information Architecture on Prezi

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 ...

Recently, I was teaching my students about the history and present of interaction design practice. I tend to be a seat of the pants at the whiteboard type of professor. I know the things I tend to want to say, but I let the moment & my students take me ...

Today I posted the below on a LinkedIn discussion thread about what makes a great interactive team. Here is my response slightly edited. I'll take a diff approach. You don't need an "interactive" team at all. What you need first above all else is an organization in all areas from the ...

Last weekend I gave a talk to a group of non-designers. It's been awhile since I did that so it was a chance to flex some thinking muscles on identity and definition issues I've been exercising over the last few weeks (well since Interaction South America) in December. First here is ...

Below is the slide deck (on slideshare.net) for my keynote presentation at Interaction South America in Curitiba, BR. It seemed to be well receive. It was video taped and you might have been lucky to see the live web cast, but if not I'm told the video will be replaced ...

I was honored to be asked to write for IDSA's latest issue of Innovation. This issue's executive sponsor was Alistair Hamilton who I had the honor to work with and was edited by Don Carr of the Syracuse Univ Industrial and Interaction Design Program. The issue focused on interactivity and ...

The Interaction Design Association of today is not the IxDG or even InteractionDesigners.com of yesteryear. The organization has grown faster than the rising stock of Apple over the the short 7 years since Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini made his call to action that gave conception to this organization. This is my ...

It is often said that interaction design evolved out of the requirement to stem the tide of the ever increasing amount of complexity in our personal lives due to technology. Design & engineering a like had to encompass a personal/human view of the effects that inserting their creations would have ...

IxDA has been an honor for me to be a leader of since the very first moment I joined the Yahoo group August 2003. It has always been about learning. Whether it was learning about group building from Challis Hodge, speaking from Robert Reimann, teaching from Jared Spool, leading from ...

It is so hard to not become a victim of our surroundings and this post is trying really hard to not do that. I have a pretty multi-facetted history; however, that history has been linear in its movement away from technology and towards design. Not that these are opposites, but they ...

This morning [I started this on Sunday & finished it on Tuesday], very early, I had a chance to read Jon Kolko's thoughts on IDSA. Just this week I wrote some thoughts of my own on the topic and much of what Jon states compliments my own analysis in that ...

I'm here at the IDSA (Industrial Design Society of America) National (or this year International) Conference. During my time here due to the very warm hearts of some of the colleagues I've met over the years, I've been included for the first time in some of the more ... how ...

I first saw that there was a new issue of interactions (the magazine of ACM/SIGCHI) when @jkolko announced it. Right away I clicked on over to the site enticed by the mention of a piece about Education in NYC. Ya see I know big things are happening in NYC with ...

(I started this post over 3 months ago and finished it today. Sorry if it feels a tad disjointed, but I still like it. Hopefully you will gain some inspiration and motivation by it.) In 2008 I had the pleasure of co-chairing the first Interaction Design Association (IxDA) conference, Interaction 08 ...