The ‘feel’ of an interactive system can be compared to the impressions generated by a piece of music. Both can only be experienced over a period of time. With either, the user must abstract the structure of the system from a sequence of details. Each may have a quality of ‘naturalness’ because successive actions follow a logically self-consistent pattern. A good composer can write a new pattern which will seem, after a few listenings, to be so natural the observer wonders why it was never done before. Read more – ‘Hansen’s User Engineering Principles for Interactive Systems’.
Human-Computer Interaction Seminar (Seminar on People, Computers, and Design) is a Stanford University course that features weekly speakers on topics related to human-computer interaction design. The seminar is organized by the Stanford HCI Group, which works across disciplines to understand the intersection between humans and computers. Read more – ‘Stanford University Human-Computer Interaction Seminars’.
The truly worldwide reach of the Web has brought with it a new realisation among computer scientists and industry professionals of the enormous importance of usability and user interface design. In the last ten years, much has become understood about what works in user interfaces from a usability perspective, and what does not. Read more – ‘User Experience Books Free to Read Online’.
Dieter Rams is a German industrial designer closely associated with the consumer products company Braun and the Functionalist school of industrial design. Many of Rams’ designs — coffee makers, calculators, radios, audio/visual equipment, consumer appliances and office products — have found a permanent home at many museums over the world, including MoMA in New York. Read more – ‘Dieter Rams' 10 Rules of Good Design’.
Okay, so many of the points below aren’t purely my philosophy, but ideas and principles I have picked up along the way throughout my [development] career. Some relate to the UNIX philosophy, or even the Zen of Python, but wherever they’re from, they can be applied to many other domains. Read more – ‘My Work Philosophy’.
ColdFusion is 13 years old. That make makes it the daddy of the web world! It does not make it any less hip or useful than the relatively new kids on the block. Let's not dilly-dally, bicker or insult one another about which is best, which one is dying and which one is not worth the computer it is compiled on. What is important is to understand the merits of each language and decide which one best suits the application, not only in technical terms, but also in terms of time-to-market, cost of development, availability of a skilled workforce etc. Read more – ‘Let's not Dilly-Dally: ColdFusion has its Merits’.
Two Italians, Eva and Franco Mattes internationally known as 0100101110101101.org and self-styled net art pranksters and hacktivists have been besieging the art world with their clever hacks and elusive digital role-plays for more than ten years. Read more – ‘It's Always Six O'Clock’.
The Final Wooden House by Sou Fujimoto must be the epitome of good environmental design, but at the same time it is amazingly impractical unless you’re a Hobbit and live in The Shire! Read more – ‘Final Wooden House, Japan by Sou Fujimoto’.
What do we need the skin of a car for? What’s its purpose? Does it need to be made of metal? In reality we don’t. Wouldn’t it be great if we could have a car with a human like skin that covered all the essential mechanical and structural components of the vehicle. These questions were addressed by the BMW Group design team behind the GINA project. Read more – ‘The BMW GINA Light Visionary Model’.
