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General
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Liz Danzico on Jazz, Improv, and Lessons Therein
In the latest issue of Interactions Magazine, Liz Danzico breaks down the value of improvisation for designers in an essay entitled “From Davis to David: Lessons from Improvisation.”
From its roots, to present day applications adopted by leaders in the arts, design, and online communities, to improv’s effect on the present day information consumer, Danzico points out that improv is, “in fact, a structure. As loose as its name suggests, its very constraints liberate participants. These constraints, and the potential freedom, are what make improv rich for designers to examine.”
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Alex Wright on Museums 2.0
In a recent Times piece entitled “Online, It’s the Mouse That Runs the Museum,” Alex Wright discusses the effect of social media on museum web initiatives. As one powerful example, Wright talks with fellow faculty Jake Barton on the curatorial process for the Make History 911 memorial website.
Make History is perhaps the most notable recent example of a museum tapping the collective energy of Web users to help build its collection. While museums have been experimenting with the Web for years, these projects have often consisted of little more than an exhibit photo gallery or online guestbook. In recent years, however, the rise of social media has given Web users the technological wherewithal to play a more active role in shaping the direction of museum collections.
User-generated content on the Make History website
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Twitter Reading Recommendations
Earlier this year, we presented reading recommendations suggested by our faculty. Today, we present a different kind of reading — a potential Twitter reading list. Below is only a small sample of those @svaixd has come to follow. With the growing number of Twitter users, we look forward to finding more to add to our list.
All Day Buffet: @alldaybuffet Energy toward changing the world through creativity and business.
Core77: @core77 Content for industrial designers and design enthusiasts alike.
Design Observer: @DesignObserver Writings on design and culture. Edited by Michael Bierut, William Drenttel, Jessica Helfand, and Julie Lasky.
frog design: @frogdesign Global innovation firm that helps create and bring to market meaningful products, services, and experiences.
GOOD: @GOOD A collaboration of individuals, businesses, and NPOs pushing the world forward.
iA: @iA Tweets from and information architect, UX designer, and founder of iA Inc and Webtrendmap.com.
Kicker Studio: @kickerstudio Product design consultancy specializing in consumer electronics, appliances, touchscreens, kiosks, devices, objects with screens, and robots.
Pew Internet: @Pew_Internet The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization.
Zappos: @zappos The voice behind Zappos.com, Tony Hsieh, CEO.
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An Event Apart Chicago 2009
An Event Apart, the “design conference for people who make websites,” will take place October 12-13 in Chicago this year. Founded by Eric Meyer and faculty member Jeffrey Zeldman, the “intensely educational two-day learning session brings together twelve of the leading minds in web design for non-stop inspiration and enlightenment.” Among the speakers this year will include Jeffrey Zeldman and fellow faculty member Jason Santa Maria.
- Visit the Official An Event Apart Website
- Visit Jeffrey Zeldman Presents the Daily Report
- Read a quickfire Interview with Jeffrey Zeldman from net tuts
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Jake Barton Lecture “Designing Public History”
If you are in or around Providence this Friday, join faculty member Jake Barton for a lecture, “Designing Public History,” at Brown University. Jake is founder and principal of Local Projects, and the lecture will be co-presented with Rosten Woo, executive director and co-founder of The Center for Urban Pedagogy.
How do current events and lived experience evolve and settle into what is considered “history?” How can representations of the past influence our interpretation of the present? This messy process involves discourse, dialogue, and negotiations between major and minor histories, public and private stories. Here to discuss their parts in the process are Jake Barton of Local Projects and Rosten Woo of the Center For Urban Pedagogy, two leading firms that design public history in a variety of formats. Their projects deal with a wide spectrum of contexts and approaches: from the challenges of designing for national institutions like the September 11 Memorial Museum at the World Trade Center or NPR’s StoryCorps, to the problems of recasting the history of a single maligned street in Brooklyn. In their presentations, Barton and Woo will investigate the role of conflict, aesthetics and voice in representing public history.
Friday, April 10, 12:00-1:30PM John Nicholas Brown Center Nightingale Brown House, Library Brown University, Providence, RI
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Requested Reading Recommendations
Upon the request of readers, we asked faculty to recommend books for an interaction design reading list. These could be landmark texts, underdogs, or critical reads, or stepping stones to other fields. The following is what resulted from our request, comprising in part: a sneak preview of what will be assigned in courses; what some consider to be cornerstone interaction design texts; and what some consider important connections to other fields.
About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design, Alan Cooper, Robert Reimann, David Cronin
The Design of Everyday Things, Donald Norman
Designing Interactions, Bill Moggridge
Designing for Interaction: Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices, Dan Saffer
- Designing for People, Henry Dreyfuss
The Fundamentals
Information Design
- Envisioning Information, Edward R. Tufte
- Graph Design for the Eye and Mind, Stephen Kosslyn
- Powers of Ten, Philip Morrison, Phylis Morrison and the office of Charles and Ray Eames
- The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Edward Tufte
- While You’re Reading, Gerard Unger
Networks and Data
- How to Lie With Statistics, Darrell Huff, Irving Geis
- Global Networks, Robert Hobbs, Mark Lombardi, Judith Richards
Physical Computing and Electronics
- Getting Started with Arduino (Make: Projects), Massimo Banzi
- Getting Started in Electronics, Forrest M. Mims III
- Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers, Tom Igoe, Dan O’Sullivan
Storytelling and Visual Narratives
- Comics and Sequential Art, Will Eisner
- Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design, Bill Buxton
- Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, Scott McCloud
Usability and Web Design
- Building Accessible Websites, Joe Clark
- Don’t Make Me Think!, Steve Krug
- The Trouble with Computers: Usefulness, Usability, and Productivity, Thomas Landauer
See Also
While it may be cheating, the categories of sustainability, philosophy, architecture, writing, and many more have texts too vast to list here. Below are just a couple outlined by the faculty.
- The Architecture of Happiness, Alain De Botton
- Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Thing, William McDonough and Michael Braungart
Missing some of your trusted texts? Add your recommendations to the comments.
UPDATE: Added “See Also.”
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Not all updates belong in the curriculum, and the Interaction Blog is where we talk about news and events around interaction design far and wide.
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Recently
- Evolving the Glass House Conversations Online
- Keeping Tabs on “The Tablet”
- Liz Danzico on Jazz, Improv, and Lessons Therein
- Interaction10 New York Redux
- Student Apps Project Featured in GOOD Magazine
- Nicholas Felton Designs Department Business Cards
- Liz Danzico Interviews Scott Berkun
Read more in the Archives.
