Pleasure and Pain

Measuring the impact of new technology on human experience

Pleasure and Pain: photos by Whitney G. Hess

Google’s Design Principles

April 28th, 2008 · 5 comments so far

I owe you a proper recap of Leah Buley’s earth-shattering presentation at the IA Summit, but because my computer battery had died and I was taking notes on paper, I’ve been lazy about typing it all up.
In any case, one of the things she talked about was the importance of using Design Principles to guide [...]

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IA Summit 2008 Opening Keynote: “Journey to the Center of Design” by Jared Spool

April 12th, 2008 · 3 comments so far

Jared Spool did the opening keynote presentation early this morning at IA Summit 2008. His talk, titled Journey to the Center of Design, was funny enough to keep us awake and provocative enough to keep us listening.
He opened it up by flatly stating:
“User-centered design has never worked.”
He went on to talk about [...]

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Design — Architect — Engineer

April 4th, 2008 · No comments yet

I’m talking about the verbs, not the nouns. To design. To architect. To engineer. These words are often conflated — a common source of despair for those of us in the related fields, misunderstood and misidentified.
This issue has been tackled by many people far more seasoned and insightful than me. But if I may be [...]

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The value of personas

January 24th, 2008 · 1 comment so far

I’ve never been completely convinced that personas are a valuable design tool. And I think that’s because I’ve been confused all along.
To me, personas are the total sum of silly names, stock photography and forced lists of likes and dislikes. The act of creating the personas is worthwhile because I solidify in my mind who [...]

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