All posts from
October 2008

Prototyping with XHTML

Added on 31 October 2008 Peter Bogaards
“While prototyping with XHTML isn’t tied to a specific design process, iterative development seems to effectively leverage its strengths. There are many reasons for this, but perhaps the most significant is that in both cases the prototype, and later the application itself, doubles as a specification. We’ll explore what that means in a bit, but first let’s walk through a suggested process for prototyping with XHTML.” (Anders Ramsay and Leah Buley – Boxes and Arrows)

Designing universal knowledge

Added on 30 October 2008 Peter Bogaards
“Knowledge is power. If one possesses a collection of the ‘universal knowledge’ of the world, one has ultimate power. Establishing comprehensive, global collections of knowledge already fascinated mankind thousands of years ago. Today, modern communication and information technologies offer quick and prompt collecting, high memory capacities and wide-ranging access. In addition, globalization and the Internet advance a mentality which moves away from the local and regional towards the international and universal. Collections of knowledge, such as archives, encyclopaedias, databases and libraries, also follow this trend. They are engaged in a race against time in both the technological and creative area. Their clearly formulated aim is to establish for us a complete and up-to-date collection of ‘universal knowledge’.” (Gerlinde Schuller – Information Design Studio)

A Timeline of Information History

Added on 27 October 2008 Peter Bogaards
“This timeline presents significant events and developments in the innovation and management of information and documents from cave paintings (ca 30,000 BC) to the present. Only non-electronic innovations and developments are included (that is, digital and electronic communications are excluded).” (AI3) – courtesy of ruudruissaard

Atlas of Cyberspace – Full Content

Added on 24 October 2008 Peter Bogaards
“This is the first book to draw together the wide range of maps produced over the last 30 years or so to provide a comprehensive atlas of cyberspace and the infrastructure that supports it. Over the next 300 or so pages, more than 100 different mapping projects are detailed, accompanied by full-colour example maps and an explanation as to how they were created.” (Martin Dodge & Rob Kitchin) – courtesy of information aesthetics

Is there an architect in the house?

Added on 23 October 2008 Peter Bogaards
“What was intriguing about this particular conference was the diversity of people, both in professional and geographic terms. There were graphic designers, interaction designers, technical leads, managers, and oh yes… ‘information architects’. What was interesting about the attending information architects was that they came from so many backgrounds to become an information architect. There were actual classically trained architects that became IA’s, there were designers that were IA’s and so on.” (Adam Kallish – Spill)

ISDN3

Added on 20 October 2008 Peter Bogaards
“Over the last two years, the ISDN series of events has formed an exciting platform to explore the emerging field of Service Design. (…) ISDN3 investigated broader issues that contemporary designers face, with special focus on how designers are addressing the complex situations that arise when designing with what John Thackara of Dott 07 calls ‘real people’ – as opposed to ‘users’ – in the design process. We invited some cutting-edge speakers to share reflections on their recent design research work, and we structured the event to maximise productive debate about the key issues arising when designing in this way.” (International Service Design Conference)

Selling UX

Added on 20 October 2008 Peter Bogaards
“This article examines what works and what does not work well when selling UX within an organization, identifies barriers you might encounter to the adoption of UX methods in your organization, and discusses how to package and present UX to stakeholders. In this article, we’ll try to avoid just being prescriptive. Rather, we’ll pose questions along the way, regarding what has worked well for you. (…) As industry’s adoption of UX broadens and more of us find ourselves in situations where we need to sell UX, we need to be prepared to do so effectively.” (Daniel Szuc, Paul J. Sherman, and John S. Rhodes – UXmatters)

The Magic of Metaphor

Added on 20 October 2008 Peter Bogaards
“Metaphor teaches. Metaphor influences. Are you drawing on its power? Perhaps not, because many major works on writing for interactive products make little mention of it. To help encourage better use of metaphor, this column describes both the usefulness of shallow metaphors and the potential of deep metaphors, while offering tips and examples.” (Colleen Jones – UXmatters)

IDEA 2008

Added on 17 October 2008 Peter Bogaards
“The speakers pushed the boundaries of what it means to design complex information spaces of all kinds. We can all expand our practice by absorbing their experiences and ideas. In cooperation with the IA Institute, we’re happy to bring you recordings of most conference talks. We hope you enjoy listening to nearly the entire conference via these recordings.” (Jeff Parks – Boxes and Arrows)

Architectures of Global Knowledge PDF Logo

Added on 15 October 2008 Peter Bogaards
“The Mundaneum, a series of museums, was meant to promote international understanding. The concept was conceived by Paul Otlet (1868-1944), an information theorist and librarian, who commissioned Le Corbusier to design a ‘cité mondiale’, an institution for all the world’s knowledge. Charles van den Heuvel discusses how Otlet’s thinking about distributive networks resonates in Tim Berners-Lee’s World Wide Wide.” (Charles van den Heuvel)