“Apple is an excellent example of building an organization, from products to market, around the people who will participate in the experience. Particularly for graphic designers and other creative types who grew up appreciating Apple but perhaps being unfamiliar with what marketing is and how it works, Apple Computer, Inc. is a textbook case of a company successfully identifying the needs of their market and participants.” (Dirk Knemeyer – Thread Inc.)

“Wouldn’t we all have an easier time of it if we worked together to create a paradigm shift in terms of how corporations work? Or what they value? If we did that, maybe the resulting shift would create more work than we all could actually do!” (Beth Mazur – IDblog)

“(…) a tool designed to let every individual manage all of their information in the way that makes the most sense to them. By removing the arbitrary barriers created by applications only handling certain information ‘types’, and recording only a fixed set of relationships defined by the developer, we aim to let users define whichever arrangements of, connections between, and views of information they find most effective. Such personalization of information management will dramatically improve each individual’s ability to find what they need when they need it.” (MIT Laboratory for Computer Science) – courtesy of antenna

A Sampler (Norbert Küpper)

“Pie menus show a certain superiority over the ubiquitous linear menus we are so fond of. Why arenít they proliferated more showing up only on some applications?” (Juan C. Dürsteler – Inf@Vis!)

“The idea behind captology is simple: computers (and other technological devices) can be used to persuade people to do things.” (William Grosso – O’Reilly Network)

“A major shift is occurring in relation to who is in charge of the Web. Previously, responsibility tended to be with IT. Occasionally, marketing was in charge. Today, the website, particularly the intranet, is the responsibility of the communications department. This is as it should be.” (Gerry McGovern)

“Design is creation in or alteration of the world to meet the needs and desires of people.” (Dirk Knemeyer and Nathan Shedroff)

“What is data, really? Data is an idea, an abstraction, a particular collection of positive and negative assertions encoded on a spinning magnetic platter, later interpreted by the end user in a manner that they find pleasing.” (Rob Flickinger – O’Reilly Weblogs)

“(…) an analysis of Club Nexus, an online community at Stanford University. Through the Nexus site we were able to study a reflection of the real world community structure within the student body. We observed and measured social network phenomena such as the small world effect, clustering, and the strength of weak ties. Using the rich profile data provided by the users we were able to deduce the attributes contributing to the formation of friendships, and to determine how the similarity of users decays as the distance between them in the network increases. In addition, we found correlations between users’ personalities and their other attributes, as well as interesting correspondences between how users perceive themselves and how they are perceived by others.” (Lada A. Adamic, Orkut Buyukkokten, and Eytan Adar – First Monday 8.6)

“You should only publish on your website the content that you can professionally manage. Managing content involves managing its entire life cycle. The life of a particular piece of content begins with its first draft. It ends when that content is removed from publication. Removing content is as important as publishing it.” (Gerry McGovern)

“What’s wrong with ‘design’? Well, there’s nothing wrong with the practice, but plenty wrong with the word’s associations.” (PeterMe)

Three intensive course meetings, lasting three days each on Interaction, Information, and Interface Design (Ars Media and Istituto Europeo di Design)

“While the premise of paradigmatic change was well received, the specific solution of participant was not endorsed. Here are four alternatives that were suggested and my analysis as to why participant remains the best thesis to date: (…)” (Dirk Knemeyer – Thread Inc.)

“The new media field has been developing for more than 50 years. This reader collects the texts, videos, and computer programs – many of them now almost impossible to find – that chronicle the history and form the foundation of this still-emerging field.” (Noah Wardrip-Fruin & Nick Montfort – NMR)

Making sense of authentic cognitive activities (Henrik Gedenryd) – courtesy of beth mazur

The Webby Awards 2003 – The Best of the Web (About the Webby Awards)

“One of the most overlooked aspects of designing a Web site is how users get to it. Separate factions are often devoted to promoting, designing, and maintaining a Web site, and the lack of communication and involvement can lead to apathy or confusion. Too frequently is it assumed that visitors are knowledgeable about the company and Web site, and that they enter through the home page. False assumptions about visitor entry can plague even a well-planned, well-designed site.” (Jeff Lash – Digital Web Magazine)

“Information design is concerned with making complex information easier to understand and to use. It is a rapidly growing discipline that draws on typography, graphic design, applied linguistics, applied psychology, applied ergonomics, computing, and other fields. It emerged as a response to people’s need to understand and use such things as forms, legal documents, computer interfaces and technical information. Information designers responding to these needs have achieved major economic and social improvements in information use.” (Design Council

“(…) to promote excellence in signing and wayfinding.” (About the SDS)