“And standards are just standards, and they can change as technology changes. Best practices are guidelines; they’re not rules. It’s best to keep two seconds worth of stopping distance between you and the car in front of you, for example. That’s just good common sense. As cars get faster, these distances change, and the best practices change. But they remain only guidelines.” (Liz Danzico – Boxes and Arrows)

“So it’s very difficult to isolate the information architecture from the other elements of the user experience. You could certainly do that in a research lab, but in the real world all of these factors work together. It’s quite possible to do a beautiful information architecture redesign but completely destroy the experience by messing up the graphic side of things.” (CIO Insight)

“While designers often consider the different developments that emerge in both the east and the west, few scholars consider how technological design is connected to cultural practice. One exception is Mizuko (Mimi) Ito, an anthropologist who investigates new media use, particularly amongst young people in Japan and the United States. Her work ranges from mobile phone (keitai) practices to fandom, online game play to remix culture. Her edited volume ‘Personal, Portable and Pedestrian’ was just recently published, giving English-speaking scholars an opportunity to access Japanese media research. Because her cross-cultural work is of great value to designers, Ambidextrous decided to interview her to learn more.” (Danah Boyd – Ambidextrous Preview issue 3)

“(…) designers are often able to reframe business ‘problems’ to better communicate existing and potential relationships (and outcomes) between the market, customer goals, and product ecosystems. To further illustrate this point, I’ve asked a few seasoned designers that have successfully defined or re-defined business strategies to share their experiences defining problems.” (Luke Wroblewski – Functioning Form)

Interviews with Doug Engelbart, Dave Winer, Andy Herzfeld and other illuminaries – “NerdTV is a new weekly online TV show from PBS.org technology columnist Robert X. Cringely. NerdTV is essentially Charlie Rose for geeks – a one-hour interview show with a single guest from the world of technology.” (Robert X. Cringely – NerdTV)

A conversation with Peter Merholz – “(…) I never said design is not a field of knowledge. You asked if design was a field of “vast, deep, broad, and nuanced” field of knowledge like anthropology, and I said, ‘No’. We never discussed whether design is another kind of field of knowledge, which I think it is. But it is fractured, rootless, and without a core. It doesn’t have anywhere near the depth or nuance of anthropology.” (GK VanPatter – NextD Journal) – Recommended reading

“Boxes and Arrows caught up with Adam Greenfield on the heels of finishing his first book, Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing, due out in March 2006. Greenfield talks to us about how computing has moved away from the desktop into every part of our lives—from soda cans to the family pet. In this interview, he allows us to imagine what our new normal might look like. (…) Everyone who will be affected by this class of technologies should have a voice in shaping its emergence.” (Boxes and Arrows)

“I don’t think information overload is a function of the volume of information. It’s a derivative of the volume of information plus the sense-making tools you have. Think about the rise of info-graphics in newspapers. Those were sense-making tools to help people (absorb information).” (SFGate)

Interview excerpt from the upcoming book ‘Designing for Interaction’ – “Thanks to corporations that are learning the value of integrated teams, interaction designers will find themselves more often part of the team from beginning to end, rather than specialists who are called to make sporadic contributions from time to time.” (Designing for Interaction – August 2006) – courtesy of puttingpeoplefirst

“My goal is to put structure to the field of design. Design has no real theoretical structure and I’m trying to find one.” (Ambidextrous Magazine Issue 2)

“Richard Eisermann is Director of Design and Innovation at the UK Design Council. In this interview, he discusses how the Design Council is using a design approach to help business, public services and educational institutions develop new products, services and strategies or redevelop existing ones, and how Italy can use some of the same ideas in its own approach to innovation.” (Mark Vanderbeeken – Experientia)

“Louis Rosenfeld, one of the founding fathers of information architecture, has a new project up his sleeve. Growing restless after co-founding one of the most renowned information architecture firms of all time, co-authoring one of the best-known IA books, helping to start both the Information Architecture Institute and the User Experience Network, and running his own IA consulting practice, Lou is setting his sights on a new endeavor. He’s using his knowledge of user experience methods to launch a UX publishing house.” (Liz Danzico – Boxes and Arrows)

“Chaosradio Express episode 11 is an interview with 22C3’s keynote speaker Joi Ito. The interview touches various topics including Chicago’s club scene and Joi’s affiliation with it, the early Internet days via X.25, Creative Commons licensing issues, the Open Source Initiative, political activism in general and what can and should be done, optimism vs. pessimism in the current situation of global political fighting, ICANN, living a super-public life and combining all kinds of modern communication tools, the influence of the Internet on political activism and democracy and of course the 22C3 and his personal experiences at the event.” (Chaosradio)

An interview with John Maeda – “I’m not only interested in marketing simplicity, I’m interested in marketing creative thinking. I believe that creative thinking is rapidly disappearing, because business is so focused on measurable outcomes and the economy is known to improve if reading and mathematics are strong in society.” (Sascha Pohflepp)

Director of Design Strategy at Nokia – “Designing simple elegant objects that simply works, that’s a challenge.” (Sebastian Campion – DDC) – courtesy of puttingpeoplefirst

“Intelligence is moving to the edges, flowing through wireless devices, empowering individuals and distributed teams. Ideas spread like wildfire, and information is in the air, literally. And yet with this wealth of instantly accessible information, we still experience disorientation. We still wander off the map.” – (Liz Danzico – AIGA Voice)

“Findability takes us beyond usability and information architecture into the realms of design, engineering and marketing. And it encompasses wayfinding and retrieval in physical and digital environments.” (Liz Danzico – Boxes and Arrows)

“Content management, meet user-centered design. I’m glad to see this beginning to happen.” (Digital Web Magazine)

“I’m an impatient information architect. I spend no more time organizing than absolutely necessary. (…) With respect to personal information architecture, less is more.” (Gene Smith – Tagsonomy)