The Stuff of Bits: An Essay on the Materialities of Information by Paul Dourish MIT Press, May 2017 264 pages Virtual entities that populate our digital experience, like e-books, virtual worlds, and online stores, are backed by the large-scale physical infrastructures of server farms, fiber optic cables, power plants, and microwave links. But another domain […]

Forbes Product Member, Alec Pomnichowski, describes the parallels between architecture and product development thinking. He asks product-types to be considerate and thoughtful about the ways in which users experience products and find value in them through time. Good architects will start with the experience of the building’s inhabitants. Understanding their needs and motivations, fears and […]

Ralph Ammer argues that interaction design is based on technological thinking and restricted to profitable applications, and proposes a new direction, which he calls “Natural Design”, centered around biological systems. The principles are: 1. Our designs show our relations towards life and shape them. 2. We ask: Why? (Designers do not just solve problems, they […]

Flaws of the Smart City is a critical, workshop-tailored kit to explore the dark faces of the so-called Smart Cities. As any hardware or software piece, the connected cities embed flaws. This kit aims to fix these weak spots or to exploit them to set chaos. As any hardware or software piece, the connected cities […]

The School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University has started talking about ‘Transition Design.’ In his long reflection about this new kind of design practice, Cameron Tonkinwise, CMU’s Director of Design and Doctoral Studies, writes: Transition refers to phased change – not revolution or sudden shifts, but a sustained process of multi-faceted transformation. To transition […]

As more and more ‘Internet of Things’ products come into the market, most, if not all will come with significant challenges. The key to overcoming any obstacles, writes Joe Johnston, VP Experience Innovation for Universal Mind, is to unify them into one holistic user experience; to incorporating the Physical and Digital experiences and making them […]

In this piece, Jerry Cao, Kamil Zieba and Matt Ellis of UXPin dive into four reasons why we recommend a content-first design approach: 1. Design may impress, but content hooks users In the end, users will care more about content, not the design.Sites without substance won’t stand. 2. Content plays the greatest role in interaction […]

Autonomous cars are based on the premise – similar to airplanes – that the human driver can take back control of the vehicle in case of emergency. But that takes quite a bit of time. Two seconds are not enough, even when the (backup) driver is not performing other talks. Five to eight is generally […]

Designers, writes Cennydd Bowles in a Design Council opinion piece, have a central role in safeguarding digital products so they not only empower but also protect users. This responsibility starts with designers’ own output. Design teams should demand high ethical standards from themselves and their colleagues. Internal product development conversations are where key ethical questions […]

The first ‘science oven’, launched in 1967, was simple to use but then digital interfaces came along and made things worse. The real problem, according to Charles Arthur, is that microwave ovens live too long. “In the end, I think there’s a simple reason why these interfaces have not merged more rapidly: life-spans. It’s not […]

Designing Connected Products: UX for the Consumer Internet of Things By Claire Rowland, Elizabeth Goodman, Martin Charlier, Ann Light, Alfred Lui O’Reilly Media, May 2015 726 pages [Amazon link] Abstract Networked thermostats, fitness monitors, and door locks show that the Internet of Things can (and will) enable new ways for people to interact with the […]

Alice Rawsthorn asks why the aesthetics of something so pervasive [as digital user interfaces], the design of which is deeply sophisticated in other respects, are often underwhelming. Developing a definitive design aesthetic as Braun once did is fiendishly difficult in any context, but especially so for something as complex as a digital interface with its […]

Carl DiSalvo, an associate professor in the Digital Media program at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is struck that there is very little design history in HCI. Design history is important to HCI, he argues, for at least two reasons. First, it can help us understand the practices and products of contemporary design. Second, it […]

Getting around cities is a nerve-wracking experience for too many people, especially those living with sight loss. Too often it feels like public spaces and services – from parks to transport systems – are designed with insufficient consideration for the people they serve. Cities Unlocked was created to help fix this. Guide Dogs, a UK […]

Is there a Language of Interaction Design [Not yet online] Keynote by Gillian Crampton Smith, Designer/Educator, IUAV University of Venice > Full description Bridging the Physical-Digital Divide [44:32] Jason Mesut, Head of User Experience at Plan Strategic Bridging the gap between Industrial and Interaction Design to develop better products and services for the physical-digital age […]

Body Languages of Interaction Design [38:53] Keynote by Irene Au Design is both art and science, yet while we teach methods and practices for hard design skills, we don’t teach practices that address the art of design, which is often mystified as “creative genius”. Irene’s talk will explore how through meditation and yoga we can […]