Entries in 'Articles' Feed category:
Information Architecture Redux
Jon WestA thoughtful client recently asked me to explain the value of information architecture for customers and end-users.
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So you learned stuff. Now what?
Lauren ChapmanWhat happens after the research is over? This is one of the most challenging parts of design—translating needs into tangible direction, taking a leap from insight into making.
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The Internet of Things, isn't about things.
The words “Internet of Things” barely scratch the surface of the opportunities, and challenges, ahead.
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Apps for the Public Good
MAYA’s Mickey McManus got programmers at the Steel City Codefest working through the night with a kick-off presentation to the competing teams.
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Best Design Articles of 2012
David BishopWelcome to 2013… I was going to collect a “best design articles of 2012” list, but when I started to curate the list, I ended up with books, videos, and articles that stray from Design but should be read anyway.
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On Touch Target Size
David BishopAt MAYA, we’ve had a number of discussions amongst ourselves and with our clients about the optimal size for touch targets. This article summarizes what we know and provides some useful references.
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What's empathy got to do with it?
Lauren ChapmanSuccessful and strong human-centered designers know how to develop and have empathy for their users. But too often sympathy is confused with empathy. Why is it critical to know the difference? And how can you build your empathy skills?
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Composer Mason Bates Chats at MAYA about the Creative Process
Heinz Award winner and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Composer of the Year Mason Bates shared thoughts on his creative process . . .
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MAYA to Host Post-Screening Reception of The Naked Brand
The nature of marketing and advertising is fundamentally changing. Join the conversation with MAYA Design and the film’s co-director Jeff Rosenblum.
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MAYA Co-Founder Seeds Fund to Promote Innovation in Education
The Ballay Family Fund will give new ideas and endeavors the boost they need to make a lasting and meaningful impact on how education is delivered.
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Mad Science Supply & Surplus Opens in Pittsburgh!
Just in time for Halloween, volunteers from MAYA Design and Literary Arts Boom (LAB) launched a Mad Science Supply & Surplus pop-up shop in the Garfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh.
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One Young World Dinner Delights
Over a dozen delegates from the One Young World Summit 2012 dined with a group of MAYAns on Saturday night in an intimate setting in Squirrel Hill. Young people representing regions as far away as Asia, Africa and Europe, and . . .
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A Framework for Empathetic Problem Solving
Lauren ChapmanHere at MAYA, we practice design both as problem solving and opportunity mapping. For example, consider “Design for Chronic Illness” and “Food Oasis,” the two case studies I presented at the 8th International Conference on Design & Emotion. These case studies illustrate how human-centered design creates a framework for empathetic problem solving.
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Rhiza Named One of Pittsburgh's 10 Fastest Growing Tech Companies
MAYA spin-off Rhiza Labs has been recognized by the Pittsburgh Business Times as one of the region’s 100 fastest growing companies. As part of the list, Rhiza ranked in the top 10 of all technology companies and in the top 50 overall.
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Friday Links 07-20-2012
Mickey McManusSummer reading, reverse innovation, archangels and hunchbacks, Alef, Existence, Gotham’s villains, flipdot madness, something to do at the Olympics, and the Department of Hopeland Security.
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Friday Links 04-20-2012
Mickey McManusGateway 4, Trillions, truthiness, the company of the dead, thinking fast and slow, TNT freaks people out, the greatest lecture on creativity ever given, and a beautiful and fluid dance.
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Friday Links 03-30-2012
Mickey McManusAngelmaker, the Rook, the Orphan Master’s son, SXSW and the reason why beauty is embarrassing, the VIP Pizza Button, seeing around corners, the emergence of swarm spam, and Jim Henson’s foray into computers.
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MAYA Presents a Project at Portal Bridge Design Symposium
MAYA is one of five nationally recognized design teams to publicly present their design concepts for the Portal Bridge, the iconic entranceway to Pittsburgh’s Point State Park. The company’s design proposal will be presented at a symposium to be held at the Carnegie Museum of Art Lecture Hall . . .
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Consumer Electronics Show Features Craftsman and LiftMaster Brands' Apps
Both Craftsman® and LiftMaster® brands captured lots of attention at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) for their Apps to control and monitor a garage door remotely by smartphone or computer. MAYA helped design these user interfaces. Brian Cooley (CNET’s “Top 5” host) remarked . . .
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Friday Links 01-06-2012
Mickey McManusWild Abandon, Mayan predictions, the Empire States, a MAYAn best of list, a show about management consulting, the toaster, some algorithms, knowing but not understanding, DNA sequencing for garage biotech, and of course Spike Jonze and 3000 bits of felt.
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Best Design Articles of 2011
David BishopWelcome to 2012… We’ve pored over MAYA’s Feed posts for the past year, internal “you should all read this” emails, and a few of our favorite blogs. Here’s MAYA’s take on the best design articles of 2011.
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Friday Links - 12-10-2011
Mickey McManusGrumpy blather, Audio Reality, best toys ever, MAYAn Action League!, projection mapping taken to a whole new level, turning air into plasma so you can see Obi-Wan, 138 years of Popular Science, and Ice Cube on Charles and Ray Eames.
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The MAYAn Action League
Introducing the MAYAn Action League! Collect them all!
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Friday Links - 11-05-2011
Mickey McManusA night circus, a russian mobster, some pictures of Thailand, a murmuration of starlings, superconductivity on ice, living bridges, mall tigers, the theoretical stereolizer, Eames, Hugo, Ukuleles, monster supplies, and yes, something made of legos.
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TEDTalk - Innovate:Education - The next literacy
Mickey McManusWhat if there were a basic literacy beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic that we missed, or that wasn’t necessary until this moment in our history? And what if that new literacy were the organizing principle between STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) and SEL (social, emotional learning)? What if it could help the least among us leapfrog over the mainstream? What if it could help build collaborative, resilient, creative, & critical thinkers in an age of exponential change?
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Friday Links - 06-03-2011
Mickey McManusInnovate:Education, Embassytown and the Rise of the Iron Moon, Solo, virtuosity, the basic rules of makers, pendulum paradox, disposable digital paper, and how our hands help us solve problems.
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Friday Links - 4-29-2011
Mickey McManusFunes Lives, TED, AR toys and tools, everyone’s cognitive toolkit, putpockets, video conferencing with a bit of brains, the trials of the superplexus, and soviet monuments of the future’s past.
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TEDxCMU MAYA Presentation now live!
Mickey McManusWhat can Nature’s design patterns teach us about computing? Containerization, liquid currency, and the possibilities of a trillion node world all packed into 20 minutes of TED.
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Friday Links 04-01-2011
Mickey McManusAirstream, you steam, we all scream for ice cream!, TEDxCMU, the Information, AMUL, the story of glass, cheetah bot, Citroen for 2, 100 million ceramic sunflower seeds, Google Ideas, and Mario had a harder time than I thought.
Read full articleMAYA Design wins Health 2.0 DC code-a-thon
On Saturday, five curious MAYAns attended the Health 2.0’s first east coast code-a-thon in Washington, DC. (link) We hadn’t done anything like this in the past and we weren’t sure what to expect, but boy what a wonderful experience…
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Friday Links - 2/05/2011
Mickey McManusAmnesia, reality, games, games about games, the ice book, the Edwardian Ball, remixes everywhere and not a drop to drink, the Khan Academy, Arduino-the documentary, and Bill Gates tells the story of his and others efforts to remove a terrible disease from the world.
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Rock, Paper, Scissors - Part 1: Architecture
Mickey McManusA friend of mine seems to be obsessed with using the game of “Rock, Paper, Scissors” to settle just about any dispute that arises in our team meetings. Most people think “Rock, Paper, Scissors” is a simple game of chance. Everyone knows the rules; rock breaks scissors, paper covers rock, scissors cut paper. Since it seems random, most of us just decide to play a favorite; I usually play rock, as an opening gambit. Sure enough every once in a while I get lucky. I’ve noticed that most of the time though, my friend wins. I decided I wanted to find out why…
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Friday Links - 12/31/2010
Mickey McManusHappy Holidays, Rube Goldberg, reading level search, personal fabricators, real heroes, the joy of stats, Mini Countryman, cold plasma, 360 degree Youtube, Sagmeister, and of course troll fighting 11 year old orthodox Jewish girl comics.
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Friday Links - 12-03-2010
The Emperor of all Maladies, Slam, Sagmeister, Stux, CPOF, meeting bingo, holiday hacking, Kermit Fey, how creativity works, and the future of predicting the future.
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Friday Links - 11-19-2010
Mickey McManusPowers of ten (for design patterns), malignant beauty, sketching an interaction guide, digital clouds, Nike grid, the Gettysburg Address brought to life, random objects as controllers for gaming, apparently we can see the future, a hundred million 311 calls, Disney rap, a revisiting of a classic series of urban planning studies as visualizations, Kinect hacking, and Kanye West wonders why the caged bird sings.
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Friday Links-10-30-2010
Mickey McManusIan Banks, MAYAmake, you know more than you know you know, and where is rob?
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Friday Links - 10/08/10
Mickey McManusCusp2010, techshop, touch comes to town, puppet making by the master, and Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon show why they (and the Roots) completely rock.
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Friday Links - 09-04-2010
Mickey McManusFord, Bucky, star wars, dark patterns, the Mongoliad, rules for radicals, hackerspaces, iPony, and the most unsung actor in Hollywood.
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Friday Links - 08/13/10
Mickey McManusCutting for stone, raising Chicago, duck knight, words, toast, and the problem with thinking too much.
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Friday Links - 07-24-2010
Mickey McManusAspen Ideas Festival, TEDGlobal, holograms, creativity, and edible brains.
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Friday Links - 06-19-2010
Mickey McManusFordlandia, under heaven, best small company to work for, slow motion disasters, rent a white guy, Al Franken explains the value of the constitution, best illusion of the year, and a real time world cup tracker.
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Friday Links - 04-30-2010
Mickey McManusFacejobs, the quantified life, didgets and data platforms, thinking about tomorrow, zip files all the way down, the marshmallow challenge, and the show book of the world.
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Friday Links - 04-16-10
Mickey McManusThe Girl with the Tattoo, the iPad Challenge, Ed Catmull and the Hybrid Problem Solver, Panorama, robodog and rosie, heat vision and jack, will it blend, an impressive portfolio, and shaking your way to literacy.
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Friday Links - 03-26-2010
Mickey McManusThe Ideas Economy, have paper will prototype, a case for design literacy, Black Hills, the heatswell coffee cup, an indoor tornado, the arrow of time (teeth edition), Ms. Badu visits Dallas, insect bling, and data data everywhere.
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Friday Links - 2-27-10
Mickey McManusVice guide to a strange land, Ninendo plays with dimensions, Tom Waits sings a song, digesting the web, charting the Beatles, cat food, mothership, and a glass harp virtuoso.
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Friday Links - 02-19-10
Mickey McManusYour man, massive attack, Pittsburgh winter sports, howtoons, the lady, and the reaper.
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To iPad or not to iPad.
Mickey McManusFirst thoughts about Apple’s new iPad in the context of the future.
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Friday Links - 01-30-10
Mickey McManusOur hero, how to report the news, soap box derby delight, a very personal annual report, the political power of visualizations, Lost is found, tape measure masters, and exit through the gift shop.
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Friday Links - 01-22-10
The Swan Thieves, the great world, 360 video, inflatable hospitals, waiting for superman, privacy is dead (again), the questor tapes, and Justin lifts his voice in prayer.
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Friday Links - 01-15-10
Mickey McManusRhiza Earth tours, TEDx, mini left overs, CES highlights, the lost supper, voiceband, and of course, Sneans (err, Jeakers?).
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Festivus Links - 12-23-09
Mickey McManusFestivus, chrome, doppelgangers for sale, photo-collage sculptures, holiday-based computing, your brain on checkers, the Copenhagen wheel, and a taste of a London that never was.
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Friday Links - 12-11-09
Mickey McManusWork is a game, zettabytes, art is a lie, living stories, the CO2 cube, LEGOS, Scott Kim, bioprinters, and an engine with a difference.
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Why do we prototype?
Kevin HoffmannOver the last several years, I’ve developed the mantra, “Just prototype it.” The experience of having to think through how things are built makes you ask all sorts of questions you never get around to in a design/brainstorming meeting. There are a few things to keep in mind before you begin though.
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Friday Links - 11-20-09
Mickey McManusFree, makers, networked car driving Elmos, a few bright spots in the healthcare morass, trillions, idle human initiatives, autocaptioning, Tim Burton, and a magic wand.
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People, Technology, and Design. Originally published in Breaking Ground, July/August 2009
Dutch MacDonaldAlthough new technologies are leading to greater efficiencies in building design, we will succeed in building the future only by thoughtfully considering the intersection of people, technology, and design.
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Friday Links - 11-06-09
Mickey McManusA million miles, succeed once in a while, 99 red balloons, I miss Carl, how Facebook makes money, making healthcare better, beautiful newspapers could happen, and a simple idea for storytelling.
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Friday Links - 10-30-09
Mickey McManusChronic City, Petman, flowcharting the Beatles, failing to learn, the perils of having feet of clay, the quality of light.
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Friday Links - 10-16-09
Mickey McManusA ship of gold, juliet naked, the meaning of night, caveman sci-fi, the theory of fun, Manhattan before all those pesky westerners, an amazing new (old) camera, a game for snoopers, and the botany of desire.
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Friday Links - 10-02-09
Mickey McManusA few book reviews to clear off my shelf, a classic segment (from this week’s news) of the daily show, tools for the mind, memristors, the power of time off, and a different way to draw borders on a map.
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Friday Links - 09-27-09
Mickey McManusYes is more, random stats, tag, a little known band, a politician who can actually draw all the states from memory, a few nice moments, and a drill powered bike.
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Friday Links - 09-04-09
Mickey McManusThe angel’s game, the book of space, remixing youtube, T-Pain or not T-Pain, projectopong, spike gets his interview, I always knew something was going on at IKEA, USB eye warmers, and a house made of legos. Who could ask for anything more?
Read full articleMissing the Point in the Design of Electronic Medical Records
The push for Electronic Medical Records is all over the news, and has even been signed into policy by President Obama. But not everyone thinks they’re everything they could and should be. Dr. David Eibling and Dr. Augie Turano from the Pittsburgh VA hospital came to MAYA to talk about some of the shortcomings of the current systems, and the vast potential of future ones.
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Friday Links - 08-28-09
Mickey McManusStaring at goats, tracking the amazing and positive growth of health and prosperity in the world (really, Jeesh, lighten up!), tasting light, a human interface, grilling brats on your phone, the design of EMR systems (or lack thereof), a sustainable city of umbrellas, blinky things, and spots before our eyes.
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Friday Links - 08-14-09
Mickey McManusShort list this week, Bobby, Dean, George, Kanye, and Aldous.
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Friday Links - 08-08-09
Mickey McManusTEDGlobal, Manahatta, BIG,trompe l’oeil… but with light instead, Mr. Fox, touchable holographics, Zeitoun, iPhone robots, and how people really spend their time.
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Friday Links - 06/27/09
Mickey McManusGreat documentary, patented shoes, living by the numbers, cooking with greenscreen, Low-poly fashion, the architecture of data farming, napping, and the Roots.
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Friday Links - 06/12/09
Mickey McManusHow to win a cosmic war, the CIO 100, pop-psych persuasion, the appeal of aged news, teaching kids to argue, doctors focusing on patients, a little black hole, Banksy is back, Zaha takes on Burnham, and a taste of Tomato.
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Friday Links - 6-06-09
Mickey McManusBabies, learning design through reality TV, a new kind of controller, gestures, a better place, mapping the Internet by hand, the wisdom of the crowds in your head, asking nature, fun with liquid metals, google squared, a powerful story about human-centered design, and of course budgets are sexxy.
Read full articleLearning Design through Reality TV
Putting my food-lust aside, Top Chef has quite a few “design lessons” hidden between the fancy presentation and obscure ingredients. It’s pretty clear that the “rules” that make a contestant successful on Top Chef are the same “rules” that apply to good design work. Sure, they’re working with food rather than technology, but the core ideas are the same.
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Friday Links - 05/29/09
Mickey McManusRebranding USA, improve everywhere, an easy solution, avant gardeners, Guilloche patterns, and the swiss army camper of my dreams.
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Friday Links - 05/22/09
Mickey McManusAlpha, Data.gov, Imogene, brands that will disappear, the selected works of T.S. Spivet, working with your hands, push-button house, ancient artifact graffiti, calling cards and playing cards.
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Friday Links - 05/01/09
Mickey McManusFlutracker, information-centricity, a notebook, physics is the new black, the singularity, bendy things, and of course a slow motion piano crash.
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Usability Rant: Why is it so hard to talk to users?
David BishopPracticing the principle of involving users in the design of a product is not that easy. There are pitfalls, roadblocks, political difficulties, and motivation issues. This rant is to convince you that the thousands of excuses I’ve heard for not including users in the design process are all bunk.
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Information Centricity 101
Francine GemperleInformation-centric design places primacy on the information itself to support direct interaction between people and information.
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Friday Links - 04/24/09
Mickey McManusThe wrong cloud, deathcasting for dollars, is America still innovative, Luigi Colani’s fever dreams, hairhats, gorrilla specs, and the rise of silly motoring.
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The Wrong Cloud?
In our opinion cloud computing, as currently described, is not that far off from the sort of thinking that drove the economic downturn…
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Friday Links - 03/27/09
Mickey McManusJunior MAYAn Action League, where the wild things are, this little light of mine, balloonimals (or fun with the microphone on your iPhone), smoking hot electric cars, skateboard friendly housing, hot dog octopi, and of course robots that spit fire.
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Friday Links - 03/20/09
Mickey McManusA book about Dickens (ok sorta about Dickens), Dave Eggers co-writes a film, plants are good, I love motorcycles (though no I won’t drive one), holograms are bad, improv is everywhere, LEDs take the iPhone back in time, and a bit of fun with projectors.
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Friday Links - 03/13/09
Mickey McManusMr. Stewart mixes it up, where did the money go, 6th sense, wind power, and a wrist computer for people with very big arms, and very keen eyesight.
Read full articleIs usability obsolete? (Part II)
Usability is slowly being sidelined by three computing trends (outlined earlier), but our demise is being accelerated by three additional “human” trends.
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Friday Links - 03/06/09
Mickey McManusWho watches, how we decide, building a world, garbage bag monsters, robots and playbourers unite, and love will tear/keep us together/apart.
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Friday Links - 02/20/09
Mickey McManusLight week in linkland… What happens when you take out keyframes, tinkering is good, abandoned luxuries, and the second lives of things.
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Usability Rant: Adding complexity when you should be taking it away
David BishopI wish I lived in a world where designers were forced to remove two features from a product for every one that’s added in. It’s so easy to campaign for the addition of a feature, but try suggesting removal some time and you’ll be beat down with a bazillion cries of “somebody might need that,” “but our competition has that,” and “that’s moving backwards.” Well, that’s hooey. Half the stuff I own would be easier to use if it wasn’t so, I dunno, b>laden with extraneous junk.
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Getting to Know You
Amy FerchakTo design a usable, useful system, I need to get beyond the level of “information” and move up to the level of “knowledge and understanding.”
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Friday Links - 02/13/09
Mickey McManusEverything you’ve ever wanted to know about Information Architecture but were afraid to ask, a kid approved storymaker, jetpacks available now (sorta), who watches the watchmen, and really nothing at all to worry about.
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What is Information Architecture?
Mickey McManusTwo short films and a bit of a rant about Information Architecture.
Read full articleIs usability obsolete? (Part I)
Current usability work is an artifact of an earlier computer ecosystem, out of step with contemporary realities.
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Friday Links - 2/06/09
Mickey McManusSlow week in link land. How the world will end, UAVs for all, buttons ATMs Legos robots, a fire on the mountain, and dying towns.
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Friday Links - 12/30/09
Mickey McManusSteeler baby, focused sound, chiabama, zooming is the new black, Rem Koolhaas comes to New York, and a nice clip about this generation.
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Friday Links - 01/23/09
Mickey McManusA new day, some nice pictures of the inauguration, beating plowshares into swords, understanding comics, the new lunar rover, and how the day sounds.
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Friday Links - 01/16/09
Mickey McManusHow to make soda water, mind games, Burger King figures out a way to help you cull your “friends,” some strange maps, a little something musical, and a way to hack your brain without drugs.
Read full article"Predictably Irrational" - Something to Think About
Dear fellow Human Science types,
I read Predictably Irrational (Dan Ariely) while on vacation, and for
anyone who’s interested, I did a little write-up.
Friday Links - 01/02/09
Mickey McManusVery light week in linkland. Core77’s best of the best, custom scooters, Zbig takes someone to school, digging into the wayback machine, self-balancing table, an art show in Miami, and a bit of Feynman.
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Friday Links - 12/26/08
Mickey McManusThe Invention of Hugo Cabret, the Harlem Children’s Zone, tunable glasses, scouting for cool locations, handmade fonts, music list for 2008, and something that clearly needs to be demodulated before appreciating it.
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Friday Links - 12/20/08
Mickey McManusBooks for the holidays, the Onion’s version of the Geobrowser, Caractacus Potts, the fabled “Z” dimension, a year full of ideas, the sweet smell of a Whopper, Brian Eno makes an iPhone app to help you sleep, and of course the Evil Dead musical.
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Friday Links - 12/12/08
Mickey McManusThe true cost of the twelve days of Christmas, 5 things that will change our lives, the problem with “Just in Time,” a true prince, radical knitting, brain pictures, and a flying nun chair… all while my ukulele gently weeps.
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It Wasn't The Manifesto I Was Expecting
David BishopA short review of a book on Activity Centered Design, with a bit of a rant thrown in (sorry; couldn’t help myself), followed by a few quick pointers about good iterative design practice.
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Friday Links - 12/05/08
Mickey McManusTwo book reviews, a musical instrument made out of the pictures you draw as you draw them, Elvis’ new spectacles, a little sugar, a mystery man, and some beautiful hype.
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Friday Links - 11/28/08
Mickey McManusTutoring kids, white castles of joy, Bruce Lee, active video objects, diagrammatical excess, Lessig on Rose, and a story of rags to riches in Bollywood.
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Friday Links - 11/21/08
Mickey McManusWhy super capacitors are better than batteries for some things (if you can afford them), a dancing moustache, Jeff Han’s conspiracy, James T is a teenage rebel, the Coen brothers tell stories, Proust was a Neuroscientist, and that is not Milwaukee.
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