Design theory
Parsimonious design (or not)
17 September 2008
In which we explore the parsimony principle in design with reference to two horribly over-engineered ideas: the Segway personal transporter and ebook readers.
The features you have vs. the features you use
12 September 2008
Of the 21 features on my phone, I use just five. Can’t someone make a phone without all the rest?
Estimated date of birth — an interaction design pattern
9 September 2008
How to avoid asking people for their date of birth when you don’t need it but still gain enough data to be able to produce meaningful age segmentations.
Hack your world
16 August 2008
On the web, in the streets and even in the municipal flowerbeds, people are taking design into their own hands.
Getting to Less part 2: Critically refocus
24 November 2007
(Back to part 1)
Getting to Less is all about helping designers decide what to keep and what to throw out of their designs. Whether you’re designing software, websites, products or cities, you need to choose what to include and what to omit. But how?
Getting to Less part 1: How to keep what you need and chuck what you don’t
21 November 2007
Simplicity is becoming an increasingly important trend in design. As life becomes faster-paced and we’re deluged with more choices, more information and more stuff, users and consumers are demanding that designers do the heavy lifting of making things more focussed, easier to learn, more refined.
The question for designers is “How?” How do we know when [...]