An interesting video from Michael Wesch, an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. I think Ellen sent this my way a while back, but I had forgotten about it until I recently stumbled on it again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g
Posted: January 14, 2008 11:11 pm | 1 comment
Tags: web 2.0
For those interested in information design (and increasingly, most everyone should have at least a passing knowledge of the basic principles), the "Ask E.T." section of Edward Tufte's blog should be in your bookmarks.
Here, Tufte, a professor emeritus of political science, computer science and statistics, and graphic design at Yale (which gives some flavor of the range of his areas of expertise and influence), answers questions posed by visitors on a number of interesting topics. Many of the discussions reveal the participants as authorities in their own rights, and provide avenues for further exploration by reference to links and other source material.
Ask E.T. Forum at edwardtufte.com
For further information on Tufte, Google him or check out his Wikipedia entry.
Incidentally, my favorite books by him include Envisioning Information and Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. These titles are both highly recommended.
Posted: January 22, 2008 11:17 am | 0 comments
Tags: edward tufte, information design
"Perhaps you, right now, are inhaling something that prevents you from writing your own Ulysses. Perhaps you are being held back by untraceable smells. Perhaps your life is being quietly reshaped by something you can neither see nor properly talk about, some vast and mysterious influencing machine that manipulates you from the outside. Perhaps that machine is a giant shoe factory."
From the wonderful BLDGBLOG:
BLDGBLOG: LITERARY ATMOSPHERES
Posted: January 26, 2008 11:22 pm | 0 comments
Tags: bldgblog
My wife Susanna recently stumbled upon the wonderful work of Russian animator Yuri Norstein on YouTube. Start, as we did, with the lovely and affecting "Hedgehog in the Fog," then watch the very interesting documentary on the animator. His acclaimed movie "Tale of Tales" is also available (in several parts).
Posted: January 30, 2008 10:15 pm | 1 comment
Tags: animation, russian, youtube
I'm sure this will make the rounds in the next few days. I picked this up from DF. Even Microsoft's packaging for Vista has poor usability, requiring an explanatory web page for opening it (step 3 of the 3 step process is reproduced below):
"Opening the Windows Vista box" instructions
"3. Holding the box with the Windows logo facing you, grasp the red tab on the top of the box, and pull it to the right to open the box as shown here."
Oy vey.
Posted: January 31, 2008 10:16 pm | 0 comments
Tags: design, microsoft, packaging
I'm Director of Web Design for Simmons College and also teach part-time in the Communications Department. I'm responsible for a wide range of web-related activities: strategy, graphic and information design, information architecture, usability and ac...
