sensemaya

sensemaking

The Great Wounding

What should we call this moment? For in naming it we give birth to its children.

researching

Workarounds are sources of new features

Observing workarounds is a very efficient way of identifying new features

sensemaking

The challenges of democracy are like the challenges of doing user-centered design

Here follow some propositions making parallels between the two and why there is a case for governance and politics to draw from the toolkits of user/human centered design. And, to a smaller degree, vice versa.

designing

Stupid Machines: a UX design technique

Consider the following stupid machines: machine that runs into corners at high speed and yelps upon impact goes up against a person’s leg, looks up at them, and smirks

researching

Wise metrics

Propositions on sensibly making use of metrics when designing things: (for mathematically minded people) Axioms: Those metrics matter, which matter to the people the metrics are supposedly helping serve Those

sensemaking

Asking good questions: the difference between Trend-hunting & Foresight

A friend forwarded me these 10 questions from an ad agency that runs a 'global scout network', soliciting opinions on '10 key elements of Culture' (to be answered, btw, in 10 minutes). Looking at them, it strikes me that the difference between how advertising

Ancient bugs in PowerPoint

As a researcher, I create a lot of PowerPoint documents - apart from its ubiquity in the professional knowledge worker world, it has decent visual editing tools and its one-page-at-a-time format helps structure narratives and data. But there have been some frustrating usability bugs

6 degrees of inclusivity

Just realized if that the 6 degrees of separation hypothesis is true, someone like me is only 6 links away from my polar opposite person (e.g. a militaristic rural religious fundamentalist). This suggests an important measure of social health: how many network links

designing

A new flag for San Francisco

I was binge-listening to that most fabulous of design podcasts, 99% invisible, and came across this analysis of San Francisco's flag and how terrible it is. I looked around, and found only one attempt at redesign, which I found unsatisfactory. So here is an

How to Inhabit a City

Having spent nearly a year in San Francisco as a resident, I started talking with my friend Purva, a long-term San Franciscan, about the difference between her understanding of the city and mine. The discussion resulted in some questions & notes for a booklet