Good design (per Dieter Rams)

I have this linked in another post, but it’s certainly worth its own explicit posting for folks to link to for future reference: Dieter Rams 10 Principles of Good Design Good design is innovative. Good design makes a product useful. Good design is aesthetic. Good design helps us to understand a product. Good design is […]

Swiss Inspiration

One of the time-tested designs that still provides value and utility is good ol’ Swiss graphic and information design, characterized by a highly refined rational structure with minimal “embellishments” (ie, superfluous ornamentations, gratuitous imagery, etc.) and whatever imagery is there (if any) is supported by a tightly resolved grid system. Spartan. Rational. Utilitarian. Logical. Simple. […]

Software Design Resources

Here’s a listing of some resources that I provided at a recent guest lecture for design students at San Jose State University. Enjoy! —— Notes on the Software Design Process Lecture Handout: Further reading and resources Papers/Essays Good Design in the Digital Age by Richard Buchanan Designers: Time for Change by Clement Mok Fog of […]

Happiness or Meaning?

I know this blog is supposed to be about lessons from my day job at a design firm in Silicon Valley, but this little tete-a-tete between two characters from the breakaway hit show Heroes is rather profound and worth citing here: Linderman: ”There come a time when a man has to ask himself whether he […]

When in Rome…

As the design and development teams are finalizing the designs of widgets, controls, labels, you need to come together on the vocabulary: is it a dropdown menu, droplist, pulldown list, or something else? Establishing consistency of lingo is key towards more efficient, clear communication with minimal confusion downstream at spec’ing and QA’ing stages. And part […]