Some profoundly wise thoughts from design scholar Dick Buchanan, as quoted from his essay “Branzi’s Dilemma”, now almost 15 years old but still firmly relevant: The ultimate purpose or function of design in society is to conceive products which express and reconcile human values concerning what is good, useful, just, and pleasurable. However, these terms […]

As I conclude almost three years of posting on Ghost in the Pixel, here’s wishing all my readers a happy, safe, warm holiday season and best wishes for the new year!

Fresh off my unfortunate experience of having my GMail and Facebook accounts hacked–resulting in an overwhelming task of simultaneously allaying fears, changing passwords, and canceling credit cards–I’ve lately been wondering how to design for panic. In the sense of, how does one design a software interface (especially web-based UI accessed by literally millions per day, […]

Here are a couple very thought-provoking pieces from this past week that deserve some extra attention, on the role of design research and the nature of interaction design in practice. Enjoy… ** Don Norman: Technology First, Needs Last I’ve come to a disconcerting conclusion: design research is great when it comes to improving existing product […]