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Conversational Alignment
*Written for Interactions magazine by Austin Henderson and Jed Harris.* People invent and revise their conversation midsentence. People assume they understand enough to converse and then simply jump...
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Convergence 2.0 = Service + Social + Physical
*Written for Interactions magazine by Hugh Dubberly.* In 1980, when I was a college student, I heard Nicholas Negroponte speak about the future of computing. What stood out most was his model of...
View ArticleHow the Knowledge Navigator video came about
Sparked by the introduction of Siri, as well as products such as iPad and Skype, there have been many recent posts and articles tracing the technologies back to a 1987 Apple video called “Knowledge...
View ArticleA Proposal for the Future of Design Education
*Submitted as input for the update of the Design Education Manifesto, ICOGRADA, March 28, 2011* In 2000, the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (ICOGRADA) published their first...
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A taxonomy of models used in the design process
Models are increasingly important in design—as design, in collaboration with other disciplines, increasingly deals with systems and services. Many aspects of customer experience unfold over time and...
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What can Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive teach us about designing?
*Written for Interactions Magazine* The day after Steve Jobs died, my friend Rich Binell, another Apple alum, asked, “Why did Steve Jobs’ passing affect us more than the passing of other notable...
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Coherence and responsiveness
This article presents a model of the trade-offs between responsiveness and coherence often found in designing and managing systems. The model also describes how both responsiveness and coherence often...
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The problem with transparency is that it’s not conspicuous enough
*This article proposes a model of transparency, the idea that a good tool “disappears” in the hands of skilled users. The article then proposes a model of design as the management of a dynamic...
View ArticleSystemic and meta-systemic laws
*With the publication of The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding, Humberto Maturana established himself as an important figure in the history of systems thinking. His essay...
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VoteStream: Turning Elections Data into Open Data
*Written for DMI magazine — Summer 2014.* *US elections technology—the infrastructure on which democracy depends—is proprietary, locking up public data; unlocking that data is a design challenge on...
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How cybernetics connects computing, counterculture, and design
Written by Hugh Dubberly and Paul Pangaro. Originally published by the Walker Art Center in the catalog for the exhibit Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia. “Man is always aiming to achieve some...
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A Systems Literacy Manifesto
In 1968, West Churchman wrote, “…there is a good deal of turmoil about the manner in which our society is run. …the citizen has begun to suspect that the people who make major decisions that affect our...
View ArticleCybernetics and Design: Conversations for Action
Working for decades as both theorist and teacher, Ranulph Glanville came to believe that cybernetics and design are two sides of the same coin. Working as both practitioners and teachers, the authors...
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Connecting things: Broadening design to include systems, platforms, and...
Encountering Things: Design and Theories of Things, edited by Leslie Atzmon & Prasad Boradkar, Bloomsbury 2017. Traditionally, design practice and design education have focused on giving form to...
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Making sense in the data economy
We perpetually interact with our technologies. On the one hand they serve us, and on the other hand they control us.1 Computers, smartphones, and the infrastructure surrounding them now mediate much of...
View ArticleThe relevance of cybernetics to design and AI systems
Knowledge of cybernetics is increasingly relevant to both what and how designers design. Cybernetics is the science of feedback, information that travels from a system through its environment and back...
View ArticleDistinguishing between control and collaboration—and communication and...
In their paper “from Autonomous Systems to Sociotechnical Systems: Designing Effective Collaborations,” Kyle J. Behymer and John M. Flach remind us “the goal of design is a seamless integration of...
View ArticleDesigning Within Systems
The following is the introduction to Jorge Arango’s 2018 book Living in Information: Responsible Design for Digital Places Designing has roots in craft — in making “things,” in giving them form. And...
View ArticleCybernetics and Design: Conversations for Action
Design Cybernetics: Navigating the NewThomas Fisher and Christiane M. Herr, Editors, Springer This is an update (with changes) to an earlier version. Abstract Ranulph Glanville came to believe that...
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Gui Bonsiepe: Framing Design as Interface
Gui Bonsiepe has had a remarkable career — distinguished by its length (60 years and counting) and by its variety — a career that’s difficult to classify, because it has many dimensions and requires...
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