I’ve heard enough from a sufficient number of people to worry about tomorrow’s deadline for the paper. I am therefore granting an extension on the paper until Sunday at midnight. Please bring all of your materials to class today, and we can have an emergency how-to-develop-an-argument lecture (if needed), or we can do whatever. Also,…
Here is an article that I meant to share with all of you sooner. It is a framework for critiquing interfaces, from Bertelsen & Pold. You may find it helpful as you work on your papers. From a philosophical standpoint, I have some issues with it. But from a practical standpoint, I’m really glad it’s…
I *believe* I have responded to all of the paper topics that have appeared on this blog. However, please don’t hesitate to ask for (further) feedback if any of the following apply: I didn’t actually respond to your post on your paper topic (d’oh!). You have since iterated on your topic, have some new thoughts,…
I feel completely absurd writing a blog post to introduce poststructuralism, and indeed, I am *not* doing that here. Rather, I will do two things. I will try to restate the summary I made at the end of class today, and I will refer to the wikipedia entry on poststructuralism, which I think is not…
We can divide the issues discussed in this class into three broad categories: concrete, particular designs; the underlying design concepts, insights, principles, and strategies that they rely on; and the deeper philosophical implications beneath them. Here’s one of my patentable scientific diagrams: At the top are actual, concrete designs: “dialing from favorites list on this…
Mingxian posted an excellent question late last week about the problem of intention. If we look at camera angles in Bleu or La Strada, and we perceive that they relate fortuitously to narrative themes (etc.), and we attribute that coherence to the “director’s intention,” are we leaving structuralism/semiotics and heading back to phenomenology? My answer…
Read more Structuralist versus Phenomenological Notions of “Intention”
Today, UITS sent out a mass warning that the Adobe Acrobat reader had been compromised and advised that you not open any PDF files that you weren’t expecting. They then detailed the threat–you guessed it!–in a PDF attachment. Kudos to Tyler Pace for spotting this.
One thing you will find in abundance are libraries of interactions, often called widgets. Richie Hazlewood posted this link to the HCI distribution list earlier today, but it’s not the only one. The “components” that ship with Flash are another set, and information architect folks (e.g., Garrett) likewise have a standardized collection of interaction diagrams.…
I have seen a number of posts and comments that grapple with the notion of “breakdown,” and I thought it might be constructive to clarify something. “Breakdown” in everyday English is a bad and destructive thing. “My car broke down.” “He had a nervous break down.” The phenomenological notion is derived from this, but as…
Building on a topic Christian brought up earlier in his blog, I’d like to share an amusing experience of computer-age politics that I had today. Earlier, I got an email from an environmental group, called the National Resources Defense Council. In it, it accused Toyota of violating its own “green” image, because it is lobbying…
Interaction Culture 