blog

The first 2008 issue of Interactions is up with articles from Ambidextrous contributors like Don Norman, Steve Portigal, Terry Winograd, and Eli Blevis.

Steve Portigal writes Persona Non Grata (teaser only), in which he claims that the very essentializing and distancing that happens when messy, complex people are mapped to design-tool-as-cartoon-character works against the interests of design. You can ask for the full pdf over at Portigal Consulting.

Over at Core 77, Jon Kolko reflects on going from consulting to academia, and back. The charming thing about his reflections is the humility with which he can see the design profession, for all of its world-changing aspirations, and many of its incremental realities.

The sarcasm and laughter that surrounds the talk of corporate innovation begins to indicate just how much of a “toy” design in business actually is: a cell phone with multi-touch, or a banking program that rounds up before giving you your change, can hardly be construed as advances that shake the foundation of our culture.

Taking on designer-pundit as brand, Kolko debunks what he claims to be a myth that “Rock Star design consultancies are full of Rock Stars” — capital R capital S, thank you. While I have many humble, hardworking, brilliant friends in consultancies, I find the following commentary refreshing because it does speak to the difference between doing good work and building your brand. The problem is that it is unclear who he is taking on — the Isaac Mizrahi’s of the world? The big-name conference speakers who haven’t done new projects in a long time? Even though the target is unclear, there may be aspirations of Rock Star design hero that are worth interrogating in the way we work, give credit, and tell our stories as designers.

The more I read interviews with these rock star designers, the more I realize how out of touch with real design problems these people are. Approaching design solely as style and brand simply perpetuates the notion of Design as transparent and shallow, and if these people continue to serve as the mouthpieces for our industry, our industry will continue to simultaneously lose the business-centered respect and credibility it so urgently needs, and to ignore the social and cultural problems it so direly needs to solve.

His candor and clear point of view is likely to ruffle some feathers, but the hope is that it will spur critical reflection and dialog too.

When random professionals I would meet asked what I did, I would answer “user interface designer” knowing that I would likely get met with a blank look or the question “oh, did you design the web site logo?”

Sometimes its nice to have a chance to talk to people who understand the stuff you care about. Design 21: Social Design Network gives socially-conscious designers a way to meet and engage in ways that go beyond the typical mailing list or Yahoo group. Designers can put up their work samples, host a blog, and participate in forum discussions. The information architecture in the discussions even lets you navigate by causes such as “peace,” and “poverty,” or by the type of design, such as “communication” or “industrial.”

While general audience sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace can bring large numbers into the same network space, targeted communities like Design21 have the freedom to create a platform for designers to connect and engage. Here’s my profile, under construction.

Do you have a Design21 profile? Know of other community spaces for designers? Let us know in the comments.

According to WorldChanging’s Alex Steffen, who we interviewed in “Designing A Better Future” (Spring 2007), IDSA has created The Okala Guide for green design. The guide is a workbook, freely available as PDFs, includes knowledge appealing to those with a little understanding and those with big-picture understanding but needing concrete skills. The guide starts off with introductions to the need for sustainability in material culture. Later guide modules get actionable, with lessons including green marketing and back-of-the-envelope lifecycle analysis.

Come out to IDEO San Francisco and join the Ambidextrous Team in the launch of our newest issue: Secrets.

We’ll be talking about The Secret Life of Secrets, Tampons, Spy Planes, Codes, and Wooden Puzzles.

There will be good food, a fun space (find out why it’s kinda secretive), sweet music, and of course, good company.

Please RSVP, and thank you, IDEO, for hosting us!

What’s an Ambi launch party? Check out our previous one at Google.