Tag: understanding

Design’s Dueling Dualities

Design is in a continuous state of flux. The more design evolves, the wider the pendulum swings between polarities: tradition versus modernity, old-school versus cutting-edge, slow-and-steady versus quick-and-dirty. So much design chatter today is like a perpetual tug-of-war, with fierce advocates, clever arguments, and strong emotions on both sides.  The dualities below have become all-too-familiar. Some are in direct opposition, while …

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Unpacking Understanding

There’s plenty of talk these days about making sense of messes, making the complex clear, bringing order to chaos, turning data into insights, creating understanding, et cetera. Who does that work — whether it’s an information designer, information architect, user experience designer, or any other hot professional of the moment — is not the focus of this post (although …

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The Game of Knowledge

As the “Information Age” continues to unfold, gaining knowledge has become the central activity in many of our interactions.* Sure, we’re busy shuttling information around, constantly optimizing how we shape and transmit it, but no matter how thought-through, well-designed, and engaging it is, information must still be translated to something meaningful and useful for the situation we’re facing right now. Information informs our problems …

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