Design Lessons for Creating Social Impact
I just read a great article from Frog Design that highlights 8 lessons for creating social impact. The lessons, quoted
Read moreMonth: May 2010
Social Media, Control and Engagement
Social media is hot, but its application by many public figures and agencies is less on the social part — the part with trust, relationships, and dialogue — and more on the media part.
Read moreEmotional Complexity
I look at the Law of Simplicity that suggests that more emotion is better (for simplicity) and argue that it might be so, but it also reduces clarity, which is what simplicity tries to imbue.
Read moreComplexity is to Difference as Simplicity is to…?
In John Maeda’s 5th Law of Simplicity, he states that simplicity and complexity need each other. While true, the challenge that more complexity adds is evident in that there is simply more complexity. Another look at the relationship between simplicity and complexity.
Read moreRethinking the Relationship Between Simplicity, Complexity and Knowledge
John Maeda’s 4th Law of Simplicity states: “knowledge makes everything simpler”. In this post I lay out why this might be only partly correct, suggest that there are problems where this works better than other and illustrate how knowledge can also make things more complex, rather than simple.
Read moreIs Simplicity the Antidote to Complexity?
John Maeda has taken on the task of exploring simplicity as a means of making sense of a complex world. In this post I explore his 10 laws and introduce an argument that challenges three of these laws.
Read moreCan We Reduce Complexity?
I recently participated in a conference call looking to establish a conference on reducing complexity (and whether it can be done). The answer to that question is dependent upon answering whether we can create the necessary conditions to answer the question in the first place.
Read more(Not) Following the Rules in Complex Social Systems
Complexity science provides many tempting explanations for human behaviour, but often based on rhetoric rather than evidence. If the a social science of complexity is to move ahead, more attention to the science than theory is necessary.
Read moreWayfinding in Complex Systems
Finding our way in a complex system is tricky. Social network maps can provide a way forward, but only if viewed as tools for complicated problems and not as true wayfinding solutions for complex ones.
Read moreDesign: A Stance for Competitive Advantage
Design thinking may be more of a stance than a theory or method and Roger Martin’s recent talk on design thinking illustrates how teaching and encouraging new ways of viewing problems may provide better ways of solving them.
Read more