From the Editors
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(Over)simple Answers for Simple Minds
by George Olsen | [13 comments]
Part of me feels for Jakob Nielsen for the grief he’s taken over deciding to work with Macromedia after declaring “Flash 99 percent bad.” After all, the pressures and temptations to provide simple answers to complex issues are ones we all face in our professional practices. more...
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Ambient Findability: Talking with Peter Morville
by Liz Danzico | [3 comments]
Can we reasonably judge authority? How can we make good decisions in the information age? How do we know enough to ask the right questions? Peter Morville takes a moment to talk with us about these and other potential answers, his most recent book, the death of data, and our fascination with the future. more...
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Arrows in Our Quiver
by George Olsen | [0 comments]
As I write this the Police’s “Synchronicity” is on the radio and that’s a good way of summing up some of the interesting developments experienced during the past few months. more...
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Building a Vision of Design Success
by Christina Wodtke | [5 comments]
A common view of vision is that it’s something handed down by a leader to the troops. When a redesign goes awry, the troops complain, “There was no vision.” But the problem goes deeper than either scenario; the problem is that there was no shared vision. more...
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Coloring Outside the Lines
by Erin Malone | [12 comments]
Once upon a time, we were curious and everything we encountered was new. We were excited about discovering new things and the world offered unlimited possibilities. Then we went to school and were taught to color inside the lines, that everything had its place and the world was ordered. more...
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Coming of Age
by Erin Malone | [5 comments]
It seems like a lifetime ago when I asked my boss if I could adopt the title “Information Architect.” After all, according to Richard Saul Wurman's definition, that is what I was. He laughed at me and said Information Architect isn’t a title, or a role. It’s not a job. That conversation took place only four years ago. more...
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DUX: Five Lessons Learned
by Erin Malone | [6 comments]
Normally I would write a traditional conference overview to inform people about the recent Designing for User Experiences conference (DUX) held in San Francisco, June 6-8. Instead, I would like to impart a few of the impressions I came away with and recommend that everyone go to the AIGA Case Study Archive to read the papers that were accepted. more...
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Fear of Design
by Christina Wodtke | [48 comments]
Not so long ago, on my personal site I posted a little entry on design. And a comment was made: “IA is not design.” This sentence has sat vibrating in my head for months. It speaks of bravado in the face of fear. But why should Information Architects fear design? more...
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Happy Birthday B&A
by Christina Wodtke | [12 comments]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOXES AND ARROWS! On this, Boxes and Arrows' one year anniversary, Christina Wodtke muses about our original goals, some of our accomplishments, and even shares a few tidbits from behind the scenes at B&A. more...
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Leading from Within
by B Janish | [4 comments]
While there are IAs fortunate enough to work in companies that wholeheartedly embrace user-centered design, there are many more whose biggest challenge isn't the work itself; it's finding the opportunity to do the work, at the right time, in a meaningful way. more...
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Leaving the Autoroute
by Christina Wodtke | [12 comments]
By committing all their attention to a single craft, often literally over hundreds of years, each town in France has received the renown that comes with great work. But what happens when you leave the autoroute, lured by one of those signs proclaiming the town’s mastery and claim to fame? more...
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Lessons to be Learned
by George Olsen | [9 comments]
Ivy-covered halls are filling up again with eager students of the user experience fields ready to change the world (or at least to study out the recession). But are these programs really teaching them what they need to know? more...
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Looking Forward and Back
by Erin Malone | [5 comments]
At the beginning of 2004, Boxes and Arrows, takes a moment to reflect back on the predictions made for 2003 and where we landed at year's end. Feeling optimistic, we also invited our peers in the community to share some of their professional resolutions for the new year. more...
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Our Way: The Ingenuity of Unintended Uses
by B&A Staff | [12 comments]
People utilize our designs in their own way. These unintended uses can be strange, even brilliant. To welcome 2008, the B&A Staff tells a few stories about how we misuse for our own devices. more...
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Planning your future
by Erin Malone | [11 comments]
A few years ago, a manager of mine gave me the assignment to work on a five-year career plan. I had never created a career plan before (not even to plot out goals for the coming year), so I was completely unprepared for how and why I should do this. more...
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Prognostication Digitalis
by Christina Wodtke | [8 comments]
We stand poised to dive into the new year. What will 2003 hold for the profession known as “what we do” and its children, information architecture, usability, interaction design, interface design, and graphic design? We asked our authors to hazard a guess. more...
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Speaking in Tongues
by Christina Wodtke | [15 comments]
In last month’s welcome, I set out to describe Boxes and Arrows purpose and goals. On a line by itself I stated this is not a place for jargon. I felt that was important enough to call out. I certainly am being called to task for that. more...
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Terrible Twos
by Christina Wodtke | [13 comments]
Little Boxia has just turned two. Look how proud she stands, barely wobbling at all! See how she toddles around, smearing food on the walls! So independent, so curious and wait… did she just say "no!"? No, no, no! Here they come… the terrible twos. more...
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The Devil's in the Wireframes
by Liz Danzico | [6 comments]
Wireframes: At once a singular composition and a collaborative expression, communicating the vision of both an individual and a team. As a result, they can be stacked with an enormous amount of detail. Are we becoming victims of information pollution in our own wireframes? more...
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The Power of Process, The Perils of Process
by Erin Malone | [8 comments]
In my experience, I have found that creating and documenting process has been a good exercise to help institutionalize ways of working, to help educate new team members as well as to unveil the mysteries of what we do for executives, product folks, and development teams. more...