Forerunners
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The Elements of Style for Designers
by Christina Wodtke | [10 comments]
What if E.B. White had written "Hanging Commas 99% Bad" instead of a gentle list of reminders for young writers? Wodtke outlines how White's list of 22 reminders for writing can be just what young designers need. more...
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Forgotten Forefather: Paul Otlet
by Alex Wright | [10 comments]
In 1934, years before Vannevar Bush dreamed of the memex, decades before Ted Nelson coined the term “hypertext,” Paul Otlet envisioned a new kind of scholar's workstation: a mechanical desk that would let users search, read, and write their way through a vast database stored on millions of 3x5 index cards. more...
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Ranganathan for IAs
by Mike Steckel | [16 comments]
S.R. Ranganathan was the greatest librarian of the 20th Century. His ideas influenced every aspect of library science, yet, as impressive as his accomplishments were, Ranganathan didn't start out with the intention of becoming a librarian at all. more...
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Studying the Creation of Kindergarten
by Bill Lucas | [1 comment]
How does the pursuit of one man's interests result in the creation of kindergarten and timeless design principles? Bill Lucas shows us how Friedrich Fröbel took basic elements to create intricate, scalable systems that can serve as a model for creating new experiential systems today. more...
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Putting the White Back in Strunk and White
by Christina Wodtke | [6 comments]
Where do we look for standards and guidelines that we can incorporate into our design work? In addition to the canon of trusted advisors, Wodtke reminds us of a teacher and student who created a series of uncommon guidelines that have a lot to teach about web design. more...
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Foreseeing the Future: The legacy of Vannevar Bush
by Erin Malone | [2 comments]
Fifty years before web, 30 years before the personal computer, Vannevar Bush envisioned a new machine to make sense of the growing mountains of information, creating the notions of “hypertext” and the modern link. more...
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Information Architecture: From Craft to Profession
by Earl Morrogh | [2 comments]
Teaching information architecture as a profession in the process of being born, author and educator, Earl Morrogh, in his new book, “Information Architecture: An Emerging 21st Century Profession” places IA in an historical context analogous to the history of architecture. more...
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Learning from the "Powers of Ten"
by Erin Malone | [2 comments]
To most designers, the Eames name brings to mind rows and rows of molded plywood chairs and Herman Miller furniture of the 1950s. But the Eameses were more than just designers of furniture; they were masters of exploration and experimentation into the realm of experience. more...
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Information Ecology: Bayer's Book of Maps
by Nate Burgos | [3 comments]
In 1949, Herbert Bayer, the Austrian graphic designer who taught at the famed Bauhaus, embarked on an incredible information design challenge. The “World Geo-Graphic Atlas” (1953) is a benchmark example of information design, fusing vibrant data-intensive displays with a strong multicultural and environmental message. more...
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The Encyclopedic Revolution
by Alex Wright | [1 comment]
This excerpt from Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages examines the contributions of Denis Diderot to the knowledge of Western societies and how Wikipedia's rise echoes the rise of his Encyclopédie. more...