Erin Malone, Author at Boxes and Arrows

Author: Erin Malone

Erin Malone, Principal at Tangible ux, has over 20 years of experience leading design teams and developing web and software applications, social experiences and system-wide solutions. Prior to Tangible, she was at Yahoo! where she led the Platform User Experience Design team and was responsible for building the Yahoo! Design Pattern Library and for providing design expertise to the popular YUI (Yahoo! User Interface Library). Additionally, she led the redesign of the Yahoo! Developer Network, oversaw the redesign of Yahoo!’s Registration system, designed cross-network social solutions, developed the ux team’s Intranet and other cross-company initiatives. Before Yahoo!, she was a Design Director at AOL leading a range of community and personalization initiatives; Creative Director at AltaVista responsible for the AV Live portal and community tools and Chief Information Architect for Zip2 which produced a custom content management system for local city guides, entertainment guides, maps and yellow pages, including New York Today for the NYTimes. She was the founding editor-in-chief of Boxes and Arrows, a role she served for 5 years. She is the author of several articles on interaction design history and design management and a founding member of the IA Institute. Erin has a BFA in Communication Design from East Carolina University (1986), Greenville NC and an MFA in Information Design from the Rochester Institute of Technology (1994), Rochester NY. She is the author of the book Designing Social Interfaces with Christian Crumlish for O’Reilly Media and its related site designingsocialinterfaces.com.

Articles by this author:

Coloring Outside the Lines

Posted by Erin Malone

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.

February 10, 2003 Case Studies / Workplace and Career

Modeling the Creative Organization

Posted by Erin Malone

A few months ago, on the cusp of another reorganization, my boss challenged me to present ideas about how my group should be organized. The challenge: “If you could organize the group in whatever way you wanted, what would you recommend doing?” Everyone who has ever been a manager longs to hear those words.

November 1, 2002 From the Editors / Workplace and Career

Coming of Age

Posted by Erin Malone

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.

October 27, 2002 Learning From Others / Reviews / Workplace and Career

Talking with Jesse James Garrett

Posted by Erin Malone

Upon publication of his new book, “The Elements of User Experience”, Boxes and Arrows talks to the author, Jesse James Garrett, to discover how the diagram evolved into the book, why he only wears black and how his work as an information architect has evolved.

August 1, 2002 Foundational Thinking / From the Editors / Process and Methods / Software and Tools

The Tool Makes the (Wo)Man

Posted by Erin Malone

With all the bickering over the “right” tools, we lose sight in these discussions of the fact that we already have the perfect tool: our brains. The knowledge, expertise and skills to solve problems are right between our ears.