InContext at 20

20 years is a long time in the world of technology. When Karen started her initial work in Human-Computer Interaction, the interaction we were talking about was English-language command lines for the EVE editor at Digital Equipment Corporation. Most software at the...

Fighting Complacency

In a recent conversation, a long time friend told me how he was spending all his time dealing with internal issues while working on his current project. His team is developing some very interesting technology targeted at users setting up and managing cloud...

Nouns and Verbs

I love the Hype Cycle. If you work in technology, you’re probably already a fan like I am. If not, here’s a quick primer. Every year since 1995, Gartner publishes a set of reports on the state of technology in a variety of industries. And as they’ve been doing since...

Designing for “Cool”

Every designer dreams of creating something more – something so great that people crave it, long for it, must have it.  Marketers call it “a must have”, “compelling”, or “insanely great”.  But most of the rest of us just call it Cool. Over the past several decades,...

Creativity from the Ground Up

Every so often, I’m faced with the realization that something I really believe isn’t so. There’s that momentary sense of profound disorientation that forces me to stop and really think—and adjust myself to a new reality. Sure, that whole Easter Bunny realization was a...