June 2011
1 post
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WatchVideos from OPEN IxD: the 2011 MFA Interaction Design Festival are up on the vimeos.
February 2011
3 posts
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Let Me Tell You About Locus
Locus is a tool which encourages residents to participate in the community building process.
Communities using Locus can deploy a survey which allows residents to pinpoint the issues which matter to them in their community. Through a web-based application, residents can mark up maps and answer questions in an effort to provide their local knowledge & solve community challenges.
In doing so,...
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January 2011
3 posts
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Towards A Community Vision
Speaking with Cassim last week got my mind thinking in a few interesting directions. Here I’ve taken a first stab at my thoughts on the new model of interaction I’m developing: one in which resident participation shapes the future of a community.
Participation Leads to Success
Change in a neighborhood happens through community meetings. This process is centralized and the methods used make...
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An Interview With Cassim Shepard
I had the opportunity to speak to Cassim Shepard the on Thursday. Cassim is probably best known as founder and editor of the Architectural League of New York’s Urban Omnibus publication. Speaking to Cassim shined a light on many of the gaps present in my thesis concept.
Too Late For Design
I first thought that I could work exclusively with citizens to showcase potential design concepts. I learned...
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Welcome to the Map Room
In our thesis class last week, we spent time publicly hashing out what our current status is and the various problems we were encountering.
I mentioned that I wanted to take a big step back and review the core of my idea. Paul suggested that might be a bit drastic, and that my reservations about having a concept with too narrow an audience were unfounded. To paraphrase, he said that he was more...
December 2010
6 posts
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End of Semester Process
I figure I might write a bit about how the Urban Planning Concept has matured in the time spent since my last post. (But be sure to keep in mind that while it has been a few weeks in chronological time, I only had three days to work on this due to other schoolwork.)
Judging from the feedback I received last time, I knew that my idea needed a better foundation. I dived back into my research to...
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Two Ways To Plan
In looking into how urban planing works, I’ve begun to take the whole industry practice and break it down. My hope is by classifying and defining each part, I’ll be better able to spot trends and places where my work can fit in.
The two major ways of thinking about planning are top-down and bottom-up. Top-down is a way of imposing a design upon a place, where a bottom-up approach seeks to find a...
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“One of my criticisms of gov 2.0 thus far is that there tend to be a lot of...”
– How an Army of Techies Is Taking on City Hall
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Urban Design Concept
My early problem definition stated that my goal was to “design a better map”. I’ve recently discovered that this was the wrong approach for me. I need to stop trying to make a better map, and start trying to make a map work better for others. I figure it would be more feasible—and more significant—to take an existing map and use it in a new way.
Street Design Manual
During my...
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“…We badly need more utopian speculation. The consensus future we read...”
– Charlie Stross, Utopia
November 2010
3 posts
1 tag
More Things I Just Heard About
The Measure of America seeks to enable a discussion of how the 50 states measure up to the Human Development Index.
TenderMaps explores the identity of the Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco with paper and Sharpies. The results are piped into Polymaps. Scrub through the different people and layers to see where things overlap.
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The Snailr Project
No one told me about The Snailr Project.
While taking a train ride across the western United States, Anna intends to keep her friends updated: using postcards.
I’ll use the postcards to capture a single vignette, overheard snatch of conversation, observation or thing that I’ve noted along the way. And then I’ll post them off to people as I go along. I’ll keep a photograph of the card, and a...
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Mental Map Prototype
In last week’s class I identified a few methods I might want to use for prototyping: role playing, paper maps, and narrative diaries. For my first attempt, I chose the latter.
I gathered a few friends over the weekend and asked them to recite for me a trip they took recently. This could be a commute, an excursion at lunchtime, or a date. It didn’t really matter where or why they went; I was...
October 2010
10 posts
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A Chronicle of Work So Far
This post is meant to outline the steps I’ve taken so far in developing my thesis, from the conceptions and rejections of many ideas, through some small amount of research, to the plans I have to bring this ship to port. Bask in the schadenfreude!
First Stabs at Research
I had plenty of experience with using maps, and I had seen plenty of examples of people who had done interesting things with...
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The Image of the City
The most surprising part of my research came out of the interviews I did with people I could stop in the street. I found people in or around New York’s Madison Square Park who I found to be using maps. I asked them one question: “what are you using your map for?”
The answers I received were mostly predictable: people were looking for public transit, a specific intersection, or...
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Thesis Proposal, Public Draft
Topic Statement
I want to make a better map for people who want to explore the city around them—to discover a city they never knew.
This map will expose to its owner data which is not typically present in maps, and in doing, connect them with the people who are physically around them.
Experience and form
I think an appropriate place to start with this is public space. People in a public space...
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Setting Constraints
Having a broad arena from which to select an idea is one of the things you dream about as a student/designer/whatever; so often you are given specific assignments where the topic has already been chosen. “Wouldn’t it be great,” you think, “to be able to work on what ever I like?”
I’m here to tell you that it is great, but it is also absolutely paralyzing.
What you gain in freedom, you lose in...
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WatchSerendipitor, by Mark Shepard.
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WatchIs this a map?
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Small Experiments & Failing Fast
With a topic in hand, I’m about to enter into the research phase of my thesis development. In doing so, I’d like to attempt as best I can small experiments to validate the thoughts I have. I think that this is one way in which I can get to the important things faster.
Small experiments will let me take a specific slice of the problem and boil it down to what I can act upon. I imagine...
September 2010
2 posts
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Perspectives
When we’re stuck, we often say, “I need a new perspective.” A new way of seeing things can be all the difference in searching for a solution to a sticky problem. It’s something I’m trying while nailing down my thesis proposal.
So what if I took the theme of ‘perspectives’ and applied it to the relevant domains in my thesis like architecture and...
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Inspiration and Google Reader
When looking for ideas related to my thesis search, I’ve found that the best inspiration happens when you aren’t really looking for any.
This, I suspect, is true of most things. It happens most frequently to me during my sessions with Google Reader.
I’ve said before that Google Reader is my favorite web application. There is so much to love, but the best thing about using an...
August 2010
1 post
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July 2010
3 posts
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Mapplers, an Online Atlas of Hand-Drawn Maps →
June 2010
14 posts
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Why We Check In: The Reasons People Use... →
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Fountain Square, Milan
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“… Buildings are always changing, so that a city’s coherence is somehow...”
– John Holland
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“The street is more important than the building. And the city is the greatest...”
– Paul Goldberger (via ummhello)
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Here is the Thing: Everybody Hates the Wired App →
This post is a week or two late, so pardon the staleness. It started off as a Twitter comment which evolved into a Google Reader comment, but it needs to be expanded upon properly so now it’s a Tumblr post. The information about the circulation rules surrounding digital editions of print magazines comes from my wife Antonia, who is a senior editor for the online version of a famous mens’...
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Links on information visualization
A co-worker recently asked on twitter:
can anyone recommend any good books on data visualization? thanks.
I replied with a promise to send him some links, and I share that with you all today.
When it comes to books on the subject, the first and obvious choice is Edward Tufte. (Second is maybe Stephen Few, but I’ve read little from him.) Tufte has made a career out of voicing his opinions...
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May 2010
8 posts
Two Things
Conversations today solidified two postulations I’ve had for a bit:
The emergence of simultaneous multi-platform product debuts.
An inability to keep track of work being done on multiple devices.
Consider the release of Art Space Tokyo over at Kickstarter. A book aimed at “connecting you with the neighborhoods and figure behind some of the most inspiring art spaces” in Tokyo,...
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