A selection of old favorites from around the web.
In his 2010 talk “Designing with Forces,” Ryan Singer explains the design process from the perspective of form and context. Form is the design objective--the thing we're going to change--while context is the ensemble of environmental constraints that will remain the same. The shape of the form is constrained by "forces," a set of requirements derived from the user and the environment. Singer does a fantastic job interpreting Christopher Alexander's Notes on the Synthesis of Form, a landmark treatise on design methods published in 1964. [Vimeo]
In her 2011 article “Lessons from Late Night,” Tina Fey writes, “Producing is about discouraging creativity.” She explains: “You would think that in your capacity as a producer your job would be to churn up creativity, but mostly your job is to police enthusiasm.” This connects to the idea form and context. A well-chosen context should focus design creativity where it’s needed, and help the design team avoid the terminal illness known as scope-creep. [New Yorker]
We’re waiting with anticipation for the banking website that takes the invasion of our privacy to its logical conclusion [McSweeney's].