Thursday, April 13, 2006

Almost forgot Before the day's done, here's a big fat "Happy Birthday" for Samuel Beckett on his 100th. 8:11:18 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

Speaking of technical writing. . . CNNMoney.com ranks the top 50 "best jobs," and places technical writing at #13[~]my lucky number! Curiously, nowhere to be found on the list are such titles as information architect, user experience designer, interaction designer, or usability professional. Probably because the Money magazine folks don't know what those jobs are. 6:33:51 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

"The Don" speaks Don Norman has an RSS feed on the articles section of his Web site, which includes many of his columns from ACM <interactions> magazine (mine are online here), and others: Emotionally-centered design. "We are moving from static pages with their clunky, slow repainting of the page to fluid, dynamic displays, where the movement is a major part of the charm. We are moving from behaviorally effective designs to ones that add emotional engagement." (Don Norman) [InfoDesign: Understanding by Design] Dave Heller has an emotional reaction to Norman's emotionally-centered design piece: Finally! someone gets it! Aesthetics of IxD. Don Norman recently put up a post entitled, "Emotionally-centered design". In it he hypothesizes about the recent glut of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) and why they seem to be so loved. The immediacy of response is both fun and useful. The fluidity of graphics is engaging. These are visceral experiences: viscerally exciting websites. The traditional map... [--Engage! - Interaction Design] And, Norman has some gratifying things to say about the role of technical communicators as part of an design team in "How to Write an Effective Manual." For instance: The technical writing profession is an essential component of any design, just as important as designers, interaction and usability specialists, and engineers. Gee, thanks Don! 6:24:21 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

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