Category: Architecture

See. Feel.

May 22, 2009

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by

Christopher Fahey

in Architecture, Art, Branding and Marketing, Design, Interaction Design, Interface Design, Language, User Experience Design

Touch Sight, a fascinating “camera” for blind people. For my entire design career,Â my colleagues and I have wrestled with the terminology we use to segment and focus our work, both in our careers and in our critiques. Whether it’s the “information architecture vs. interaction design” debate or the “visual design vs. graphic design” debate,…
Designing for One User (Bespoke User Interfaces)

Oct 26, 2008

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by

Christopher Fahey

in Architecture, Behavior, Business, Design, Interface Design, Personal, Politics, Reviews, Technology, The Future, TV & Movies, User Experience Design, Web, Work

What if someone paid you thousands of dollars to design a user interface or an application for just one person? Most design work is done for audiences: whether designing mass market products or niche objects of desire, we seldom have a single, real person in mind when we work. We think of audiences as groups…
The Corner

Dec 6, 2007

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by

Christopher Fahey

in Architecture, Art, Images, Personal

I pointed my iPhone camera into the empty corner of a room and captured this.
Subway Orienteering

Oct 17, 2007

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by

Christopher Fahey

in Architecture, Design, Information Design, NYC, Reviews, Social Interaction, User Experience Design

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (the people who run the subways) have done a test installation of a new feature to help riders orient themselves as they exit our often-labyrinthine subway stations. They’re placing sidewalk-level signage to tell riders which way is north and indicating which direction the nearest streets and avenues can be…
Would Starbucks tell Dunkin’?

Jul 17, 2007

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by

Christopher Fahey

in Architecture, Branding and Marketing, Business, Design, Personal, Reviews, User Experience Design

We recently stopped for coffee at an urban intersection where a Starbucks and a Dunkin’ Donuts sat on opposite corners, facing off in a classic retail rivalry like Macy’s & Gimbels. Deciding to avoid Starbuckian yuppiness (okay, we drink there all the time), we walked into the Dunkin’ Donuts. But something seemed wrong… the DD…
Grace, not just Efficiency, in Queue Management

Jun 23, 2007

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by

Christopher Fahey

in Architecture, Branding and Marketing, Business, NYC, Reviews, Social Interaction, User Experience Design

Large retail stores and fast-food restaurants have a simple choice when designing their checkout customer experience: Multiple registers, multiple lines, one line per register Multiple registers, single line This problem is known in the retail industry as “queue management”. The New York Times today features an article comparing the checkout experiences of several New York…
The Google Street View Racial Gerrymander

Jun 14, 2007

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by

Christopher Fahey

in Architecture, Business, History, Images, NYC, Personal, Politics, Reviews, Social Interaction, Technology, Web

I love Google Street View. But what a surprise I had when I tried to view my own building and found out that the Street View photo-truck decided that they would limit their coverage to upscale (i.e., white) neighborhoods.
A Peek into the Sausage Factory (IA Summit Presentation Post-Mortem)

Apr 2, 2007

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by

Christopher Fahey

in Architecture, Art, Books, Business, Design, History, Information Architecture, Information Design, Language, Personal, Reviews, Storytelling, User Experience Design

My IA Summit presentation was an experiment in what is a new presentation style for me. I have long admired the rapid-fire presentation style of Lawrence Lessig (aka the “Lessig method“) and in particular the example of Dick Hardt’s keynote at Identity 2.0. Also, Iâ€™ve always wanted to achieve the same aesthetic and pedagogical dazzle…
Interaction Design Style (My IA Summit 2007 Presentation)

Apr 1, 2007

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by

Christopher Fahey

in Architecture, Art, Books, Business, Design, Gaming, graphpaper.com, History, Information Architecture, Information Design, Interface Design, Language, Music, Personal, Reviews, Technology, The Future, User Experience Design, Web, Work

It’s been a little less than a week since my IA Summit presentation. To my great surprise, it went really well. I mean really well. In the next day or so I will be posting a summary of my experiences preparing and discussing my topic, which was, in a word, style. Many people came to…
Come to my Stylish Talk at the 2007 IA Summit

Mar 21, 2007

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by

Christopher Fahey

in Architecture, Art, Behavior, Business, Design, graphpaper.com, History, Information Architecture, Language, Personal, Science, Social Interaction, Storytelling, Technology, User Experience Design, Web, Work

I am speaking next Monday at the 2007 ASIS&T Information Architecture Summit in Las Vegas. My topic will be “Interaction Design Style“. It will be a highly visual romp through a variety of topic having to do with the concept of style and how it fits into the design of interactive systems: The definition of…