Jorge Arango

Herman Miller has published a report that concludes that good design gives businesses an edge. According to the post, “Over the decade, through markets bull and bear, design-intelligent companies beat the UK FTSE 100 index by 200%.”

This is the latest of a series of articles I’ve come across that seem to point in this direction. Of course, this shouldn’t be surprising; thoughtfully designed things are easier to use, and things that are easy to use make people more productive. This usually results in improved profit margins, lower job injury rates, a healthier, happier, and more motivated workforce, and an improved overall business environment.

However, in my dealings with other business folks over the years, I’ve often heard them imply that good design is a “nice-to-have”—in other words, not an essencial aspect of a project. This attitude seems to stem from a narrow view of what design is.

Good design is thoughtful design. It doesn’t have to be sexy. It doesn’t even have to be pretty. But it has to have been thought through. Questions like, “How will people use this?”, “What are people trying to achieve by using this?”, and even “Who will be using this?” are too often left unaddressed. The result is thoughtless—or unintentional—design. Thoughtless design is bad design. And bad design costs companies money.

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The Long Now Foundation is a not-for profit organization devoted to helping reverse the seemingly inevitable slide into short-term thinking that is currently pervasive… as Brian Eno put it, “an ever- decreasing horizon into the future and very little encouragement from people in any direction to lay long term plans”.

One of their projects, the Clock of the Long Now, is desiged to mark the passing of time for 10,000 years. They also have free seminars about long-term thinking, which they’ve made available for downloading in a variety of formats. Be sure to check out Eno’s; it’s very funny and illuminating.

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AIfIA has launched its new IA Library, one of the most comprehensive collections of IA resources on the Web. I’m helping to add Spanish entries, so if you know of one that should be listed, please let me know.

-more->

Here’s the official press release:

The Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture (AIfIA) is pleased
to announce the opening of the Information Architecture Library, an
international collection of the best articles, books, blogs, guides,
reports, and other resources related to the field of information
architecture.

The IA Library was developed by Joanna Markel and Jeff Tang, two
graduate students at the University of Michigan’s School of Information.
Chiara Fox, Austin Govella, and Peter Morville provided support and
served as mentors.

“Jeff and Joanna designed and built a fully-functional user interface
and content management system for the Library. That’s quite an
accomplishment for a single-semester independent study project!” says
AIfIA’s president, Peter Morville.

The IA Library’s collection is still very much under development. We
are adding new resources, particularly in languages other than English,
to create a more well-rounded collection. In addition, AIfIA is
actively seeking a volunteer Library Director to oversee the continued
development of this important public service.

If you are interested in volunteering to help with the IA Library, or if
you know of a resource we should include, please send your suggestion to
ialibrary@aifia.org.

To explore the Information Architecture Library go to:

http://aifia.org/library/

Contact:

Gene Smith

press@aifia.org

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How come I had never heard of the Web Style Guide? The foreword is by Lou Rosenfeld, and it reads very quaintly in 2004. (“HAVE YOU HEARD of the World Wide Web? If so, your understanding of this exciting new medium has probably evolved somewhat over the past few years.”)

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