Articles in category: Design
Case Study – The New York City Subway
This case study dives into the design and redesign of the subsystems that make up each rider’s journey through the Big Apple. READ MORE »
The good. The bad. The designed.
One day, while I was walking to my office at Arizona State University, I noticed a solar-powered cellphone charging station. As soon as I noticed it, I thought “these are a good idea”. Having a place for anyone to charge their phones is amazing, especi … READ MORE »
From Artifacts to Culture, My Journey through Design: Keynote at IDC, School of Design
Design is core to my identity, to who I am. Education is the space within which I function but I try to approach everything I do as a designer. This was not always the case. READ MORE »
Fixing Clocks, Negotiating Systems: Yes, And…
In which Melissa summons the courage to critique her doctoral advisor’s post, asserting that over-simplification of artifacts leads to many of the design problems in education that we are trying to avoid. READ MORE »
Design: Fixing Clocks | Negotiating Systems
Artifacts and systems have different levels of complexity and designing them require a different set of skills. READ MORE »
The Flea Circus Fallacy: Jurassic Park and the Perils of Ecological Design
What’s the difference between designing living systems and designing technical artifacts? “Life finds a way” to complexify things… READ MORE »
Why Is It So Hard To Define Design? Holiday Edition
It’s the holiday season, so get ready to justify your interest in ‘design’ to grandma. “Listen, grandma, design is hard to define…” READ MORE »
Here, There, and (Potentially) Everywhere
A continuum is one continuous sequence in which adjacent (or closely located) elements are not perceptibly different from each other, but the extremes are quite distinct. In other words, if someone were to move from point A to point B of a conti … READ MORE »
Who is Talking About Design?
Design is having a moment buoyed by the emergence of design thinking. What started as a science, literally “design science,” is now a buzzword in the business world and beyond. I argue that everyone is talking about design and I’ll prove it, with some … READ MORE »
Why Does How We Talk About This Matter?
Talking about design matters because when we do so, we talk about humanity—and humanity matters. It matters how we talk about design because words are the singular most powerful force available to humans. READ MORE »
