Art

Interface Design Skills for Coders (and vice-versa)

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ October 6, 2010 ⋅ One comment

Like a technical peanut butter cup – two great skill sets that go great together. What really happens when artists and coders mash things up? Intuitive Interactions: Are application developers adept at effective design? I think, as a group, no – witness all of the effort put forth to wrap “user friendly screens” in front [...]

Design Thinking and Process – Practical Examples (2 of 2)

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ September 29, 2010 ⋅ One comment

So, design thinking can have a positive impact on how you do what you do, and it may very well be hidden inside, waiting to get out. Ok, you are intrigued, you might even believe you can release the designer in you. Where to next? How to get started? Practical Expressions of “Good Design” Like [...]

Design Thinking and Process – Is It In You? (1 of 2)

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ September 21, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment

Continuing a bit on my recent Design meme; I talk about the current relevance of design thinking, and the impact it can have on change management – but if it feels a bit foreign, how can you tell if you have it in you? Do You Think Visually? Interesting how Design always seems to have [...]

Design and Change Management

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ September 14, 2010 ⋅ One comment

I have developed a few strongly-held architectural beliefs, and one came up in conversation last week, during a spirited discussion on minimal quality requirements for a[ny] data mart. I hold that the data copied from source to destination must be provably correct and complete with little effort. When agile-ly rolling staged deliverables into production, I [...]

It’s Design, not Decorating

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ September 10, 2010 ⋅ 2 comments

A few months ago, I read Dan Pink‘s book, A Whole New Mind. Excellent stuff, with echoes in his video What Really Motivates Us? (check it out here), and it introduced me to the idea of “right mind thinking”. I’ve had a great respect for and interest in Architecture over the years, and have watched [...]

A Hierarchy of Information Requirements

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ May 9, 2010 ⋅ One comment

It’s a common problem statement – ‘I don’t have enough information to (run my business unit, manage this process, identify opportunities, etc.)’. The solution designer, when faced with a question like this, starts with a little detective work; the problem is too broadly stated.

Business Proposals and The Lesson of Jabberwocky

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ March 28, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment

When someone asks my opinion on their writing, I’ll get fairly detailed; I’ve noted in the past that there is a lot of power and influence in the written word, and it’s fairly important to get it done well, or your project proposals just never seem to get off the ground. This particular proposal suffered from [...]

Managing Change: Inspiration, Art, Science, and Execution

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ March 15, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment

Often, when trying to figure out how to “make things happen”, your focus switches between multiple targets. What am I doing? Why am I doing this? And How can I get the others to understand what I am doing? Real change happens along a continuum that stretches from The Big Idea to Real Results, and [...]

Data Visualization: How (2 of 2)

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ January 19, 2010 ⋅ 2 comments

The short answer, as you know, is that it’s impossible to tell you how to be insightful and imaginative in a single blog post. All I can do is point you in the general direction, and (hopefully) ignite a little spark. What’s the Goal? and, Where to Begin? I previously talked about the growing calls [...]

Data Visualization: Why (1 of 2)

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ January 13, 2010 ⋅ One comment

Between business requests and breathless vendors, I am getting caught up in the growing tide of interest in “data visualizations” – managers requesting highly interactive, highly graphical, highly intuitive analytics interfaces (think Minority Report). But what are we trying to accomplish here? We keep on hearing about “executive dashboards”, a heads-up display of in-my-face KPIs, [...]

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