1. ⁘  ⁘  ⁘
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  3. Abo, Akinori 9
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  5. agile 30
  6. Albers, Josef 17
  7. Alexander, Christopher 135
  8. Alexander, Scott 5
  9. Allsopp, John 4
  10. Ammer, Ralph 6
  11. Anderson, Gretchen 7
  12. anxiety 9
  13. Appleton, Maggie 5
  14. Aptekar-Cassels, Wesley 5
  15. Arango, Jorge 4
  16. architecture 110
  17. art 86
  18. Asimov, Isaac 5
  19. attention 17
  20. Auping, Michael 6
  21. Aurelius, Marcus 14
  22. Bachelard, Gaston 12
  23. Baker, Nicholson 10
  24. beauty 58
  25. Behrensmeyer, Anna K. 7
  26. Bell, Larry 3
  27. Bjarnason, Baldur 5
  28. Blake, William 5
  29. blogging 21
  30. body 11
  31. Boeing, Geoff 7
  32. boredom 9
  33. Botton, Alain de 38
  34. Brand, Stewart 4
  35. Bringhurst, Robert 16
  36. Brooks, Frederick P. 22
  37. Broskoski, Charles 6
  38. brutalism 7
  39. building 16
  40. bureaucracy 12
  41. Burnham, Bo 9
  42. business 15
  43. Byron, Lord 14
  44. Cagan, Marty 6
  45. Calvino, Italo 21
  46. Camus, Albert 13
  47. care 6
  48. Carruth, Shane 15
  49. Cegłowski, Maciej 6
  50. Cervantes, Miguel de 7
  51. chance 11
  52. change 16
  53. Chiang, Ted 4
  54. Chimero, Frank 17
  55. choice 8
  56. cities 51
  57. Clark, Robin 3
  58. Cleary, Thomas 8
  59. Cleary, J.C. 8
  60. code 20
  61. collaboration 16
  62. collections 31
  63. Collison, Simon 3
  64. color 23
  65. commonplace 10
  66. communication 31
  67. community 7
  68. complexity 11
  69. connection 24
  70. constraints 25
  71. construction 9
  72. content 9
  73. Corbusier, Le 13
  74. Coyier, Chris 4
  75. craft 65
  76. creativity 58
  77. crime 9
  78. Critchlow, Tom 5
  79. critique 10
  80. Cross, Nigel 12
  81. Cross, Anita Clayburn 10
  82. css 11
  83. culture 13
  84. curiosity 11
  85. cycles 7
  86. Danielewski, Mark Z. 4
  87. darkness 28
  88. Darwin, Will 10
  89. data 8
  90. death 38
  91. Debord, Guy 6
  92. decisions 9
  93. design 131
  94. details 30
  95. Dickinson, Emily 9
  96. Dieste, Eladio 4
  97. discovery 9
  98. doors 7
  99. Dorn, Brandon 11
  100. drawing 23
  101. Drucker, Peter F. 15
  102. Duany, Andres 18
  103. Eatock, Daniel 4
  104. economics 13
  105. efficiency 7
  106. Eisenman, Peter 8
  107. Eliot, T.S. 14
  108. emotion 8
  109. ending 14
  110. engineering 11
  111. Eno, Brian 4
  112. ethics 14
  113. euphony 38
  114. Evans, Benedict 4
  115. evolution 9
  116. experience 14
  117. farming 8
  118. fashion 11
  119. features 25
  120. feedback 6
  121. flaws 10
  122. Flexner, Abraham 8
  123. food 16
  124. form 18
  125. Fowler, Martin 4
  126. Franklin, Ursula M. 30
  127. friendship 6
  128. fun 7
  129. function 31
  130. games 13
  131. gardens 26
  132. Garfield, Emily 4
  133. Garfunkel, Art 6
  134. geography 8
  135. geometry 18
  136. goals 9
  137. Gombrich, E. H. 4
  138. goodness 12
  139. Graham, Paul 37
  140. graphics 13
  141. Greene, Erick 6
  142. Hamming, Richard 45
  143. happiness 17
  144. Harford, Tim 4
  145. Harper, Thomas J. 15
  146. Hayes, Brian 28
  147. heat 7
  148. Heinrich, Bernd 7
  149. Herbert, Frank 4
  150. Heschong, Lisa 27
  151. Hesse, Herman 6
  152. history 13
  153. Hoffman, Yoel 10
  154. Hofstadter, Douglas 6
  155. home 15
  156. Hoy, Amy 4
  157. Hoyt, Ben 5
  158. html 11
  159. Hudlow, Gandalf 4
  160. humanity 16
  161. humor 6
  162. Huxley, Aldous 7
  163. hypermedia 22
  164. i 18
  165. ideas 19
  166. identity 33
  167. images 10
  168. industry 9
  169. information 42
  170. infrastructure 17
  171. innovation 14
  172. interaction 10
  173. interest 10
  174. interfaces 36
  175. intuition 8
  176. invention 10
  177. Irwin, Robert 65
  178. Isaacson, Walter 28
  179. Ishikawa, Sara 33
  180. iteration 13
  181. Ive, Jonathan 6
  182. Jackson, Steven J. 14
  183. Jacobs, Jane 54
  184. Jacobs, Alan 5
  185. Jobs, Steve 20
  186. Jones, Nick 5
  187. Kahn, Louis 4
  188. Kakuzō, Okakura 23
  189. Kaufman, Kenn 4
  190. Keith, Jeremy 6
  191. Keller, Jenny 10
  192. Kelly, Kevin 3
  193. Keqin, Yuanwu 8
  194. Ketheswaran, Pirijan 6
  195. Kingdon, Jonathan 5
  196. Kitching, Roger 7
  197. Klein, Laura 4
  198. Kleon, Austin 13
  199. Klinkenborg, Verlyn 24
  200. Klyn, Dan 20
  201. knowledge 28
  202. Kohlstedt, Kurt 11
  203. Kramer, Karen L. 10
  204. Krishna, Golden 10
  205. Kuma, Kengo 18
  206. language 20
  207. learning 29
  208. life 59
  209. light 31
  210. loneliness 12
  211. love 25
  212. Lovell, Sophie 16
  213. Lupton, Ellen 11
  214. Luu, Dan 8
  215. Lynch, Kevin 12
  216. MacIver, David R. 8
  217. MacWright, Tom 5
  218. Magnus, Margaret 12
  219. making 77
  220. management 14
  221. Manaugh, Geoff 27
  222. Markson, David 16
  223. Mars, Roman 13
  224. material 39
  225. math 16
  226. McCarter, Robert 21
  227. meaning 33
  228. media 16
  229. melancholy 51
  230. memory 28
  231. metaphor 10
  232. metrics 19
  233. microsites 49
  234. Miller, J. Abbott 10
  235. Mills, C. Wright 9
  236. minimalism 10
  237. Miyazaki, Hayao 30
  238. Mod, Craig 15
  239. modularity 6
  240. Mollison, Bill 31
  241. morality 8
  242. Murakami, Haruki 21
  243. music 16
  244. Müller, Boris 7
  245. Naka, Toshiharu 8
  246. names 11
  247. Naskrecki, Piotr 5
  248. nature 51
  249. networks 15
  250. Noessel, Christopher 7
  251. notetaking 34
  252. novelty 10
  253. objects 15
  254. order 10
  255. ornament 9
  256. Orwell, George 7
  257. Ott, Matthias 4
  258. ownership 6
  259. Pallasmaa, Juhani 41
  260. Palmer, John 8
  261. patterns 11
  262. Patton, James L. 9
  263. Pawson, John 21
  264. perception 22
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  267. Perrine, John D. 9
  268. Petroski, Henry 24
  269. philosophy 6
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  273. place 14
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  275. Plater-Zyberk, Elizabeth 18
  276. poetry 13
  277. politics 9
  278. Pollan, Michael 6
  279. practice 10
  280. problems 31
  281. process 22
  282. production 7
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  284. products 20
  285. programming 9
  286. progress 16
  287. Pye, David 42
  288. quality 25
  289. questions 8
  290. Radić, Smiljan 20
  291. Rams, Dieter 16
  292. Rao, Venkatesh 14
  293. reading 16
  294. reality 13
  295. Reichenstein, Oliver 5
  296. religion 11
  297. Rendle, Robin 12
  298. repair 28
  299. research 17
  300. Reveal, James L. 4
  301. Richards, Melanie 3
  302. Richie, Donald 10
  303. Rougeux, Nicholas 4
  304. Rowe, Peter G. 10
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  306. Ruskin, John 5
  307. Satyal, Parimal 9
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  310. Schaller, George B. 7
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  314. Sennett, Richard 45
  315. senses 11
  316. Seuss, Dr. 14
  317. Shakespeare, William 4
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  319. silence 9
  320. Silverstein, Murray 33
  321. Simms, Matthew 19
  322. Simon, Paul 6
  323. simplicity 14
  324. Singer, Ryan 12
  325. skill 17
  326. Sloan, Robin 5
  327. Smith, Cyril Stanley 29
  328. Smith, Justin E. H. 6
  329. Smith, Rach 4
  330. socializing 7
  331. society 23
  332. software 66
  333. solitude 12
  334. Somers, James 8
  335. Sorkin, Michael 56
  336. sound 14
  337. space 20
  338. Speck, Jeff 18
  339. speech 6
  340. spirit 10
  341. streets 10
  342. structure 13
  343. Strunk, William 15
  344. Ström, Matthew 13
  345. style 30
  346. Sun, Chuánqí 15
  347. symbols 12
  348. systems 18
  349. Sōetsu, Yanagi 34
  350. Sōseki, Natsume 8
  351. Tanaka, Tomoyuki 9
  352. Tanizaki, Jun'ichirō 15
  353. taste 10
  354. Taylor, Dorian 16
  355. teaching 21
  356. teamwork 16
  357. technology 41
  358. texture 7
  359. thinking 30
  360. Thoreau, Henry David 8
  361. time 54
  362. Tolkien, J.R.R. 6
  363. tools 32
  364. touch 8
  365. transportation 16
  366. Trombley, Nick 44
  367. truth 15
  368. Tufte, Edward 31
  369. Turrell, James 6
  370. typography 25
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Ralph Ammer

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  • Life-friendly design

    An Article by Ralph Ammer
    ralphammer.com
    Image from ralphammer.com on 2020-07-27 at 5.02.21 PM.gif

    I suggest that our industrial heritage has been an important preliminary stage. The next step is to carefully examine and implement design values that nurture our joy of life. Just like our “industrial design” illustrated our industrial values, a life-friendly design could express our biophilic values.

    This optimistic design approach differs from naive nostalgia or fear of extinction. There is no way back to nature but only forward to nature.

    • nature
    • industry
    • progress

    See also: Interaction design is dead. What now?

  • Don't think big

    An Article by Ralph Ammer
    ralphammer.com
    Image from ralphammer.com on 2020-07-27 at 5.05.16 PM.gif

    One of the biggest mistakes you can make in your creative project is to pick a topic which is too big. Big topics often lead to small results, small topics foster great results.

    And here is why: Your project is limited by the time and energy you have.

    These are the boundaries of your project. If you pick a huge topic then there is not much room for your creative efforts. On the other hand, if you pick a small topic you have time and energy to make a great creative contribution.

    • creativity
  • Is perfection boring?

    An Article by Ralph Ammer
    ralphammer.com
    Image from ralphammer.com on 2020-07-27 at 5.09.09 PM.jpeg

    We love to see the process, not just the result. The imperfections in your work can be beautiful if they show your struggle for perfection, not a lack of care.

    • zen
    • perfection
    • mistakes
    • wabi-sabi
    • imperfections
  • Now I get it

    An Article by Ralph Ammer
    ralphammer.com
    Image from ralphammer.com on 2020-07-27 at 5.13.42 PM.gif

    To design a system means to orchestrate the interplay of its elements.

    Such a system is considered “interactive” if it is open, which means that there are ways to engage with the processes that are happening inside of it. There is of course a range of interactivities which spans from very basic reactive behaviour to highly complex conversational interactions.

    • systems
    • interaction
    • ux
  • But what do you want to say?

    An Article by Ralph Ammer
    ralphammer.com
    Image from ralphammer.com on 2020-07-27 at 5.17.00 PM.gif

    Pablo Picasso famously said:

    “The world doesn’t make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?”

    A sensible approach to something that can’t be explained is to express it.

    Rather than giving you explanations or “saying something”, most artists are concerned with what I like to call “room for interpretation”. They create platforms that trigger thoughts, feelings, emotions, and ideas.

    Instead of trying to explain the inexplicable artists express their view of it. They don’t want to tell you what to think, they invite you to respond.

    1. ​​Making sense​​
    • art
    • emotion
  • A lightbulb is not an idea

    An Article by Ralph Ammer
    ralphammer.com
    Image from ralphammer.com on 2020-07-27 at 4.59.21 PM.gif

    With conventional placeholders, such as words, we can describe patterns for a large number of situations. On the other hand it is easy to fool yourself (and others) with words, since you can avoid to be specific. Any business meeting can confirm this.

    When you draw something you are forced to be specific — and honest.

    Our illustration of an “idea” from above is unconventional in the sense that it conveys specific original thoughts of what an idea is. It adds value to the words.

    And that is the catch: The drawing must be unconventional to support the conventional words. We have to make sure not to use “words in disguise”. Take a common illustration for “idea” for example, which haunts flip charts all over the world: the lightbulb.

    The lightbulb image works on a purely symbolic level, it only replaces the word “idea”. This image of a household item contains no original thought about what an idea is. While symbols like these work well as international replacements for words or icons to indicate a light switch for instance, they convey no nutritional value as illustrations — they are empty.

    • words
    • ideas
    • symbols
    • drawing

See also:
  1. words
  2. ideas
  3. symbols
  4. drawing
  5. nature
  6. industry
  7. progress
  8. creativity
  9. zen
  10. perfection
  11. mistakes
  12. wabi-sabi
  13. imperfections
  14. systems
  15. interaction
  16. ux
  17. art
  18. emotion