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Design Information Technology Innovation

Tom Wujec demos the 13th-century astrolabe at TED

Rather than demo another new technology, Tom Wujec reaches back to one of our earliest but most ingenious devices — the astrolabe. With thousands of uses, from telling time to mapping the night sky, this old tech reminds us that the ancient can be as brilliant as the brand-new […]

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Design Innovation Software Trend Watching

Watch Ben Shneiderman’s “Science 2.0: The Design Science of Collaboration” Seminar on People, Computers, and Design at Stanford University

Advancing Science 2.0 will require a shift in priorities to promote intense collaboration, integrative thinking, teamwork-based education/training, and case study ethnographic research methods. Science 2.0 will reduce the gulf between basic and applied research, while bringing theory and practice closer together. This talk lays out an ambitious vision that will impact research funding, educational practices, and democratic principles […]

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Economics Information Technology Trend Watching

Watch Clay Shirky’s “How social media can make history” talk at TED

While news from Iran streams to the world, Clay Shirky shows social media help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics […]

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Design Software

Watch Tom Wujec’s “3 ways the brain creates meaning” talk at TED

Information designer Tom Wujec talks through three areas of the brain that help us understand words, images, feelings, connections. In this short talk from TEDU, he asks: How can we best engage our brains to help us better understand big ideas? […]

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China Innovation

China, Technology and the Environment: first 10 million-kw-level wind power station to be built in mid-July 2009

Workers would begin construction on China’s first 10 million-kw-level wind power station in mid-July in the far northwestern city of Jiuquan, Gansu Province, a local official said recently […]

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Consumer Behavior Economics Trend Watching

Watch Dan Ariely’s “Are we in control of our own decisions?” talk at TED

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely, the author of Predictably Irrational, uses classic visual illusions and his own counter-intuitive (and sometimes shocking) research findings to show how we’re not as rational as we think when we make decisions […]

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Design Inspiration

AIGA’s Artist Video Series: David Carson

Reading about designers can be moving. Seeing their work can be inspiring and, at times, provoke us to action. Hillman Curtis, in his video series, allows us to experience leading designers through sound and motion, uncovering what it is about them that inspires him. Watch David Carson’s video […]

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Consumer Behavior Design

Dan Saffer’s “Attention Awareness” Keynote at IxDA | Interaction ‘09 Conference

Dan Saffer calls out the Interaction Design community for allowing distracting topics to consume our attention, and for paying too little attention to “moonwalking bears,” the opportunities interaction designers can take advantage of in the near future […]

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Design

Robert Fabricant’s “Behavior is our Medium” keynote at IxDA | Interaction ‘09 Conference

Robert Fabricant talks about Interaction Design as a practice beyond just computing technology. He gives examples of Interaction Design as far back as ancient history, all the way to a humanitarian project underway today. He shows that Interaction Design’s primary medium is behavior, extending far past the high technology world into the realm of human behavior and relationships […]

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Design Innovation Inspiration

Don Norman’s “The three ways that good design makes you happy” talk at TED

In this talk from 2003, design critic Don Norman turns his incisive eye toward beauty, fun, pleasure and emotion, as he looks at design that makes people happy […]