Interesting how this is being bundled together, suggesting that there's still not clear demarcations.

collaborative institutions relying on common design principles are seen helping to avoid the tragedy of commons

Built With Bits

In 2021, our eight-week mentoring programme helped educators and teachers to achieve this by combining collaborative learning experiences and digital technologies with the values of accessibility, inclusivity and sustainability that are at the heart of the European Commission’s New European Bauhaus movement.

The programme explored how virtual experiences can be used within education and is designed for teachers and educators working with students in secondary education in Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Shared during Open Education Week 2022 https://oeweek.oeglobal.org/resources/2022/built-with-bits/

Grids like these are user-hostile—a clear choice to prioritize aesthetics over experience. In order to see what any given app does, I have to either:

1. Figure it out by the name alone
2. Click each one to fetch the relevant info (and wait for it to load)
3. Mouse over each item to read the title text

John Nagle is fond of making the observation that there are three fundamental and recurring questions that dominate one's concerns when programming in C.

More broadly (speaking of software development generally), one of the two big frustrations I have when dealing with a foreign codebase is the simple question, "Where the hell does this type/function come from?" (esp. in C and, unfortunately, in Go, too, since the team didn't take the opportunity to fix it there when they could have...). There's something to be said for Intellisense-like smarts in IDEs, but I think the criticism of IDEs is justified. I shouldn't need an IDE just to be able to make sense of what I'm reading.

The other big frustration I often have is "Where does the program really start?" Gilad Bracha seems to really get this, from what I've understood of his descriptions about how module definitions work in Newspeak. Even though it's reviled, I think Java was really shrewd about its decisions here (and on the previous problem, too, for that matter—don't know exactly where FooBar comes from? welp, at least you can be reasonably sure that it's in a file called FooBar.java somewhere, so you can do a simple (and cheap) search across file names instead of a (slow, more expensive) full-text search). Except for static initializers, Java classes are just definitions. You don't get to have live code in the top-level scope the way you can with JS or Python or Go. As cumbersome as Java's design decision might feel like it's getting in your way when you're working on your own projects and no matter how much you hate it for making you pay the boilerplate tax, when it comes to diving in to a foreign codebase, it's great when modules are "inert". They don't get to do anything, save for changing the visibility of some symbol (e.g. the FooBar of FooBar.java). If you want to know how a program works, then you can trace the whole thing, in theory, starting from main. That's really convenient when it means you don't have to think about how something might be dependent on a loop in an arbitrary file that immediately executes on import, or any other top-level diddling (i.e. critical functionality obscured by some esoteric global mutable state).

https://learningaloud.com/blog/2020/08/08/designing-instruction-using-layering-services/

Mark Grabe categorizes some digital pedagogy tools in terms of how they function structurally.

1. two servers/independent content
2. one server, independent purchased content
3. one company offering both a layering capability and content
4. user can upload content

The forms of thinking, writing, and elaboration that go into creating permanent notes for a slip box are natural means of facilitating actual, long-term learning.

Ahrens provides a quick overview of some research on distraction, attention, and multi-tasking to make the point that:

The simple structure and design of the zettelkasten forces one's focus and attention on small individual tasks that cumulatively build into better thinking and writing.

(Summary of Section 9.2)

Streamlining one's entire workflow from start to finish can unleash tremendous amounts of additional system-wide productivity. Starting out by tinkering with small things here and there is more likely to doom these smaller individual changes to failure with out associated global changes.

Once the overall system has been redesigned and reconfigured, then one can make and perfect smaller scale local changes.

Link this to the idea of kelp and sailing/rowing from The West Wing.

Whether it's for writing, to do lists, or other productivity spaces, a well designed system is something that one can put their absolute trust into. This allows one to free themselves from the burden of tracking and dealing with minutiae so they can get serious work done.

https://dancohen.org/2019/07/23/engagement-is-the-enemy-of-serendipity/

Dan Cohen talks about a design change in the New York Times app that actively discourages exploration and discovery by serendipity.

This is similar to pulling out digital copies of books you're looking for instead of going to the library, tracking down the book on the shelf and in the process seeing and experiencing the books on the shelf which are nearby, or even the book that catches your eye across the aisle, wasn't in your sphere of search or interest, but you pick it up anyway.

How can we bring this sort of design back to digital experiences?

It's not just the algorithmic feeds which are narrowing our interests and exposure, but the design of our digital spaces as well.

https://www.codica.com/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-website/

Deepti Gurdasani. (2022, January 30). Have tried to now visually illustrate an earlier thread I wrote about why prevalence estimates based on comparisons of “any symptom” between infected cases, and matched controls will yield underestimates for long COVID. I’ve done a toy example below here, to show this 🧵 [Tweet]. @dgurdasani1. https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1487578265187405828

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1322591673239572482.html

originally from: https://twitter.com/andy_matuschak/status/1322591673239572482

This description of "teach[ing] to all the [learning] styles" seems similar to some descriptions of Universal Design for Learning that I have seen.

https://www.codica.com/blog/latest-ui-ux-design-trends/

Which can lead to an assessment of pedagogical efficacy. It's funny, to me, that those who complain about "grade inflation" (typically admins) rarely entertain the notion that grades could be higher than usual if the course went well. The situation is quite different in "L&D" (Learning and Development, typically for training and professional development in an organizational context). "Oh, great! We were able to get everyone to reach the standard for this competency! Must mean that we've done something right in our Instructional Design!"

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/style/andre-leon-talley-dead.html

https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2022/a-web-for-all/

One's lifetime of notes could be thought of as a hypertext work in progress that is designed to be open-ended.

Recommandations for dark UI theme from Google.

This truism is certainly much older than John Palmer, but an interesting quote none-the-less.

It could be useful to meditate on the ideas of "spatial interfaces" and "spatial software" as useful affordances within the application and design spaces.

What does a Functional Design have to offer? https://en.itpedia.nl/2019/01/16/wat-heeft-een-functioneel-ontwerp-te-bieden/ A functional design is a specification of the functions of the software that the end_users have agreed to. Many companies have a software_developer handbook that describes what topics a functional design should cover. This article looks at the steps of functional design in the context of software development.

https://opensourcedesign.net/

https://iconmap.io/

An awesome map of 400,000+ favicons.

An absolutely beautiful design for short notes.

This is the sort of theme that will appeal to zettelkasten users who are building digital gardens. A bit of the old mixed in with the new.

<small><cite class='h-cite via'>ᔥ <span class='p-author h-card'>Pete Moor </span> in // pimoore.ca (<time class='dt-published'>12/24/2021 18:02:15</time>)</cite></small>

https://pimoore.ca/2021/12/22/aegirs-site-is.html

Adding flexibility to our contrast checker function

Brian’s function only accepts six-character hexcolors, and they cannot have a leading hash (#).

Let’s first modify it to accept a leading hash. We’ll use Array.slice() to get the first character and check if it equals #. If it does, we’ll use Array.slice() again to remove the leading hash and redefine hexcolor.

Next, let’s modify the function to allow both three and six-character colors.

To do that, we’ll first check the length of hexcolor. If it’s 3, we’ll use Array.split() to convert the hexcolor string into an array of characters. Then, we’ll use Array.map() to double each character, and Array.join() to combine it back into a string.

/*!
 * Get the contrasting color for any hex color
 * (c) 2019 Chris Ferdinandi, MIT License, https://gomakethings.com
 * Derived from work by Brian Suda, https://24ways.org/2010/calculating-color-contrast/
 * @param  {String} A hexcolor value
 * @return {String} The contrasting color (black or white)
 */
var getContrast = function (hexcolor){

    // If a leading # is provided, remove it
    if (hexcolor.slice(0, 1) === '#') {
        hexcolor = hexcolor.slice(1);
    }

    // If a three-character hexcode, make six-character
    if (hexcolor.length === 3) {
        hexcolor = hexcolor.split('').map(function (hex) {
            return hex + hex;
        }).join('');
    }

    // Convert to RGB value
    var r = parseInt(hexcolor.substr(0,2),16);
    var g = parseInt(hexcolor.substr(2,2),16);
    var b = parseInt(hexcolor.substr(4,2),16);

    // Get YIQ ratio
    var yiq = ((r * 299) + (g * 587) + (b * 114)) / 1000;

    // Check contrast
    return (yiq >= 128) ? 'black' : 'white';

};

Here’s a demo on CodePen

The second equation is called ‘YIQ’ because it converts the RGB color space into YIQ, which takes into account the different impacts of its constituent parts. Again, the equation returns white or black and it’s also very easy to implement.

In JavaScript:

function getContrastYIQ(hexcolor){
    var r = parseInt(hexcolor.substr(0,2),16);
    var g = parseInt(hexcolor.substr(2,2),16);
    var b = parseInt(hexcolor.substr(4,2),16);
    var yiq = ((r*299)+(g*587)+(b*114))/1000;
    return (yiq >= 128) ? 'black' : 'white';
}

You’ll notice first that we have broken down the hex value into separate RGB values. This is important because each of these channels is scaled in accordance to its visual impact. Once everything is scaled and normalized, it will be in a range between zero and 255. Much like the previous ’50%’ function, we now need to check if the input is above or below halfway. Depending on where that value is, we’ll return the corresponding highest contrasting color.

There are two functions I want to compare.

The first, I call ’50%’. It takes the hex value and compares it to the value halfway between pure black and pure white. If the hex value is less than half, meaning it is on the darker side of the spectrum, it returns white as the text color. If the result is greater than half, it’s on the lighter side of the spectrum and returns black as the text value.

In JavaScript:

function getContrast50(hexcolor){
    return (parseInt(hexcolor, 16) > 0xffffff/2) ? 'black':'white';
}

It doesn’t get much simpler than that! The function converts the six-character hex color into an integer and compares that to one half the integer value of pure white. The function is easy to remember, but is naive when it comes to understanding how we perceive parts of the spectrum. Different wavelengths have greater or lesser impact on the contrast.

Good logos are legible (easy to identify) //and// unique (distinctive).

https://eev.ee/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-design/

Nice little advise, regular habit.

Are dotnet's NUnit results compatible/adaptable to Git:Lab's test-report?

Actually this is the "agile" motto - release early, so no long feature-branches.

Build articulated jobs to identify early low-hanging spoiled fruits.

Leave a coherent trail about the decisions behind the CI machinery.

Describe the need for flexibility to select one out of multiple build/test configurations.

Not really providing practical advises.

Current practice in UK on UDL- updated references and useful publication linked to HEA accreditation

Might be worth discussing with class.

A very interesting design case, and addresses an important issue for (some) shoppers. (Probably mostly introverts.)

This loop showcases a UI pattern that I think could be improved. There is an "edit" button visible, which opens the sidebar. The principles should more closely resemble the Hypothesis sidebar. Instead of requiring an explicit edit button which the user clicks, the editor should operate on object selections. Merely clicking any of the displayed values should select it, which should provide a handle to the underlying object, which should reveal the editor sidebar (with, ideally, the relevant field focused).

A qualitative narrative design

3. 6.

In our Design Science Studio session today, Niki Selken suggested that we purchase Tezos to experiment with NFTs.

Niki Selken, Gray Area, shared Kukai with the Design Science Studio today as an easy way to get some crypto, using a single sign on with Google.

designing

having students learn by designing their own games combines design thinking and game-based learning

Most Markdown that gets published to GitHub is clearly written by people who have no problem grinding their muddy shoes all over this design principle.

(Vanilla Markdown's syntax for inline links doesn't do a particularly good job upholding this principle itself.)

.design

.design

.community design

.community design

.community design

.community design

.community design

.community design

At least he did it quickly as possible because it's a known fact that people can have similar ideas as you.

article

Definition of ephemera 1: something of no lasting significance —usually used in plural

2 ephemera plural : paper items (such as posters, broadsides, and tickets) that were originally meant to be discarded after use but have since become collectibles

merriam webster

This is not surprising at all. Funny thing is just as he mentioned that...it made me realize there's barely any black designers being known, especially around that time.

Design for Resilience

Podcast

Andrew Wilshere was working on content at Designlab when he asked me to write an article about the Bauhaus.

I ended up writing something that never got published with Designlab. Instead, it was shared by the Bauhaus Movement to their Facebook followers.

Originally published on Medium on August 29, 2019.

Lean Canvas

For the builders collective, I created some tools that are open source and useful for design and social architecture. Other projects are coding challenges to experiment with what is possible on the web.

This experiment is based on the Lean Canvas, based on the Business Model Canvas from the book Business Model Generation.

Type in the grey box at the top of the page. Click or tap in the boxes to add the text as a box in each section of the Lean Canvas. Click on the box to delete.

There is no save functionality, so be sure to take a screenshot. Or roll your own by using the code on Codepen and GitHub.

I just published my first podcast episode.

Design for Resilience

Exploring how we imagine, design, and build the future together.

via Nicolás Alcalá in the Design Science Studio

The Design Problem

Three diagrams will explain the lack of social engagement in design. If (in Figure 1) we equate the triangle with a design problem, we readily see that industry and its designers are concerned only with the tiny top portion, without addressing themselves to real needs.

(Design for the Real World, 2019. Page 57.)

The other two figures merely change the caption for the figure.

• Figure 1: The Design Problem
• Figure 2: A Country
• Figure 3: The World

Design Philosophy

This seems to be the space that I occupy on the edges of design education and practice.

Maria Selting of Unbox Your World podcast has just shared the raw audio of our conversation to get feedback before she publishes the episode, Redesigning Design: Applying UX Principles to Design a Better Future.

Jamstack

The legacy version of the Run for Water site designed by Stephen Bau. Featured on Behance.

This version is built with Jamstack, using Harp and DatoCMS.

A similar approach could be used for the Co-Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth.

A Modest Proposal

Since the Buckminster Fuller Institute is using Airtable, it would be possible to follow the CSS-Tricks article on Going Jamstack with React, Serverless, and Airtable.

(The English here sounds awkward.)

Gyuri Lajos, in the Stop Reset Go team, recommended using Materialize CSS.

If it is based on Google’s Material Design, there are a lot of resources available to explore the possibilities. If I was building a Progressive Web App, this might be the place to start.

The project appears to be at an early stage of development, with a 1.0.0 release.

So far, this is one of the most complete web design frameworks that I have encountered. The list of components is extensive.

I am curious to read The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson as recommended by Raphaelle Moatti in the Design Science Studio coheART2.

Quoted on the Amazon product page for the book, The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson.

The book was recommended by Raphaelle Moatti in the Design Science Studio coheART2.

Recommended by Raphaelle Moatti in the Design Science Studio coheART2.

The Art of Noticing

This is a compilation of articles that I had written as a way to process the changes I was observing in the world and, consequently, in myself as a reaction to the events. I have come to think of this process as the art of noticing. This process is in contrast to the expectation that I should be a productive member of society, a target market, and a passive audience for charismatic leaders: celebrities, billionaires, and politicians.

• Social: fame
• Economic: wealth
• Political: power

An Agent of Change

To become an agent of change is to recognize that we are not separate, we are not individuals, we are not cogs in a machine. We are complex and diverse. We are designers. We are a creative, collective, self-organizing, learning community.

We are in a process of becoming—a being journey:

• Personal resilience
• Social influence
• Economic capacity
• Political agency
• Ecological harmony

This is how we shift from an attention economy to an intention economy. Rather than being oriented toward the failures of the past, the uncertainty of the present, or the worries of the future, in a constant state of anxiety, stress, and fear, we are shifting our consciousness to manifest our intention through perception (senses), cognition (mind), emotion (heart), and action (body). We are exploring how we imagine, design, and build the future together.

We are the builders collective.

We are one.

If the Bauhaus existed today, what would it look like?

What would the Bauhaus do differently, learning from the mistakes of the past and how modernism was co-opted by neoliberal capitalism.

“The Bauhaus concept, as it was transplanted to the United States, was fundamentally different from the principles upon which the experimental school had been founded in Weimar in 1919. The guiding principle of the Bauhaus was to unify all aspects of art making—painting, sculpture, handicrafts—as elements of a new kind of art, erasing the division between “high” and decorative art. Explorations of materials, color, and form were important building blocks of the curriculum. The artists and designers of the Bauhaus believed that this new type of art and design would help to create a better society, and they sought commissions to design public buildings and other elements of public life (such as flags and currency). In America, however, the Bauhaus ideas lost their social and political thrust. The emigré teachers in Chicago, Cambridge, and North Carolina who had been committed to progressive architecture and design ideas in Germany were now lionized as upholders of a pure, reductivist style.”

(Stephanie Barron, page 25)

Edge Effects

It was in the Design Science Studio that I learned about edge effects.

Yesterday, I was thinking about how my life embodies the concept of edge effects. That same day, a book was delivered to our door, Design for the Real World by Victor Papanek.

Today, I was reading these words:

Design for the Real World

Design for Survival and Survival through Design: A Summation

Integrated, comprehensive, anticipatory design is the act of planning and shaping carried on across the various disciplines, an act continuously carried on at interfaces between them.

Victor Papanek goes on to say:

It is at the border of different techniques or disciplines that most new discoveries are made and most action is inaugurated. It is when two differing areas of knowledge are brought into contact with one another that… a new science may come into being.

(Page 323)

Exiles and Emigrés

The Bauhaus spread its ideas because it existed at the boundaries, the avant-garde, the edges of what was thought to be possible, especially as a socialist utopian idea found its way to a capitalist industrial-military complex, where the concept of modernism was co-opted and colonized by globalizing economic forces beyond the control of the individual. Design was the virus that propagated around the world through the vehicle of corporate globalization.

That same design ethic is infecting corporations with a conscience, with empathy, with a process that begins with listening to people. Design is the virus that can spread the values of unconditional love throughout the body of neoliberal capitalism.