R Sloan's Design Experiences

So I am going on a year and a half at Informatica and I do have to say, I am pretty happy…and I wonder why. Looking at my track record I spend less than years in any position. Moreover, in the past, I would have start considering how to move on by now for one reason or another. But again, I am as pleased as punch with my current position and the work I have been doing for the last year.

With that said, I would like to call out reason for leaving and staying in a position or company.

LEAVING

• Company – Reading the writing on the wall should be one of the tools any designer has in their ‘bag’.  Having ridden the tsunami created by the dot com pop, I have left companies where the people where imploding.  Having been part of more companies / business units that where is start up mode, I have seen these groups tear themselves apart via infighting.
• Co-workers – Being in a teams has its advantages aand disadvantage

STAYING

• Great location – currently, the location where I work is absolutely beautiful
• Interesting work – being an industrial designer, my interest tend to wain as the time goes on if the work does not change.
• No other job to be had – one of the best reasons to be in valley…options

It is interesting how we are replacing spatial references with words. I have just seen an example where words replace spacial reference in Adobe Lightroom.

Moreover, the more I think about it, this movement has been going on for the last few years with the development of word clouds and tags.

When I mention word clouds it is referred to as a tag cloud “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_cloud”.
and tags “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_%28metadata%29″ are used for people to quickly group things and find them on their computers using words and phrases that have meanings to them. This in turn allows them to create lateral relationships that will allow people to remember things easier.
Word clouds can

I would love to hear others’ thoughts on this matter.

COMMENT:
Thankfully, I am forced consider doing something like this — take an existing home, look beyond the exterior, and make the interior a modern space. However, I ask ‘when to says ‘when?’

Just seeing the home below makes me question the efforts people and architects, are taking to remake existing structures into ‘modern visions’ when the exterior is a different style.

Is this remixing / sampling on an architectural scale?  Does it really work?  Or are we kidding ourselves…

It makes me wonder if the old adage is true – it is what is on the inside that really counts.

Signed,
Slightly horrified.

Modern Barn in Connecticut by Specht Harpman

In Connecticut you expect to see barns, but not a barn like this. The barn was originally partially destroyed in a fire. The architects rebuilt the barn keeping its architectural integrity outside, but revamping the interior to a modern, free space that includes polished concrete floors and exposed maple woodwork.

http://www.spechtharpman.com

COMMENT: It is hard to applaud work that over runs and refuses to co-exist with its environment.  It does not matter how large (e.g. the work below) or small (e.g. the iPhone) the work is, there is or should be a balance between the worldly experience and the products experience.

In the case of the home below…how much home does a few people need?  I would be hard pressed to believe there are more than half a dozen people ‘living’ in that thing which dwarfs the river.

Bedford House in New York by Lynne Breslin Architects

The Bedford House is situated on what looks to be a rocky cliff overlooking a beautiful river. To me, it looks entirely too unsafe to live in! However, I’m sure that it’s just fine, and I bet the view is remarkable.

http://www.lynnebreslinarchitects.com

Being someone that started designing user interfaces and interactions in the mid nineties when the work was steeped in physical metaphors, e.g. ‘the desktop’,  and misalignment were clear indications of the strength or weakness of the metaphor, I find it interesting that these ‘rules’ are being ‘broken’ with wild abandon.  I see user interface visual rendering’s light source that do not adhere to any ‘laws of physics’ I am aware of to date.  In addition, I see interactions that can only exist in that would only be allowed in a professional enterprise application where people tens of thousands for a ‘seat.’

With that stated, there are two things that are of interest now in Flickr -

• the ‘Photostream’ and its relationship to the Sets;
• the relationship to the other social site

Photostream and Sets
I am not sure why I would need to refer to my page as a ‘Photostream’ as oppose to something more typical like ‘album’ or ‘collection.’  Moreover, the metaphor / taxonomy does not seem cohesive in its current state – ‘~stream’ and ‘sets.’  Again, if I had to imagine an improvement, it would suggest either ‘rivers’ and ‘streams’ or ‘album’ and ‘set.’

Flickr in the social space
One of the things that is odd to me about the Flickr experience is how it relates to the rest of the social community.

Understand…