Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm


Christian Madsbjerg - 2017
    Humans have become subservient to algorithms. Every day brings a new Moneyball fix--a math whiz who will crack open an industry with clean fact-based analysis rather than human intuition and experience. As a result, we have stopped thinking. Machines do it for us. Christian Madsbjerg argues that our fixation with data often masks stunning deficiencies, and the risks for humankind are enormous. Blind devotion to number crunching imperils our businesses, our educations, our governments, and our life savings. Too many companies have lost touch with the humanity of their customers, while marginalizing workers with liberal arts-based skills. Contrary to popular thinking, Madsbjerg shows how many of today's biggest success stories stem not from "quant" thinking but from deep, nuanced engagement with culture, language, and history. He calls his method sensemaking. In this landmark book, Madsbjerg lays out five principles for how business leaders, entrepreneurs, and individuals can use it to solve their thorniest problems. He profiles companies using sensemaking to connect with new customers, and takes readers inside the work process of sensemaking "connoisseurs" like investor George Soros, architect Bjarke Ingels, and others. Both practical and philosophical, Sensemaking is a powerful rejoinder to corporate groupthink and an indispensable resource for leaders and innovators who want to stand out from the pack.

Practical Research: Planning and Design


Paul D. Leedy - 1974
    Written in uncommonly engaging, lucid, and elegant prose, this text is an understand-it-yourself, do-it-yourself manual designed to help research students in any discipline understand the fundamental structure of quality research and the methodical process that leads to genuinely significant results. It guides the reader, step-by-step, from the selection of a problem to study, through the process of conducting authentic research, to the preparation of a completed report, with practical suggestions based on a solid theoretical framework and sound pedagogy. Suited for the core text in any introductory research course or even for self-instruction, this text will show students two things: 1) that quality research demands planning and design; and, 2) how their own research projects can be executed effectively and professionally.

Beautiful Visualization: Looking at Data through the Eyes of Experts


Julie Steele - 2010
    Think of the familiar map of the New York City subway system, or a diagram of the human brain. Successful visualizations are beautiful not only for their aesthetic design, but also for elegant layers of detail that efficiently generate insight and new understanding.This book examines the methods of two dozen visualization experts who approach their projects from a variety of perspectives -- as artists, designers, commentators, scientists, analysts, statisticians, and more. Together they demonstrate how visualization can help us make sense of the world.Explore the importance of storytelling with a simple visualization exerciseLearn how color conveys information that our brains recognize before we're fully aware of itDiscover how the books we buy and the people we associate with reveal clues to our deeper selvesRecognize a method to the madness of air travel with a visualization of civilian air trafficFind out how researchers investigate unknown phenomena, from initial sketches to published papers Contributors include:Nick Bilton, Michael E. Driscoll, Jonathan Feinberg, Danyel Fisher, Jessica Hagy, Gregor Hochmuth, Todd Holloway, Noah Iliinsky, Eddie Jabbour, Valdean Klump, Aaron Koblin, Robert Kosara, Valdis Krebs, JoAnn Kuchera-Morin et al., Andrew Odewahn, Adam Perer, Anders Persson, Maximilian Schich, Matthias Shapiro, Julie Steele, Moritz Stefaner, Jer Thorp, Fernanda Viegas, Martin Wattenberg, and Michael Young.

Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis


Kathy C. Charmaz - 2006
    In this important and essential new textbook, she introduces the reader to the craft of using grounded theory in social research, and provides a clear, step-by-step guide for those new to the field. Using worked examples throughout, this book also maps out an alternative vision of grounded theory put forward by its founding thinkers, Glaser and Strauss. To Charmaz, grounded theory must move on from its positivist origins and must incorporate many of the methods and questions posed by constructivists over the past twenty years to become a more nuanced and reflexive practice.

Designing News: Changing the World of Editorial Design and Information Graphics


Francesco Franchi - 2013
    In it, Franchi also envisions the future of news reporting by publishing companies and on the internet. Francesco Franchi is one of the most exceptional talents working in information graphics today. Although relatively young and new to the field, Franchi has already received worldwide acclaim for his distinctive graphic and editorial design of IL--Intelligence in Lifestyle, an Italian magazine now widely considered to be a modern classic. With Designing News, Franchi conveys his vision for the future of news and the media industry. Based on personal insight and experience, he offers valuable analysis and perspectives on the fundamental changes that are taking place in the way media is being used. Franchi explores consumer behaviors and expectations that represent the biggest challenges facing traditional publishing houses and broadcasting companies as well as journalists and designers. For Franchi, reporting is not merely filing a story once, but rather telling a continuous narrative in a way that is most relevant for a broad range of traditional and digital media--from breaking news to analysis, from interviews to commentaries, and from photo essays and illustrations to information graphics and interactive visualizations of data. In this book, Franchi explains the ramifications of this development and how newspapers can become credible, comprehensive news brands. In Designing News, Franchi also outlines a new, integrated approach for editorial designers. If they show enough dedication, creativity, and talent for interdisciplinary teamwork, Franchi sees editorial designers as playing a key role in advancing the evolution of media.

Hello World: Where Design Meets Life


Alice Rawsthorn - 2012
    When deployed wisely, it can bring us pleasure, choice, strength, decency and much more. But if its power is abused, the outcome can be wasteful, confusing, humiliating, even dangerous. None of us can avoid being affected by design, whether or not we wish to. It is so ubiquitous that it determines how we feel and what we do, often without our noticing.Hello World explores design's influence on our lives. Written by the renowned design critic Alice Rawsthorn and designed by the award-winning book designer Irma Boom, it describes how warlords, scientists, farmers, hackers, activists and designers have used design to different ends throughout history: from the macabre symbol invented by 18th century pirates to terrorise their victims into surrender, to one woman's quest for the best possible prosthetic legs and the evolution of the World Cup ball.At a time when we face colossal changes, unprecedented in their speed, scale and intensity - from the deepening environmental crisis, to giant leaps in science and technology - Hello World explains how design can help us to make sense of them andto turn them to our advantage.

Graphic Design Rules: 365 Essential Design Dos and Don'ts


Sean Adams - 2012
    Every creative has their own individual approach, or more importantly their own combinations of the thousands of techniques one can apply when planning a new design project. But there are some dos and don'ts that always figure strongly in any heated debate about what one should or should not accept as the right way to create the best graphic design. Packed with practical advice but presented in a light-hearted fashion, Graphic Design Rules is the perfect book for the ever-growing group of non-designers who want some graphic design guidance.

Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction


Paul Dourish - 2001
    Yet it is also a philosophical enterprise in the way it represents the world and creates and manipulates models of reality, people, and action. In this book, Paul Dourish addresses the philosophical bases of human-computer interaction. He looks at how what he calls embodied interaction--an approach to interacting with software systems that emphasizes skilled, engaged practice rather than disembodied rationality--reflects the phenomenological approaches of Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and other twentieth-century philosophers. The phenomenological tradition emphasizes the primacy of natural practice over abstract cognition in everyday activity. Dourish shows how this perspective can shed light on the foundational underpinnings of current research on embodied interaction. He looks in particular at how tangible and social approaches to interaction are related, how they can be used to analyze and understand embodied interaction, and how they could affect the design of future interactive systems.

Human-Computer Interaction


Alan Dix - 1993
    The revised structure, separating out the introductory and more advanced material will make it easier to use the book on a variety of courses. This new edition now includes chapters on Interaction Design, Universal Access and Rich Interaction, as well as covering the latest developments in ubiquitous computing and Web technologies, making it the ideal text to provide a grounding in HCI theory and practice.

How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer


Debbie Millman - 2007
    How do they think, how do they connect to others, what special skills do they have? In honest and revealing interviews, nineteen designers, including Stefan Sagmeister, Michael Beirut, David Carson, and Milton Glaser, share their approaches, processes, opinions, and thoughts about their work with noted brand designer Debbie Millman. The internet radio talk host of Design Matters, Millman persuades the greatest graphic designers of our time to speak frankly and openly about their work. How to Think Like a Great GraphicDesigners offers a rare opportunity to observe and understand the giants of the industry. Designers interviewed include: —Milton Glaser —Stefan Sagmeister —David Carson —Paula Scher —Abbott Miler —Lucille Tenazas —Paul Sahre —Emily Oberman and Bonnie Siegler —Chip Kidd —James Victore —Carin Goldberg —Michael Bierut —Seymour Chwast —Jessica Helfand and William Drenttel —Steff Geissbuhler —John MaedaAllworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, publishes a broad range of books on the visual and performing arts, with emphasis on the business of art. Our titles cover subjects such as graphic design, theater, branding, fine art, photography, interior design, writing, acting, film, how to start careers, business and legal forms, business practices, and more. While we don't aspire to publish a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are deeply committed to quality books that help creative professionals succeed and thrive. We often publish in areas overlooked by other publishers and welcome the author whose expertise can help our audience of readers.

Thoughts on Design


Paul Rand - 1947
    Writing at the height of his career, Rand articulated in his slender volume the pioneering vision that all design should seamlessly integrate form and function. This facsimile edition preserves Rand's original 1947 essay with the adjustments he made to its text and imagery for a revised printing in 1970, and adds only an informative and inspiring new foreword by design luminary Michael Bierut. As relevant today as it was when first published, this classic treatise is an indispensable addition to the library of every designer.