Functioning Form: 2006 Retrospective

by December 27, 2006

As 2006 winds down, we present a Functioning Form anniversary special: six of this year’s public and personal favorites.

Public Favorites (the most popular articles of 2006)

Design Patterns: Introduction

"In the Spring of 2006, a group of designers intimately familiar with the organization and development of design pattern resources got together to discuss the current and future role of design patterns in the real world."

SxSW: OSX and Longhorn Development

"The SxSW2006 Behind the Scenes: Developing OS X and Longhorn panel explored the differences between Apple and Microsoft’s new operating system development process from a design perspective."

The Sweet Spot for Buying

"Before using a product, people will judge its desirability and quality based on ‘what it does’ (i.e. the number of features). Even though they may be aware that usability is likely to suffer, they will mostly choose products with many features."

Defining the Problem: Q&A with Tom Chi

"I’ve asked a few seasoned designers that have successfully defined or re-defined business strategies to share their experiences defining problems. First up is the ever eloquent and ingenious Tom Chi of OK/Cancel and Yahoo!"

Refining Data Tables

"I take a look at several interface design solutions that enable Web application users to find their way through large tables of data. "

Interaction Design Books

"There are a number of new books published (and soon to be published) about Interaction Design. Here’s a quick summary of what I’ve come across recently."

Personal Favorites

Design Vision

"In the later half of January 2006, a group of designers with nearly 50 cumulative years of experience designing products for companies like Adobe, Apple, eBay, Macromedia, Nike, Palm, and Yahoo got together to talk about design vision."

The Shifting Role of Design

"My presentation at SHiFT 2006 titled The Shifting Role of Design outlined why in today’s networked, global, disruptive, and dynamic markets design was becoming increasingly important."

Overlap: Richard Farson

"Richard Farson’s deeply engaging talk was my personal highlight from Overlap. It brought me back to my graduate studies in New Media where provocative discussions about culture, communication, and design filled the large, open rooms we used as studios."

Growing Up with Comics and OK/Cancel

"Yes, we have made a definitive agreement to acquire OK/Cancel and its top-notch team of user interface satirists."

Packaging Design for Web-based Products

"I’ve taken it upon myself to dive deeper into the principles and lessons of packaging design in order to learn what lessons can be applied to the world of web applications. Here’s some of what I’ve found so far."

Decision Making Theories

"Just about every Web application includes some presentation and selection of choice within the user interface. As a result, I’ve been tuning in to what the experts have to say about how we make decisions."

Also check out our five public and personal favorites from 2005 and four public and personal favorites from 2004 retrospectives.