Design & Philosophy

The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences

When one defines "order" as a sorting of priorities, it becomes beautifully clear as to what Foucault is doing here. With virtuoso showmanship, he weaves an intensely complex history of thought. He dips into literature, art, economics and even biology in The Order of Things, possibly one of the most significant, yet most overlooked, works of the twentieth century. Eclipsed by his later work on power and discourse, nonetheless it was The Order of Things that established Foucault's reputation as an intellectual giant.

Evolution

Karim Rashid, IDSA is redesigning the world we live in one design at a time—or, perhaps more accurately, thousands of objects at a time. As one of the most prolific designers of his generation, Rashid is largely credited with bringing design to the masses. His bestselling 'Oh Chair' and 'Garbo' rubbish bin brought the supple curves and bright colours of high design into millions of living rooms and offices around the world.

The New Everyday: Views on Ambient Intelligence

What is Ambient Intelligence? Is it embedding technology into objects? How does it incorporate or cater for universal desires, complex social relationships, different value systems? What about individuals' likes and dislikes, or the sustainability of economic and natural ecosystems? This book explores the increasingly relevant phenomenon of Ambient Intelligence in the form of essays by experts with illustrations.

 

The Invisible Computer: Why Good Products Can Fail, the Personal Computer Is So Complex, and Information Appliances Are the Solution

Technologies have a life cycle, says Donald Norman, IDSA, and companies and their products must change as they pass from youth to maturity. Alas, the computer industry thinks it is still in its rebellious teenage years, exulting in technical complexity. Customers want change. They are ready for products that offer convenience, ease of use, and pleasure. The technology should be invisible, hidden from sight.In this book, Norman shows why the computer is so difficult to use and why this complexity is fundamental to its nature.

Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things

Did you ever wonder why cheap wine tastes better in fancy glasses? Why sales of Macintosh computers soared when Apple introduced the colorful iMac? New research on emotion and cognition has shown that attractive things really do work better, as Donald Norman amply demonstrates in this fascinating book, which has garnered acclaim everywhere from Scientific American to The New Yorker.

The Design of Future Things

In The Design of Future Things, best-selling author Donald A. Norman, IDSA, presents a revealing examination of smart technology, from smooth-talking GPS units to cantankerous refrigerators. Exploring the links between design and human psychology, he offers a consumer-oriented theory of natural human-machine interaction that can be put into practice by the engineers and industrial designers of tomorrow’s thinking machines.

The Ice Palace that Melted Away: Restoring Civility and Other Lost Virtues of Everyday Life

With The Ice Palace That Melted Away, Bill Stumpf, the designer of the first ergonomic chair, addresses the symbiotic relationship between design and the way we live, the often deadening effect of technology, and his hopes for a more humane future. As a designer associated with Herman Miller, Inc., for more than twenty years, Stumpf has been thinking about the profoundly positive or negative effect design can have on our culture. He is both an idealist and a pragmatist, and his wry, anecdotal style gently reveals his shrewd observations about American customs and values.

White

White is not a book about colors. It is, rather, Kenya Hara's attempt to explore the essence of white, which he sees as being closely related to the origin of Japanese aesthetics—symbolizing simplicity and subtlety. The central concepts discussed by Kenya Hara in this publication are emptiness and the absolute void.

Designing Media

Mainstream media, often known simply as MSM, have not yet disappeared in a digital takeover of the media landscape. But the long-dominant MSM--television, radio, newspapers, magazines and books--have had to respond to emergent digital media. Newspapers have interactive websites; television broadcasts over the Internet; books are published in both electronic and print editions.

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