Critique Wall.com

When Brian Collins spoke to AIGA Orlando a few months ago, he said the MFA is the MBA of tomorrow. Businesses are seeking innovation to gain the competitive edge. To find that creativity they are turning to design schools.

It seems to be the right time for brushing up on what design schools have to offer. To help with that the innovation section of businessweek.com has a link-full page of articles relating to Top Innovation and Design Schools. There's even a table for comparing D-Schools.

Not sure if this is a concept or a real product. These are 4 layers of darkening gray paper followed by a bright red paper on the bottom that are cut and sticky like postit notes. However, they cover a whole wall and give a beautiful digital effect. I would LOVE to have a wall of those in my office AND home! (Via David Benton)

While browsing through the Webby Awards nominee's for 2007, I found a site call My Moleskine by Fabio Iaschi that is a look inside an artist Moleskine book. It is a nominee for the “Blog - Culture/Personal” section and is a neat way to look through someone's drawings.

Take a look though the other nominee's for this year as it's a great way to see what is happening in the web design world and how other designer's are pushing the medium.

Over at What Do I Know, designer and developer Todd Dominey recently posted about his search for 'cool' office space in the Atlanta area and his visit to a house that had been featured on the cover of Dwell magazine. Yes DWELL magazine. While he was at first excited at the opportunity, once inside he quickly realized that there was much about the house that impractical and cheap.

I'll let you read the whole article but it really underscores a very important point for designers of all flavors, especially web design. If you are going to build something, the cool factor may get you some temporary points and publicity, but the lasting value comes in durability, function, and usability.

Icons, like cars and refrigerators, have planned obsolescence.

It is interesting that the need to create visual stimulus for new product desire outweighs the value of the existing user knowledge and recognition of previous icons.

In the short-run, the change from one icon set to another for the same activities hampers usability because users cannot quickly transition to associating new icons with the products they use in their everyday workflow.

Do you remember the transition to Adobe's CS icons? It was a radical departure from the previously learned icon system. Where did Venus go? Quick, switch to Illustrator! Is Illustrator the conch shell, flower, or butterfly?

This is amazing! (Via SVN)