The visual blandness of the world wide web is disheartening. Everything looks the same. Generic fonts, no layout to speak of, interchangeable pages, no expressive visual language, even micro-typography is a mess. The current design of “cyberspace” is drab and dreary. Why is that the case? {continue}

A comparison of typefaces with actors and actresses — they have obvious similarities. Actors do not simply speak the words of the play or the script. They turn an abstract role into a true and believable individual. {continue}

My last essay “Bringing Design to Science” was an attempt to describe the relationship of design and science. I would like to build on the essay and explore this relationship further. Throughout the twentieth century, science has informed and inspired design. With the proliferation of digital technology, this relationship has changed. In many ways, design can now inform science. This fundamentally redefines the interconnection of design and science and it changes the role and responsibilities of both domains. {continue}

While aesthetics were, and are, the focal point of design — science and engineering always played an important role in the history of design. Scientific discoveries led to new technologies, new materials and new social spaces. But it was engineering and design that made these technical innovations accessible and affordable to a wider public. So one could argue that design makes scientific progress visible and usable. {continue}

This essay is the sequel to a blog posting that I wrote more than two years ago. The subject is still relevant so it makes sense to re-visit the text and elaborate on the issue. My central point is that a lot of the current debate on data visualisation is not differentiated enough and is based on an antiquated idea of an “image”. {continue}

The progression of design is inextricably linked to the industrial revolutions. Interface- and Interaction design are the design disciplines of the third industrial revolution. In order to understand interface and interaction design, it is useful to look at the history of design - and at the history of industrial revolutions. Every single one of these revolutions had its characteristic technologies that changed social, economic and environmental conditions. And each revolution had its specific design. {continue}