Emily Chang - Blog

The best way to present or analyze a design would be to record the desktop of an entire design cycle so that people (users, clients, developers, customers, etc.) can see the entire process that led up to the final prototype. Today's designer works in a varied environment between screengrabs, layout, code, browser, chat: a hybrid approach with a process that's fluid and hyperreal. I've yet to see a true representation of the design process. Maybe I'll try to document a design lifecycle using recorded desktop video. Might run into size limitations. Read more...

One of the reasons I love designing for the web is the constantly shifting landscape, both in terms of audience and tools. With each technological shift in the brief history of the Internet, designers have evolved and created new systems for people to navigate online spaces. In the last few weeks, there's been a good synergy between what I'm working on and what I'm seeing online. I've noticed several sites that are using visualization methods to entice visitors to explore and navigate content. Read more...

On August 20, 1980, Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler were the first to summit Mount Everest without the use of bottled oxygen. They accomplished this amazing feat by doing what no other expedition had ever done. They carried all of their own gear, did no route preparation, and did not use supplemental oxygen. They were successful where others were not, because they approached the problem from a different angle. After years of climbing experience, they recognized that their two greatest assets were agility and improvisation in the face of constant change. This philosophical shift enabled them to not only succeed, but to innovate, while others had attempted only to survive. Read more...

Today happens to be the four month anniversary of eHub Interviews, a series of email questions and answers with the creators and companies behind many of the new web 2.0 services and applications that we've been witnessing and using online. According to many of you who write in, the interviews are "one of your favorite parts... it puts a human face to all of these projects. It really adds a valuable dimension to the web review sites." I'm glad to hear it. Among many of the self-appointed roles that I have at/as eHub, the interviews are one of my favorite activities. One of the questions asked in each interview is "What is your design philosophy?" Read more...