From the Editors
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Welcome to Boxes and Arrows
by Christina Wodtke | [53 comments]
Many months ago, we started with a crazy dream of a magazine that would tear down the fences we so hastily built between our crafts. An intelligent and jargon-free meeting place for practitioners that would make us all a bit smarter. more...
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Fear of Design
by Christina Wodtke | [48 comments]
Not so long ago, on my personal site I posted a little entry on design. And a comment was made: “IA is not design.” This sentence has sat vibrating in my head for months. It speaks of bravado in the face of fear. But why should Information Architects fear design? more...
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Under the Boxes-and-Arrows hood
by Christina Wodtke and Liz Danzico | [31 comments]
Think we look different? No, we didn't change our hair. We've launched some new features, and they're all for you. Starting today, you’ll begin to see some changes. And you (yes, you) are invited to be part of it all. more...
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Speaking in Tongues
by Christina Wodtke | [15 comments]
In last month’s welcome, I set out to describe Boxes and Arrows purpose and goals. On a line by itself I stated this is not a place for jargon. I felt that was important enough to call out. I certainly am being called to task for that. more...
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Terrible Twos
by Christina Wodtke | [13 comments]
Little Boxia has just turned two. Look how proud she stands, barely wobbling at all! See how she toddles around, smearing food on the walls! So independent, so curious and wait… did she just say "no!"? No, no, no! Here they come… the terrible twos. more...
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(Over)simple Answers for Simple Minds
by George Olsen | [13 comments]
Part of me feels for Jakob Nielsen for the grief he’s taken over deciding to work with Macromedia after declaring “Flash 99 percent bad.” After all, the pressures and temptations to provide simple answers to complex issues are ones we all face in our professional practices. more...
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Our Way: The Ingenuity of Unintended Uses
by B&A Staff | [12 comments]
People utilize our designs in their own way. These unintended uses can be strange, even brilliant. To welcome 2008, the B&A Staff tells a few stories about how we misuse for our own devices. more...
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Coloring Outside the Lines
by Erin Malone | [12 comments]
Once upon a time, we were curious and everything we encountered was new. We were excited about discovering new things and the world offered unlimited possibilities. Then we went to school and were taught to color inside the lines, that everything had its place and the world was ordered. more...
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Happy Birthday B&A
by Christina Wodtke | [12 comments]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOXES AND ARROWS! On this, Boxes and Arrows' one year anniversary, Christina Wodtke muses about our original goals, some of our accomplishments, and even shares a few tidbits from behind the scenes at B&A. more...
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Leaving the Autoroute
by Christina Wodtke | [12 comments]
By committing all their attention to a single craft, often literally over hundreds of years, each town in France has received the renown that comes with great work. But what happens when you leave the autoroute, lured by one of those signs proclaiming the town’s mastery and claim to fame? more...
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Two Designers, Two Years, One Facelift...
by Alex Chang | [11 comments]
From contest winners to struggling to define what "magazine" means online, Alex Chang and Matt Titchener reinvented Boxes and Arrows' look and feel. Here is their tale... more...
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Planning your future
by Erin Malone | [10 comments]
A few years ago, a manager of mine gave me the assignment to work on a five-year career plan. I had never created a career plan before (not even to plot out goals for the coming year), so I was completely unprepared for how and why I should do this. more...
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Lessons to be Learned
by George Olsen | [9 comments]
Ivy-covered halls are filling up again with eager students of the user experience fields ready to change the world (or at least to study out the recession). But are these programs really teaching them what they need to know? more...
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The Tool Makes the (Wo)Man
by Erin Malone | [9 comments]
With all the bickering over the “right” tools, we lose sight in these discussions of the fact that we already have the perfect tool: our brains. The knowledge, expertise and skills to solve problems are right between our ears. more...
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The Power of Process, The Perils of Process
by Erin Malone | [8 comments]
In my experience, I have found that creating and documenting process has been a good exercise to help institutionalize ways of working, to help educate new team members as well as to unveil the mysteries of what we do for executives, product folks, and development teams. more...
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Prognostication Digitalis
by Christina Wodtke | [8 comments]
We stand poised to dive into the new year. What will 2003 hold for the profession known as “what we do” and its children, information architecture, usability, interaction design, interface design, and graphic design? We asked our authors to hazard a guess. more...
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The Devil's in the Wireframes
by Liz Danzico | [6 comments]
Wireframes: At once a singular composition and a collaborative expression, communicating the vision of both an individual and a team. As a result, they can be stacked with an enormous amount of detail. Are we becoming victims of information pollution in our own wireframes? more...
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DUX: Five Lessons Learned
by Erin Malone | [6 comments]
Normally I would write a traditional conference overview to inform people about the recent Designing for User Experiences conference (DUX) held in San Francisco, June 6-8. Instead, I would like to impart a few of the impressions I came away with and recommend that everyone go to the AIGA Case Study Archive to read the papers that were accepted. more...
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Looking Forward and Back
by Erin Malone | [5 comments]
At the beginning of 2004, Boxes and Arrows, takes a moment to reflect back on the predictions made for 2003 and where we landed at year's end. Feeling optimistic, we also invited our peers in the community to share some of their professional resolutions for the new year. more...
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Building a Vision of Design Success
by Christina Wodtke | [5 comments]
A common view of vision is that it’s something handed down by a leader to the troops. When a redesign goes awry, the troops complain, “There was no vision.” But the problem goes deeper than either scenario; the problem is that there was no shared vision. more...