Describes the world's leading approach to art and design taught at Rhode Island School of Design

At Rhode Island School of Design students are immersed in a culture where making questions, ideas, and objects, using and inventing materials, and activating experience all serve to define a form of critical thinking--albeit with one's hands--i.e. "critical making." "The" "Art of Critical Making," by RISD faculty and staff, describes fundamental aspects of RISD's approach to "critical making" and how this can lead to innovation. The process of making taught at RISD is deeply introspective, passionate, and often provocative.

This book illuminates how RISD nurtures the creative process, from brief or prompt to outcome, along with guidance on the critical questions and research that enable making great works of art and design.Explores the conceptual process, idea research, critical questions, and iteration that RISD faculty employ to educate students to generate thoughtful workAuthors are from the faculty and staff of the Rhode Island School of Design, which consistently ranks as the number one fine arts and design college in the United States

"The Art of Critical Making "shows you how context, materials, thought processes, and self-evaluation are applied in this educational environment to prepare creative individuals to produce dynamic, memorable, and meaningful works.

Ten laws of simplicity for business, technology, and design that teach us how to need less but get more.Finally, we are learning that simplicity equals sanity. We're rebelling against technology that's too complicated, DVD players with too many menus, and software accompanied by 75-megabyte read me manuals. The iPod's clean gadgetry has made simplicity hip. But sometimes we find ourselves caught up in the simplicity paradox: we want something that's simple and easy to use, but also does all the complex things we might ever want it to do. In The Laws of Simplicity, John Maeda offers ten laws for balancing simplicity and complexity in business, technology, and design--guidelines for needing less and actually getting more. Maeda--a professor in MIT's Media Lab and a world-renowned graphic designer--explores the question of how we can redefine the notion of improved so that it doesn't always mean something more, something added on. Maeda's first law of simplicity is Reduce. It's not necessarily beneficial to add technology features just because we can. And the features that we do have must be organized (Law 2) in a sensible hierarchy so users aren't distracted by features and functions they don't need. But simplicity is not less just for the sake of less. Skip ahead to Law 9: Failure: Accept the fact that some things can never be made simple. Maeda's concise guide to simplicity in the digital age shows us how this idea can be a cornerstone of organizations and their products--how it can drive both business and technology. We can learn to simplify without sacrificing comfort and meaning, and we can achieve the balance described in Law 10. This law, which Maeda calls The One, tells us: Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.

Das Einfache ist nicht immer das Beste. Aber das Beste ist immer einfach. "Heinrich Tessenow, Architekt"

Perfektion ist nicht dann erreicht, wenn man nichts mehr hinzufugen, sondern wenn man nichts mehr weglassen kann. "Antoine de Saint-Exupery"

Weniger ist mehr, sagt man oft. Doch allzu haufig gilt auch: Einfach ist verflixt schwer. Dieses erhellende Buch prasentiert die zehn Gesetze der Einfachheit fur Technologie, Design, Wirtschaft und Alltag. "Simplicity" ist der Rettungsanker in einem Meer immer komplexerer Prozesse und zunehmend unuberschaubarerer Funktionalitaten.Reduzieren Organisieren Zeit Lernen Unterschiede Kontext Gefuhle Vertrauen Fehlschlage Das e i n e Gesetz

"Zehn Gesetze und drei Kernsatze stellt Maeda auf, mithilfe derer man nicht nur eine perfekte Benutzeroberflache gestalten, seinen von Visitenkarten uberwucherten Schreibtisch aufraumen, sondern sogar seinen Tagesablauf so gestalten kann, dass man punktlich heimkommt, um den Kleinen noch vor dem Einschlafen gute Nacht wunschen zu konnen ... Das Buch] ist einfach auf den Punkt gebracht." "arte"

"Voller Leichtigkeit und Witz Maeda weist den Weg zu weniger komplexen Produkten, die mehr Spass machen Mit scharfer Beobachtungsgabe fullt er die Idee der Simplicity mit Leben." "SAP Design Guild"

"Ein wunderbares und zeitloses Buch." "Phlow Magazin fur Musik und Netzkultur"

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Wie soll man klaren Kopf behalten in einer Welt, die immer komplexer wird? Es ist nicht verwunderlich, dass viele Menschen heutzutage gegen eine Technologie rebellieren, die ihnen zu kompliziert geworden ist, ob es sich um DVD-Recorder mit verwirrend vielfaltigen Funktionen handelt oder um Software mit 75-MB-"Read me"-Anleitungen. Doch es gibt Gegenentwurfe: So hat das klare, extrem reduzierte Design des iPod den Welterfolg dieses kleinen Gerats begrundet. Manchmal geraten wir allerdings in das "Simplicity"-Paradox: Wir mochten etwas, das einfach zu verstehen und leicht zu benutzen ist, aber dennoch soll es alle denkbaren hochkomplexen Aufgaben erfullen. In diesem erfrischend kurzen und pointierten Buch stellt uns John Maeda zehn Gesetze vor, mit denen sich Einfachheit und Komplexitat in Einklang bringen lassen Leitlinien, wie wir aus Weniger Mehr machen konnen. Maedas erstes Gesetz heisst "Reduzieren," denn es ist nicht notwendigerweise hilfreich, neue technologische Features hinzuzufugen, bloss weil wir es konnten. Aber diejenigen Eigenschaften, die wir brauchen, sollten in einer vernunftigen Hierarchie organisiert sein (Gesetz 2), so dass die Nutzer nicht von Funktionen abgelenkt werden, die sie gar nicht brauchen.

Maedas kompakter Fuhrer zur "Simplicity" im digitalen Zeitalter verdeutlicht, wie dieses Konzept zum Eckpfeiler von Organisationen und ihren Produkten werden kann und warum es sich als treibende Kraft fur Wirtschaft und Technologie erweisen wird. Wir konnen vieles vereinfachen, ohne Bedeutung und Nutzen einzubussen. Und die Balance zwischen diesen Polen erreichen wir mit dem 10. Gesetz: "Einfachheit heisst, das Offensichtliche zu entfernen und das Bedeutsame hinzuzufugen.""

John Maeda is one of the world's preeminent thinkers on technology and design, and in How to Speak Machine, he offers a set of simple laws that govern not only the computers of today, but the unimaginable machines of the future. Machines are already more powerful than we can comprehend, and getting more powerful at an exponential pace. Once set in motion, algorithms never tire. And when a program's size, speed and endlessness combine with its ability to learn and transform itself, the outcome can be unpredictable and dangerous. Take the seemingly instant transformation of Microsoft's chatbot into a hate-spewing racist, or how crime-predicting algorithms reinforce racial bias. How To Speak Machine provides a coherent framework for today's product designers, business leaders and policymakers to grasp this brave new world. Drawing on his wide-ranging experience from engineering to computer science to design, Maeda shows how businesses and individuals can identify opportunities afforded by technology to make world-changing and inclusive products while avoiding the pitfalls inherent to the medium.

How people make decisions in an era of too much information and fake news. Humans originally evolved in a world of few choices. Prehistoric, preindustrial, and predigital eras required fewer decisions than today's all-access, always-on world of too much information. Economists have largely discarded the idea that agents act rationally and the market follows suit. It seems that no matter how small or innocuous a decision might seem, there's almost no way to guess the effect it might have. The authors of The Importance of Small Decisions view decisions and their outcomes from a different perspective: as key elements in the evolution of culture. In this trailblazing book, they examine different kinds of decisions and map the outcomes, both short- and long-term. Drawing on this, they introduce a map of social behavior that captures the essential elements of human decision-making. The authors look at the New England Patriots' decision in 2000 to draft an underachieving college quarterback named Tom Brady; they consider Warren Buffett's investment strategy; and they chart the "dancing landscape" of a college applicant's decision-making environment. Finally, they show that decisions can be ranked according to transparency of choice and social influence. When fake news seems indistinguishable from real news and when the internet offers a cacophony of voices, they warn, we can't afford to crowdsource our decisions.