Articles Tagged
Concept
Ideas born from advanced craft and theory.
7 Posts
Concept
The UX Designer's Guide to NFTs
It seems that we have moved on from the massive hype around NFTs. We're ready to have a sober look at them from a UX design perspective. The NFT phenomenon reveals timeless and practical insights in culture, technology, and economics that we can leverage for all kinds of design work. Because of how they build on timeless human rituals, we believe that NFTs are here to stay, and ripe with fantastic opportunities for UX design. The "UX design perspective" means
Nov 22, 2022
Mehmet Aydın Baytaş
Concept
The Origin and Purpose of Research through Design
Research through Design is a way of producing "research" that comes with opportunities to practice the craft of design. It's a way of expressing and materializing knowledge and insights, acquired based on hands-on design work, packaged into a scientific format. Research through Design is something you might hear about if you study design at the graduate level. It's especially popular among interaction designers and human-computer interaction people. The appeal of it, if you're involved in acade
Jul 8, 2022
Mehmet Aydın Baytaş
Concept
Crash Course in Research through Design
On December 1, 2021, I gave a talk on Research through Design at a meetup organized by Got UX (IxDA Gothenburg Chapter), in collaboration with Design Disciplin and Recorded Future. The audience was mostly professional UX designers and researchers, and a few graduate students. This article has been adapted from the talk. Abstract: Research through Design is a way of materializing knowledge and insights based on hands-on design work. It’s an exciting world where designers can do scientific resear
Dec 8, 2021
Mehmet Aydın Baytaş
Concept
The Profession of Human-Computer Interaction
The philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas argues that everything has an essence or ideal at its core, as well as an existence – an appearance and manifestation in the real world. The only being whose essence and existence are identical, according to Aquinas, is God. For all other things – material things, and ideas too – discrepancies between what is essential and what is existential are unavoidable. In trying to make sense of complex topics – like entire fields of academic and scientific research – I
Jul 1, 2021
Mehmet Aydın Baytaş
Concept
The Story of Design Thinking
Design Thinking is a religion with two core beliefs: 1. Design can solve all problems. It doesn't matter what your problem is – sales, education, science, global pandemic... Design will give you a solution. 2. Design can be done by all people. Skills, training, experience, talent – none of it matters. You just have to believe in Design Thinking, and you can become a designer today. Of course, these are not true. But they are dangerously close to the truth of how
May 15, 2021
Mehmet Aydın Baytaş
Concept
The Three Faces of Design Research
I didn't know much about design research when I began doing it nearly 10 years ago. I began as a grad student, arriving as an engineer and web designer. I was able to build things. But I didn't fully understand the purpose of design research. I didn't know whom it creates value for, and what it should deliver. I didn't see the full spectrum of activities involved. The problem was that the books I read and the people I worked
Apr 15, 2021
Mehmet Aydın Baytaş
Concept
Strategy and Tactics in Design
"Design" means one thing to a graphic designer, another thing to an engineer, and something else to a business consultant. Even within the design discipline, a Silicon Valley manager and a Danish joiner are unlikely to be imagining the same thing as they both talk about design. As a scholar of design I spent a lot of time learning and thinking about what we might call "mental models" for design that apply regardless of specialization. The academic literature gave me
Mar 15, 2021
Mehmet Aydın Baytaş
Recommended
IRL
Human After All at ATÖLYE with Guest Speaker Timmy Ghiurau
Human After All is a new event series hosted by ATÖLYE and Design Disciplin. The series explores the present state of the art as well as visions for the future around human-computer interaction, interaction design, and experience design with digital materials. Human After All brings an international cohort of experts and pioneers into ATÖLYE's IRL space in Istanbul, creating opportunities to engage and participate in meaningful dialogues. The first convening of Human After All focuses on the
Jan 3, 2023
Mehmet Aydın Baytaş
Roundup
Editor's Choice: Profound Books I Read in 2022
I believe I'm extremely fortunate, because every morning I spend at least half an hour reading books. Every morning, one chapter, and I start the day feeling blessed – because I have the time and space to do this, and because I can afford to own books. As you might imagine, I end up reading a lot of books this way. I don't keep track of it very well, but this year I must have finished at least 20, and abandoned
Dec 30, 2022
Mehmet Aydın Baytaş