urn:uuid:f07f5044-01bc-472d-9079-9b07771b731c 2025-03-06T13:06:35Z Intertwingler Copyright © 2006-2022 Dorian Taylor urn:uuid:3ac53fb8-1f82-4137-8e8a-f10a4eeb7029 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2008-06-11T21:49:16Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This was a very early attempt to frame expectations around the structural characteristics of this website.

urn:uuid:192df3df-7445-45da-a66e-847182cbc9fe 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2008-06-19T01:45:21Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

When I put this site up back in 2008, people were asking me why it looked the way it did.

urn:uuid:54714537-6545-4fe3-88fa-4b59dba9bcd3 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2008-06-19T05:25:04Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Back in 2008, I was puzzling out how to do a relative page layout à la Robert Bringhurst, but didn't appear to return to write down what I came up with.

urn:uuid:6bb88a89-029a-4c57-aef3-2789948f787b 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2008-06-19T05:25:04Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Here I am back in 2008 trying to decide what the heck to do about the typesetting.

urn:uuid:a8bb3a74-23fc-4064-a291-6f8cf58038e2 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2008-06-25T04:37:28Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Not only is this site an inexpensive way to explore ideas without committing to anything, it's also my guinea pig for broader structural experiments.

urn:uuid:0189ac93-e104-4ebb-8a9a-99b6e4ec56e7 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2008-09-19T07:05:20Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This is a problem statement for some early work on going beyond strict hierarchies and making Web resources identifiable from more than one location.

urn:uuid:90322a4a-3429-46fa-bab5-53bb7c63e676 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2008-11-04T05:54:10Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Notes on Notes on the Synthesis of Form.

urn:uuid:aff83ba4-dea4-4e7d-862b-ab2d88116acc 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2009-03-03T23:35:13Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

A modest proposal for a business model that could restore the competitiveness and relevance of traditional newspapers.

urn:uuid:3f8c362c-37e3-4307-8b23-6b568ac3a1a4 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2009-03-11T04:04:35Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Here I embarrass myself by writing a quatrain comparing software to other kinds of artifacts of information.

urn:uuid:3bd1be8b-f214-42f5-8349-a4c905873cbe 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2009-03-19T18:13:36Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This document explores the relationship of Web syndication feeds to conventional hypertext documents.

urn:uuid:68aef34a-ca1b-4490-b09e-f0dd31cadc8e 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2009-03-20T18:36:37Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Interaction designers, information architects and other user experience professionals may wonder why I omitted the user from this doodle.

urn:uuid:8d1e145a-9741-430a-94b6-2112ec6b40ec 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2009-03-31T03:30:53Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This article explores certain components of a design vocabulary: idioms, analogues and metaphors.

urn:uuid:e913359e-4468-4621-8770-7b0348c3ee2e 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2009-03-31T05:39:03Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This short article suggests that consistent idiosyncratic behaviour in a designed object can be more thoroughly understood than a metaphor.

urn:uuid:438dbe6d-5de8-432e-8023-ea2e08df0ec6 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2009-04-02T01:13:55Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

A tour of the NetMap interface I designed to interact with the IP address space.

urn:uuid:7dc3c393-0e15-4805-9898-b42ab7c63339 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2009-04-15T07:28:54Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

In this piece, I introduce a basic unit of time accounting for knowledge workers which I call the cell.

urn:uuid:40901cd9-be83-4395-9d76-d9ecb3fb5738 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2009-04-19T03:08:25Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This essay is a short enquiry into the perceived dichotomy between 'analogue' and 'digital' behaviours, technologies and experiences.

urn:uuid:16f171c6-696a-45c0-850a-dfd8ea0b6215 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2009-04-30T20:59:45Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This is the first in a series of articles addressing the aspects of computational feasibility and computer and software engineering which pertain to interaction designers.

urn:uuid:61ba86c1-0d55-479a-bf69-903d736b8219 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2009-06-19T09:40:06Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

In this article, I evaluate a means of mitigating the distractions that impede on the productivity of creative work, specifically that on computers by way of relegating network-originated distractions to a separate account.

urn:uuid:9ebd8e93-5b55-453b-94f2-90e1e721b419 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2009-07-05T09:05:37Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

In this piece, I finally commit my definition of design to the annals of cyberspace.

urn:uuid:10a7bae4-013f-451e-a551-8f76e9dbea9d 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2009-08-04T20:26:52Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This was a comment I left in response to Christopher Detzi's post called The Content Conundrum on Boxes and Arrows. It got mangled by their CMS, so I reformatted it here.

urn:uuid:ee003c75-110c-4b9b-99d1-eeedf67c81ea 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2009-08-14T20:05:42Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This is a sketch of an idea for naming projects and other processes and properties within an organization by way of randomly-generated cryptonyms. These cryptonyms serve as intentionally meaningless handles to ultimately decouple projects from products and minimize the psychological implications that meaningful names may evoke.

urn:uuid:032e6f45-7535-4fb0-a7bc-fdbd8b75c2ee 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2009-08-27T22:02:37Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This is a quick note to announce my participation at Pecha-Kucha Night in Vancouver, September 17 02009.

urn:uuid:e42a9bb4-cd39-429d-83fb-29b0f1b18d1f 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2009-09-05T07:43:35Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

As a mnemonic to myself and an attempt to be helpful to others, I have sketched out a pattern for an effective precursor to solving problems, which begins with taking a deep breath and getting the data.

urn:uuid:aa635cab-922f-4276-9700-34b3b4d17cb6 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2009-09-17T22:30:12Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

On September 17, 02009, I spoke at Pecha Kucha Night. On this page is a link to the full script, a recording of the slide deck, and references.

urn:uuid:e1a39a73-36d8-4b0f-944e-31238279499e 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2009-09-27T01:34:57Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I unabashedly believe perfectionism has a time and place, and in this article I attempt to reconcile it with reality.

urn:uuid:ca66805a-e40f-44f2-90c5-8c53374f93ec 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2009-11-22T23:10:33Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

As a professional problem-solver, it is essential that I understand the character of my most important factor of production and key stock-in-trade: information.

urn:uuid:9a4ca13b-3416-475b-a700-02d6e8288c08 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2009-12-18T22:25:07Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This is what happens when you think in the shower.

urn:uuid:cfaa0b2e-a327-4162-b961-f5be623e083c 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2009-12-23T17:07:47Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

As part of my ongoing assault on thought-terminating clichés, I treat Benjamin Franklin's oft-abused aphorism, "time is money".

urn:uuid:33cb85bc-04d4-4f8a-bbf7-27624fa86d2b 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2009-12-29T08:20:33Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

According to legend, the ancient Greek scholar Archimedes discovered the solution to a confounding problem, by accident, in one of the most unexpected of places.

urn:uuid:3a95001b-6fcb-4899-9b11-21642b198fce 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2010-01-04T19:08:52Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Sometimes it is necessary to close some doors in order to open others.

urn:uuid:07b863af-f5a7-45a6-95b4-9e627e5768a5 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2010-01-07T03:58:23Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Once upon a time it was a serious undertaking just to concentrate physical resources into one place and time. With that problem mostly solved, we devote much of our energy toward figuring out what to do with the resources we've concentrated.

urn:uuid:9b489dab-1242-4ce4-ab65-0747319ada16 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2010-01-11T09:47:39Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I have considered for some time — and I am confident that I am not the first — that it is difficult to think more sophisticated thoughts than our present duties will allow. That is, our very ability to cogitate relies not only on our own economic surplus, but the surplus surrounding us.

urn:uuid:905b228a-b322-49f2-b6af-4b7c9f728157 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2010-03-11T08:43:10Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Though wildly unpredictable in character, the projects with which we concern ourselves in the 21st century reduce to actions that incur little if any capital or indeed any variable cost. Instead of betting on the successful engineering of an outcome to occur within a fixed envelope of cost and time, it may be beneficial to put immediately to work the results obtainable within a single conceptual degree.

urn:uuid:4d24f5eb-5a0b-46c3-9cb9-e5b65a33bb4a 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2010-03-29T20:39:37Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This piece is my mandatory weigh-in on the "rock star" designer/developer phenomenon.

urn:uuid:9cfc8931-169f-4433-ba9f-6c11dc98eae6 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2010-04-03T19:10:49Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Too easily are we confused about the nature and value of private thought and activity, especially in an age when so many of these activities are recorded as a matter of course. Here I argue that our language distinguishing privacy and secrecy is poor, our expectations for disclosure are crude, and that privacy of information and communication are as essential to society as private property.

urn:uuid:1a88e528-da54-4626-b720-703ec16af7a8 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2010-04-12T09:36:19Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

In order to promote my principle of expedient desirable products, I figured it would make sense to begin providing some.

urn:uuid:b00f5294-2ae0-46f6-ae7f-21b09177bccc 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2010-04-21T00:15:42Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

We create and market software with an emphasis on features, but I believe we should focus on people. I make this argument here, and look at four powerful and inexpensive artifacts that put people in the centre and define their experience around a piece of software with increasing precision: the ecosystem model, personas, scenarios and user experience sketches.

urn:uuid:df538269-0bcb-47c7-9131-a724c0902386 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2010-05-12T21:03:07Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I am unapologetically inclement when it comes to the brain-dead casting of information management tools to pre-computer standards. I recently caught some heat about a comment I made regarding the commutation of grid calendars, adapted for paper, to a computer screen which does not obey the same constraints. This document explains my position.

urn:uuid:fd2490a9-00e8-4f42-9f16-e3000d7d1509 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2010-05-22T07:47:21Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This is about as concise as I can get on the subject of getting things done.

urn:uuid:bd5cf669-4758-435e-af78-be280292b312 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2010-05-27T09:04:54Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I have a low tolerance for snake oil, and search engine optimization is near the top of my list.

urn:uuid:533da13a-9ce4-449f-9f3d-ad247a03693b 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2010-06-05T20:30:23Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Challenge: explain what you do and why it's useful to a group of sexagenarian building contractors.

urn:uuid:8a189639-b7ab-4e59-9079-3386b11ced7f 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2010-06-06T10:07:58Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

In order to perform in business, I needed to reconcile why I was doing it, the effect of my performance and how it compares to the behaviour and rhetoric I see around me. In order to do that, I went to the source.

urn:uuid:0ebacd01-a1c2-4362-9332-6401928f7d9f 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2010-06-11T20:37:35Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

In our neophilic fervour, we seem to have forgotten what "technology" actually means.

urn:uuid:d7098678-e744-4ab1-a1ce-dec90a55e343 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2010-06-12T22:38:27Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Another runaway comment, this time at GOOD, about the significance creep of standardized testing.

urn:uuid:cd936027-8474-4a12-99df-dcca8c33bbff 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2010-06-23T20:00:33Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

My concern about DRM anti-circumvention legislation is that it appears to value ephemeral intellectual property over tangible personal property, and erodes the very concept of the latter.

urn:uuid:10ec0ac3-29e2-46b6-a0e9-2d854869fa4c 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2010-07-15T23:02:48Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I am quite convinced that the paradigm of software as a piece of equipment (or service, even) is in need of a tune-up.

urn:uuid:4aab87f8-ee86-4d31-bd61-e035e7c7b217 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2010-07-30T18:22:37Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

It is perhaps time to consider adding a dimension to the calculus of project management.

urn:uuid:4bcf79fc-b7fe-432e-9984-956f3edc7c76 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2010-08-03T16:55:20Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This is 85 minutes of my scintillating conversation with Jeff Parks on his IA Podcast about a number of topics around user experience and the state of post-industrial business and work.

urn:uuid:9ab801f3-bce5-4ea0-8c49-99a3a5fcaacf 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2010-09-09T04:55:38Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I have been nominated to the board of the Information Architecture Institute. This is my position statement.

urn:uuid:b5e684b1-89ff-4707-8691-fef288136e57 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2010-09-10T19:50:04Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

A political scientist considers how the way information is organized can be used to control people. I agree, though I am also optimistic about the future.

urn:uuid:3d07e760-244a-4b76-9384-05eeb68dd561 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2010-09-13T05:08:43Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This pot-pourri began as a comment chez Umair Haque and went haywire. I go all over the place. Be warned.

urn:uuid:e262d531-0861-4e38-ab1e-39e6d47e1bd4 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2010-09-15T08:44:09Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

For a while I've been wanting to probe the distinction of needs and wants and how that relates to highly-synthetic work. I have just received my prompt.

urn:uuid:c3f06dde-bd4d-4099-b708-1aee53c10976 2010-11-15T23:00:51Z 2010-10-14T21:17:22Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Here's the plan: I assemble a group of awesome subscribers and regularly send them a curated stream of novel, semi-custom software, IA and UX technique.

urn:uuid:f9e3046b-b3dc-4854-b6a8-1b007f541bf9 2010-11-16T23:18:02Z 2010-11-16T22:37:20Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

A friend remarked that she was weird. I replied.

urn:uuid:daa114b4-91d7-4e17-af79-9cccd29dde27 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2010-11-24T09:16:10Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Witness the result of my first mini-project as a board member of the Information Architecture Institute.

urn:uuid:0367466a-66dd-4490-87a0-35cf0778d82f 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2010-12-02T00:05:23Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

If you are a nerd, there is scarcely a difference between a moral truth and a logical one. That's not going to help so much with buy-in, however.

urn:uuid:db1364f2-2337-4a57-9eeb-09f63e795982 2025-03-06T12:47:54Z 2011-02-20T21:37:26Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Abstraction is the lever. Concreteness is the fulcrum.

urn:uuid:9d8be1b8-da0b-4372-8298-484c62ff13e3 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2011-02-21T17:38:17Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Sometimes we just need new ways of talking about things.

urn:uuid:d468ef8e-fadc-476b-97d2-b167f4f0eda9 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2011-03-03T19:11:13Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Many of those who make a business out of innovation train on either iteration or incrementalism as the successor to prescriptive design and the key to productivity. I believe there is a time and place for each.

urn:uuid:a473b1de-47b5-49c9-800d-a30f51fe48da 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2011-04-14T18:47:20Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This is a recap of the story behind the conceptual model I designed for the Information Architecture Institute, put somewhat more eloquently than I did on the microphone at the 2011 member's meeting on March 31 in Denver, Colorado.

urn:uuid:53a6527e-e5aa-4e5a-9f4a-9ce325ad9a16 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2011-05-04T19:58:12Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I came up with the cell a few years ago as a strategy for time management as it pertains to creative work, and with some help from a friend, I finally put it into practice.

urn:uuid:354f67e0-6419-48c6-9072-010acf43475d 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2011-05-29T23:52:26Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Solving a problem simply means representing it so as to make the solution transparent. — Herbert A. Simon

urn:uuid:a4b1efa7-597a-4eef-8860-8ca7869a1934 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2011-05-29T23:53:04Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Many are calling for an update to our cultural operating system. I suggest we should start by replacing its firmware.

urn:uuid:6588d428-fac4-43a7-baf4-9a5e36821d75 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2011-06-01T22:55:02Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This is why I have friends.

urn:uuid:e2589ae8-e509-4af1-883a-f40c7ca3ae21 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2011-06-11T19:20:18Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This is my first attempt at gelling my position on the debate over what to do about the commerce of creative work, inspired by Douglas Rushkoff.

urn:uuid:436a799a-0010-4f06-b52d-c0206727c049 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2011-06-15T15:57:04Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Consider this as more of an argument for not arguing with people that, by the very nature of their position, you'll never be able to win an argument with.

urn:uuid:32a1b65a-7b13-4862-8fed-30bf4b3df102 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2011-06-17T07:59:04Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

In which I pitch to people who make software-driven products the glorious B2B product-yielding service of "non-interaction" design.

urn:uuid:8b8d70aa-4326-4be2-942d-e8e23359d878 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2011-06-24T16:25:11Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This is the other thing I do for a living.

urn:uuid:5a586094-b0b8-4bb7-adec-b8fbb915609d 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2011-06-29T20:49:04Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Here is an update concerning my work doing automated semantic content inventories, using the IA Institute website as a guinea pig.

urn:uuid:0821817c-9f92-46fb-a85d-68b63e4c2a35 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2011-07-03T20:24:29Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

While we are illogical animals, logic is what enables us to be what we are.

urn:uuid:47d2de3d-741a-43b5-b622-0d72b53eab69 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2011-07-17T18:06:45Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Here is another installment on data-driven content strategy. This time I demonstrate a technique for looking at the paths readers take through a site, specifically this one.

urn:uuid:c66a0f75-c7b6-4c2a-a71b-c757fce78201 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2011-09-24T22:51:50Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

If I believed Agile was the answer, I'd still be a programmer.

urn:uuid:e45f4b47-8635-4b51-9755-78bc9ddeedb1 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2011-10-06T15:05:39Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I was inspired to produce some long-overdue remarks on my process, as well as expose it.

urn:uuid:962a4fed-0225-43cd-985a-2346a0a80ae4 2011-11-02T14:45:48Z 2011-11-02T01:23:52Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Consider this a season-appropriate treatment on why the things that don't break, don't break.

urn:uuid:8244438e-4dfb-4d0e-b949-ff33c64ad156 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2011-11-02T14:44:03Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I made a tool to help me create and maintain editorial continuity on the Web. It is also an example of conceptual integrity in the design and implementation of a simple piece of software.

urn:uuid:c3cd04e5-e9d6-44ce-8cd7-e47e6bb46da7 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2011-11-06T06:54:48Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Unexpected results in podcast form from a visit to Contact Conference.

urn:uuid:4f053857-4574-4396-957e-c390ac86c99b 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2011-11-17T21:20:37Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Or, why I don't care about user experience (as a first-order objective).

urn:uuid:8532696a-30d6-41a1-87d2-bb289e60f05e 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2011-12-01T20:14:15Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

It appears that the concept of shearing layers, popularized by Stewart Brand, isn't just applicable to buildings.

urn:uuid:ddeedbf2-488e-4fdb-92cd-923f135e1ad3 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2011-12-02T20:35:56Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I have been working with information systems for over half my life, but never once had I assembled a fundamental set of principles for how I believe they should behave.

urn:uuid:5995bc71-76f8-4062-9e6e-5e945cf1d000 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2012-01-22T08:46:13Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I am sick to death of writing "his or her".

urn:uuid:2903af03-2e19-46f4-8d4b-b4566ecde22a 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2012-01-31T00:39:34Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I want content creators to join me in saying that piracy is not stealing: it's something else.

urn:uuid:4917ac48-d9c0-468e-a6eb-21b88f7f4bcf 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2012-02-03T18:06:31Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I have been mulling for years over how to do the navigation for this site, such that it entices some people without turning away others (for all values thereof). I think I may have figured it out.

urn:uuid:0135e2a2-b18a-4e8a-9c78-917e5934a1d6 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2012-02-07T08:21:53Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I have long believed that software the Web are a poor fit for the archetypal construction project, but I always imagined they could be brought into alignment. Now I'm pretty sure they can't.

urn:uuid:a7779e67-0d9d-4855-b895-9482835ed27a 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2012-03-05T20:55:03Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This is part of my ongoing effort to bring to the surface more examples of what I do.

urn:uuid:ef4587cd-d8c6-4b3d-aa01-d07ab49eda4f 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2012-03-16T21:36:51Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

In the advent of my presentation at the IA Institute 2012 annual general meeting, I decided to round up all the work I had done so far.

urn:uuid:7c40c181-151d-4fc9-929f-b597798b05f9 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2012-04-09T19:10:10Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

A student from the University of Delaware contacted me with a questionnaire about information architecture. It was thought-provoking, so I figured I'd share it.

urn:uuid:6343e52a-4fa7-4665-ba12-b103ed2e4acc 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2012-05-24T13:00:00Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This is my first feature piece on Contents Magazine, about harnessing the properties of hypertext and the Web for superior reader experiences and business results.

urn:uuid:655915b0-9cbf-4801-850e-7ded8627c47c 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2012-07-12T20:37:28Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Or, why I won't give you an estimate on a complex deliverable.

urn:uuid:c40b5d9e-3f88-4908-b001-3d5daa2a1683 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2012-07-18T19:53:04Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

While I was briefly experimenting with the IA Institute library, I stumbled across an interesting and valuable find.

urn:uuid:21b0ff1e-feb5-4116-a5e1-4a4239a4e8b3 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2012-07-20T05:58:31Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This sentence was years in the making. Enjoy.

urn:uuid:a2b4354b-92c8-48a8-aed8-d2b95e416f5d 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2012-08-01T16:23:46Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

The redesign, as a concept, is neither necessary nor desirable when applied to working with the Web. I would also like to make it the technically, organizationally and financially inferior decision.

urn:uuid:3c4547b4-cc9a-41c3-8af0-3666c956ff9a 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2012-08-29T18:51:31Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Une enquête à propos d'un autre paradigme pour obtenir le logiciel, or something.

urn:uuid:d8cc7003-a5c1-4f6a-9cf8-540eba72a9cd 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2012-09-07T15:33:53Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

The transaction is an artificial social construct that enables people to interact without maintaining relationships. It is essential to the function of modern society, but exhibits limitations.

urn:uuid:fa66363e-5aa1-454d-9dfa-478316453c82 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2012-09-10T17:19:24Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

“A geek is a person without a compass, and that isn't me.”

urn:uuid:015d5f22-0169-4362-b0a6-d9f1deba7973 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2012-09-17T22:29:19Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

“When am I ever going to use this” you ask? Probably never, because you were taught the wrong stuff, the wrong way, for the wrong purpose.

urn:uuid:d3bdd258-bc6d-4a7e-8398-a3640ae28c43 2012-11-29T18:32:19Z 2012-10-02T15:56:23Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

What do I know about classifying things? I'm an information architect!

urn:uuid:e3857475-954e-4183-a19c-52fa6acb95d4 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2012-11-30T00:39:26Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Or: A step-by-step guide to marketing to Dorian and just about everybody he knows.

urn:uuid:dbb742b5-e04c-4eca-90a8-207b001e13c2 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2013-02-07T23:11:18Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Instead of bickering over who came up with what idea, let's agree instead, in the service of good ideas, to help more people find their way to them.

urn:uuid:4931850a-45ab-435c-8510-5909a40e4d86 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2013-03-27T00:23:20Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This is a parable about the the difference between solving an engineering problem, versus solving a design problem.

urn:uuid:09247973-1f76-42a6-97d5-92d251ec6546 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2013-04-18T01:07:13Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Financing software projects is like buying a bond. What if, instead, we thought about it like a credit default swap?

urn:uuid:bf5e4b4e-b33a-44ed-bde4-14ae1d136d6c 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2013-04-20T23:43:07Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

What's a little chirality between enantiomers?

urn:uuid:c2b4bb23-7a36-4f81-b884-70af84d37e35 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2013-05-12T06:05:59Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

It's called Don't Go Back to School, by Kio Stark.

urn:uuid:50a1d6b3-3b0b-4182-bfe9-e3ab203e5655 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2013-06-15T20:08:06Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

It is no longer a theoretical postulate or academic curiosity. The linchpin, at least the technical one, to changing the website business, actually works.

urn:uuid:cd4d0816-8fc8-44c3-9564-44032ef1fb32 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2013-07-24T04:03:10Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

IP is a huge issue in my line of work. This is how I deal with it.

urn:uuid:f46d298c-476b-45e4-9c90-9eab75a3d53e 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2013-08-07T22:40:33Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Forecasting return on investment is the bane of all creative work. This is a model for showing first that it is overwhelmingly likely that a return will happen, and second that the return is so wild and speculative that forecasts are meaningless.

urn:uuid:e1f7c282-45b3-42ab-96ae-18c75669b160 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2013-09-29T06:34:28Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I'm really starting to believe that “tech” is a typecast that some of us should shed.

urn:uuid:155a1979-ab98-4da9-a5e9-3f042d8195fe 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2013-10-20T23:55:43Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Our modernist obsession with concealing knowledge for petty selfish purposes has made it difficult to promulgate the concealment of knowledge in more important contexts.

urn:uuid:f1467a47-2e55-46fb-a829-1e54175204a9 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2013-10-30T17:34:01Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Instead of the regularly-scheduled internecine conflict, and timid, lawyerly defense of the UX-o-sphere to outsiders, let's team up and go on the offensive.

urn:uuid:99237726-f58b-46f0-9588-18fdc2c5f419 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2013-11-07T16:14:56Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

“Tech”is not an industry, it is an aspect of every industry. Calling “tech” an industry divorces it from its purpose in society.

urn:uuid:b4222b7e-495d-4b53-9f90-7a970062b77e 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2013-12-02T17:55:52Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I don't need to keep my work a secret, because nobody understands it.

urn:uuid:c8648ec7-c1ce-4294-81cf-62a72dd0e045 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2014-01-17T04:18:54Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This is an annotated excerpt of Christopher Alexander's Nature of Order, Volume 2: The Process of Creating Life.

urn:uuid:59a5ca8e-b2b0-4d70-b739-054faa0a380e 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2014-01-29T16:30:27Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I wrote a report. Part of it was too good to be filed away into the memory hole.

urn:uuid:3cc630e9-766e-4a9f-b1a7-39aa274f2a74 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2014-02-01T08:43:06Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Herein I outline, hopefully for the definitive time, my project to make agency-based Web development less risky for both clients and practitioners, and yield better results.

urn:uuid:1dee95d9-9448-4d7e-8884-e476e8f21155 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2014-02-21T18:22:42Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I want to talk more about computation as more than something that is done by computers.

urn:uuid:1a6c63e3-273f-4c19-83b3-a6eccaa9ddcb 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2014-03-09T19:31:37Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Stop calling yourself a “technologist” if you care at all about whose interests you facilitate through your efforts.

urn:uuid:9d10aecd-586c-438c-870a-af0e9b907833 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2014-03-17T21:18:46Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Exploitation is an important topic for the 21st century, because we're up to our necks in it. Alice and Bob take turns robbing each other, as well as taking turns robbing Charlie, who has nobody to rob. There are a number of reasons why this situation is unsustainable.

urn:uuid:baa662bb-0dda-4d2b-8163-3ca8fefa4a5a 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2014-06-24T17:35:52Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This is the script of the talk I gave at GiantConf 2014, to a ballroom full of user experience designers.

urn:uuid:f3731b2a-7ab6-45b8-9770-3306277bda08 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2014-10-02T00:50:42Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

In which I contemplate the applicable range of the painfully-overused word, “stupid”.

urn:uuid:3a72e831-91a5-4f3f-8c92-88ab0d601a96 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2014-10-04T05:51:49Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

What if we thought about profit as a reflection of a disparity of information? Could we tease apart legitimate profit from a genuine value-creating endeavour, from economic rent that finds its way onto a financial statement?

urn:uuid:0d97c820-8929-42a1-8aca-f9e165d8085e 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2014-10-22T19:27:36Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I wrote this over a week in October of 2014 and then promptly forgot it existed for over three years. I'm not sure why. It explains everything.

urn:uuid:01a1ad7d-8af0-4ad7-a8ec-ffaaa06bb6f1 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2014-11-20T20:38:33Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Hypothesis: The way user experience design is practiced prices it out of the markets that need it most.

urn:uuid:7b553515-7c3c-41fb-8c19-75270cee23a4 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2015-02-22T23:18:50Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Information systems live in information space, and changes to those systems take place in distinct sub-regions of that space. This is an attempt to map out information space as it pertains to information systems.

urn:uuid:0472dbb1-93d7-4475-91b5-8d9a6089a96b 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2015-03-11T20:48:06Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

In a hundred years, the Web, or something like it, will still exist. If we accept this premise, we should design our infrastructure accordingly.

urn:uuid:97bd312d-267d-433b-afc7-c0e9ab3311ed 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2015-08-09T18:10:42Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Smaller business entities, including non-profits: consider the upside of investing in your information infrastructure.

urn:uuid:765215c9-6876-400f-8ac2-1c86c0b798b2 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2015-09-26T22:29:07Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

The computer is as old as the television. It's time to stop referring to it as “technology”.

urn:uuid:3e73a674-d85d-4474-9622-f6189882f5a8 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2016-07-23T19:19:00Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I gave this interview in April 2013 at the IA Summit in Baltimore, Maryland. It was lost and subsequently found on July 21, 2016.

urn:uuid:0dbb8813-8df2-4819-b886-3c5956ddfb2e 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2016-07-23T19:26:47Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This is an interview I did for Uses This, where I talk about my work setup and digress all over the place.

urn:uuid:d74d7e24-a6d6-4f49-94e8-e905d317c988 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2016-09-19T16:40:46Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Or, “Hackathons” Considered Harmful.

urn:uuid:df5c2b16-b61c-44b8-b418-3d8e255347bd 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2016-09-30T15:02:11Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

In which The Nature of Order is potentially ascribed even more order.

urn:uuid:c8216819-1110-42ca-8c90-05ecccc64c7b 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2016-10-23T00:08:42Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

In the wake of recent cyberattacks, consider an “insurance policy” of injecting some information security into your product design process.

urn:uuid:16edb2b4-7aa9-4ff8-83c3-c5d5b6f218ac 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2017-08-19T17:46:43Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

What does “productivity” even mean anymore, when it stops being something you can measure?

urn:uuid:d50453a0-cad8-48dc-8943-541528ff8d5b 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2017-11-14T22:29:04Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

I need a separate place to put my technical writing. As an homage to (French) LogoWriter, I am calling it the Verso.

urn:uuid:a03bf9b5-56e6-42c7-bcd9-37ea6ad6a3d1 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2017-11-19T22:51:21Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Bibliography, slides and video from my talk at the Information Architecture Summit 2017.

urn:uuid:92016efe-e483-4ad3-bdd4-3d753fcacb27 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2017-12-31T00:02:55Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

2017 was rough, but I'm still here, and ostensibly not nearly as lazy as I had imagined.

urn:uuid:051e04a4-3152-4196-9b67-351774e09ca1 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2018-02-28T05:12:33Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

A thread runs through the symbol-generating industries, but I'm not exactly sure what it is yet.

urn:uuid:4dcbfa80-7f2d-489e-8742-d449edea2982 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2018-09-24T03:47:34Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

The problem I've been tackling for many years, in the form of a parable.

urn:uuid:99cc7d73-4779-4a7c-82de-b9f08af85cf8 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2018-10-25T05:47:37Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Here is an attempt to simulate the process of what I have come to term “highly-synthetic” work.

urn:uuid:08f8e5dd-f00d-4d64-8cdf-bdb0d989af27 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2019-02-10T21:57:11Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

A thought experiment in walling off the open Web. This article picks on Google (Alphabet, whatever), but I could probably write one of these for each of them.

urn:uuid:e8f61587-bb56-4e5c-b7dd-2954b76a84b9 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2019-04-18T01:04:55Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

A chronicle of a decade-long odyssey into content management, which seems to have finally gotten somewhere.

urn:uuid:963a6a51-5b6f-4c91-a542-e968b85c1a58 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2019-05-10T00:35:13Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Humour me as I continue to defrost all my ideas from ten years ago.

urn:uuid:d4ae24b6-ab44-4e99-af73-d7e60993ec82 2022-05-31T04:18:52Z 2019-08-15T21:03:20Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This is a first crack at collecting specimens of what others call model-driven debate, and what I am calling computational rhetoric.

urn:uuid:9991d78d-ae3b-4169-9b4f-1831e792bd7f 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2019-11-04T22:33:36Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Or: Why I (still) use Semantic Web technology.

urn:uuid:790236f3-0375-452d-a396-df17c923a5c0 2022-05-31T15:10:50Z 2020-02-08T20:37:50Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

What if the Agile software movement was the manifestation of an entire industry that was, just, like, dealing with some stuff right now?

urn:uuid:7e825b88-5539-43a9-989c-e81298ca218f 2023-08-30T21:14:19Z 2023-08-30T21:14:19Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

The essay component of my Summer of Protocols deliverable.

urn:uuid:a4cc9ac8-b107-4cfa-9245-764f1ede8dd9 2023-10-26T20:12:48Z 2023-10-24T23:43:11Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

Early in October 2023, I joined Kevin Owocki of the Green Pill Podcast to talk about Summer of Protocols, and my project, Intertwingler.

urn:uuid:ea0ac3c3-bd8c-4d75-a6a5-55d20b324442 2024-05-22T21:31:15Z 2024-01-19T02:54:06Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

What did Claudine Gay actually do?

urn:uuid:609e9dc0-7b26-4aa6-86bd-3cdc31466cc7 2024-12-20T22:17:35Z 2024-11-01T03:20:05Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This is a meditation on essential concepts like capability, invention, and technology, and how the promise of software—whether or not that promise is delivered upon—is pure capability, and very little besides.

urn:uuid:4ec7530b-5536-4fb7-bb5a-45a3f5fddc22 2025-03-06T13:06:35Z Dorian Taylor https://doriantaylor.com/

This index is generated from the set of concepts referred to by the articles on this website.