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Written by Ben Jones
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Saturday, 09 February 2008 |
When I tell people that I do organizational design, most times I get a quizzical look.
The web stuff, they can understand. The data management piece, even strategic consulting.
But organizational design is at the heart of getting all of that to work together.
Taking a manufacturing plant, for example, there are components of the plant that are physical, like the machinery, components that are information based, like manuals and CAD drawings, parts that are systems, how things get assembled, parts that are human, parts that are financial, parts that are information technology.
The opportunity, always, in looking at a whole system is getting to the real story.
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Written by Ben Jones
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Monday, 14 January 2008 |
One of my goals this year is to become a more effective communicator, particularly using visual tools.
While one of the hallmarks of ADD is wanting to dump information unedited, unexplained, for instant understanding, some of the ideas I'm trying to deal with are pretty complicated. Even information architecture and complex interrelated functionality within and outside a web site need to be explainable visually to decision makers.
Uniform Modeling Language requires too much knowledge to understand.
But there is some great stuff out there that people have just created for their own purposes.
I'm particularly excited by this piece, http://www.jjg.net/ia/visvocab/, by Jesse James Garrett.
I'll also be working with Leo over the next year to create more compelling, clear and contemporary visual treatments for many of the ideas I've written too densely on.
The posting of free tools and information also speaks to the whole value added marketing model. Even Kelly Goto and Emily (http://www.web-redesign.com) provide a great set of tools free for web site planning.
The real market is people to hire their expertise, at high day rates, for interesting projects.
Giving the information and tools away for free both incentivizes the purchase (we need someone to help us use these great tools) and adds credibility to the firm.
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Written by Ben Jones
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Sunday, 16 December 2007 |
A strange twist on use of the internet for "revolution." A far cry from the student revolt in China, or recent events in Burma, but interesting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/business/16bug.html?th&emc=th
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Written by Ben Jones
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Tuesday, 11 December 2007 |
We live in a built environment.
We are surrounded by elements of our existence that are placed, put up, installed, constructed, manufactured, produced, distributed, used, sold, carved, forged, hammered, hung, fastened, layered, all of which have been designed and engineered.
But we all know what it feels like to use something that has been designed with us in mind.
A well apportioned room. A pen that writes flawlessly. A beautifully made garment. A comfortable steering wheel.
Those items probably did not cost much more to do in materials and time than other similar products.
The difference is design.
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Written by Ben Jones
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Monday, 24 September 2007 |
When I think of what it must have been like for the first societies to be able, or even the seasons prosperous enough, to allow running for running's sake - the waste of calories on delight - I dream of what that looks like in software development, in using the Web to release the unsung voice.
Martin Kiapes once said that software development should be like art.
After all, we all work with the same ones and zeros.
Everything else you do is conconcted out of your own mind, your own creativity, ideally working within a colony of creative thinkers and doers.
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