Mark Forscher

I designed the cover for Domer’s latest work, The Flaming Clipse, a mashup album “combining the dirty south raps of Virginia natives Clipse with the epic sonic wash of indie-rock innovators The Flaming Lips.”

True to form the design itself is a mashup of the iconic album covers from Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips and Clipse’s Lord Willin’.

Domer is the man behind the production of The Bohemian Rap CD. The Flaming Clipse album is a free download on freeicecream.net.

In an letter to a student, Christopher Fahey articulates the relationship between “web design,” “interaction design,” and “user experience”:

But the meaning of “the web” itself is blurring — when you use an app on your iPhone, or get a DVD from Netflix (or view a streaming NetFlix movie via your DVR), or read a book on a Kindle, are you not, to some degree, interacting with the web? My point is that “interactive systems” are bigger than just the web even if the web is a big part of them: that they involve so much more in terms of physical processes (Netflix had to invent a warehousing system), business models (should Kindle books cost the same, less, or more than physical books?), and that they’re always incorporating new technologies (touchscreen UIs fundamentally change how web design is done, and imagine how Apple’s tablet will shake up “web” design). Interaction design is influenced by entertainment, games… and global concerns like sustainability and digital accessibility.

In my class, we’ve worked on web sites, mobile apps, physical devices, and even just social system design (for example, how does a taxi driver “work” as a planned interactive system?). I think I am typical of SVA’s faculty in my attitude that great web design is just a flavor of great interaction design, which in turn is a flavor of experience design. So we don’t teach web design specifically, but students who want to focus on web design are absolutely free to do so, and we are happy to evaluate, guide, and teach ideas and concepts that advance web-based experiences. But I’d be lying if I told you that the web as we know it now is going to be the dominant interaction design paradigm of 2020. The fundamentals of interaction design aren’t about HTML and CSS, nor even about hard drives and keyboards. It’s about human beings, our relationships with each other (socially, business, culturally), with media, and with technology.

Well said.

A little over a year ago in December of 2008, while I was Creative Director at Newsweek Digital, I worked on Newsweek’s first iPhone Application with HUGE, a user-centered design and development shop. HUGE did a tremendous job turning around the project from concept to working build in a matter of weeks, but the launch of the app was held up for various reasons until two days ago when it hit the iTunes store.

The product description:

For more than 75 years, NEWSWEEK has captured the most important moments in history through award-winning photography and journalism. For the first time ever, you can enjoy the covers that have captivated the world for generations.

Flashback by NEWSWEEK gives you access to the magazine’s cover archive and with images dating back to the 1930s.

You can browse covers by a specific date / year / decade, save and download your favorites, and shake your phone to find a random cover. Some screenshots:

The core project team on the Newsweek side was:
Creative Director: Mark Forscher
Art Director: Lisa Ortiz
Product Director: Kevin Stuart, Hila Dar
Technical Lead: Jeremy Freedman, Nehal Shah

I can’t speak highly enough of working with HUGE on this project. Download Newsweek’s first iPhone App “Flashback” here.

More: Newsweek iPhone Site Launches

Sometimes putting things in order isn’t bad. Here’s a mix of some of my favorite tracks starting with the letter “B” that happen to work well in alphabetical order:

1. “Backspace Century” – Deerhunter
2. “Basic Space” – The XX
3. “Be Good to Them Always” – The Books
4. “Beach Town” – Le Loup
5. “Beauty” – Edan
6. “Being It” – Arthur Russell
7. “Bite Marks” – Atlas Sound
8. “Boneless” – The Notwist
9. “Brahminy Kite” – Caribou
10. “Bright Tomorrow” – Fuck Buttons
11. “Bye” – J Dilla

Download Cook Book – Issue 2 – The B’s. Also be sure to check out Cook Book – Issue 1 if you missed it.

Note: mp3s are for sampling only. Please support these great artists by purchasing their music. If you are the owner of a sound file and would like it removed, please let me know.

A couple thoughts on the CNN.com redesign by Huge:

• 1. There’s no 728 leaderboard. A full width expandable unit and box ad in the c-col are the main ad units above the page fold on the homepage. This is not surprising considering I’ve been hearing for years that leaderboard ads don’t perform well and this new combo seems to be the “Apple”-friendly ad package
• 2. The beautiful simplicity of the header, particularly the breathing room around logo and the treatment of headers on section fronts, really strengthens the brand
• 3. The new grid is nice and much stronger than the old grid
• 4. As many have pointed out, the “latest headlines,” are now somewhat buried—one of the things the old CNN had going for it was the latest headlines were always clear
• 5. The play icon overlay treatment on the lead video on the homepage makes the whole thing look like an ad
• 6. The consistency of design treatment even in the show promos near the bottom of the page is impressive
• 7. I can see how the arrow icons next to “Money” and “Sports” in the main nav can be confusing to people, although I will say that when I first noticed them I assumed from their placement and treatment that they were partner/sister sites
• 8. The fact that NewsPulse doesn’t remember your filtering preferences when you revisit the page kind of defeats the purpose of personalization. It’s also a lot more interesting when you change the dropdown on the top right to 15 minutes (otherwise it doesn’t offer much more than a most popular box on the homepage)
• 9. http://www.cnn.com/video/ is the same experience. Can’t wait to see what they’re planning for the next iteration of this section.
• 10. The CNN Challenge, an interactive video quiz with CNN anchors, is incredibly well executed. All the details are in place (e.g. flashy motion graphics intro with sound, a leaderboard, score tracking, interesting variation in questions and question formats, compelling transitions between states of the application, etc.)

One of the first editions of New York Magazine is available for free online through Google Books. The April 29th, 1968 edition, art directed by Milton Glaser, includes bold typography, illustrations and a story on New York graffiti. It’s nice to see that the logotype from ’68 is virtually unchanged today.