Category Archives: 11

11 Immediacy

Patronizing tools often prevent users from quickly capturing their thoughts, moving them out into the world to manipulate them via ‘handles’ in a haptic way, and from seeing them anew and by shared gazing and pointing.

#OpenLearning19: Paper-like OERs

Posted on March 19, 2019 by x28

How are Open Access or OER similar and how do they differ? This is a question of this week of #OpenLearning19, and I found it very worthwhile to think about it. Both research and teaching materials have in common that … Continue reading →

Posted in 11, OpenLearning19 | 3 Comments

#EL30 Week 2 Clouds and Jupyter

Posted on October 30, 2018 by x28

I first encountered the idea of a cloud when we drew pictures of our computer networks. Now the week’s synopsis talks about redefining what we mean by concepts such as ‘textbooks’. I have long been fascinated by the idea of such interactive resources.
Continue reading →

Posted in 11, EL30 | Leave a comment

Tangible Associations

Posted on June 1, 2016 by x28

I understand now better how the “magic” of my tool works: it makes associations tangible. It turns elusive mental relationships into “hands on” experience, and it compensates for the abstractness of some thought links, with a drawn line “at our fingertips”.
Continue reading →

Posted in 11, Personal Productivity | Tagged | Leave a comment

Paper and User Interface

Posted on April 28, 2014 by x28

Why do great visual thinkers still use paper and pen, and forgo the powers of an electronic canvas? Watching Dave Gray in a conversation about interaction design clarified it to me.
Continue reading →

Posted in 11, Visualization | Tagged | Leave a comment

Information Design and Manipulation

Posted on January 12, 2008 by x28

A fascinating paper by Bret Victor provides an excellent analysis, and a debatable conclusion; That interactive elements are inappropriately used in information design, and that they should be reduced. I agree that they are not ideal BEFORE presentation of data but still have a great potential for knowledge work AFTER page loading.
Continue reading →

Posted in 11, Usability | Leave a comment

Fine-tuned think-tools

Posted on July 19, 2007 by x28

If a think tool is supposed to help with the very early stage of arranging one’s thoughts and notes, there are very subtle effects becoming very relevant. I experimented with a tool that uniquely integrates text and visual connections.
Continue reading →

Posted in 11, Personal Productivity | Leave a comment

From Notepad to Personal Wiki

Posted on June 7, 2006 by x28

Jack’s ongoing struggle with selecting a suitable RSS reader, is symptomatic for the outdated usability objectives of many software products. Blog reader software is particularly sensitive to different cognitive styles, since blogs are a fine-balanced hybrid between email postings and personal web pages.
Continue reading →

Posted in 11, PIM | Leave a comment

Cognitive tools and workpieces

Posted on April 13, 2006 by x28

K. Egan’s 1997 book “The Educated Mind. How Cognitive Tools Shape Our Understanding” offers great insights about tools like oral language and literacy.
Continue reading →

Posted in 11, PIM | Tagged | Leave a comment

Conceptual Data Structures for PKM

Posted on December 19, 2005 by x28

What data structures do humans think in? What data types should be supported by a cognitively adequate PKM tool?
Continue reading →

Posted in 11, Knowledge management | Leave a comment

Paper usage habits

Posted on March 13, 2005 by x28

Many bloggers described their use cases where they prefer paper and pencil to keyboard and mouse. I often use a primitive tool that emulates paper’s immediacy affordance best.
Continue reading →

Posted in 11, PIM | Leave a comment