I'm a designer and a writer, and this site features some of my work and thoughts on design methods and synthesis. In case you need it, here's my official, third-person bio:
Jon Kolko is an Associate Creative Director at frog design, and the Director of the Austin Center for Design. He has worked extensively in the professional world of interaction design, working around complicated technological constraints in order to best solve the problems of Fortune 500 clients. His work has extended into the worlds of consumer electronics, supply chain management, demand planning, and customer-relationship management, and he has worked with clients such as AT&T, HP, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Ford, IBM, Palm and other leaders of the Global 2000. The underlying theme of these problems and projects was the creation of a solution that was useful, usable, and desirable. His present research investigates the process of Design, with a focus on Design Synthesis and the creation of meaning.
Kolko's present work is heavily influenced by his prior role as a Professor of Interaction and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he was instrumental in shaping the Interaction and Industrial Design programs. He presently sits on the Board of Directors for the Interaction Design Association (IxDA), and is the Editor-in-Chief of interactions magazine, published by the ACM.
Kolko is the author of Thoughts on Interaction Design, published by Morgan Kaufmann, and the forthcoming text tentatively entitled Exposing the Magic of Design: A Practitioner's Guide to the Methods and Theory of Synthesis, to be published by Oxford University Press.
You can download my cv as a 64k .pdf file.
Design is a form of language, and I have found that there are obvious and strong connections between design ideas and written language.
Presented here are some of the written pieces I have had published, as well as some less finished thoughts on various topics.
I spent much of 2003 - 2007 teaching Industrial Design and Interaction Design. My role as an educator has helped me gain perspective on many design ideas, including the role of theory and process as informing professional design work.
Archived here are some materials from the classes I have taught and built, as well as some examples of the work from my students.
