The work of Muriel Cooper in a 1994 video that changed the way designers thought about the possibilities of electronic media:
A book has heft and weight. Chapters that divide the material into topics. There is a beginning and an end. But electronic information lies in a strange and complex new world without boundaries. To make it accessible not only for the acquisition of data, but also to help people think better we must invent new metaphors and models. Something less linear than the information highway. Consider instead: an information landscape.
Sixteen years later, the call to arms for designers feels urgent in a new way. (And a cameo from Muriel at the end is worth waiting for.) Head over to the AIGA article by Jan Abrams, or this image, which I’ve liked as a snapshot of life at the Visible Language Workshop.
