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Continuing Swimming in Complexity

Swimming in Complexity

James Box at UX Brighton 2017

Related reading

Books, research, ideas and people referenced in this talk.

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People

  • Nob Yoshigahara03:05Box introduces Nob Yoshigahara as the puzzle inventor behind the number-tree puzzle he asks the audience to solve.
  • Alex Bellos06:21Box says he took the number-tree puzzle from a book by Alex Bellos, the Guardian's maths correspondent.
  • James Burke14:58Box quotes James Burke saying that people abhor complexity and seek to simplify it by developing explanatory theories.
  • Charles Sanders Peirce18:30Box presents Charles Sanders Peirce as interested in how people acquire completely new ideas and in anomalies that do not fit existing patterns.
  • Roger Martin20:24Box names Roger Martin as one of two people whose writing on this topic has resonated with him.

Concepts

  • Deductive reasoning06:58Box defines deductive reasoning as top-down logic that starts with a premise and reasons within its constraints to a logical conclusion.
  • Inductive reasoning12:35Box describes inductive reasoning as bottom-up reasoning that starts with an observation and extrapolates to a theory or model.
  • Usability testing13:47Box gives usability testing as a UX activity used alongside stakeholder interviews to understand project objectives.
  • Abductive reasoning20:08Box calls abductive reasoning an imaginative third form of reasoning through which new ideas emerge and asks what could possibly be true.

Projects and resources

  • The Design Squiggle08:22Box uses the design squiggle to represent a messy design state becoming a clear, untangled line.

Papers and articles

Books

  • The Design Method21:22Box cites Sydney Gregory's book The Design Method when distinguishing the scientific method from the design method.
  • The Design Way22:41Box cites Harold Nelson and Erik Stolterman's book The Design Way while arguing that inventions are often labelled as discoveries.