The Merholz Agenda

I'm sending this over the long holiday weekend (at least here in the US), as I think subscribers may find that the recommended book makes for good 'summer reading.' Also, it includes an interactive cube that I spent way too much time getting Claude to create. Enjoy!

Something I lament is a lack of historical awareness in the field of UX/Design, and so I enthusiastically picked up Maggie Gram’s The Invention of Design: A Twentieth Century History. Let me say, straightaway, that if you’re interested in ‘how we got here’ when it comes to the current state of Design, this book is worth your time. It’s a quick read, deeply thoughtful, and Gram’s writing style is lucid and direct.

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a framework guy, and the book’s organization is worth the price of admission. Gram makes clear that she’s not trying to provide some exhaustive treatise on the subject of Design, and recognizes that a clear definition of design is nearly impossible. Her key insight is that