A Decade of Learnings

Images of some of my blog posts from the last decade

I started this blog in July 2009 as a way to share my learnings and struggles on my PhD research about the London Underground Map, diagrams and design methods. Looking back at the posts published throughout the last decade, it is clear how my interests and ideas have evolved, changed and even broadened. After a quick analysis, this is the list of topics and areas I have been writing about in chronological order:

• London Underground Map
• Design Research
• Diagrams
• Design Methods
• Conceptual Design
• Design Process
• Information Design
• Creativity
• Ethnography + Field Research
• Design Thinking + Research
• Education + Creativity + Design
• Creativity + Information Design
• Cognitive Science + Info Design
• Cognitive Science + Creativity
• Info Design + Creativity + Well-being

While, I inherently tend to make connections, I have realized that in the last four years, I have focused more on connecting my areas of interest than on writing about one in isolation. But, readers’ interests seem to follow a different path. The following are the top seven most read blog posts from the last decade based on WordPress statistics (publication date indicated in parentheses):

1. Design Thinking Revised (June 2015)
2. Types and approaches of (Design) research (November 2010)
3. The Rose Diagram (December 2010)
4. 10 factors to information design problem-solving (March 2013)
5. Design Education 3.0: the unknown unknowns (June 2016)
6. Defining information design (February 2015)
7. A bigger picture of information design (February 2011)

These are four interesting data points that emerged from the statistics:

• Data point 1: By far the most popular post has been (and continues to be) the one about design thinking (this post has been the most read each year since 2015!).
• Data point 2: The top three posts are about explaining basic concepts, such as: design thinking + research, research + design, and diagram + meaning.
• Data point 3: Although there is so much noise in social media and, inside and outside, the design community about data visualization and information design, posts related to these topics come far behind the top three.
• Data point 4: Readers seem to prefer short, how-to and, not very academic (or technical) posts.

Perhaps a more detailed analysis can reveal other trends and indicators of what readers are interested in or topics that need more clarification. But what to me is more important is that what started as a personal journey, today, ten years later, has become a platform for sharing experiences and learnings from teaching, research and professional practice, and a resource for students, designers and researchers.