John Maeda
John Maeda
John Maeda is an American executive, designer, technologist. His work explores the area where business, design, and technology merge. He was a Professor at the MIT Media Lab for 12 years, and then became the President of the Rhode Island School of Design from 2008 to 2013. He is currently Design Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers where he advises startups on the business impact of design. He also serves on the Board of Directors of consumer electronics...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDesigner
CountryUnited States of America
I don't like creating software anymore. It's too exact. It's like karate; there's no room for error.
Design is about crafting an experience that is unfamiliar enough to feel novel, yet familiar enough to instill confidence.
The artist needs to understand the truth that lies at the bottom of an enigma.
The best scientists that I've met are those that are humanists and scientists at the same time.
Videogames are indeed design: They're sophisticated virtual machines that echo the mechanical systems inside cars.
With regard to what is designed really well, I think people are the best-designed objects in the world. Seriously.
Art shows us that human beings still matter in a world where money talks the loudest, where computers know everything about us, and where robots fabricate our next meal and also our ride there.
As a genre, videogames take our minds on journeys, and we can control and experience them much more interactively than passively - especially when they are well-designed.
How do we slow down what matters the most and speed up what benefits change and progress? We don't want to impede progress, but we are seeking reconnection to ourselves, to each other, and with the world.
There is a construct in computer programming called 'the infinite loop' which enables a computer to do what no other physical machine can do - to operate in perpetuity without tiring. In the same way it doesn't know exhaustion, it doesn't know when it's wrong and it can keep doing the wrong thing over and over without tiring.
Teaching is the rare profession where the customer isn't always right and needs to be told so appropriately.
The difference between closing or opening your eyes is the choice between the imagined vs real. Blinking is only human.
Design provides solutions, art asks questions.
Knowledge makes everything simpler.