A couple of weeks ago now, after a trip to the US for IA Summit and presentation to SCAD, I was asked by Jeroen van Geel – managing editor of Johnny Holland – to join the editorial staff of the magazine.
I remember seeing the first articles to come out from Johnny. It seems like such a long time ago, but was only October 2008. The publication looked, felt, and read like a clear departure from sites like A List Apart, Boxes and Arrows, or UX Matters; much more in the style of Core 77.
The articles themselves were different, too. A focus on interaction design – of both digital and physical products – but also a look beyond current practice and a healthy balance between theory and practice. Articles on the theory of social interactions, fundamentals of interaction design, and analysis of design research, sit side-by-side with those on concepts for hybrid digital/physical environments, ‘intelligent’ widgets, and talking toys.
In the nearly six months since the magazine was launched over 100 articles have been published – including four of mine. But as an editor my responsibilities now expand to include identifying potential new authors, and helping them through the process of writing for the magazine. This is a really interesting challenge and has already forced me to think differently about the purpose and nature of discourse within our community, and the need for dissenting voices to be heard. So I’ll be trying to identify some fringe perspectives on interaction design (theory & practice) to publish in Johnny, as well as (trying to) identifying the new stars of the core.
If you have never read Johnny Holland before I can’t recommend highly enough that you do so. And if you think you’d like to contribute to the magazine, well, I think that’s great too. The first step is to get in touch with one of the editorial staff – the Kahunas – and we can take it from there.
Enjoy!