My Favorite Posts of 2021

In late December, I usually publish a list of books and articles I enjoyed during the year. (Here are the lists for 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2013.) This year, I decided to break it up into two lists: one for books, which I published earlier in the month, and another for articles. You’re reading the latter.

There are a lot of links here. To make them easier to read, I’ve sorted them into broad categories. They’re shown in no particular order.

Information overload

Stepping out of the firehose by Benedict Evans

How to Survive in a World of Information Overload by Nir Eyal

Information architecture

IA in Practice: Measuring Navigation Health with Analytics by Rachel Price

Your Information Architecture is an Accessibility Problem by Sarah Barrett

Websites are not living rooms and other lessons for information architecture by Sarah Barrett

Understanding Architectural Scale by Sarah Barrett

The Most Important Role You’re Not Hiring for Your Data Team: The Information Architect by Lilach Manheim

Taxonomies and Sitemaps by Heather Hedden

On Disambiguation by Bob Kasenchak

Taxonomy Theory and Practice by Bob Kasenchak

Chief Information Architect by Christian Crumlish

Taxonomy makes the world go round by Michael Andrews

Launching GOV.UK’s new menu bar by Sam Dub, Mia Allers, and Tara Stockford

Modeling

The data model behind Notion’s flexibility by Jake Teton-Landis

Bias in ontologies? by Maria Keet

Understanding mental and conceptual models in product design by Alana Brajdic

Introduction to Ontology Concepts and Modeling by Bob Kasenchak and Ahren E. Lehnert

Systems thinking

How to safely think in systems by Will Larson

Network intersubjectives by Gordon Brander

Class 1 / Class 2 Problems by Kevin Kelly

6 principles for being more systemic in your design process by Allison Bouganim

Design Systems are for user interfaces by Brad Frost

Process and mindset

Embrace the Grind by Jacob Kaplan-Moss

Problem Framing Unlocked by Dana Vetan

Design Leadership: On Being Robust and Resilient by Matthew Godfrey

Cognitive Bias and the Design Process by Jon Yablonski

Designing the Smallest Possible Thing by Laura Klein

Sketching as a strategy by David Hoang

The Most Fundamental Problem Framing Tool Ever by Daniel Stillman

What a UX Strategist Does by Dan Silveira

Why we need service literacy, now by Lou Downe

Unspeakable Certainties by Alejandro Aravena

Working with Brian Eno on design principles for streets by Dan Hill

Broadening our horizons

A World Ordered Only By Search by L. M. Sacasas

File Not Found by Monica Chin

Why We Crave Software With Style Over “Branding” by Molly Mielke

The tyranny of ideas by Nadia Eghbal

Effective Digital Transformation Depends on a Shared Language by David C. Hay, Thomas C. Redman, C. Lwanga Yonke, and John A. Zachman

The Metaverse Primer by Matthew Ball

Text Adventures: how Twine remade gaming by Adi Robertson

The Filing Cabinet by Craig Robertson

Why are hyperlinks blue? by Elise Blanchard

Extended mind

Notes are conversations across time by Gordon Brander

Obsidian, Roam, and the rise of Integrated Thinking Environments by Ryan Murphy

AirPods, and the cognitive ergonomics of tools for thought by Matt Webb

How to use a personal website to enhance your ability to think and create? by Michael Nielsen