Twenty years ago, I’ve started to collect news articles that I found relevant in some way to expanding my understanding of users and usability, interaction and interface designs, and product design in general. For each article I saved, I created a complete bibliographical reference, a brief summary, and a few quotes that I found particularly interesting. I also noted how I felt about the information: “that was particularly stupid” or “what an interesting way to think about this problem.” This collection proved invaluable to me as I wrote my dissertation, and I recommend this technique to all my students. I also require that my students find, analyze, record, and share article notes with their peers as part of the homework assignment for the classes I teach. I hope this online collection of notes would prove valuable not only to me but to all students and colleagues looking to develop innovating and interesting products. News is a source of data. And every once in a while, I will post a short article on product design as well, starting with the iPad story. For a musician, every object she touches is a musical instrument. For product designers, every news story is a…

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