Friends,

When headers get too long, they don’t communicate.

Even though a thread shifts direction from a prior thread, a significant topic change does not require a “was” header … Neither should it carry all the tails of the earlier thread.

A thread recently began as

The (lack of?) design quality of academic paper formatting

It shifted to

Re: Most fields of Design was The (lack of?) design quality of academic paper formatting,

but it did so using the Reply header, and there was no clear indicator to separate the new subject from the old. The text simply flows, and the eye reads this as a single on-going sentence.

It was only this morning that I noticed this when I grew puzzled as I tried to trace the loops and turns of the conversation that began yesterday on the problem of poor formatting standards for journals and conferences.

In my view, the new thread on the composition and number of design fields could have been headed

Most design fields

With an opening to explain that this topic began in an earlier thread. If the new thread required a “was” header, the “was” should have been made clear, for example,
 
Re: Most fields of Design [was] The (lack of?) design quality of academic paper formatting

or even

Re: Most fields of Design [was] —> The (lack of?) design quality of academic paper formatting

IMHO, this is not a problem for graphic designers, textile designers, engineers, or interaction designers. It is an issue for list users who wish to communicate clearly with other list users.

As it is, half the comments in the new thread have the same slightly inaccurate header that I used when I intended to comment on Joao’s proposition. So we’ve been talking both about a communication question, about the specific subject of the design disciplines, and about the nature of power and disciplinary conventions. While I can see how this turn came about, I don’t believe Joao or Gunnar were writing about disciplinary conventions — they were writing about communication. Terry’s misreading of the post turned it to the composition and nature of the design disciplines, and this segued in an understandable way to comments on the nature of disciplines.

None of these issues is irrelevant to the purposes of the list. My somewhat curmudgeonly grumpiness over headers is actually a plaintive wail. It’s nice to know what we are talking about when we are talking — and it is nice to be able to use headers in the list archive to trace past conversations.

In this respect, I will note that many lists in other fields manage their headers successfully. I observe that regardless of field, attention to the quality of communication improves the overall tone and quality of a list.

Is it too much to hope that we might do better?

Once I finish retracing the loops and whorls of the thread, I might offer some comments on what is really a single thread — albeit a thread that involves some dilution and a lumpy mix of concepts. In my view, the issues in these two or three conversations are interesting — clear headers would have helped.

Yours,

Ken

Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Elsevier in Cooperation with Tongji University Press | Launching in 2015

Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| University Distinguished Professor | Centre for Design Innovation | Swinburne University of Technology ||| Adjunct Professor | School of Creative Arts | James Cook University | Townsville, Australia ||| Visiting Professor | UTS Business School | University of Technology Sydney University | Sydney, Australia

Email [log in to unmask] | Academia http://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman | D&I http://tjdi.tongji.edu.cn

Telephone: International +46 480 51514 — In Sweden (0) 480 51514 — iPhone: International +46 727 003 218 — In Sweden (0) 727 003 218


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