Aaron Marcus
Encyclopedia
Aaron Marcus is an American
user-interface and information-visualization designer, as well as a computer graphics artist.
. He grew up in Omaha
, Nebraska
, in the 1950s, he was interested in astronomy and paleontology, and drawing cartoons. He learned painting, and calligraphy. In secondary school, he studied science and art, and was editor of his high-school newspaper.
He obtained his BA in Physics at Princeton University
in 1965.
He obtained his BFA and MFA in 1968 at Yale University
’s School of Art and Architecture.
He learned about painting, drawing, printmaking, and letterpress printing workshops informally, photography, and art history. He also learned about book design, calligraphy, color, graphic design
, drawing, film making, printing, printmaking, painting, typography, and photography.
At Yale, while a design graduate student, he also began the study of computer graphics
, taking a course in basic functioning of computers, and he learned FORTRAN programming at the Yale Computer Center in the summer of 1966.
as a summer researcher at AT&T’s Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey.
From 1968 to 1977, in the School of Architecture and Urban Planning and in the Visual Arts Program, he taught at Princeton University: color, computer art, computer graphics
, concrete/visual poetry, environmental graphics, exhibit design, graphic design
, history/philosophy of design/visual communication, information design
, information visualization
, layout, publication design, systematic design, semiotics/semiologie, typography, and visual design.
In 1969-71, he programmed a prototype desktop publishing page-layout application for AT&T Bell Labs.
In 1971-73, he programmed some of the first virtual reality art/design spaces ever created while a faculty member at Princeton University.
In 1978, he directed an international team of visual communicators as a Research Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu in order to design a non-verbal means of communicating global energy information to heads of state, to professionals from many disciplines, and to the general public.
In the early 1980s, he was a Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in Berkeley, as well as a faculty member of the University of California at Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design.
In 1982, he founded Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc.
(AM+A), a user-interface design and consulting company, one of the first such independent, computer-based design firms in the world, where he is currently President and Principal Designer/Analyst.
Since 1992, Mr. Marcus has turned his attention to mobile devices, the Web, cross-cultural communication, and helping the industry to learn about good user-interface and information visualization
design
.
His design was one of several finalists in a private competition to redesign the US currency. ABC News
interviewed Aaron Marcus about his Customized Currency (or Vanity Bucks) project for their nationally broadcast “Evening News with Diane Sawyer“. The American Institute of Graphic Arts
posted his essay about his project, and a YouTube
video explains the idea.
Articles Selection, by and about Aaron Marcus:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
user-interface and information-visualization designer, as well as a computer graphics artist.
Biography
Aaron Marcus was always interested in both science and technology as well as visual communicationVisual communication
Visual communication as the name suggests is communication through visual aid and is described as the conveyance of ideas and information in forms that can be read or looked upon...
. He grew up in Omaha
Omaha
Omaha may refer to:*Omaha , a Native American tribe that currently resides in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Nebraska-Places:United States* Omaha, Nebraska* Omaha, Arkansas* Omaha, Georgia* Omaha, Illinois* Omaha, Texas...
, Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
, in the 1950s, he was interested in astronomy and paleontology, and drawing cartoons. He learned painting, and calligraphy. In secondary school, he studied science and art, and was editor of his high-school newspaper.
He obtained his BA in Physics at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 1965.
He obtained his BFA and MFA in 1968 at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
’s School of Art and Architecture.
He learned about painting, drawing, printmaking, and letterpress printing workshops informally, photography, and art history. He also learned about book design, calligraphy, color, graphic design
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
, drawing, film making, printing, printmaking, painting, typography, and photography.
At Yale, while a design graduate student, he also began the study of computer graphics
Computer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
, taking a course in basic functioning of computers, and he learned FORTRAN programming at the Yale Computer Center in the summer of 1966.
Work
In 1967, Aaron Marcus became the world's first graphic designer to be involved full-time in computer graphicsComputer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
as a summer researcher at AT&T’s Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey.
From 1968 to 1977, in the School of Architecture and Urban Planning and in the Visual Arts Program, he taught at Princeton University: color, computer art, computer graphics
Computer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
, concrete/visual poetry, environmental graphics, exhibit design, graphic design
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
, history/philosophy of design/visual communication, information design
Information design
Information design is the skill and practice of preparing information so people can use it with efficiency and effectiveness. Where the data is complex or unstructured, a visual representation can express its meaning more clearly to the viewer....
, information visualization
Information visualization
Information visualization is the interdisciplinary study of "the visual representation of large-scale collections of non-numerical information, such as files and lines of code in software systems, library and bibliographic databases, networks of relations on the internet, and so forth".- Overview...
, layout, publication design, systematic design, semiotics/semiologie, typography, and visual design.
In 1969-71, he programmed a prototype desktop publishing page-layout application for AT&T Bell Labs.
In 1971-73, he programmed some of the first virtual reality art/design spaces ever created while a faculty member at Princeton University.
In 1978, he directed an international team of visual communicators as a Research Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu in order to design a non-verbal means of communicating global energy information to heads of state, to professionals from many disciplines, and to the general public.
In the early 1980s, he was a Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in Berkeley, as well as a faculty member of the University of California at Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design.
In 1982, he founded Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc.
Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc.
Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc. is a user interface development firm for mobile, Web, desktop, and vehicle applications in consumer and professional products/services...
(AM+A), a user-interface design and consulting company, one of the first such independent, computer-based design firms in the world, where he is currently President and Principal Designer/Analyst.
Since 1992, Mr. Marcus has turned his attention to mobile devices, the Web, cross-cultural communication, and helping the industry to learn about good user-interface and information visualization
Information visualization
Information visualization is the interdisciplinary study of "the visual representation of large-scale collections of non-numerical information, such as files and lines of code in software systems, library and bibliographic databases, networks of relations on the internet, and so forth".- Overview...
design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
.
AM Customized Currency
Aaron Marcus has proposed a “modest plan to save the US economy.” His redesign of US currency involves the US Treasury Department ‘s allowing anyone’s face to appear on the front of US currency and any corporate logo on the back, provided each sponsor pays $100 million to the US Treasury. If 7,000 wealthy people and corporations sign up worldwide, that would raise $700 billion for the US Government, about half the 2010 fiscal deficit or about the amount that the government paid for a recent economic bailout. This design project provides an incentive to wealthy individuals and companies to give part of their wealth back to the US Government without being directly taxed in exchange for PR benefits. Grandparents might want to see their grandchildren featured. Entertainment stars and political leaders could see their faces everywhere. This idea recognizes that one of the US’ greatest exports is its US currency.His design was one of several finalists in a private competition to redesign the US currency. ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
interviewed Aaron Marcus about his Customized Currency (or Vanity Bucks) project for their nationally broadcast “Evening News with Diane Sawyer“. The American Institute of Graphic Arts
American Institute of Graphic Arts
AIGA is an American professional organization for design. Organized in 1914, AIGA currently has more than 22,000 members throughout 66 chapters and more than 200 student groups nationwide...
posted his essay about his project, and a YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
video explains the idea.
Articles and Papers
Mr. Marcus has written over 250 articles.Articles Selection, by and about Aaron Marcus:
- Berger, Arne, Robert Knauf, Maximilian Eibl, and Aaron Marcus. "Moody Mobile TV: Exploring TV Clips With Personalized Playlists" Proceedings, Design, User-Experience, and Usability Track, Human-Computer Interaction International, 9-14 July 2011, Orlando, FL, USA, pp. TBD (in press).
- Gould, Emilie, and Marcus, Aaron. "Company Culture Audit to Improve Development Team's Collaboration, Communication, and Cooperation" Proceedings, Design, User-Experience, and Usability Track, Human-Computer Interaction International, 9-14 July 2011, Orlando, FL, USA, pp. TBD (in press).
- Marcus, Aaron. "Playing with Type: The Work of Chang Sik Kim." Forward, in Typogram: Visual Pun, Exhibition Book, "Doo Sung Design Gallery Publishers, Seoul, South Korea, 26 March-6 April 2011, (in English, Korean, and Chinese), pp. 31-35.
- Marcus, Aaron. "Diagrams: Past, Present, and Future," An Introduction, in, Gauguin, Jan, Designing Diagrams: Making Information Accessible through Design. Amsterdam: BIS Publishers, ISBN 978-90-6369-228-5, 2011, pp. 6-7.
- Marcus, Aaron. "Branding the User Experience." On the Edge Column, User Experience Magazine. 10:3, 3rd Quarter, 2011, p. 30.
- Marcus, Aaron. "UX Storytelling." Book Review, User Experience Magazine. 10:1, 1st Quarter, 2011, p. 30.
- Marcus, Aaron. "The Health Machine: Mobile UX Design that Combines Information Design with Persuasion Design." Proceedings, Design, User-Experience, and Usability Track, Human-Computer Interaction International, 9-14 July 2011, Orlando, FL, USA, pp. TBD (in press).
- Marcus, Aaron. "Diagrams: Past, Present, and Future," An Introduction, in, Gauguin, Jan, Designing Diagrams: Making Information Accessible through Design. Amsterdam: BIS Publishers, ISBN 978-90-6369-228-5, 2011, pp. 6-7.
- Marcus, Aaron. "The Health Machine: Mobile UX Design that Combines Information Design with Persuasion Design." Proceedings, Design, User-Experience, and Usability Track, Human-Computer Interaction International, 9-14 July 2011, Orlando, FL, USA, pp. TBD (in press).
- Marcus, Aaron, Wigham, Laurie, and Gould, Emilie. "Culture-Centered Design: Culture Audit of Screen Designs for Educational Software in Saudi Arabia." Proceedings, Design, User-Experience, and Usability Track, Human-Computer Interaction International, 9-14 July 2011, Orlando, FL, USA, pp. TBD (in press).
- Marcus, Aaron. "The Health Machine: Information Design + Persuasion Design = Behavior Change regarding Obesity + Diabetes." Information Design Journal, 18:4, 2011, pp. TBD (in press).
- Marcus, Aaron, Editor. Design, User Experience, and Usability: Theory, Methods, Tools, and Practice. Proc., Part 1. First International Conference, DUXU 2011, held as part of HCII 2011, Orlando, FL, USA, 9-14 July 2011. London: Springer, ISBN 978-3-642-217074 about 80 pp. (in press).
- Marcus, Aaron, Editor. Design, User Experience, and Usability: Theory, Methods, Tools, and Practice. Proc., Part 2. First International Conference, DUXU 2011, held as part of HCII 2011, Orlando, FL, USA, 9-14 July 2011. London: Springer, ISBN 978-3-642-217074, about 80 pp. (in press).
- Marcus, Aaron. "Branding the User Experience." "At the Edge of Meaning" column, UX, 10:3, 2011, pp. TBD (in press).
- Marcus, Aaron , and Gould, Emilie. "Conducting a Culture Audit for Saudi Arabia" Multilingual, Issue 120, 22:4, June 2011, pp. 42-46.
- Marcus, Aaron, and Jean, Jérémie. "Green Machine: Designing Mobile Information Displays to Encourage Energy Conservation." Information Design Journal, 17:3, 2010, pp. 233-243.
- Marcus, Aaron, and Gould, Emilie. "Globalization, Localization, and Cross-Cultural User-Interface Design." Jacko, J., and A. Spears, Eds., Chapter 15, Handbook of Human-Computrer Interaction, Third Edition. New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers (now part of Taylor and Francis), 2011, pp. TBD (in press).
- Marcus, Aaron, Dumpert, Jennifer, and Wigham, Laurie. "User-Experience for Personal Sustainability Software: Determining Design Philosophy and Principles." Proceedings, Design, User-Experience, and Usability Track, Human-Computer Interaction International, 9-14 July 2011, Orlando, FL, USA, pp. TBD (in press).
- Marcus, Aaron. "Branding the User Experience." On the Edge Column, User Experience Magazine. 10:3, 3rd Quarter, 2011, p. 30.
- Marcus, Aaron. "UX Storytelling." Book Review, User Experience Magazine. 10:1, 1st Quarter, 2011, p. 30.
- Marcus, Aaron, My Journey: From Physics to Graphic Design, to User-Interface / Information-Visualization Design, in Alexberg, Mel, (Ed.), Educating Artists for the Future: Learning at the Intersections of Art, Science, Technology, and Culture, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, Spring 2008, 192 pp.
- Global/Intercultural User-Interface Design, in Jacko, J. and Spears, A. (Eds.), Chapter 18, Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction, Third Edition. New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers, 2007, pp. 355–380.
- The Sun Rises in the East, Fast Forward Column, Interactions, 14: 6, November-December 2007, pp. 44–45
Books
Mr. Marcus has written/co-written six books. Here is a selection:- Baecker, Ron, and Marcus, Aaron. Human Factors and Typography for More Readable Programs. Reading: Addison-Wesley Longman, 1990.
- Marcus, Aaron. Graphic Design for Electronic Documents and User Interfaces. Reading: Addison-Wesley Longman, 1992.
- Marcus, Aaron, Smilonich, Nick, and Thompson, Lynne. The Cross-GUI Handbook for Multiplatform User-Interface Design. Reading: Addison-Wesley Longman, 1994.
- Marcus, Aaron, Anxo Cereijo Roba, and Riccardo Sala. Mobile TV: Customizing Content and Experience. London: Springer, 2010.
Honors
- CHI Academy Elects Aaron Marcus
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group for Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI) elected Aaron Marcus in 2008 to its highest honor, the CHI Academy. Mr. Marcus is the first designer elected to this group, and the award caps his 40-year career in computer graphics and design.
- AIGA Names Aaron Marcus a Fellow
The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) through its Center for Cross-Cultural Design named Aaron Marcus an AIGA Fellow beginning June 2007. The AIGA is the USA’s most prestigious graphic design association, with approximately 20,000 members worldwide.
- ICOGRADA Names Aaron Marcus Graphic Design Master of the 20th Century
The International Council of Graphic Design Associations (ICOGRADA) included Aaron Marcus in its publication Masters of the 20th Century published in 2000. ICOGRADA represents graphic design organizations worldwide and runs numerous conferences and events worldwide.