The winner of the 2011 Interaction Design Award is Ben Fry. Ben pursues a long-held fascination with visualizing data and creating tools for interaction design, most notably Processing, co-developed with Casey Reas. Ben has developed software, printed works, installations, and books that depict and explain topics from the human genome to the evolution of text...

Over the last three years, I have been seeing more convergence between various design disciplines. ReadyMade, Make, and Howtoons are using graphic design to communicate new do-it-yourself design philosophies. Companies like Blik are creating products that are graphics (and graphics that are products). Designers are producing tools and materials as well as end products. Casey...