Acknowledgments

It is customary for authors of works of nonfiction to whine to their readers about the impossibility of thanking everyone that they should. We certainly have no cause to break with this tradition. Indeed, our situation is worse than most. The contents of this book are not the results of a bounded research project. Rather, they are the collective product of a quarter-century collaboration, not only among the authors, or even among the hundreds of design professionals who have worked at MAYA over the years. Rather, the circle of credit extends in a most fundamental way to include the many extraordinary clients with whom we have been privileged to work. The countless intimate collaborations with our clients’ engineers, designers, marketers, and managers are the wellspring of whatever insights we may have to offer. To mention even a few would be a disservice to many others of equal importance, so we can only acknowledge the depth and breadth of our debt here. And, of course, the collective contribution of everyone in the MAYA family—past and present—is vast beyond calculation.

In thanking those with a direct hand in the creation of the book itself, we must begin with Ralph Lombreglia. Whatever success we have had in making unfamiliar and complex topics accessible to the general reader has benefitted greatly from his fine rhetorical sensibilities and his unfailing good advice throughout the project. A number of longtime MAYAns have also been direct contributors to the text: Jeff Senn—a genuine polymath who has been a core member of the MAYA family since the day we opened our doors—has made countless contributions both to the ideas and to the words themselves. Bill Lucas (no relation to Pete) and David Bishop have each taken the time to write essays that we have gratefully included in the text.

Nearly everyone in the MAYA companies has read early drafts of the manuscript, and many have provided valuable feedback. Special recognition must go to Dutch MacDonald, who has regularly provided detailed feedback on all aspects of the project while also managing to keep the business on an even keel during our frequent bouts of book-driven inattention. Lori Paul, our treasured executive assistant (a title that vastly understates her value), has been characteristically masterful at keeping the process moving forward amidst the background chaos of a busy consultancy. Thanks are also due to Chris DeMarco for technical support and Christen Adels for attending to legal matters.

This is a book of significant breadth and deceptive complexity, and the brunt of our compulsion for fact-checking and general rigor has fallen on Susan Salis and Susan Zelicoff (collectively referred to as “the Susi”). Their diligence and care in managing the minutiae of the project were frequently the only things standing between us and chaos.

Nearly all the members of MAYA’s visual design group have contributed their fine talents to the project. Special recognition is due to Greg Gibilisco, who is responsible for the bulk of the graphics, and also So-Eun Ahn and Daniel Szecket for valuable contributions. Matt Ross, our amazing filmmaker, is largely responsible for the films and animations found in the supplementary material.

We offer our grateful thanks to the entire editorial team at John Wiley & Sons. In particular, we will always be indebted to acquisitions editor Tim Burgard for getting excited about our idea at a time when everybody else was giving us blank stares. We also thank our development editor Stacy Rivera and our production editor Todd Tedesco for their skill in balancing our sometimes-wacky vision against the realities of getting a real book onto the shelves and into the current chaos of the eBook realm.

Finally, we are profoundly grateful for the patience, support, and love of our spouses Diana Dee-Lucas, Sue Ballay, and Lynn Lofton.