William Lidwell: Universal Principles of Design: 100 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach Through Design
A good reminder of 100 things to check when designing. (****)
Christopher Alexander: The Timeless Way of Building
Revisiting the themes put forward in this first of three books in a series by Christopher Alexander.
Thomas L. Friedman: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
NEIL POSTMAN: Technopoly : The Surrender of Culture to Technology
A classic gut check for those enamored with the technology pervading our lives. (****)
Barry Schwartz: The Paradox of Choice : Why More Is Less
Trying to choose wisely.
Independent
Ambient Generation: Icebreaker: Breakbeat Infused Electronica
Whitevoid's website does a nice job of maintaining visitor's orientation. As you move through the site, stacks of content unfold and as you move back up levels in the site hierarchy, they zip back up before you are taken to your destination. Engaging and informative. The work is strong as well. Thanks goes out to Martin Kay for the heads up on this one.
Keen to add a visual element or some serendipity to your web searching? Try oskope.
High fidelity rendering of girl follows your cursor. You decide on creepiness factor. Powered by Motion Portrait. This is a good exploration regarding the attention to detail and nuances needed to represent the human form in an appropriate way.
With the Smart fortwo becoming available in the United States, perhaps more sustainable attitudes towards transport will shift into a higher gear. Who knows, maybe we will see a new generation of innovative modes of moving designs like BMW's C1 coming into the marketplace . It won't be easy to overcome significant challenges, as evidenced by the Smart fortwo vs. Hummer H2 size comparison image below. However, with new advances in active and passive safety coming to the market each year, perhaps we can find smarter alternative modes of movement before gasoline hits the $5.00 mark.
Troika's playful Newton virus, which raises awareness of Apple's MacBook Pro built-in tilt sensor technology, is now being shown at the MoMA's Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition.
Sony's Xperia X1 appears poised to compete strongly with the hipster while incorporating a large touch screen like the Apple iPhone. For those who are all thumbs, the X1's Arc slider design and QUERTY keypad may be just the thing they have been waiting to get their hands on.
Designers begin by asking questions. It’s how we address some of the biggest, most complex challenges facing people and organizations today. This year, in keeping with the 2008 TED conference theme, IDEO posed a series of questions to TED attendees. Broad-ranging and widely relevant, these queries represent themes that inspire and inform our work at IDEO.
What's your big question? Visit www.ideobigquestions.com to contribute or download the nifty widget to keep big questions top of mind.
Recently, I had the pleasure of facilitating a two-day human-centered design workshop with Meredith Davis and her graduate students at North Carolina State University's College of Design. Energy and insights generated were impressive and inspiring. Thanks to all who contributed a post-it concept or two and for the opportunity to join you for what I hope you agree was an engaging couple of days. For more photo coverage visit here.
This is an addendum to a previous post about the notable interaction design featured in the computer generated feature length film "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within". Seiko apparently produced a limited editions of watches similar in appearance to the one Dr. Aki Ross wore in the film. Kudos to Seiko for pushing the edge a bit on this one and getting something unique out there in the market. Now if only the film had a slightly better story line. Oh, yeah, and a holographic display on the watch would be cool too.
Not sure just what is going on over at Cadillac headquarters these days but let's hope they keep it up! Ed Welburn and his design team continue to successfully explore the edged aesthetic reminiscent of some of Syd Mead's vehicle designs which inspired so many to think about what the future of vehicle design might hold. The CTS Coupe concept is another successful design exercise in that regard. Thanks to the folks at Cadillac for bringing back that feeling of future think once again. Now, if we could just start seeing more vehicles like this on the road...ideally with a hybrid power plant.
BMW's new X6 Coupe will make its North American debut in Detroit soon. One small but notable bit of interface work that comes along with it is the dynamic x-drive indicator. It displays how torque is being supplied to each wheel of the vehicle. This is potentially a helpful way to keep driver's more in touch with just what their vehicles are doing, provided that it does not take too much attention away from the road itself.
Inspired by military aviation and the stealth aesthetic, the Lamborghini Reventon is admirable for its purity of statement. Not a bad performer either as evidenced by its recent run against an Italian Air Force Tornado. View more here.
Regardless of how it strikes you from the perspective of an organization investing time and development resources into a product like this, the Sony Rolly is captivating to watch. A candidate for the bivouac's notable products category for sure. Thanks to Nicholas for the heads up.
The masters at Digital Domain brought compelling sequence to life with the introduction of the BMW X3 back in 2004. This extended version reveals a few of the techniques used. Nicely done.
Following a successful debut at the Frankfurt Automobile Show, this video highlights the X6 Concept. Regardless of whether BMW brings out an Active Hybrid version of the X6 right away or not, the vehicle in its own right represents and interesting hybridization approach by matching the best the X series has to offer in terms of a higher stance and bad weather capabilities with legendary BMW performance coupe characteristics.
Starting November 12, One Laptop Per Child will be offering a Give 1 Get 1 Program for a brief window of time in North America. For $399, you will be purchasing two XO laptops—one that will be sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation, and one that will be sent to your child at home. If you're interested in Give 1 Get 1, visit www.xogiving.org and get giving.
Regardless of how you might feel about nuclear energy, here is another fine exemplar of super clean and delightful isometric animations served up for the energy company Areva by Euro RSCG C&O and H5.
Design educators are thinking more about design thinking these days. Meredith has long been one of the best...
"We have to teach smart. We have to look at trends whose trajectories are likely to define practice for students across a fifty-year career. We have to challenge traditional paradigms of design education and invent new ones. We have to integrate content across courses and scaffold experiences so that students don’t start over with every project or every course. Not all new content requires its own turf. And we have to value the reflective component of design as much as we do the active one. There are some great models for doing this and where they are successful, life is less frenetic; students are engaged in producing a body of work, in understanding big ideas that are at the core of the discipline and the practice. In other words, they behave like students, not trainees, and their output and mastery build across time, not in some last minute rush to the finish. "
-Meredith Davis
Director of the Graduate Program in Graphic Design
North Carolina State University
Nice synergy of product and service offering here. Perhaps we should all enroll.
BMW unveiled the X6 efficient dynamics active hybrid concept vehicle at the 2007 Frankfurt auto show. Nice to see a performance-oriented automobile company coming up with hybrid concepts fueled by a passion for driving and a drive to conserve energy resources.
Ever need to visualize branding or design work in context? With LiveSurface images, you can place your designs within layered photoshop files containing images of spaces or objects.
To learn more about LiveSurface visit: www.livesurface.com
Thanks Susanne for reminding us of this exemplar of infographic visualization.
The Sony dream robot QRIO has fluid gestures and several sensors allowing it to better negotiate the world and gravity in a more natural way. As see below, QRIO can stand up if it should fall over which means the handle design feature behind QRIO's neck may not be ued that often. QRIO is also capable remembering people and talking. Impressive technological advancements all contained in a small package.
Thanks to a nice presentation by colleague Lukas Scherrer who was just returning from a trip to St. Moritz, this work by Daniele Marques has made a lasting impression at the bivouac. In particular, it shows how new design can co-exist with history in beautiful ways.
For more about Daniele Marques' work visit: www.marques.ch
Finally, BMW Motorrad's X Series bikes offer three form factors light and agile enough to really kick around. Take a closer look via: www.bmw-motorrad.com/g650x
Sean Godsell’s Future Shack prototype emergency housing concept creatively balances sustainability with sensible and minimalist design. Now that's bivouacking in style.
Some people may have a tough time spotting the differences between the older model X5 and the all new for 2007 redesign. However, enhancements and changes are significant. This morphing promotional video clearly shows that signature character elements can be retained while achieving significant design revision.
Perhaps we should all take the message from Coca-Cola's recent video game-inspired commercial to heart this year. Created by Sheena Brady and Shannon McGlothin of Wieden + Kennedy, Portland and produced by Nexus Productions UK, the spot serves up a cool and refreshing spin on the Grand Theft Auto genre of video games.
Thanks Ken for the reminder about this unique offering from Tesla Motors. 0-60 in about 4 seconds. Top speed of 130 miles per hour. 250 miles EPA highway.
Apple has long been know as a company that pays attention to details. The sliding element on their new headphones is yet another example of a product feature that enhances use. Wires still tangle on thier own but when you slide the element up, the left and right headphone speaker are held closely together, thus reducing (in a way) the number of wires that can tangle to two rather than three. Nice and cleanly executed.
